Why did so many people risk their lives to join a crusade?

There were
many reasons for people to join a crusade; power, money, forgiveness…
and so on.
 
The crusaders wanted to control Jerusalem. This was important because it
was the holy city where Christ was born. It was also believed to be the
centre of the Earth. The Crusaders believed that they had every right to be
in Jerusalem and they had been travelling on pilgrimages for many years,
but now with the Saracens there, they were being stopped. They wanted to
regain their land and along with its riches, relics and maybe even woman.
They wanted to please God and the Pope. They could do this by going on a
crusade. The Pope had also said statments like for example “They are
killing great numbers of Christians, go help them”, “Take the land from the
wicked and make it your own”, “Now you must fight the Saracens, let
bandits become soldiers.”
 
Crusaders thought that they would be sure of a place in heaven. We know
this because the Pope gave a speech saying that anyone who went on a
Crusade would be granted a pardon from God and all their sins would be
forgiven. The Pope wanted to raise an army with this speech but instead, he
raised a civilisation. People now were going on a crusade for many
different reasons; to obey God, to ask for forgiveness, they wanted revenge
on the Saracens for taking their city, plus the Pope said that any land gained
along the way they were welcome to, or they just loved war, fighting and
killing bad people. An example of a crusader saying goodbye to his wife is;
“ alas, my darling! It breaks my heart that I should leave you, but I must go
to the holy land. That is where I will win paradise, praise and your true
love’’. An example of a knight training for a crusade is a tournament.
Knights loved to train in tournaments, to feel the blood run into their mouth
when they’ve been knocked to the ground, and to impress the women.
 
Bravery, love and honour were very important to crusader knights. Before
any knight set off on the crusade, they had to kneel and make a promise to
God saying that they would try to capture Jerusalem from the Saracens.
After that, they would have the cross sewn onto their clothes showing they
were crusaders knights. Knights sometimes went to honour someone or
their family, which was well respected. You have to love your religion if
you are willing to lay down your life for it. They knew that it would be an
honour to die for Christ. Some knights went on crusades to prove their love
for a woman and also it gained them a lot of respect. An example would be
a farmer who went as a brave Christian and returned a hero who had
enough money to last him a lifetime. An example of how a knight was
loved is; “The king attended a knight’s funeral and as the body was placed
into the grave there were tears in Noble’s eyes,” this was written by an
English Priest in the 12th century, the knight must have been much loved
and had done a lot of good for a king to of attending it. I think that the
bravery was summed up by a kid’s crusade led by a twelve-year-old
shepherd boy. I think that you can imagine being a crusader knight just
about to be attacked by the Saracens, just waiting there and the thought of
going straight to heaven if you die or being greeted by hundreds of people
naming you a hero if you live in your mind, the feeling must be great.
 
Some people went to the holy land for other reasons. Maybe they had done
something bad and needed to get away, or had felt guilty about something
they had done. Getting a pardon from God was sometimes the only reason
why they went. Also, men thought of the crusade as a chance to cheat on
their wives. Plus, during periods where there was no fighting going on,
there was a chance to set up a business and trade ideas and products. This
was an easy and ideal way to get money. One example of a French
Crusader writing a letter to his wife goes like this “My dear wife, I now
have twice as much gold, silver and other riches as I had before I went on
this crusade.”
 
In my opinion, the most common reason that crusaders went on a crusade
was honour, bravery and love. I think this because it makes the most sense
to prove to Christ and the Pope. I know that if I were ever to go on one it
would be for that reason. To sum it all up medieval people went on
Crusades for; revenge, forgiveness, honour, love, to prove themselves, to
obey God, and quite frankly people went for the love of war.