title: Labour Party (UK)

text: Following the 2017 general election, the party faced internal pressure to shift its Brexit policy away from a soft Brexit and towards a second referendum, a position widely supported among the party membership. In response, Corbyn said at the 2018 Labour Party conference that he did not support a second referendum but would abide by the decision of members at the conference. The party conference decided to support a Brexit deal either negotiated by the Conservatives and meeting certain conditions or negotiated by Labour in government. The conference agreed to use all means to stop an unacceptable Brexit deal, including another referendum including an option to remain in the EU, as a last resort. A week after seven Labour MPs left the party in February 2019 to form The Independent Group, partly in protest over Labour's Brexit position, the Labour leadership said it would support another referendum "as a final resort in order to stop a damaging Tory Brexit being forced on the country". TIG later rebranded as Change UK, and all of the defecting MPs were defeated in the 2019 general election, losing their seats.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: From 2016, the Labour Party has faced criticism for failing to deal with antisemitism. Criticism was also levelled at Corbyn. The Chakrabarti Inquiry exonerated the party of widespread antisemitism but found instances of "toxic atmosphere". The Campaign Against Antisemitism criticised the findings of the report because Shami Chakrabarti knew she was set to receive a peerage and was appointed Shadow Attorney General after delivering the report. A series of high-profile cases involved Ken Livingstone, Peter Willsman and Chris Williamson, all of whom left the party or were suspended over the issue. In 2018, the Party was divided over adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, prompting 68 rabbis from the Jewish community to criticise the leadership for "claiming to know what’s good for our community". The issue was cited by a number of MPs who left the party to set up Change UK. Later, Louise Ellman also left over the issue. During the 2019 general election, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis made an unprecedented intervention in politics, stating that antisemitism, "[a] new poison – sanctioned from the top – has taken root in the Labour Party". His comments were supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. Earlier in 2019, the independent equalities watchdog, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission launched an investigation into whether the Labour Party had "unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people because they are Jewish", following complaints by the Jewish Labour Movement and the Campaign Against Antisemitism. In 2020, the EHRC found the Labour Party "responsible for three breaches of the Equality Act: political in interference in anti-Semitism complaints", "failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism complaints" and "harassment, including the use of anti-Semitic tropes and suggesting that complaints of anti-Semitism were fake or smears".


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: The 2019 Labour Party Manifesto included policies to increase funding for health, negotiate a Brexit deal and hold a referendum giving a choice between the deal and remain, raise the minimum wage, stop the age pension age increase, nationalise key industries, and replace universal credit. Due to the plans to nationalise the "big six" energy firms, the National Grid, the water industry, Royal Mail, the railways and the broadband arm of BT, the 2019 manifesto was widely considered as the most radical in several decades, more closely resembling Labour's politics of the 1970s than subsequent decades. In September 2019, the Labour party committed to a Green New Deal at its 2019 annual conference. This included a target to decarbonise by 2030. The 2019 general election saw Labour win its lowest number of seats in a UK general election since 1935. At 32.2%, Labour's share of the vote was down around eight points on the 2017 general election and is lower than that achieved by Neil Kinnock in 1992, although it was higher than in 2010 and 2015. In the aftermath, opinions differed to why the Labour Party was defeated to the extent it was. The Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell largely blamed Brexit and the media representation of the party. Tony Blair argued that the party's unclear position on Brexit and the economic policy pursued by the Corbyn leadership were to blame.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: Following Labour's heavy defeat in the 2019 general election, Jeremy Corbyn announced that he would stand down as Leader of the Labour Party. Keir Starmer announced his candidacy in the ensuing leadership election on 4 January 2020, winning multiple endorsements from MPs as well as from the trade union Unison. He went on to win the leadership contest on 4 April 2020, beating rivals Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy, with 56.2% of the vote in the first round, and therefore also became Leader of the Opposition. In his acceptance speech, he said would refrain from "scoring party political points" and that he planned to "engage constructively with the government", having become Opposition Leader amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He appointed his Shadow Cabinet the following day, which included former leader Ed Miliband, as well as both of the candidates he defeated in the leadership contest. He also appointed Anneliese Dodds as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, making her the first woman to serve in that position in either a ministerial or shadow ministerial position.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: During the April pandemic lockdown, Starmer warned that the government was "in danger of being slow on their exit strategy" and called for "a roadmap to lift restrictions in certain sectors of the economy". But, despite various criticisms, he said that "the government is trying to do the right thing. And in that, we will support them."


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: On 25 June 2020, Starmer sacked his shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey after she refused to delete a tweet that called the actress Maxine Peake an "absolute diamond" and shared an interview in "The Independent" in which Peake repeated what Starmer described as an antisemitic conspiracy theory concerning Israeli police and the murder of George Floyd. Starmer said that "restoring trust with the Jewish community is a number one priority." On 27 June, he replaced her with Kate Green.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: After the Equalities and Human Rights Commission found the Labour Party guilty of three breaches of the Equality Act, Corbyn condemned antisemitism but claimed the problem had been 'dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents ... [and] much of the media'. Corbyn was suspended from the party before being reinstated by a subcommittee of the NEC. Starmer chose to withhold the Labour whip from Corbyn for three months, pending an investigation.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: In mid-July 2021, the party's National Executive Committee voted to ban four far-left factions including Resist, Labour Against the Witchhunt, the Labour in Exile Network and Socialist Appeal on the grounds that "these organisations are not compatible with Labour's rules or our aims and values." These factions were sympathetic to former leader Jeremy Corbyn and had been accused of obstructing efforts to combat antisemitism within the party. The committee also ruled that belonging to these factions is grounds for expulsion from Labour; that future complaints will be handled by a review panel of independent lawyers reporting to an independent appeal body; and that all prospective Labour candidates will be trained by the Jewish Labour Movement in dealing with anti-Semitism. While the Jewish Labour Movement welcomed the announcement, the bans were condemned by Momentum and Unite the Union for allegedly driving out left-wing elements and worsening internal tensions within the party.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: Though the 2019 general election had produced the worst result in terms of total MPs in nearly a hundred years, the years following the election would see the Parliamentary Labour Party shrink from 202 MPs to 198 through one suspension, one expulsion, one death, and one by-election loss. The 2021 Hartlepool by-election saw the loss of a constituency that had returned Labour since its creation in 1974. The first Labour PLP gain came through the unlikely means of a Conservative to Labour defection when the MP for Bury South, Christian Wakeford, crossed the floor shortly before the start of PMQs in January 2022.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: The membership of the Labour Party dropped by more than 90,000, from 523,332 to 432,213 during 2021 - the first full calendar year under this leader. This resulted in a £3.1 million drop in income , compared to 2020, the majority of the £5 million overall loss for the year.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: Since the end of 2021, Labour consistently polled ahead of the Conservatives as the government was affected by issues and the cost of living crisis. In early 2022 Labour held Birmingham Erdington in the by-election and gained Wakefield in the by-election there. At party conference in September 2022, "God Save the King" was sung in tribute to Elizabeth II. In December 2022, Labour held their seat in the City of Chester by-election, with their candidate Samantha Dixon increasing the majority from 6,000 to nearly 11,000 votes. Two weeks later, Labour held Stretford and Urmston, Labour's share of the vote increased.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: Labour is a centre-left party. It was formed to provide political representation for the trade union movement at Westminster. The Labour Party gained a socialist commitment with the party constitution of 1918, Clause IV of which called for the "common ownership", or nationalisation, of the "means of production, distribution and exchange". Although about a third of British industry was taken into public ownership after the Second World War and remained so until the 1980s, the right of the party were questioning the validity of expanding on this by the late 1950s. Influenced by Anthony Crosland's book "The Future of Socialism" (1956), the circle around party leader Hugh Gaitskell felt that the commitment was no longer necessary. An attempt to remove Clause IV from the party constitution in 1959 failed, Tony Blair and New Labour "modernisers" were successful in doing so 35 years later.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: Historically influenced by Keynesian economics, the party favoured government intervention in the economy, and the redistribution of wealth. Taxation was seen as a means to achieve a "major redistribution of wealth and income" in the October 1974 election manifesto. The party also desired increased rights for workers, and a welfare state including publicly funded healthcare. From the late-1980s onwards, the party adopted free market policies, leading many observers to describe the Labour Party as social democratic or the Third Way, rather than democratic socialist. Other commentators go further and argue that traditional social democratic parties across Europe, including the British Labour Party, have been so deeply transformed in recent years that it is no longer possible to describe them ideologically as "social democratic", and that this ideological shift has put new strains on the Labour Party's traditional relationship with the trade unions. Within the party, differentiation was made between the social democratic and the socialist wings of the party, the latter often subscribed to a radical socialist, even Marxist, ideology.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: While affirming a commitment to democratic socialism, the new version of Clause IV no longer definitely commits the party to public ownership of industry and in its place advocates "the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition" along with "high quality public services [...] either owned by the public or accountable to them". MPs in the Socialist Campaign Group and the Labour Representation Committee see themselves as standard bearers for the radical socialist tradition in contrast to the democratic socialist tradition represented by organisations such as Compass and the magazine "Tribune". The group Progress, founded in 1996, represents the centrist position in the party and was opposed to the Corbyn leadership. In 2015, Momentum was created by Jon Lansman as a grass-roots left-wing organisation following Jeremy Corbyn's election as party leader. Rather than organising among the PLP, Momentum is a rank and file grouping with an estimated 40,000 members. The party also has a Christian socialist faction, the Christians on the Left society.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: Labour has long been identified with red, a political colour traditionally affiliated with socialism and the labour movement. Prior to the red flag logo, the party had used a modified version of the classic 1924 shovel, torch, and quill emblem. In 1924 a brand conscious Labour leadership had devised a competition, inviting supporters to design a logo to replace the 'polo mint' like motif that had previously appeared on party literature. The winning entry, emblazoned with the word "Liberty" over a design incorporating a torch, shovel and quill symbol, was popularised through its sale, in badge form, for a shilling. The party conference in 1931 passed a motion "That this conference adopts Party Colours, which should be uniform throughout the country, colours to be red and gold".


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: Since the party's inception, the red flag has been Labour's official symbol; the flag has been associated with socialism and revolution ever since the 1789 French Revolution and the revolutions of 1848. The red rose, a symbol of socialism and social democracy, was adopted as the party symbol in 1986 as part of a rebranding exercise and is now incorporated into the party logo.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: The red flag became an inspiration which resulted in the composition of "The Red Flag", the official party anthem since its inception, being sung at the end of party conferences and on various occasions such as in Parliament in February 2006 to mark the centenary of the Labour Party's founding. It still remains in use, although attempts were made to play down the role of the song during New Labour. The song "Jerusalem", based on a William Blake poem, is also frequently sung.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: The Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of individual members and constituency Labour parties, affiliated trade unions, socialist societies and the Co-operative Party, with which it has an electoral agreement. Members who are elected to parliamentary positions take part in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). Prior to Brexit in January 2020, members also took part in the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP).


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: The party's decision-making bodies on a national level formally include the National Executive Committee (NEC), Labour Party Conference and National Policy Forum (NPF)—although in practice the Parliamentary leadership has the final say on policy. The 2008 Labour Party Conference was the first at which affiliated trade unions and Constituency Labour Parties did not have the right to submit motions on contemporary issues that would previously have been debated. Labour Party conferences now include more "keynote" addresses, guest speakers and question-and-answer sessions, while specific discussion of policy now takes place in the National Policy Forum.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: The Labour Party is an unincorporated association without a separate legal personality, and the Labour Party Rule Book legally regulates the organisation and the relationship with members. The General Secretary represents the party on behalf of the other members of the Labour Party in any legal matters or actions.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: In August 2015, prior to the 2015 leadership election, the Labour Party reported 292,505 full members, 147,134 affiliated supporters (mostly from affiliated trade unions and socialist societies) and 110,827 registered supporters; a total of about 550,000 members and supporters. , the party had 564,443 full members, a peak since 1980 making it the largest political party in Western Europe. Consequently, membership fees became the largest component of the party's income, overtaking trade unions donations which were previously of most financial importance, making Labour the most financially well-off British political party in 2017.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: As of December 2019, the party had 532,046 full members. During 2021, it fell below half a million to 432,213 full members in December 2021. In July 2022, it was reported that the party's membership had fallen again, this time to 415,000. In October 2022 Labour's membership had risen to 450,000.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: For many years, Labour held to a policy of not allowing residents of Northern Ireland to apply for membership, instead supporting the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) which informally takes the Labour whip in the House of Commons. The 2003 Labour Party Conference accepted legal advice that the party could not continue to prohibit residents of the province joining, and whilst the National Executive has established a regional constituency party it has not yet agreed to contest elections there. In December 2015 a meeting of the members of the Labour Party in Northern Ireland decided unanimously to contest the elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly held in May 2016. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland moved a model motion, in July 2020, for Labour's NEC to allow them a "Right to Stand". The motion noted how the SDLP's alliance with Fianna Fáil, a member-party of the Liberal International in the Republic of Ireland, had meant that it was campaigning against the Irish Labour Party, which it saw as questioning "the legitimacy of Labour’s sister party relationship".


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: The Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation is the co-ordinating structure that supports the policy and campaign activities of affiliated union members within the Labour Party at the national, regional and local level.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: As it was founded by the unions to represent the interests of working-class people, Labour's link with the unions has always been a defining characteristic of the party. In recent years this link has come under increasing strain, with the RMT being expelled from the party in 2004 for allowing its branches in Scotland to affiliate to the left-wing Scottish Socialist Party. Other unions have also faced calls from members to reduce financial support for the Party and seek more effective political representation for their views on privatisation, public spending cuts and the anti-trade union laws. Unison and GMB have both threatened to withdraw funding from constituency MPs and Dave Prentis of UNISON has warned that the union will write "no more blank cheques" and is dissatisfied with "feeding the hand that bites us". Union funding was redesigned in 2013 after the Falkirk candidate-selection controversy. The Fire Brigades Union, which "severed links" with Labour in 2004, re-joined the party under Corbyn's leadership in 2015.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: The Labour Party was a founder member of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The European Parliamentary Labour Party's 10 MEPs were part of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second largest group in the European Parliament. The Labour Party was represented by Emma Reynolds in the PES presidency.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940. Since 1951, the party has been a member of the Socialist International, which was founded thanks to the efforts of the Clement Attlee leadership. In February 2013, the Labour Party NEC decided to downgrade participation to observer membership status, "in view of ethical concerns, and to develop international co-operation through new networks". Labour was a founding member of the Progressive Alliance international founded in co-operation with the Social Democratic Party of Germany and other social-democratic parties on 22 May 2013.


title: Labour Party (UK)

text: Elections to the European Parliament began in 1979, and were held under the first past the post system until 1999, when a form of proportional representation was introduced.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She rose to fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom "Friends" (1994–2004), which has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time. Kudrow has received several awards, including one Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series from 15 nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Awards from 12 nominations, and one Golden Globe Award nomination.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Kudrow starred in the cult comedy film "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" (1997) and followed it with an acclaimed performance in the romantic comedy "The Opposite of Sex" (1998), which won her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. She created, produced, wrote, and starred in the HBO mockumentary series "The Comeback", which lasted for only season in 2005 but was revived for a critically acclaimed second and final season in 2014. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for both seasons.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: In 2007, Kudrow received praise for her starring role in the film "Kabluey" and appeared in the critically panned box office hit film "P.S. I Love You". She produced and starred in the Showtime program "Web Therapy" (2011–2015), which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She is a producer on the TLC reality program "Who Do You Think You Are", which has been nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award five times.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Kudrow has also had roles in "Analyze This" (1999) and its sequel "Analyze That" (2002) "Dr. Dolittle 2" (2001), "Bandslam" (2008), "Hotel for Dogs" (2009), "Easy A" (2010), "Neighbors" (2014) and its sequel "" (2016), "The Girl on the Train" (2016), "The Boss Baby" (2017), "Long Shot" (2019) and "Booksmart" (2019). The films in which she has appeared have collectively grossed over $2 billion worldwide.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Lisa Valerie Kudrow was born in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on July 30, 1963, the daughter of Nedra, a travel agent, and Lee Kudrow, a doctor who specialized in treating headaches. She has an older sister named Helene, and two brothers named David and Derrick. She was raised in a middle-class Jewish family and had a Bat Mitzvah. She is of Belarusian, German, Hungarian, and Polish descent. Some of her Belarusian ancestors were from Ilya and Mogilev. Almost all of the Jews in Ilya were killed during the Holocaust, including Kudrow's paternal great-grandmother. Her paternal grandmother later left Belarus for Brooklyn, where her father grew up.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Kudrow attended Portola Middle School in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. She graduated from Taft High School in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, which was attended at the same time by rappers Ice Cube and Eazy-E and actress Robin Wright. She received her BA in biology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, intending to become an expert on headaches like her father. While breaking into acting, she worked for her father for eight years and earned a research credit on his study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: At the urging of comedian Jon Lovitz, who was a childhood friend of her brother, Kudrow began her comedic career as a member of The Groundlings, an improv and sketch comedy school in Los Angeles. She has credited Cynthia Szigeti, her improv teacher at The Groundlings, for changing her perspective on acting, calling her "the best thing that happened, on so many levels". Briefly, Kudrow joined with Conan O'Brien and director Tim Hillman in the short-lived improv troupe Unexpected Company. She was also the only regular female member of the Transformers Comedy Troupe. She played a role in an episode of the NBC sitcom "Cheers". She tried out for "Saturday Night Live" in 1990, but the show chose Julia Sweeney instead. She had a recurring role as Kathy Fleisher in three episodes of season one of the Bob Newhart sitcom "Bob" (CBS, 1992–1993), a role she played after taking part in the series finale of Newhart's previous series "Newhart". Prior to "Friends", she appeared in at least two network-produced pilots: NBC's "Just Temporary" (also known as "Temporarily Yours") in 1989, playing Nicole; and CBS' "Close Encounters" (also known as "Matchmaker") in 1990, playing a Valley girl.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Kudrow was cast as Roz Doyle in "Frasier", but the role was re-cast with Peri Gilpin during the taping of the pilot episode. In 2000, Kudrow explained that when rehearsals started, "I knew it wasn't working. I could feel it all slipping away, and I was panicking, which only made things worse." Her first recurring television role was Ursula Buffay, the eccentric waitress on the NBC sitcom "Mad About You".


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Kudrow reprised the character on the NBC sitcom "Friends", in which Kudrow co-starred as massage therapist Phoebe Buffay, Ursula's twin sister. Kudrow was the first "Friends" cast member to win an Emmy Award with her 1998 honor as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her starring role as Phoebe on "Friends" (NBC, 1994–2004). According to the "Guinness Book of World Records" (2005), Kudrow and co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox became the highest paid TV actresses of all time, earning $1 million per episode for the ninth and tenth seasons of "Friends". Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time. Phoebe is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, credited with making her the show's second most famous cast member, after Jennifer Aniston, and for spawning her successful film career.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: During her tenure on "Friends", Kudrow appeared in several comedy films such as "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion", "Hanging Up", "Marci X", "Dr. Dolittle 2", "Analyze This" and its sequel "Analyze That", and dramatic films, such as "Wonderland" and "The Opposite of Sex". She also guest-starred on numerous television series during "Friends", including "The Simpsons", "Hope and Gloria" and "King of the Hill", and hosted "Saturday Night Live".


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Kudrow starred as protagonist Valerie Cherish on the single-season HBO series "The Comeback" (premiered June 5, 2005), about a has-been sitcom star trying for a comeback. She also served as co-creator, writer, and executive producer. Nine years after the original season, HBO revived the series in 2014 for an abbreviated second season. Kudrow received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on "The Comeback". Her production company is ‘Is or Isn't Entertainment’. Kudrow serves as the executive producer for the U.S. version of the British television series "Who Do You Think You Are?", in which celebrities trace their family trees. The subjects of the first series included Kudrow herself, in which it was discovered her great-grandmother was murdered in the Holocaust.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Kudrow co-created an improvised comedy webseries, "Web Therapy" on Lstudio.com. The improv series, which launched online in 2008, has earned several Webby nominations and one Outstanding Comedic Performance Webby for Kudrow, who plays therapist Fiona Wallice. She offers her patients three-minute sessions over iChat. In July 2011, a reformatted, half-hour version of the show premiered on Showtime, before being cancelled in 2015 after four seasons. Kudrow has guest starred on multiple television series such as "Cougar Town", "BoJack Horseman", "Angie Tribeca", "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", and "Scandal".


