The list of Crusades in Europe and to the Holy Land identifies those conflicts in the 11th through 16th centuries that are referred to as Crusades. These include the traditional numbered crusades and others that prominent historians have identified as crusades. The scope of the term crusade first referred to military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to the Holy Land. The conflicts to which the term is applied has been extended to include other campaigns initiated, supported and sometimes directed by the Roman Catholic Church against pagans, heretics or for alleged religious ends.
This list first discusses the traditional numbered crusades, with the various lesser-known crusades interspersed. The later crusades in the Levant through the 16th century are then listed. This is followed by lists of the crusades against the Byzantine empire, crusades that may have been pilgrimages, popular crusades, crusades against heretics and schismatics, political crusades, the Northern Crusades, crusades in the Iberian peninsula, Italian crusades and planned crusades that were never executed. Comprehensive studies of the Crusades in toto include Murray's Encyclopedia, Stephen Runciman's A History of the Crusades, 3 volumes (1951–1954), and the Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades, 6 volumes (1969-1989).[1]
- ^ Setton, K. M. (Kenneth Meyer). (1969). A history of the Crusades. [2d ed.] Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.