- 1095
| Nov 18 | Pope Urban II opened the Council of Clermont. Summoned to plan the First Crusade, it was attended by over 200 bishops. Among its official policies, the Council decreed that a pilgrimage to Jerusalem made every other penance superfluous. | Ref: 5 |
- 1096
| May 18 | Crusaders massacre Jews of Worm. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 26 | Peter the Hermit's crusaders force their way across Sava, Hungary. | Ref: 2 |
| Jul 12 | Crusaders under Peter the Hermit reach Sofia in Hungary. | Ref: 2 |
| Aug 01 | The crusaders under Peter the Hermit reach Constantinople. | Ref: 2 |
| Aug 15 | The armies of the First Crusade set out from Europe to deliver Jerusalem from the occupying forces of Islamic Turks. Championed by Peter the Hermit in 1093, Pope Urban II had sanctioned the crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095. | Ref: 5 |
| Oct 21 | Seljuk Turks at Chivitot slaughter thousands of German crusaders. | Ref: 2 |
- 1097
| Jun 26 | The armies of the First Crusade (1096-99) occupied the ancient Byzantine city of Nicea. | Ref: 5 |
| Oct 21 | The Crusaders first arrive in front of Antioch. | Ref: 10 |
- 1098
| Feb 10 | Crusaders defeat Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 03 | Armies of the First Crusade (1096-99) captured the city of Antioch (in modern Syria). | Ref: 5 |
| Dec 12 | First Crusaders capture & plunder Mara Syria. | Ref: 5 |
- 1099
| Jan 13 | Crusaders set fire to Mara Syria. | Ref: 5 |
| Jan 28 | First Crusaders begins siege of Hosn-el-Akrad Syria. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 05 | Members of the First Crusade witness an eclipse of the moon and interpret it as a sign they will recapture Jerusalem. They lay siege slaughtering 70,000 including women & children. | Ref: 2 |
| Jun 07 | The armies of the First Crusade (1096-99) reached the walls of Jerusalem. | Ref: 5 |
| Jul 08 | Christian Crusaders march around Jerusalem as Muslims watch from within the city. | Ref: 2 |
| Jul 13 | The Crusaders launch their final assault on Jerusalem. | Ref: 2 |
| Jul 15 | The Muslim citizens of Jerusalem surrendered their city to the armies of the First Crusade. The Crusaders then proceeded, through misguided religious zeal, to massacre thousands of unarmed men, women and children. | Ref: 5 |
| Aug 12 | At the Battle of Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, rout an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem, which had already fallen to the Crusaders. | Ref: 2 |
| Aug 19 | The armies of the First Crusade defeated the Saracens at the Battle of Ascalon (a historic Palestinian city on the Mediterranean), one month after they had captured Jerusalem. | Ref: 5 |
- 1100
| Jul 05 | Crusaders take Jerusalem after 5 week siege. In a rage they kill 10000 men women and children. | Ref: 62 |
- 1110
| May 13 | Crusaders march into Beirut causing a bloodbath. | Ref: 5 |
| Dec 04 | Syria harbor city Saida (Sidon) surrenders to Crusaders. | Ref: 5 |
- 1146
| Mar 21 | King Louis VII of France took up the cause of the Second Crusade, in response to Bernard of Clairvaux's preaching, and became leader of the ill-fated mission. | Ref: 5 |
- 1147
| Oct 25 | The armies of the Second Crusade (1147-49) are destroyed by the Saracens at Dorylaeum (in modern Turkey). The Crusaders went on with fruitless campaigns against Damascus, Syria. | Ref: 5 |
- 1187
| Jul 03 | The army of Jerusalem was beaten by Turkish forces. Guy of Lusignan was King of Jerusalem at this time. All Knights Templars and Hospitallers who survived the battle were executed afterwards. | |
| Oct 02 | Sultan Saladin, most famous Muslim military hero, captures Jerusalem from the Crusaders. | Ref: 5 |
- 1189
| Jan 21 | Philip Augustus, Henry II of England and Frederick Barbarossa assemble the troops for the Third Crusade. | Ref: 2 |
| May 11 | Emperor Frederik I Barbarossa & 100,000 crusaders depart Regensburg. | Ref: 5 |
- 1190
| Jun 10 | Frederick Barbarossa drowns in a river while leading an army of the Third Crusade. | Ref: 2 |
| Jul 04 | Richard leaves to begin his crusade. | |
- 1191
| May 06 | Richard I of England locates the three lost ships at Limissol, and promptly attacks Comnenus' troops in the town and drove them out. Comnenus was again attacked outside the town, but escaped, leaving behind his standard, embroidered with gold cloth. This was later presented to the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. | |
| May 11 | Richard I of England meets Guy of Lusignan (king of Jerusalem), Geoffrey (Richard's brother), Bohemund (Prince of Antioch), Raymond (Count of Tripoli), Humphrey of Toron and other knights to discuss the attempt by Philip V of France to replace Guy of Lusignan with Conrad of Monferrat as the King of Jerusalem. | |
| Jun 01 | By the 1st of June, Richard I of England had control of the whole of Cyprus and imposed a 50% tax in return for letting the Cypriots return to a more traditional way of life. Richard of Camville and Robert of Turnham were left in charge of Cyprus. | |
| Jun 06 | Richard I of England landed at Tyre and quickly moved towards Acre, where he needed to help an army that was besieging the town which was being held by a garrison of Saladin's troops. By July 12th, the town fell to Richard. Richard held Saladin's men hostage in exchange for 200,000 dinars and 1500 of Richard's own troops who were being held by Saladin. When no ransom was paid, Richard publicly executed 2700 of the garrison. It was at this point that Richard angered Leopold of Austria, who was to imprison Richard as he tried to return to Normandy. Leopold's banner was ripped down from alongside Richard's and the French. The banners indicated that the spoils of war should be shared, but Richard was not prepared the share with Leopold, who had not contributed that much to the fall of Acre. | |