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Following "Friends", Kudrow has appeared in multiple comedic films such as "Happy Endings", "Hotel for Dogs", "Easy A", "Neighbors" and its sequel "", "Long Shot", and "Booksmart". She also appeared in the romantic drama film "P.S. I Love You" and co-starred in the thriller film "The Girl on the Train". In 2020, Kudrow played Hypatia of Alexandria in season 4 episode 12 of "The Good Place" "Patty", and starred as Maggie Naird in the Netflix comedy series, "Space Force". She is currently, along with Mary McCormack, an executive producer of the syndicated game show, "25 Words or Less"; sometimes, Kudrow herself is one of the two celebrity guests playing with a contestant on the show.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Kudrow married French advertising executive Michel Stern on May 27, 1995. They reside in Beverly Hills, California, and have a son named Julian. Kudrow's pregnancy was written into the fourth season of "Friends", with her character having triplets as a surrogate mother for her half-brother and his wife.


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: In addition to her Beverly Hills home, Kudrow maintained a penthouse in Park City, Utah, which she sold in April 2017. She revealed in 2019 that she had experienced body dysmorphic disorder while working on "Friends".


title: Lisa Kudrow

text: Kudrow has been honored with numerous accolades over her career. For her role in the sitcom "Friends", she received six nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, she won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Satellite Award and one American Comedy award. In total, she has received fifteen Emmy nominations, with her most recent nomination in the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, twelve nominations and two wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, one win and eight nominations at the American Comedy Awards, one Golden Globe nomination, one Banff Rockie award, one Blockbuster Entertainment award, one Chicago Film Critics Association nomination, one Chlotrudis award, two Critics' Choice Television nominations, one Dorian award, one Gracie award, one Independent Spirit nomination, one MTV Movie & TV nomination, one National Society of Film Crtiics nomination, one New York Film Critics Circle award, one Nickelodeon Kids' Choice nomination, one Online Film Critics Society nomination, one People Magazine award, five nominations and one win at the Satellite Awards, three nominations and one win at the Teen Choice Awards, two Streamy nominations, two nominations and one win at the TV Guide Awards, one Viewers for Quality Television nomination and seven nominations and four wins at the Webby Awards


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity. The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2nd–1st century BC.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: While the entries have varied over the centuries, the seven traditional wonders are the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Using modern-day countries, two of the wonders were located in Greece, two in Turkey, two in Egypt, and one in Iraq. Of the seven wonders, only the Pyramid of Giza, which is also by far the oldest of the wonders, still remains standing, with the others being destroyed over the centuries. There is scholarly debate over the exact nature of the Hanging Gardens, and there is doubt as to whether they existed at all.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: Alexander the Great's conquest of much of the western world in the 4th century BC gave Hellenistic travellers access to the civilizations of the Egyptians, Persians, and Babylonians. Impressed and captivated by the landmarks and marvels of the various lands, these travellers began to list what they saw to remember them.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: Instead of "wonders", the ancient Greeks spoke of ""theamata"" (θεάματα), which means "sights", in other words "things to be seen" (Τὰ ἑπτὰ θεάματα τῆς οἰκουμένης [γῆς] ""). Later, the word for "wonder" (""thaumata"" θαύματα, "wonders") was used. Hence, the list was meant to be the Ancient World's counterpart of a travel guidebook.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: The first reference to a list of seven such monuments was given by Diodorus Siculus. The epigrammist Antipater of Sidon, who lived around or before 100 BC, gave a list of seven "wonders", including six of the present list (substituting the walls of Babylon for the Lighthouse of Alexandria):


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: Another ancient writer, who, perhaps dubiously, identified himself as Philo of Byzantium, wrote a short account entitled "The Seven Sights of the World". The surviving manuscript is incomplete, missing its last pages. Still, from the preamble text, we can conclude that the list of seven sights exactly matches Antipater's (the preamble mentions the location of Halicarnassus, but the pages describing the seventh wonder, presumably the Mausoleum, are missing).


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: Earlier and later lists by the historian Herodotus ( BC– BC) and the poet Callimachus of Cyrene (–240 BC), housed at the Museum of Alexandria, survive only as references.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: The Colossus of Rhodes was the last of the seven to be completed after 280 BC and the first to be destroyed by an earthquake in 226/225 BC. As such, all seven wonders existed simultaneously for less than 60 years.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: The list covered only the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions, which then comprised the known world for the Greeks. The primary accounts from Hellenistic writers also heavily influenced the places included in the wonders list. Five of the seven entries are a celebration of Greek accomplishments in construction, with the exceptions being the Pyramids of Giza and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: The seven wonders on Antipater's list won praises for their notable features, ranging from superlatives of the highest or largest of their types, to the artistry with which they were executed. Their architectural and artistic features were imitated throughout the Hellenistic world and beyond.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: The Greek influence in Roman culture, and the revival of Greco-Roman artistic styles during the Renaissance caught the imagination of European artists and travellers. Paintings and sculptures alluding to Antipater's list were made, while significant numbers of adventurers travelled to the actual sites to personally witness the wonders. Legends circulated to further complement the superlatives of the wonders.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: Of Antipater's wonders, the only one that has survived to the present day is the Great Pyramid of Giza. Its brilliant white stone facing had survived intact until around 1300 AD, when local communities removed most of the stonework for building materials. The existence of the Hanging Gardens has not been proven, though theories abound. Records and archaeology confirm the existence of the other five wonders. The Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus were destroyed by fire, while the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Colossus, and tomb of Mausolus were destroyed by earthquakes. Among the surviving artefacts are sculptures from the tomb of Mausolus and the Temple of Artemis, currently kept in the British Museum in London.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: The listing of seven of the most marvellous architectural and artistic human achievements continued beyond the Ancient Greek times to the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and to the modern age. The Roman poet Martial and the Christian bishop Gregory of Tours had their versions. Reflecting the rise of Christianity and the factor of time, nature and the hand of man overcoming Antipater's seven wonders, Roman and Christian sites began to figure on the list, including the Colosseum, Noah's Ark and Solomon's Temple. In the 6th century, a list of seven wonders was compiled by St. Gregory of Tours: the list included the Temple of Solomon, the Pharos of Alexandria and Noah's Ark.


title: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

text: Modern historians, working on the premise that the original Seven Ancient Wonders List was limited in its geographic scope, also had their versions to encompass sites beyond the Hellenistic realm—from the Seven Wonders of the "Ancient World" to the Seven Wonders of the "World". The "seven wonders" label has spawned innumerable versions among international organizations, publications and individuals based on different themes—works of nature, engineering masterpieces, constructions of the Middle Ages, etc. Its purpose has also changed from just a simple travel guidebook or a compendium of curious places to a list of sites to defend or preserve.


title: Crusades

text: The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to recover Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Islamic rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which resulted in the recovery of Jerusalem in 1099, dozens of Crusades were fought, providing a focal point of European history for centuries.


title: Crusades

text: In 1095, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for Byzantine emperor AlexiosI against the Seljuk Turks and called for an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Across all social strata in western Europe, there was an enthusiastic response. The first Crusaders had a variety of motivations, including religious salvation, satisfying feudal obligations, opportunities for renown, and economic or political advantage. Later crusades were conducted by generally more organized armies, sometimes led by a king. All were granted papal indulgences. Initial successes established four Crusader states: the County of Edessa; the Principality of Antioch; the Kingdom of Jerusalem; and the County of Tripoli. The Crusader presence remained in the region in some form until the fall of Acre in 1291. After this, there were no further crusades to recover the Holy Land.


title: Crusades

text: Concurrent military activities in the Iberian Peninsula against the Moors and in northeastern Europe against pagan West Slav, Baltic, and Finnic peoples (the Northern Crusades) have also been called crusades – sometimes retroactively, long after the event had ended – due to the facts that they also had central approval by the Roman Catholic Church and that the military campaigns were organized in comparable fashion, with often similar rhetoric, symbolism, and banners as applied during the campaigns in the Middle East. Other church-sanctioned campaigns called crusades were fought against heretical Christian sects (precursors of proto-Protestantism), against the Ottoman Empire, and for political reasons. Unsanctioned by the church, there were also several Popular Crusades of ordinary citizens.


title: Crusades

text: Proclaimed a crusade in 1123, the struggle between the Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula eventually became better known as the "Reconquista" in European historiography, and only ended in 1492 with the fall of the Muslim Emirate of Granada. From 1147, campaigns in Northern Europe against pagan tribes were considered crusades. In 1199, Pope Innocent III began the practice of proclaiming crusades against Christian heretics. In the 13th century, crusading was used against the Cathars in Languedoc and against Bosnia; this practice continued against the Waldensians in Savoy and the Hussites in Bohemia in the 15thcentury and against Protestants in the 16th. From the mid-14thcentury, crusading rhetoric was used in response to the rise of the Ottoman Empire, and ended around 1699 with the War of the Holy League.


title: Crusades

text: The term "crusade" first referred to military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13thcenturies to the Holy Land. The conflicts to which the term is applied have been extended to include other campaigns initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Roman Catholic Church against pagans and heretics, or for alleged religious ends. Crusades differed from other Christian religious wars in that they were considered a penitential exercise, and so earned participants forgiveness for all confessed sins. The term's usage can be misleading, particularly regarding the early Crusades, and the definition remains a matter of debate among contemporary historians.


title: Crusades

text: At the time of the First Crusade, , "journey", and , "pilgrimage", were used to describe the campaign. Crusader terminology remained largely indistinguishable from that of Christian pilgrimage during the 12th century. Only at the end of the century was a specific language of Crusading adopted in the form of "one signed by the cross"for a Crusader. This led to the French "the way of the cross". By the mid 13th century the cross became the major descriptor of the Crusades with "the cross overseas"used for crusades in the eastern Mediterranean, and "the cross this side of the sea"for those in Europe. The modern English "crusade" dates to the 17th century, with the work of Louis Malmbourg."" Strategic raiding was known as and more fundamental campaigns as .


title: Crusades

text: The terms "Franks" () and "Latins" were used by the peoples of the Near East during the crusades for western Europeans, distinguishing them from the Byzantine Christians, who were known as "Greeks". "Saracen" was used for an Arab Muslim, derived from a Greek and Roman name for the nomadic peoples of the Syro-Arabian desert. Crusader sources used the term "Syrians" to describe local Christians who were members of the Greek Orthodox Church, and "Jacobites" for those who were members of the Syrian Orthodox Church. The Crusader states of Syria and Palestine were known as the "Outremer" from the French , or "the land beyond the sea".


title: Crusades

text: The Crusades to the Holy Land are the best known of the religious wars associated with the term, beginning in 1095 and lasting some two centuries. These Crusades began with the fervent desire to wrest the Holy Land from the Muslims, and ran through eight major numbered crusades and dozens of minor crusades over the period.


title: Crusades

text: The Arab-Byzantine wars from 629 to the 1050s resulted in the conquest of the Levant and Egypt by the Muslim Rashidun Caliphate. Jerusalem was captured after a half-year siege in 637. In 1025, the Byzantine emperor Basil II was able to extend the empire's territorial recovery to its furthest extent in 1025, with frontiers stretching east to Iran. The empire's relationships with its Islamic neighbours were no more quarrelsome than its relationships with the Western Christians, after the East-West Schism of 1054. The political situation in the Middle East was changed by waves of Turkic migrationin particular, the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in the 10thcentury. Previously a minor ruling clan from Transoxiana, they were recent converts to Islam who migrated into Persia. They conquered Iran, Iraq and the Near East to the Seljuk Empire. Byzantium's attempted confrontation in 1071 to suppress the Seljuks' sporadic raiding led to the defeat at the Battle of Manzikert, eventually the occupation of most of the Anatolian peninsula. In the same year, Jerusalem was taken from the Fatimids by the Turkish warlord Atsiz, who seized most of Syria and Palestine throughout the Middle East. The Seljuk hold on the city resulted in pilgrims reporting difficulties and the oppression of Christians.


title: Crusades

text: In 1074, just three years after Manzikert and the Seljuk takeover of Jerusalem, Gregory VII began planning to launch a military campaign for the liberation of the Holy Land. Twenty years later, Urban II realized that dream, hosting the decisive Council of Piacenza and subsequent Council of Clermont in November 1095, resulting in the mobilization of Western Europe to go to the Holy Land. Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos, worried about the continued advances of the Seljuks, sent envoys to these councils asking Urban for aid against the invading Turks. Urban talked of the violence of Europe and the necessity of maintaining the Peace of God; about helping Byzantium; about the crimes being committed against Christians in the east; and about a new kind of war, an armed pilgrimage, and of rewards in heaven, where remission of sins was offered to any who might die in the undertaking. The enthusiastic crowd responded with cries of "Deus lo volt!""God wills it!"


title: Crusades

text: Immediately after Urban's proclamation, the French priest Peter the Hermit led thousands of mostly poor Christians out of Europe in what became known as the People's Crusade. In transit through Germany, these Crusaders spawned German bands who massacred Jewish communities in what became known as the Rhineland massacres. They were destroyed in 1096 when the main body of Crusaders was annihilated at the battle of Civetot.


title: Crusades

text: In response to Urban's call, members of the high aristocracy from Europe took the cross. Foremost amongst these was the elder statesman Raymond IV of Toulouse, who with bishop Adhemar of Le Puy commanded southern French forces. Other armies included: one led by Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin of Boulogne; forces led by Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred; and contingents under Robert Curthose, Stephen of Blois, Hugh of Vermandois, and Robert II of Flanders. The armies travelled to Byzantium where they were cautiously welcomed by the emperor.


title: Crusades

text: Alexios persuaded many of the princes to pledge allegiance to him. He also convinced them their first objective should be Nicaea. Buoyed by their success at Civetot, the over-confident Seljuks left the city unprotected, thus enabling its capture after the siege of Nicaea in May–June 1097. The first experience of Turkish tactics occurred when a force led by Bohemond and Robert was ambushed at battle of Dorylaeum in July 1097. The Normans resisted for hours before the arrival of the main army caused a Turkish withdrawal.


title: Crusades

text: The Crusader army marched to the former Byzantine city of Antioch, which had been in Muslim control since 1084. The Crusaders began the siege of Antioch in October 1097 and fought for eight months to a stalemate. Finally, Bohemond persuaded a guard in the city to open a gate. The Crusaders entered, massacring the Muslim inhabitants as well as many Christians. A force to recapture the city was raised by Kerbogha, the Seljuk atabeg of Mosul.


title: Crusades

text: The discovery of the Holy Lance by mystic Peter Bartholomew may have boosted the morale of the Crusaders. The Byzantines did not march to the assistance of the Crusaders. Instead, Alexius retreated from Philomelium. The Greeks were never truly forgiven for this perceived betrayal. The Crusaders attempted to negotiate surrender but were rejected. Bohemond recognised that the only remaining option was open combat and launched a counterattack. Despite superior numbers, the Muslims retreated and abandoned the siege.


title: Crusades

text: Raymond besieged Arqa in mid-February 1099 and the crusaders sent an embassy to the vizier of Egypt seeking a treaty. When Adhemar died after Antioch, there was no spiritual leader of the crusade and the discovery of the Holy Lance provoked accusations of fraud among the clerical factions. On 8 April 1099, Arnulf of Chocques, chaplain to Robert Curthose, challenged Bartholomew to an ordeal by fire. Peter underwent the ordeal and died after days of agony from his wounds, which discredited the Holy Lance as a fake. Raymond lifted the siege of Arqa in May without capturing the town and the crusade proceeded south along the Mediterranean coast. Bohemond remained in Antioch, retaining the city, despite his pledge to return it to Byzantine control, while Raymond led the remaining army. Local rulers offered little resistance. They opted for peace in return for providing provisions. The Frankish emissaries rejoined the army accompanied by representatives from Egypt. This brought added information: the Egyptians had recaptured Jerusalem from the Seljuks. The Franks offered to partition conquered territory in return for rights to the city. When the offer was refused, it became advantageous if the crusade could reach Jerusalem before the Egyptians reinforced its defences and raised a defensive army.


title: Crusades

text: On 7 June 1099, the Crusaders reached Jerusalem. Many Crusaders wept upon seeing the city they had journeyed so long to reach. An initial attack on the city failed, and the siege of Jerusalem of 1099 became a stalemate, until they breached the walls on 15 July 1099. Iftikhar al-Dawla, the commander of the garrison, struck a deal with Raymond, surrendering the citadel in return for being granted safe passage to Ascalon. For two days the Crusaders massacred the inhabitants and pillaged the city. Jerusalem had been returned to Christian rule. Urban II died on 29 July 1099, fourteen days after the fall of Jerusalem to the Crusaders, but before news of the event had reached Italy. He was succeeded by Paschal II.


title: Crusades

text: On July 22, 1099, a council was held in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Godfrey of Bouillon took the leadership, not called king but rather with the title "Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri" (Defender of the Holy Sepulchre). At this point, most Crusaders considered their pilgrimage complete and returned to Europe. Godfrey was left with a small forcea mere 300 knights and 2,000 foot soldiersto defend the kingdom. In August 1099, the Franks defeated an Egyptian relief force at the battle of Ascalon. The First Crusade thus ended successfully and resulted in the creation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.


title: Crusades

text: Godfrey of Bouillon died on 18 July 1100, likely from typhoid. The news of his death was met with mourning in Jerusalem. He was lying in state for five days, before his burial at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Jerusalem knights offered the kingdom to Godfrey's brother Baldwin I of Jerusalem, then Count of Edessa. Godfrey's last battle, the siege of Arsuf, would be completed by Baldwin in April 1101. Meanwhile, Dagobert of Pisa, now Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, made the same offer to Bohemond, and asking that he prevent Baldwin's expected travel to Jerusalem. But the letter was intercepted and Bohemond was captured with Richard of Salerno by the Danishmends after the battle of Melitene in August 1100. Baldwin I was crowned as the first king of Jerusalem on Christmas Day 1100 by Dagobert at the Church of the Nativity. Baldwin's cousin Baldwin of Bourcq, later his successor as Baldwin II, was named Count of Edessa, and Tancred became regent of Antioch during Bohemond's captivity, lasting through 1103.


title: Crusades

text: The Crusade of 1101 was initiated by Paschal II when he learned of the precarious position of the remaining forces in the Holy Land. The host consisted of four separate armies, sometimes regarded as a second wave following the First Crusade. The first army was Lombardy, led by Anselm, archbishop of Milan. They were joined by a force led by Conrad, constable to the German emperor, Henry IV. A second army, the Nivernois, was commanded by William II of Nevers. The third group from northern France was led by Stephen of Blois and Stephen of Burgundy. They were joined by Raymond of Saint-Gilles, now in the service of the emperor. The fourth army was led by William IX of Aquitaine and Welf IV of Bavaria. The Crusaders faced their old enemy Kilij Arslan and his Seljuk forces first met the Lombard and French contingents in August 1101 at the Battle of Mersivan, with the crusader camp captured. The Nivernois contingent was decimated that same month at Heraclea, with nearly the entire force wiped out, except for the count William and a few of his men. The Aquitainians and Bavarians reached Heraclea in September where again the Crusaders were massacred. The Crusade of 1101 was a total disaster both militarily and politically, showing the Muslims that the Crusaders were not invincible.


