Christendom and the Crusades

Christendom and Jerusalem

Photo courtesy of Berthold Werner (@commons.wikimedia.org) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution
 Learning Objective
• To understand what Christendom was at the end of the 11th century and why
Jerusalem was important to Christian Europe.

Success Criteria
• To describe the religious landscape of Europe and the Middle East at the end of
the 11th century.
• To define why Jerusalem was so important to Christians and Muslims.
• To judge who had the best claim to Jerusalem.
 Captions
Study the picture below and come up with two captions to fit in the speech bubbles
shown here.

What do you think these characters are saying?

 Christendom
This is a map of what Europe and the Holy Land looked like in terms of religious
belief in the 1090s. There are three main religious beliefs in this area at the time:
Roman Catholic Christianity, Orthodox Christianity and Islam. The combined
Roman Catholic and Orthodox area was known as Christendom.

Islam

Roman Catholic Church Constantinople 1097

Antioch 1098
Greek Orthodox Church

Jerusalem 1099

Use this map to answer the questions in Section 1 of your activity sheet.
 Jerusalem
Many people who lived in Christendom were angry when, in 1077, Muslims who
were in control of Jerusalem restricted Christians being able to visit or live in
Jerusalem. Previously, they had allowed people to come and go from the city as they
wished.

Jerusalem is a holy city to three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Sort your ‘Rights to Jerusalem’ cards into three categories

that show who had a claims to the holy city.
 Holy War
Using the information from your cards, can you explain why Muslims and
Christians might fight for control of Jerusalem.

Use evidence from your cards to support your answer.

 Re-Captions
Now that we know more about the reasons for conflict in the Holy Land, write some
new speech bubbles to show what the priest Peter the Hermit may have been urging
the crowd to do.
Photo courtesy of Berthold Werner (@commons.wikimedia.org) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution