Major Figures of the Crusades: Kings, Generals, and Saints
The Crusades were shaped by an extraordinary cast of historical figures: popes who called the faithful to war, kings who mortgaged their kingdoms to finance expeditions, military commanders who won and lost battles, and saints whose legends outlived the Crusader States themselves. The standard treatment in English is Jonathan Riley-Smith’s The Crusades: A Short History (1987) and the biographical dictionaries by Bernard Hamilton and Angus Mackintosh. The figures below are the ones the modern literature treats as decisive; a longer list would include dozens of other major players, from Raymond of Toulouse to Iltutmish.
For a chronological account of their campaigns, see the Timeline of the Crusades. For a survey of the movement as a whole, see the main article on the Crusades.
Pope Urban II (c. 1035–1099)
The French pope Urban II was the architect of the First Crusade. A former monk of Cluny, Urban had been central to the Gregorian reform and was a brilliant orator. His speech at the Council of Clermont in November 1095 launched the Crusading movement. Although Urban did not live to see the capture of Jerusalem, he set in motion a force he would only partially control.
Peter the Hermit (c. 1050–1115)
The legendary preacher of the People’s Crusade, Peter the Hermit has been described as a wandering monk whose fiery preaching launched an ill-fated popular expedition in 1096. Modern historians have questioned how much Peter actually led, but his symbolic importance as a popular preacher of the cross remained.
Godfrey of Bouillon (c. 1060–1100)
The leader of one of the main armies of the First Crusade, Godfrey of Bouillon was a lower Rhenish nobleman who became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after its capture in 1099. He famously refused the title of king, calling himself instead the Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, Defender of the Holy Sepulchre.
Baldwin I of Jerusalem (c. 1058–1118)
The brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, Baldwin became the first crowned King of Jerusalem in 1100. He expanded the Kingdom considerably, taking Caesarea, Acre, and Beirut. His career illustrates the rapid transformation of the Latin East in the years after the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099.
Zengi (c. 1085–1146)
The Turkish atabeg of Mosul, Zengi is most famous for capturing the city of Edessa in 1144, an event that triggered the Second Crusade. Zengi was the first major Muslim leader to combine political ambition with religious appeal, and his example would inspire his successors, including Saladin.
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)
The Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux was the most influential churchman of his age. He was commissioned by Pope Eugene III to preach the Second Crusade, and his personal appeals to the kings of Europe made the expedition possible. His role is examined in Bernard of Clairvaux and the Second Crusade.
Saladin (1137–1193)
The Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, Saladin unified Egypt, Syria, and much of the Jazira under his rule in the 1170s and 1180s. He destroyed the Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 and captured Jerusalem later that year. He then faced the Third Crusade, where he became the legendary opponent of Richard the Lionheart. His reign is surveyed in Saladin.
Richard the Lionheart (1157–1199)
The king of England from 1189 to 1199, Richard I is the most famous of the Crusader kings. He led the Third Crusade personally and emerged as the dominant military figure of the campaign, winning the Battle of Arsuf and marching within sight of Jerusalem before being forced to withdraw. His motivations are discussed in why Richard the Lionheart went on Crusade.
Philip II of France (1165–1223)
Often called Philip Augustus, Philip II was one of the most effective medieval French monarchs. He joined the Third Crusade in 1190 but returned to France the following year, partly due to his rivalry with Richard the Lionheart.
Frederick Barbarossa (1122–1190)
The Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I Barbarossa, was the most powerful ruler in Europe when he took the cross for the Third Crusade. His death by drowning in the Saleph River in 1190 was a profound shock. The campaign is examined in Frederick Barbarossa’s Crusade.
Innocent III (1160/61–1216)
One of the most powerful medieval popes, Innocent III called the Fourth Crusade and the Albigensian Crusade. He lived to see the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, a disaster he had explicitly forbidden.
Enrico Dandolo (c. 1107–1205)
The elderly and nearly blind Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo became the unlikely architect of the Fourth Crusade. His role in diverting the campaign to Constantinople is examined in Enrico Dandolo.
Louis IX of France (1214–1270)
Saint Louis IX is the only Crusader king to be canonized. He led the Seventh Crusade against Egypt in 1248 and the Eighth Crusade against Tunis in 1270, dying on the latter campaign. He is remembered as the model of the pious Christian ruler.
Baibars (1223–1277)
The Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Baibars was the great Crusader-fighter of the 13th century. He destroyed the remnant of the Latin Empire, defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut, and captured numerous Crusader castles, paving the way for the final Muslim reconquest of the Levant.
Edward I of England (1239–1307)
The future king participated in the Ninth Crusade, sometimes called Lord Edward’s Crusade. His character foreshadowed the strong, sometimes ruthless kingship he would later practice in Britain.
These figures, and many others like them, shaped the Crusades in ways both decisive and symbolic. To learn more about any of them, follow the embedded links to dedicated articles on the First Crusade, the Third Crusade, the Knights Templar, and Saladin.
Patterns in Crusader Leadership
Looking across the long list of major figures, several patterns emerge. First, the Crusading movement was a remarkable vehicle for social mobility. Godfrey of Bouillon, a relatively minor noble, became the ruler of Jerusalem within three years of taking the cross. Baldwin of Boulogne, his brother, became the first crowned king. The success of the First Crusade allowed a generation of landless knights to found their own dynasties in the East.
Second, the Crusades were a proving ground for royal authority. Kings like Louis VII, Richard I, Philip II, and Frederick Barbarossa used the expeditions to extend royal power at home as much as to achieve their stated aims in the East. Richard the Lionheart’s crusade, in particular, allowed him to extract enormous taxes from England and to consolidate Angevin power, even as the Holy Land itself remained in Muslim hands.
Third, the Crusades gave unprecedented scope to women. Eleanor of Aquitaine accompanied her husband Louis VII on the Second Crusade, and her presence was politically significant. Later queens and noblewomen, including Melisende of Jerusalem, the regent of the Latin Kingdom, played crucial political roles. Noble women who inherited Crusader fiefs, like the Countess of Tripoli, sometimes governed territories in their own right. The political and economic power of Crusader women has been one of the most fruitful areas of recent scholarship.
The Non-Elite Crusader
The lists above focus on the great lords and kings, but it is important to remember that the vast majority of Crusaders were ordinary knights, foot soldiers, and support personnel. The army of the First Crusade was a complex force of perhaps 30,000 to 60,000 effective combatants, with many more non-combatants. The chronicler Raymond of Aguilers, who accompanied the Provençal contingent, recorded the names of many ordinary men. The experience of the common Crusader has been reconstructed from such sources, and modern scholars like Marcus Bull have used thousands of charters and other documents to map the social composition of the expedition.
The non-elite Crusader typically came from the lower nobility or the urban militia. He marched with his lord, equipped at his own or his lord’s expense. He expected plunder, food, and salvation. He was vulnerable to disease, hunger, and battle, and many died before reaching the Holy Land. The People’s Crusade is a striking example of how the Crusade ideal could mobilize the poor as well as the rich, sometimes with tragic results.