title: Crusades

text: The reign of Baldwin I began in 1100 and oversaw the consolidation of the kingdom in the face of enemies to the north, the Seljuks, and the Fatimids to the south. Al-Afdal Shahanshah, the powerful Fatimid vizier, anxious to recover the lands lost to the Franks, initiated the First Battle of Ramla on 7 September 1101 in which his forces were narrowly defeated, by those of Baldwin I. On 17 May 1102, the Crusaders were not so lucky, suffering a major defeat at the hands of the Fatimids, under the command of al-Afdal's son Sharaf al-Ma'ali at the Second Battle of Ramla. Among the slain were veterans of the Crusade of 1101, Stephen of Blois and Stephen of Burgundy. Conrad of Germany fought so valiantly that his attackers offered to spare his life if he surrendered. The kingdom was on the verge of collapse after the defeat, recovering after the successful Battle of Jaffa on 27 May. In the north, the siege of Tripoli was begun, not to be resolved for seven years. Al-Afdal tried once more in the Third Battle of Ramla in August 1105 and was defeated. After the Crusader victory at the siege of Beirut in 1110, the Fatimid threat to the kingdom subsided for two decades.


title: Crusades

text: The Battle of Harran was fought in 1104, pitting the Crusader states of Edessa and Antioch against Jikirmish, who had replaced Kerbogha as atabeg of Mosul, and Sökmen, commander of the Seljuk forces. The ensuing Seljuk victory also resulted in the capture of Baldwin of Bourcq, then count of Edessa and later king of Jerusalem, and his cousin Joscelin of Courtenay. A Turkish adventurer Jawali Saqawa killed Jikirmish in 1106, seizing Mosul and his hostage Baldwin. Separately freed, Joscelin began negotiations with Jawali for Baldwin's release. Expelled from Mosul by Mawdud, Jawali fled with his hostage to the fortress of Qal'at Ja'bar. Jawali, in need of allies against Mawdud, accepted Joscelin's offer, releasing Baldwin in the summer of 1108.


title: Crusades

text: After Bohemond was ransomed in 1103, he had resumed control of Antioch and continued the conflict with the Byzantine empire. The Byzantines had taken advantage of Bohemond's absence, retaking lands lost. Bohemond returned to Italy on late 1104 to recruit allies and gather supplies. Tancred again assumed leadership in Antioch, successfully defeating the Seljuks at the Battle of Artah in 1105, threatening Aleppo. In the meantime, his uncle began what is known as Bohemond's Crusade (or the Crusade of 1107–1108). Bohemond crossed into the Balkans and began the failed siege of Dyrrhachium. The subsequent Treaty of Devol of 1108 forced Bohemond to become vassal to the emperor, restore taken lands and other onerous terms. Bohemond never returned. He died in 1111, leaving Tancred as regent to his son Bohemond II, who ignored the treaty.


title: Crusades

text: The Norwegian Crusade also known as the Crusade of Sigurd Jorsalfar, king of Norway, took place from 1107 to 1110. More of a pilgrimage than a crusade, it did include the participation in military action at the siege of Sidon of 1110. Baldwin's army besieged the city by land, while the Norwegians came by sea, and the victorious Crusaders gave similar terms of surrender as given to previous victories at Arsuf in 1102 and at the siege of Acre of 1100–1104, freeing the major port of the kingdom. This Crusade marked the first time a European king visited the Holy Land.


title: Crusades

text: Beginning in 1110, the Seljuks launched a series of attacks on the Crusader states, in particular Edessa, led by Mawdud. These included the Battle of Shaizar in 1111, a stalemate. At the Battle of al-Sannabra of 1113, a Crusader army led by Baldwin I was defeated by a Muslim army led by Mawdud and Toghtekin, atabeg of Damascus, whose ultimate objective was Edessa. Mawdud was unable to annihilate the Crusader forces and was soon murdered by Assassins. Bursuq ibn Bursuq took command of the failed attempt against Edessa in 1114. Finally, Roger of Salerno routed the last Seljuk invading army at the First Battle of Tell Danith on 14 September 1115.


title: Crusades

text: Baldwin I died on 2 April 1118 after an attack on the city of Pelusium on the Nile. He was buried in Jerusalem. Baldwin II of Jerusalem became king on 14 April 1118, but was there was not a formal coronation until Christmas Day 1119 due to issues concerning his wife Morphia of Melitene. The early days of Baldwin II's reign included the Battle of Ager Sanguinis, the Field of Blood, on 28 June 1119. At Ager Sanguinis, an army led by Ilghazi annihilated the Antiochian forces led by Roger of Salerno who was killed during the battle. The Muslim victory was short-lived, with Baldwin II and Pons of Tripoli narrowly defeating Ilghazi's army at the Second Battle of Tell Danith on 14 August 1119.


title: Crusades

text: On 16 January 1120, Baldwin II and the new patriarch Warmund of Jerusalem held the Council of Nablus, establishing a rudimentary set of rules for governing the kingdom now known as the "assizes" of Jerusalem. The formal establishment of the Knights Templar was likely also granted by the council, complementing the military arm of the Knights Hospitaller that was protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land. Both military orders were accumulating holdings in the kingdom and Crusader states, with the Hospitallers eventually obtaining the famous Krak des Chevaliers, an important military and administrative center.


title: Crusades

text: The Venetian Crusade, also known as the Crusade of Calixtus II, was conducted from 1122 to 1124. The Western participants included those from the Republic of Venice as well as Pons of Tripoli. The actions resulted in the successful siege of Tyre, taking the city from the Damascene atabeg Toghtekin. This marked a major victor for Baldwin II prior to his second captivity in 1123.


title: Crusades

text: In 1123, Baldwin II led a raid to Sarūj in order to rescue hostages held by Belek Ghazi and was also captured. Belek died in May 1124 and Baldwin II was seized by Ilghazi's son, Timurtash, who commenced negotiations for Baldwin's release. After a portion of the ransom was paid, additional hostages, to include Baldwin's youngest daughter Jovetta, were provided secure the payment of the balance, Baldwin II was released from the Citadel of Aleppo on 29 August 1124. Jovetta was held by il-Bursuqi and were ransomed by Baldwin II in 1125 using his spoils from the Battle of Azaz of 1125.


title: Crusades

text: Toghtekin died in February 1128, and Baldwin II began the Crusade of 1129, also known as the Damascus Crusade, shortly thereafter. The objective was Damascus, now led by the new atabeg Taj al-Muluk Buri, the son of Toghtekin. The Crusaders were able to capture the town of Banias, but were unable to take Damascus despite coming within six miles of the town.


title: Crusades

text: Baldwin II and Morphia married their eldest daughter Melisende of Jerusalem to Fulk V of Anjou in 1129 in anticipation of a royal succession. Baldwin II fell ill in Antioch and died on 21 August 1131. Fulk and Melisende were crowned joint rulers of Jerusalem on 14 September 1131 in the same church where Baldwin II had been laid to rest. Fulk assumed full control of the government, excluding Melisende, as he favored fellow Angevins to the native nobility.


title: Crusades

text: At the same time, the advent of Imad ad-Din Zengi saw the Crusaders threatened by a Muslim ruler who would introduce "jihad" to the conflict, joining the powerful Syrian emirates in a combined effort against the Franks. He became atabeg of Mosul in September 1127 and used this to expand his control to Aleppo in June 1128. In 1135, Zengi moved against Antioch and, when the Crusaders failed to put an army into the field to oppose him, he captured several important Syrian town. He defeated Fulk at the Battle of Ba'rin of 1137, seizing Ba'rin Castle.


title: Crusades

text: In 1137, Zengi invaded Tripoli, killing the count Pons of Tripoli. Fulk intervened, but Zengi's troops captured Pons' successor Raymond II of Tripoli, and besieged Fulk in the border castle of Montferrand. Fulk surrendered the castle and paid Zengi a ransom for his and Raymond's freedom. John II Komnenos, emperor since 1118, reasserted Byzantine claims to Cilicia and Antioch, compelling Raymond of Poitiers to give homage. In April 1138, the Byzantines and Franks jointly besieged Aleppo and, with no success, began the Siege of Shaizar, abandoning it a month later.


title: Crusades

text: On 13 November 1143, while the royal couple were in Acre, Fulk was killed in a hunting accident. On Christmas Day 1143, their son Baldwin III of Jerusalem was crowned co-ruler with his mother. That same year, having prepared his army for a renewed attack on Antioch, John II Komnenos went hunting wild boar, cutting himself with a poisoned arrow. He died on 8 April 1143 and was succeeded as emperor by his son Manuel I Komnenos.


title: Crusades

text: Following John's death, the Byzantine army withdrew, leaving Zengi unopposed. Fulk's death later in the year left Joscelin II of Edessa with no powerful allies to help defend Edessa. Zengi came north to begin the first siege of Edessa, arriving on 28 November 1144. The city had been warned of his arrival and was prepared for a siege, but there was little they could do. Zengi realized there was no defending force and surrounded the city. The walls collapsed on 24 December 1144. Zengi's troops rushed into the city, killing all those who were unable to flee. All the Frankish prisoners were executed, but the native Christians were allowed to live. The Crusaders were dealt their first major defeat.


title: Crusades

text: Zengi was assassinated by a slave on 14 September 1146 and was succeeded in the Zengid dynasty by his son Nūr-ad-Din. The Franks recaptured the city during the Second Siege of Edessa of 1146 by stealth but could not take or even properly besiege the citadel. After a brief counter-siege, Nūr-ad-Din took the city. The men were massacred, with the women and children enslaved, and the walls razed.


title: Crusades

text: The fall of Edessa caused great consternation in Jerusalem and Western Europe, tampering the enthusiastic success of the First Crusade. Calls for a new crusadethe Second Crusadewere immediate, and was the first to be led by European kings. Concurrent campaigns as part of the "Reconquista" and Northern Crusades are also sometimes associated with this Crusade. The aftermath of the Crusade saw the Muslim world united around Saladin, leading to the fall of Jerusalem.


title: Crusades

text: Eugene III, recently elected pope, issued the bull "Quantum praedecessores" in December 1145 calling for a new crusade, one that would be more organized and centrally controlled than the First. The armies would be led by the strongest kings of Europe and a route that would be pre-planned. The pope called on Bernard of Clairvaux to preach the Second Crusade, granting the same indulgences which had accorded to the First Crusaders. Among those answering the call were by two European kings, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. Louis, his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and many princes and lords prostrated themselves at the feet of Bernard in order to take the cross. Conrad and his nephew Frederick Barbarossa also received the cross from the hand of Bernard.


title: Crusades

text: Conrad III and the German contingent planned to leave for the Holy Land at Easter, but did not depart until May 1147. When the German army began to cross Byzantine territory, emperor Manuel I had his troops posted to ensure against trouble. A brief Battle of Constantinople in September ensued, and their defeat at the emperor's hand convinced the Germans to move quickly to Asia Minor. Without waiting for the French contingent, Conrad III engaged the Seljuks of Rûm under sultan Mesud I, son and successor of Kilij Arslan, the nemesis of the First Crusade. Mesud and his forces almost totally destroyed Conrad's contingent at the Second Battle of Dorylaeum on 25 October 1147.


title: Crusades

text: The French contingent departed in June 1147. In the meantime, Roger II of Sicily, an enemy of Conrad's, had invaded Byzantine territory. Manuel I needed all his army to counter this force, and, unlike the armies of the First Crusade, the Germans and French entered Asia with no Byzantine assistance. The French met the remnants of Conrad's army in northern Turkey, and Conrad joined Louis's force. They fended off a Seljuk attack at the Battle of Ephesus on 24 December 1147. A few days later, they were again victorious at the Battle of the Meander. Louis was not as lucky at the Battle of Mount Cadmus on 6 January 1148 when the army of Mesud inflicted heavy losses on the Crusaders. Shortly thereafter, they sailed for Antioch, almost totally destroyed by battle and sickness.


title: Crusades

text: The Crusader army arrived at Antioch on 19 March 1148 with the intent on moving to retake Edessa, but Baldwin III of Jerusalem and the Knights Templar had other ideas. The Council of Acre was held on 24 June 1148, changing the objective of the Second Crusade to Damascus, a former ally of the kingdom that had shifted its allegiance to that of the Zengids. The Crusaders fought the Battle of Bosra with the Damascenes in the summer of 1147, with no clear winner. Bad luck and poor tactics of the Crusaders led to the disastrous five-day siege of Damascus from 24 to 28 July 1148. The barons of Jerusalem withdrew support and the Crusaders retreated before the arrival of a relief army led by Nūr-ad-Din. Morale fell, hostility to the Byzantines grew and distrust developed between the newly arrived Crusaders and those that had made the region their home after the earlier crusades. The French and German forces felt betrayed by the other, lingering for a generation due to the defeat, to the ruin of the Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land.


title: Crusades

text: In the spring of 1147, Eugene III authorized the expansion of his mission into the Iberian peninsula, equating these campaigns against the Moors with the rest of the Second Crusade. The successful Siege of Lisbon, from 1 July to 25 October 1147, was followed by the six-month siege of Tortosa, ending on 30 December 1148 with a defeat for the Moors. In the north, some Germans were reluctant to fight in the Holy Land while the pagan Wends were a more immediate problem. The resulting Wendish Crusade of 1147 was partially successful but failed to convert the pagans to Christianity.


title: Crusades

text: The disastrous performance of this campaign in the Holy Land damaged the standing of the papacy, soured relations between the Christians of the kingdom and the West for many years, and encouraged the Muslims of Syria to even greater efforts to defeat the Franks. The dismal failures of this Crusade then set the stage for the fall of Jerusalem, leading to the Third Crusade.


title: Crusades

text: In the first major encounter after the Second Crusade, Nūr-ad-Din's forces then destroyed the Crusader army at the Battle of Inab on 29 June 1149. Raymond of Poitiers, as prince of Antioch, came to the aid of the besieged city. Raymond was killed and his head was presented to Nūr-ad-Din, who forwarded it to the caliph al-Muqtafi in Baghdad. In 1150, Nūr-ad-Din defeated Joscelin II of Edessa for a final time, resulting in Joscelin being publicly blinded, dying in prison in Aleppo in 1159. Later that year, at the Battle of Aintab, he tried but failed to prevent Baldwin III's evacuation of the residents of Turbessel. The unconquered portions of the County of Edessa would nevertheless fall to the Zengids within a few years. In 1152, Raymond II of Tripoli became the first Frankish victim of the Assassins. Later that year, Nūr-ad-Din captured and burned Tortosa, briefly occupying the town, before it was taken by the Knights Templar as a military headquarters.


title: Crusades

text: After the Siege of Ascalon ended on 22 August 1153 with a Crusader victory and Damascus was taken by Nūr-ad-Din the next year, uniting all of Syria under Zengid rule. In 1156, Baldwin III was forced into a treaty with Nūr-ad-Din, and later entered into an alliance with the Byzantine Empire. On 18 May 1157, Nūr-ad-Din began a siege on the Knights Hospitaller contingent at Banias, with the Grand Master Bertrand de Blanquefort captured. Baldwin III was able to break the siege, only to be ambushed at Jacob's Ford in June. Reinforcements from Antioch and Tripoli were able to relieve the besieged Crusaders. Bertrand's captivity lasted until 1159, when emperor Manuel I negotiated an alliance with Nūr-ad-Din against the Seljuks.


title: Crusades

text: Baldwin III died on 10 February 1163, and Amalric of Jerusalem was crowned as king of Jerusalem eight days later. He undertook a series of four invasions of Egypt from 1163 to 1169, taking advantage of weaknesses of the Fatimids. Nūr-ad-Din's intervention in the first invasion allowed his general Shirkuh, accompanied by his nephew Saladin, to enter Egypt. Shawar, the deposed vizier to the Fatimid caliph al-Adid, allied with Amalric I, attacking Shirkuh at the second siege of Bilbeis beginning in August 1164, following Amalric's unsuccessful first siege in September 1163. This action left the Holy Land lacking in defenses, and Nūr-ad-Din defeated a Crusader forces at the Battle of Harim in August 1164, capturing most of the Franks' leaders.


title: Crusades

text: After the sacking of Bilbeis, the Crusader-Egyptian force was to meet Shirkuh's army in the indecisive Battle of al-Babein on 18 March 1167. In 1169, both Shawar and Shirkuh died, and al-Adid appointed Saladin as vizier. Saladin, with reinforcements from Nūr-ad-Din, defeated a massive Crusader-Byzantine force at the siege of Damietta in late October. This gained Saladin the attention of the Assassins, with attempts on his life in January 1175 and again on 22 May 1176.


title: Crusades

text: Baldwin IV of Jerusalem became king on 5 July 1174 at the age of 13. As a leper he was not expected to live long, and served with a number of regents, and served as co-ruler with his cousin Baldwin V of Jerusalem beginning in 1183. Baldwin IV, Raynald of Châtillon and the Knights Templar defeated Saladin at the celebrated Battle of Montgisard on 25 November 1177. In June 1179, the Crusaders were defeated at the Battle of Marj Ayyub, and in August the unfinished castle at Jacob's Ford fell to Saladin, with the slaughter of half its Templar garrison. However, the kingdom repelled his attacks at the Battle of Belvoir Castle in 1182 and later in the Siege of Kerak of 1183.


title: Crusades

text: Baldwin V became sole king upon the death of his uncle in 1185 under the regency of Raymond III of Tripoli. Raymond negotiated a truce with Saladin which went awry when the king died in the summer of 1186. His mother Sibylla of Jerusalem and her husband Guy of Lusignan were crowned as queen and king of Jerusalem in the summer of 1186, shortly thereafter. They immediately had to deal with the threat posed by Saladin.


title: Crusades

text: Despite his defeat at the Battle of al-Fule in the fall of 1183, Saladin increased his attacks against the Franks, leading to their defeat at the Battle of Cresson on 1 May 1187. Guy of Lusignan responded by raising the largest army that Jerusalem had ever put into the field. Saladin lured this force into inhospitable terrain without water supplies and routed them at the Battle of Hattin on 4 July 1187. One of the major commanders was Raymond III of Tripoli who saw his force slaughtered, with some knights deserting to the enemy, and narrowly escaping, only to be regarded as a traitor and coward. Guy of Lusignan was one of the few captives of Saladin's after the battle, along with Raynald of Châtillon and Humphrey IV of Toron. Raynald was beheaded, settling an old score. Guy and Humphrey were imprisoned in Damascus and later released in 1188.


title: Crusades

text: As a result of his victory, much of Palestine quickly fell to Saladin. The siege of Jerusalem began on 20 September 1187 and the Holy City was surrendered to Saladin by Balian of Ibelin on 2 October. According to some, on 19October 1187, Urban III died upon of hearing of the defeat. Jerusalem was once again in Muslim hands. Many in the kingdom fled to Tyre, and Saladin's subsequent attack at the siege of Tyre beginning in November 1187 was unsuccessful. The later siege of Safed in late 1188 completed Saladin's conquest of the Holy Land.


title: Crusades

text: The years following the founding of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were met with multiple disasters. The Second Crusade did not achieve its goals, and left the Muslim East in a stronger position with the rise of Saladin. A united Egypt–Syria led to the loss of Jerusalem itself, and Western Europe had no choice but to launch the Third Crusade, this time led by the kings of Europe.


title: Crusades

text: The news of the disastrous defeat at the battle of Hattin and subsequent fall of Jerusalem gradually reached Western Europe. Urban III died shortly after hearing the news, and his successor Gregory VIII issued the bull "Audita tremendi" on 29 October 1187 describing the events in the East and urging all Christians to take up arms and go to the aid of those in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, calling for a new crusade to the Holy Landthe Third Crusadeto be led by Frederick Barbarossa and Richard I of England.


title: Crusades

text: Frederick took the cross in March 1188. Frederick sent an ultimatum to Saladin, demanding the return of Palestine and challenging him to battle and in May 1189, Frederick's host departed for Byzantium. In March 1190, Frederick embarked to Asia Minor. The armies coming from western Europe pushed on through Anatolia, defeating the Turks and reaching as far as Cilician Armenia. On 10 June 1190, Frederick drowned near Silifke Castle. His death caused several thousand German soldiers to leave the force and return home. The remaining German army moved under the command of the English and French forces that arrived shortly thereafter.


