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these people were treated as deserters and faced much prosecution, some being excommunicated, others being killed by the returning soldiers who had been used to killing people at will. Needless to say, just because Jerusalem had been taken, doesn't mean that there was a time of peace or an end to bloodshed. (Read, p. 87)
Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were now more popular than ever, seeing that there were very few infidels to get in the Christian's way. Danger was still ever present, so King Baldwin set up groups of knights to protect these people. The most famous of these orders were the Knights Templar, otherwise known as "Knights of the Temple." There are a lot of conspiracies surrounding these men, such as the very popular notion that they discovered the Holy Grail underneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque. These men did do a lot more than just protect, such as creating one of the first banking systems, and they were to that era's military as the Special Forces are to today's military, so it is no wonder that a lot of questions and theories surround this order. Nevertheless they did protect pilgrims and were a very beneficial part to maintaining order in the time period between the fall of Jerusalem to the Christians to their eventual defeat. (Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, p. 315) (Read, p. 90)

Many Christian warriors died in their travel to take the Holy Land and constant squabbling between the military leaders created endless drama and arguments over who had the true power. Nonetheless, despite the mass casualties, and the failure of Peter the Hermit's early attempt, the First Crusade was seen as a victory for the Europeans. The Holy Land had been taken and kingdoms had been set up in all the major cities. Pope Urban II was considered a man of extreme intellect in his vision for the conquest of Jerusalem, but all of his goals were still not met. Although he did take Jerusalem, he didn't get Constantinople under his power, which was the definitive motivating factor for the campaign in the first place. Jerusalem would eventually fall into the hands of the Saracen armies and more crusades would follow suite, though none providing the amount of soldiers and the intensity of battle that the First Crusade had.

Bibliography

Asbridge, Thomas. 2004. The First Crusade: A New History. New York: Oxford
University Press.

Baigent, Michael, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. 1982. Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
New York: Bantam Dell.

Durant, Will. 1950. The Story of Civilization: The Age of Faith. New York: Simon and
Schuster.

Krey, August C. 1921. The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and
Participants. Princeton: Peter Smith.

Read, Piers Paul. 1999. The Templars. Cambridge: De Capo Press.

Thatcher, Oliver J. 1905. A Source Book for Medieval History. Gesta Dei per Francos,
New York: Scribners.

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