One thing not even Madden can excuse is that cultural and social exchanges between Christians did not lead to compassion towards members of other faiths, particularly Jews. In fact, the crusading impulse invariably, more so with every successive crusade, brought examples of the persecution of Jews in the region. The first crusade almost immediately spawned mass killings of Jews down the Rhine en route to Jerusalem, supposedly because Jews' wealth was obtained through usury, or lending money at interest. Usury was prohibited by the Church, even though many Christians borrowed from Jews, and Jews were denied entry into almost every profession by the Church at the time, other than money-lending (Madden 17-19). Jews everywhere began to dread crusades, because they knew that their safety would be threatened by zealous Christians, or Christians who wanted an excuse to kill and steal from Jews.
The Third Crusade was lead by Richard the Lion-Hearted of England and Phillip of France. This third crusade provided the famous setting, of course, of the Robin Hood epics, which depicted the English populace suffering prohibitive taxes and controls during the reign of Richard's brother John, while Richard was attempting to secure Jerusalem at great political and economic expense to his nation. Richard's abuse of power was not limited to his foregoing his kingdom back home. Although Madden praises Richard's legendary valor, Richard also slaughtered 2,700 Muslims prisoners when negotiating with the Muslim leader of Jerusalem (Madden 84-88).
Even after all of this bloodshed, the 'fruits' of the first, second, third, and fourth crusades did not secure Jerusalem, which fell from Christian control in 1291. Yet Madden optimistically concludes that the "the crusades that failed or did not materialize," at least "forced Muslim powers to divert resources from conquest to their own defense," and freed vulnerable Western Europe in the long run from Turkish influences by weakening the East (Madden 218)....
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