title: Crusades

text: Richard the Lionheart had already taken the cross as the Count of Poitou in 1187. His father Henry II of England and Philip II of France had done so on 21 January 1188 after receiving news of the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin. Richard I and Philip II of France agreed to go on the Crusade in January 1188. Arriving in the Holy Land, Richard led his support to the stalemated siege of Acre. The Muslim defenders surrendered on 12 July 1191. Richard remained in sole command of the Crusader force after the departure of Philip II on 31 July 1191. On 20 August 1191, Richard had more than 2000 prisoners beheaded at the massacre of Ayyadieh. Saladin subsequently ordered the execution of his Christian prisoners in retaliation.


title: Crusades

text: Richard moved south, defeating Saladin's forces at the battle of Arsuf on 7 September 1191. Three days later, Richard took Jaffa, held by Saladin since 1187, and advanced inland towards Jerusalem. On 12 December 1191 Saladin disbanded the greater part of his army. Learning this, Richard pushed his army forward, to within 12 miles from Jerusalem before retreating back to the coast. The Crusaders made another advance on Jerusalem, coming within sight of the city in June before being forced to retreat again. Hugh III of Burgundy, leader of the Franks, was adamant that a direct attack on Jerusalem should be made. This split the Crusader army into two factions, and neither was strong enough to achieve its objective. Without a united command the army had little choice but to retreat back to the coast.


title: Crusades

text: On 27 July 1192, Saladin's army began the battle of Jaffa, capturing the city. Richard's forces stormed Jaffa from the sea and the Muslims were driven from the city. Attempts to retake Jaffa failed and Saladin was forced to retreat. On 2 September 1192 Richard and Saladin entered into the Treaty of Jaffa, providing that Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control, while allowing unarmed Christian pilgrims and traders to freely visit the city. This treaty ended the Third Crusade.


title: Crusades

text: Three years later, Henry VI launched the Crusade of 1197. While his forces were en route to the Holy Land, Henry VI died in Messina on 28 September 1197. The nobles that remained captured the Levant coast between Tyre and Tripoli before returning to Germany. The Crusade ended on 1 July 1198 after capturing Sidon and Beirut.


title: Crusades

text: In 1198, the recently elected Pope Innocent III announced a new crusade, organised by three Frenchmen: Theobald of Champagne; Louis of Blois; and Baldwin of Flanders. After Theobald's premature death, the Italian Boniface of Montferrat replaced him as the new commander of the campaign. They contracted with the Republic of Venice for the transportation of 30,000 crusaders at a cost of 85,000 marks. However, many chose other embarkation ports and only around 15,000 arrived in Venice. The Doge of Venice Enrico Dandolo proposed that Venice would be compensated with the profits of future conquests beginning with the seizure of the Christian city of Zara. Pope Innocent III's role was ambivalent. He only condemned the attack when the siege started. He withdrew his legate to disassociate from the attack but seemed to have accepted it as inevitable. Historians question whether for him, the papal desire to salvage the crusade may have outweighed the moral consideration of shedding Christian blood. The crusade was joined by King Philip of Swabia, who intended to use the Crusade to install his exiled brother-in-law, Alexios IV Angelos, as Emperor. This required the overthrow of Alexios III Angelos, the uncle of AlexiosIV. Alexios IV offered the crusade 10,000 troops, 200,000 marks and the reunion of the Greek Church with Rome if they toppled his uncle Emperor Alexios III. When the crusade entered Constantinople, AlexiosIII fled and was replaced by his nephew. The Greek resistance prompted AlexiosIV to seek continued support from the crusade until he could fulfil his commitments. This ended with his murder in a violent anti-Latin revolt. The crusaders were without seaworthy ships, supplies or food. Their only escape route was through the city, taking by force what Alexios had promised and the new anti-westerner Byzantine rulerAlexios V Doukasdenied them. The Sack of Constantinople involved three days of pillaging churches and killing much of the Greek Orthodox Christian populace. This sack was not unusual considering the violent military standards of the time, but contemporaries such as Innocent III and Ali ibn al-Athir saw it as an atrocity against centuries of classical and Christian civilisation.


title: Crusades

text: The Fifth Crusade (1217–1221) was a campaign by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering Egypt, ruled by the sultan al-Adil, brother of Saladin. In 1213, Innocent III called for another Crusade at the Fourth Lateran Council, and in the papal bull "Quia maior". Innocent died in 1216 and was succeeded by Honorius III who immediately called on Andrew II of Hungary and Frederick II of Germany to lead a Crusade. Frederick had taken the cross in 1215, but hung back, with his crown still in contention, and Honorius delayed the expedition.


title: Crusades

text: Andrew II left for Acre in August 1217, joining John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem. The initial plan of a two-prong attack in Syria and in Egypt was abandoned and instead the objective became limited operations in Syria. After accomplishing little, the ailing Andrew returned return to Hungary early in 1218. As it became clear that Frederick II was not coming to east, the remaining commanders began the planning to attack the Egyptian port of Damietta.


title: Crusades

text: The fortifications of Damietta were impressive, and included the "Burj al-Silsilah"the chain towerwith massive chains that could stretch across the Nile. The siege of Damietta began in June 1218 with a successful assault on the tower. The loss of the tower was a great shock to the Ayyubids, and the sultan al-Adil died soon thereafter. He was succeeded as sultan by his son al-Kamil. Further offensive action by the Crusaders would have to wait until the arrival of additional forces, including legate Pelagius with a contingent of Romans. A group from England arrived shortly thereafter.


title: Crusades

text: By February 1219, the Crusaders now had Damietta surrounded, and al-Kamil opened negotiations with the Crusaders, asking for envoys to come to his camp. He offered to surrender the kingdom of Jerusalem, less the fortresses of al-Karak and Krak de Montréal, guarding the road to Egypt, in exchange for the evacuation of Egypt. John of Brienne and the other secular leaders were in favor of the offer, as the original objective of the Crusade was the recovery of Jerusalem. But Pelagius and the leaders of the Templars and Hospitallers refused. Later, Francis of Assisi arrived to negotiate unsuccessfully with the sultan.


title: Crusades

text: In November 1219, the Crusaders entered Damietta and found it abandoned, al-Kamil having moved his army south. In the captured city, Pelagius was unable to prod the Crusaders from their inactivity, and many returned home, their vow fulfilled. Al-Kamil took advantage of this lull to reinforce his new camp at Mansurah, renewing his peace offering to the Crusaders, which was again refused. Frederick II sent troops and word that he would soon follow, but they were under orders not to begin offensive operations until he had arrived.


title: Crusades

text: In July 1221, Pelagius began to advance to the south. John of Brienne argued against the move, but was powerless to stop it. Already deemed a traitor for opposing the plans and threatened with excommunication, John joined the force under the command of the legate. In the ensuing Battle of Mansurah in late August, al-Kamil had the sluices along the right bank of the Nile opened, flooding the area and rendering battle impossible. Pelagius had no choice but to surrender.


title: Crusades

text: The Crusaders still had some leverage as Damietta was well-garrisoned. They offered the sultan a withdrawal from Damietta and an eight-year truce in exchange for allowing the Crusader army to pass, the release of all prisoners, and the return of the relic of the True Cross. Prior to the formal surrender of Damietta, the two sides would maintain hostages, among them John of Brienne and Hermann of Salza for the Franks side and a son of al-Kamil for Egypt. The masters of the military orders were dispatched to Damietta, where the forces were resistant to giving up, with the news of the surrender, which happened on 8 September 1221. The Fifth Crusade was over, a dismal failure, unable to even gain the return of the piece of the True Cross.


title: Crusades

text: The Sixth Crusade (1228–1229) was a military expedition to recapture the city of Jerusalem. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade and involved very little actual fighting. The diplomatic maneuvering of Frederick II resulted in the Kingdom of Jerusalem regaining some control over Jerusalem for much of the ensuing fifteen years. The Sixth Crusade is also known as the Crusade of Frederick II.


title: Crusades

text: Of all the European sovereigns, only Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, was in a position to regain Jerusalem. Frederick was, like many of the 13th-century rulers, a serial "crucesignatus", having taken the cross multiple times since 1215. After much wrangling, an onerous agreement between the emperor and Pope Honorius III was signed on 25 July 1225 at San Germano. Frederick promised to depart on the Crusade by August 1227 and remain for two years. During this period, he was to maintain and support forces in Syria and deposit escrow funds at Rome in gold. These funds would be returned to the emperor once he arrived at Acre. If he did not arrive, the money would be employed for the needs of the Holy Land. Frederick II would go on the Crusade as king of Jerusalem. He married John of Brienne's daughter Isabella II by proxy in August 1225 and they were formally married on 9 November 1227. Frederick claimed the kingship of Jerusalem despite John having been given assurances that he would remain as king. Frederick took the crown in December 1225. Frederick's first royal decree was to grant new privileges on the Teutonic Knights, placing them on equal footing as the Templars and Hospitallers.


title: Crusades

text: After the Fifth Crusade, the Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil became involved in civil war in Syria and, having unsuccessfully tried negotiations with the West beginning in 1219, again tried this approach, offering return of much of the Holy Land in exchange for military support. Becoming pope in 1227, Gregory IX was determined to proceed with the Crusade. The first contingents of Crusaders then sailed in August 1227, joining with forces of the kingdom and fortifying the coastal towns. The emperor was delayed while his ships were refitted. He sailed on 8 September 1227, but before they reached their first stop, Frederick was struck with the plague and disembarked to secure medical attention. Resolved to keep his oath, he sent his fleet on to Acre. He sent his emissaries to inform Gregory IX of the situation, but the pope did not care about Frederick's illness, just that he had not lived up to his agreement. Frederick was excommunicated on 29 September 1227, branded a wanton violator of his sacred oath taken many times.


title: Crusades

text: Frederick made his last effort to be reconciled with Gregory. It had no effect and Frederick sailed from Brindisi in June 1228. After a stop at Cyprus, Frederick II arrived in Acre on 7 September 1228 and was received warmly by the military orders, despite his excommunication. Frederick's army was not large, mostly German, Sicilian and English. Of the troops he had sent in 1227 had mostly returned home. He could neither afford nor mount a lengthening campaign in the Holy Land given the ongoing War of the Keys with Rome. The Sixth Crusade would be one of negotiation.


