The Crusades And Social Changes Of The Medieval England

Crusade is an important historical event in Europe, and it is no exception in England. Before Crusade emerged, there were some sources which originated it in England. These are holy-war thoughts and pilgrimage thoughts. Thus, it has connected with England since appeared in 1095. The link was closer and closer as the crusade develops, and reached its climax in the twelfth century when Richard I lead the third crusade personally. However, by the thirteenth century, the form of crusades began to change. It increasingly became the political tool of Pope and other secular rulers, which had impacts on the development of it in England. Political crusades began to appear and the crusade plans of Henry ? and the Lord Edward were impeded by them. And, from fourteenth to sixteenth century, England's kings began using crusades to mediate with other European secular rulers. Moreover, the crusades were gradually involved in England's major political events and religious conflicts. Until the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth, links between England and crusades did not disappear finally. From the eleventh century to the early seventeenth century, the contact between England and crusades never interrupt, so the crusade participated in and witnessed England's major change during this period.On the political and legal front, nobility amplified their power whereby the crusade plans of Richard?and Henry ?, and began to participate in the management of the country. The magistrate system also began to sprout during the period of the crusade, as a result, the power of the gentry was grown and they began to participate in state affairs. In addition to, when kings raised the crusade taxes the parliament began to appear and made a further development. On the economic front, when crusaders sold, mortgaged and rented their estate to raise expedition fees, land market became active, which led to changes in the tenurial structure. In the ideology and culture front, it caused secular people and priests dissatisfied the Vatican that the politicization and the failure of crusades, the contrast between poverty of holy land and Vatican luxury and abuse of the crusade, which finally separated England from the Vatican and opened the religious reform in England. These changes occurred because of crusades, and had vital effects on the later development of England.