Status Updates From The Crusaders: The Struggle...

Frederick II is the model of a Monarch, rather than a King. A King was just another nobleman who had been chosen by the others to be an arbiter. A monarch was the head of a state, with legal and military power over all the noblemen in the realm.

And Frederick II did his absolute best to establish a monarchial state in the Holy Land, to the detriment of the Christian cause there.

Frederick II is the model of a Monarch, rather than a King. A King was just another nobleman who had been chosen by the others to be an arbiter. A monarch was the head of a state, with legal and military power over all the noblemen in the realm.

And Frederick II did his absolute best to establish a monarchial state in the Holy Land, to the detriment of the Christian cause there.

Loved the bit about Francis and Pelagius. Pelagius is a powerful bishop that tries to capture the Holy Land with soldiers (and fails). Francis is a poor monk who walks into the enemy camp and makes friends with the enemy commander.

Interesting to note that Dominican friars, if they were to preach on the Crusades, had to study the globe and the history of the Holy Land and even the Quran.

The First Crusade was not a movement propogated by the nobility or the church leadership, but by several popular preachers. Normal people, with their families, marched to the Holy Land and had some minor military success. Incredible.

The crusades were less about economic domination of trade routes or colonization, and more like a militant pilgrimage to the Holy Land.