title: Crusades

text: After resolving the internecine struggles in Syria, al-Kamil's position was stronger than it was a year before when he made his original offer to Frederick. For unknown reasons, the two sides came to an agreement. The resultant Treaty of Jaffa was concluded on 18 February 1229, with al-Kamil surrendering Jerusalem, with the exception of some Muslim holy sites, and agreeing to a ten-year truce. Frederick entered Jerusalem on 17 March 1229 and received the formal surrender of the city by al-Kamil's agent and the next day, crowned himself. On 1 May 1229, Frederick departed from Acre and arrived in Sicily a month before the pope knew that he had left the Holy Land. Frederick obtained from the pope relief from his excommunication on 28 August 1230 at the Treaty of Ceprano.


title: Crusades

text: The results of the Sixth Crusade were not universally acclaimed. Two letters from the Christian side tell differing stories, with Frederick touting the great success of the endeavor and the Latin patriarch painting a darker picture of the emperor and his accomplishments. On the Muslim side, al-Kamil himself was pleased with the accord, but other regarded the treaty as a disastrous event. In the end, the Sixth Crusade successfully returned Jerusalem to Christian rule and had set a precedent, in having achieved success on crusade without papal involvement.


title: Crusades

text: The Crusades of 1239–1241, also known as the Barons' Crusade, were a series of crusades to the Holy Land that, in territorial terms, were the most successful since the First Crusade. The major expeditions were led separately by Theobald I of Navarre and Richard of Cornwall. These crusades are sometimes discussed along with that of Baldwin of Courtenay to Constantinople.


title: Crusades

text: In 1229, Frederick II and the Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil, had agreed to a ten-year truce. Nevertheless, Gregory IX, who had condemned this truce from the beginning, issued the papal bull "Rachel suum videns" in 1234 calling for a new crusade once the truce expired. A number of English and French nobles took the cross, but the crusade's departure was delayed because Frederick, whose lands the crusaders had planned to cross, opposed any crusading activity before the expiration of this truce. Frederick was again excommunicated in 1239, causing most crusaders to avoid his territories on their way to the Holy Land.


title: Crusades

text: The French expedition was led by Theobald I of Navarre and Hugh of Burgundy, joined by Amaury of Montfort and Peter of Dreux. On 1 September 1239, Theobald arrived in Acre, and was soon drawn into the Ayyubid civil war, which had been raging since the death of al-Kamil in 1238. At the end of September, al-Kamil's brother as-Salih Ismail seized Damascus from his nephew, as-Salih Ayyub, and recognized al-Adil II as sultan of Egypt. Theobald decided to fortify Ascalon to protect the southern border of the kingdom and to move against Damascus later. While the Crusaders were marching from Acre to Jaffa, Egyptian troops moved to secure the border in what became the Battle at Gaza. Contrary to Theobald's instructions and the advice of the military orders, a group decided to move against the enemy without further delay, but they were surprised by the Muslims who inflicted a devasting defeat on the Franks. The masters of the military orders then convinced Theobald to retreat to Acre rather than pursue the Egyptians and their Frankish prisoners. A month after the battle at Gaza, an-Nasir Dā'ūd, emir of Kerak, seized Jerusalem, virtually unguarded. The internal strife among the Ayyubids allowed Theobald to negotiate the return of Jerusalem. In September 1240, Theobald departed for Europe, while Hugh of Burgundy remained to help fortify Ascalon.


title: Crusades

text: On 8 October 1240, the English expedition arrived, led by Richard of Cornwall. The force marched to Jaffa, where they completed the negotiations for a truce with Ayyubid leaders begun by Theobald just a few months prior. Richard consented, the new agreement was ratified by Ayyub by 8 February 1241, and prisoners from both sides were released on 13 April. Meanwhile, Richard's forces helped to work on Ascalon's fortifications, which were completed by mid-March 1241. Richard entrusted the new fortress to an imperial representative, and departed for England on 3 May 1241.


title: Crusades

text: In July 1239, Baldwin of Courtenay, the young heir to the Latin Empire, travelled to Constantinople with a small army. In the winter of 1239, Baldwin finally returned to Constantinople, where he was crowned emperor around Easter of 1240, after which he launched his crusade. Baldwin then besieged and captured Tzurulum, a Nicaean stronghold seventy-five miles west of Constantinople.


title: Crusades

text: Although the Barons' Crusade returned the kingdom to its largest size since 1187, the gains would be dramatically reversed a few years later. On 15 July 1244, the city was reduced to ruins during the siege of Jerusalem and its Christians massacred by the Khwarazmian army. A few months later, the Battle of La Forbie permanently crippled Christian military power in the Holy Land. The sack of the city and the massacre which accompanied it encouraged Louis IX of France to organize the Seventh Crusade.


title: Crusades

text: The Seventh Crusade (1248–1254) was the first of the two Crusades led by Louis IX of France. Also known as the Crusade of Louis IX to the Holy Land, its objective was to reclaim the Holy Land by attacking Egypt, the main seat of Muslim power in the Middle East, then under as-Salih Ayyub, son of al-Kamil. The Crusade was conducted in response to setbacks in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, beginning with the loss of the Holy City in 1244, and was preached by Innocent IV in conjunction with a crusade against emperor Frederick II, the Prussian crusades and Mongol incursions.


title: Crusades

text: At the end of 1244, Louis was stricken with a severe malarial infection and he vowed that if he recovered he would set out for a Crusade. His life was spared, and as soon as his health permitted him, he took the cross and immediately began preparations. The next year, the pope presided over First Council of Lyon, directing a new Crusade under the command of Louis. With Rome under siege by Frederick, the pope also issued his "Ad Apostolicae Dignitatis Apicem", formally renewing the sentence of excommunication on the emperor, and declared him deposed from the imperial throne and that of Naples.


title: Crusades

text: The recruiting effort under cardinal Odo of Châteauroux was difficult, and the Crusade finally began on 12 August 1248 when Louis IX left Paris under the insignia of a pilgrim, the "Oriflamme". With him were queen Margaret of Provence and two of Louis' brothers, Charles I of Anjou and Robert I of Artois. Their youngest brother Alphonse of Poitiers departed the next year. They were followed by Hugh IV of Burgundy, Peter Maulcerc, Hugh XI of Lusignan, royal companion and chronicler Jean de Joinville, and an English detachment under William Longespée, grandson of Henry II of England.


title: Crusades

text: The first stop was Cyprus, arriving in September 1248 where they experienced a long wait for the forces to assemble. Many of the men were lost "en route" or to disease. The Franks were soon met by those from Acre including the masters of the Orders Jean de Ronay and Guillaume de Sonnac. The two eldest sons of John of Brienne, Alsonso of Brienne and Louis of Brienne, would also join as would John of Ibelin, nephew to the Old Lord of Beirut. William of Villehardouin also arrived with ships and Frankish soldiers from the Morea. It was agreed that Egypt was the objective and many remembered how the sultan's father had been willing to exchange Jerusalem itself for Damietta in the Fifth Crusade. Louis was not willing to negotiate with the infidel Muslims, but he did unsuccessfully seek a Franco-Mongol alliance, reflecting what the pope had sought in 1245.


title: Crusades

text: As-Salih Ayyub conducting a campaign in Damascus when the Franks invaded as he had expected the Crusaders to land in Syria. Hurrying his forces back to Cairo , he turned to his vizier Fakhr ad-Din ibn as-Shaikh to command the army that fortified Damietta in anticipation of the invasion. On 5 June 1249 the Crusader fleet began the landing and subsequent siege of Damietta. After a short battle, the Egyptian commander decided to evacuate the city. Remarkably, Damietta had been seized with only one Crusader casualty. The city became a Frankish city and Louis waited until the Nile floods abated before advancing, remembering the lessons of the Fifth Crusade. The loss of Damietta was a shock to the Muslim world, and as-Salih Ayyub offered to trade Damietta for Jerusalem as his father had thirty years before. The offer was rejected. By the end of October 1249 the Nile had receded and reinforcements had arrived. It was time to advance, and the Frankish army set out towards Mansurah.


title: Crusades

text: The sultan died in November 1249, his widow Shajar al-Durr concealing the news of her husband's death. She forged a document which appointed his son al-Muazzam Turanshah, then in Syria, as heir and Fakhr ad-Din as viceroy. But the Crusade continued, and by December 1249, Louis was encamped on the river banks opposite to Mansurah. For six weeks, the armies of the West and Egypt faced each other on opposite sides of the canal, leading to the Battle of Mansurah that would end on 11 February 1250 with an Egyptian defeat. Louis had his victory, but a cost of the loss of much of his force and their commanders. Among the survivors were the Templar master Guillaume de Sonnac, losing an eye, Humbert V de Beaujeu, constable of France, John II of Soissons, and the duke of Brittany, Peter Maulcerc. Counted with the dead were the king's brother Robert I of Artois, William Longespée and most of his English followers, Peter of Courtenay, and Raoul II of Coucy. But the victory would be short-lived. On 11 February 1250, the Egyptians attacked again. Templar master Guillaume de Sonnac and acting Hospitaller master Jean de Ronay were killed. Alphonse of Poitiers, guarding the camp was encircled and was rescued by the camp followers. At nightfall, the Muslims gave up the assault.


title: Crusades

text: On 28 February 1250, Turanshah arrived from Damascus and began an Egyptian offensive, intercepting the boats that brought food from Damietta. The Franks were quickly beset by famine and disease. The Battle of Fariskur fought on 6 April 1250 would be the decisive defeat of Louis' army. Louis knew that the army must be extricated to Damietta and they departed on the morning of 5 April, with the king in the rear and the Egyptians in pursuit. The next day, the Muslims surrounded the army and attacked in full force. On 6 April, Louis' surrender was negotiated directly with the sultan by Philip of Montfort. The king and his entourage were taken in chains to Mansurah and the whole of the army was rounded up and led into captivity.