| Jul 12 | The armies of the Third Crusade (1189-92), led by England's King Richard ('TheLionhearted'), captured the Syrian seaport of Acre. | Ref: 5 |
| Aug 16 | Richard I of England, leader in the Crusades, executes 2500 Turks to make medicine from their bile. | Ref: 62 |
- 1192
| Dec 20 | Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna. | Ref: 5 |
- 1193
| Mar 04 | Saladin, the Muslim warrior who opposed the Crusades, dies. (XDG, p 4A, 3/04/2003) | Ref: 83 |
- 1194
| Apr 17 | Richard I of England takes part in a precession to Winchester Cathedral. The king wears a golden crown and is followed by notables from the Church and State. The previous Crown Wearing was in 1158. | |
| Jul 03 | On his return from imprisonment, Richard I of England declares war on Philip Augustus and defeats him at Fretevel. All the French archives were destroyed in the battle which were being transported in a wagon behind the army. | |
- 1197
| Dec 04 | Crusaders wound Rabbi Elezar ben Judah. | Ref: 5 |
- 1204
| Apr 12 | The armies of the Fourth Crusade capture and sack Constantinople and establish the Latin Empire. | Ref: 5 |
| Apr 13 | Crusaders occupy Constantinople. | Ref: 5 |
- 1212
| Jun 25 | Simon de Montfort a leader of the crusades, dies at 67. | Ref: 5 |
- 1219
| Nov 05 | The port of Damietta falls to the Crusaders after a siege. | Ref: 2 |
- 1220
| Nov 22 | After promising to go to the aid of the Fifth Crusade within nine months, Frederick II is crowned emperor by Pope Honorius III. | Ref: 2 |
- 1244
| Aug 23 | Turks expel the crusaders under Frederick II from Jerusalem. | Ref: 2 |
| Oct 17 | The Sixth Crusade ends when an Egyptian-Khwarismian force almost annihilates the Frankish army at Gaza. | Ref: 2 |
- 1260
| Sep 03 | Mamelukes under Sultan Qutuz defeat Mongols and Crusaders at Ain Jalut. | Ref: 2 |
- 1270
| Jan 30 | The eighth and last crusade is launched. | Ref: 5 |
| Jul 20 | Louis IX once again set out on Crusade, not to the east but towards Tunis. Charles, the brother of Louis, influenced the direction as Charles had plans in the East (?). At Cathage in July, the plague broke out and in August Louis dies. | |
| Oct 30 | The Seventh Crusade ends by the Treaty of Barbary. | Ref: 2 |
- 1291
| May 18 | Acre, the last territory in Palestine taken by the first Crusaders, fell to invading Moslem armies, killing or enslaving 60000 Christians. It signalled the end of a Christian "military presence" in the Near East. (Afterwards, friars sought to spread the gospel by preaching instead.). | Ref: 5 |
- 1307
| Oct 13 | Members of the Knights of Templar are arrested throughout France, imprisoned and tortured by the order of King Philip the Fair of France. | Ref: 2 |
- 1308
| Oct 13 | "Black Friday" - King Phillip "the Fair", backed by the Church, launches an operation to arrest, torture and massacre members of the Knights Templar, so named because they had occupied and secretly excavated the site of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. The legend of Friday the 13th is born. | Ref: 2 |
- 1310
| May 12 | Fifty-four Knights Templars were burned at the stake as heretics in France. Established during the Crusades to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, this military order came into increasing conflict with Rome until Clement V officially dissolved it in 1312 at the Council of Vienna. | Ref: 5 |
- 1314
| Mar 18 | Jacques de Molay (the last grand master of Order of Knights) and Geoffroi de Charney are burnt at the stake declaring their orthodoxy on an island on the River Seine. | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 18 | 39 French Knights Templars were burned at the stake. Most church history experts agree that these and other hostilities shown against the Knights Templars were caused by the greed and cunning of Philip the Fair, who sought the great wealth this medieval military religious order had amassed in the enturies following the Crusades. | Ref: 5 |
- 1396
| Apr 30 | Crusaders & earl of Nevers depart from Dijon. | Ref: 5 |
| Sep 25 | The last great Christian crusade, led jointly by John the Fearless of Nevers and King Sigismund of Hungary, ends in disaster at the hands of Sultan Bajazet I's Ottoman army at Nicopolis. | Ref: 2 |
- 1455
| May 15 | A crusade against the Turks and for the capture of Constantinople was proclaimed by Pope Calixtus III. | Ref: 5 |
- 1456
| Jul 22 | The crusading forces led by Hunyady, and inspired by the zeal and courage of the papal legate Carvajal and St.
John Capistran, met the Turks at Belgrade and inflicted upon them one of the worst defeats they underwent during their long conflict with Christian Europe. | |
| Jul 23 | The siege of Belgrade had fallen into stalemate when a spontaneous fight broke out between a rabble of Crusaders, led by the Benedictine monk John of Capistrano, and the city's Ottoman besiegers. The melee soon escalates into a major battle, during which the Hungarian commander, Janos Hunyadi, leads a sudden assault that overruns the Turkish camp, ultimately compelling the wounded Sultan Mehmet II to lift the siege and retreat. | Ref: 2 |
- 1464
| Jun 18 | Pius II led a brief 'crusade' into Italy, against the Turks. However, he soon became ill and died, before the rest of his allies arrived. Soon after, the three-centuries-old 'crusades mentality' among European Christians came to an end. | Ref: 5 |
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The Crusades and the Templars Chronology