crusades

Kilij Arslan I, sultan of Rum, was the first Muslim leader to face the Crusaders, being defeated by them during the First Crusade but eventually scoring a victory in 1101. He was defeated in a battle near Mosul in 1107 and drowned in a river shortly after at the age of 27. What if he hadn't...

The Kingdom of Germany is in dark blue. You'll notice that it made up the bulk of the holy roman empire. Now, the idea of Germany surviving as a medieval polity and legislature fascinates me. So say Otto I never remarried. and thus never has a claim on Italy to forge the HRE. What does the rest...

Otl, gunpowder was discovered independently in the byzantine empire, and in contemporary china, most dating the difference by only 70 years, in favor of China. In any case, the Byzantines were in dire straits, and Alexios Kommenos ordered as much development of the explosive powder into weapons...

After the bloody Battle of Ager Sanguinis in 1119, the Crusader Principality of Antioch and their wee sidekick, Edessa, were on the ropes. The regent of Antioch for the eleven year old Prince Bohemond II, Roger of Salerno, died in the battle, leaving the state in chaos and eventually prompting...

The Crucible Century By Klara N. Kawakatus Markus Sverre University, Stadakona Campus 12/18/2019 The course of the modern world was radically altered during the years between 1279 and 1426, often called the ‘Bloody Century’ due to the many deaths caused by the great political, social and...

Conrad of Montferrat was the de facto King of Jerusalem from 1190, but was only officially so after two years. However, he was never crowned, because he was assassinated by two Hashshashin in circumstances that remain unclear to this day. What if this assassination had failed, or never been...

During the Ninth Crusade, Prince Edward of England, the future Edward I, suffered an attempt on his life. But Edward managed to turn the tables on his would-be assassin and kill him with his own knife. What if the assassin had successfully killed Edward? What might change?

This is my first attempt at a timeline so any advice is appreciated. Prologue The appeal of the Byzantine Emperor lay opened upon the desk of Pope Urban II. In it the Emperor appealed for help liberating the holy land for Christendom. Taking the holy land would be easy, but keeping it not so...

2 decades more for Henry II The End of the two decades On 1210, Henry II would die in the ripe age of 77 and he would die in his own sleep and he would have outlived his own first wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Queen of France and England and have managed his two remaining sons, John and...

Inspired by this recollection from Usama ibn Munqidh, a 12th century Arab scholar.

In 1184 and 1185 the Patriarch of Jerusalem traveled to Italy, France, and England in search of support and a new prince for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The King of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV, was dying of leprosy, and the kingdom was on the verge of civil war with his sister and half-sister vying for...

As the title says. Say Richard I dies on Crusade, before he gets captured by the duke of Austria and John has to raise taxes to pay the ransom. How does this affect John's reign? From what I can make out, most popular culture makes it that John is an absolute tyrant while the absent Richard is...

The Fourth Crusade is generally regarded as a disaster, since rather than completing its intended objectives, it ended up dramatically weakening and dividing Christendom. The basic plan of the Crusade went something like this: the Republic of Venice would build a fleet to transport a crusader...

Is it possible that the Crusades could evolve into a ritualized "Aztec Flower Wars", where Christian and Islamic rulers agree to a set-piece battle somewhere near Jerusalem? Officially, it's another battle for the holy land, but de facto it's a propaganda benefit for both sides, a way to train...

OTL, he was offered the crown after his younger brother died in 1118 and made it to Apulia until he got word that his kinsman, Baldwin of Edessa, was crowned King. So what if Eustace was crowned? He would live on until 1125, when OTL his lands were inherited by his daughter, Matilda, wife of...

What if the Crusader forces under Bohemond, Prince of Antioch, and Baldwin II, Count of Edessa (and future King of Jerusalem) had managed to not get caught in a trap and slaughtered by the Seljuks of Mosul at the Battle of Harran, in 1104 AD? If Bohemond avoids disaster and humiliation, where...

I was watching The Order a.k.a The Sin Eater last night for the umpteemth time and the late Heath Ledger plays a priest of the Carolingian Order. Now, in the movie, the Carolingians are said to be worse than the Jesuits in their thirst for knowledge, and they seem to be a sort of Catholic order...

Your challenge if you choose to accept it, is many fold. The first objective is with a POD in 1198, the ascension of Pope Innocent III, to create a Papal controlled Toulouse and surrounding regions. This can be achieved through either direct control or Papal vassalage of the Duke of Toulouse and...

When researching the crusades I've often came across the notion that some crusaders wanted to conquer Egypt, which makes sense considering it would be important to securing Jerusalem. What would be the best opportunity for the crusaders to successfully do this if at all, how would this kingdom...

What if one minor French priest leading a part of the First Crusade's army had not "found" the Holy Lance during the Siege of Antioch, preventing high morale from being breathed back into the Crusader army? Basically, what if the Seljuks had successfully repulsed the attack on Antioch in 1098...