[Custom Mod] Age of Crusades - 1105AD (Roleplay Hotseat)

[joker0002710]

Admin up! https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...C_Admin_20.sav

[Mergor]

Pope 21 up

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...oC_Pope_21.sav

[Dongerlordd]

Dear christians,

Pope Bernardius is very jubilant to grant the Holy Roman Emperor the Title of Defender of the Faith. Wielding a sword is as important as holding the cross in these times.

Unfortunately, the Pope has not been able to mediate in a peacful manner bewteen the Kingdom of England and the Republic of Genoa over their claims on the City of Marseille, yet.
Any act of agression until this is settled will be viewed as tyrannical and will come with great repercussions to that faction. May the Gods send their angels and protect us.

Falcone the Executioner,
Advisor to the Pope


Scotland: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...cotland_21.sav

[Potatoto]

bump

[Mergor]

Skipped, genoa up
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...C_Genoa_21.sav

[Potatoto]

I will need extention.

[Potatoto]

It seems that English imperial striving has no limites. Its bloodthhirsty rulers atack one christian country after another.
Firsly French fell it's victim, then they burned few independent german cities and now their greedy sigh turned into Marsylie -
a city which is under rule of Kingdom of Genoa.


Meantime in the Genoa English messanger has arrived and asked for meeting with Genoa's consul as he diliveres him a message
from English king. Messanger has been lead to the empy hall. Soldier which lead him there commanded him to wait there and then
shuted the doors. Messanger waited a couple of minues and the door to the hall have opened again. Through the door went four people
from which three were armed. The one unarmed clearly were Consul Antonio himself. Consul sit infront of the messanger, one
armed men stood behind the unarmed one and the two others which obviously were the guards stood by the door to the hall.
- My soldier told me that you deliver me message from king of England then speak it. - said Consul.


Consul listened the message in silence and then he burst out laughing.
- English King seems to gone mad. Did he really though that he could intimidate me to sell MY lands?! After my dead body!
Go back messanger to your king and tell him that he can march towards Marsylie with his army, but his own dead and all of
his men is the only think he can find there.


After English messanger leaves Consul turn to the men which was with him and said
- Send messanger to the Pope and inform him of English godless actions. Also send one to our dear ally - Holly Roman Emperor to ask
for military support and gather the troops from Genoa as my son may need reinfghtingcements in Marsylie. We prepare for war!


In the meantime in Marsylie prince Giacomo prepares defense of the city as his scouts reports that large English army under
lead of English King himself set camp to the north from Marsylie. Moreover they report that more English forces are coming
to support their king's army.


In the Genoa city townwatch manage to capture English spy which was executed after interrogation.
Also our diplomat manage to convince English diplomat to start working for Genoa insteed of England by offering him larger payment.
He immidietly manage to convince single English Heavy Billmen unite to desert by threatning him with god's wrath for fighting
against his brothers in feith.

https://imgur.com/a/lL5X8aS

Novgorod up
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hKB...ew?usp=sharing

Also sunk 3 pirate ships with OO

[REDBOOSTY]

Poland up: https://www.mediafire.com/file/5cnhn...nd_21.sav/file

[PeaMan]

Danish king slain -

https://gyazo.com/9c50aa5ed30dcc22ac013b5b0384a0a4

https://gyazo.com/8b5da0afa5abe82cae7452678c1b1816

Hungary up - https://www.mediafire.com/file/6a31dr5ls58d5rd/AoC_Hungary_21.sav/file

[Potatoto]

Those pics are so small that they are unreadable.

[Mergor]

Somebody ought not to use thumbnail images

[ArBo]

Very busy with exams atm, will try to play tomorrow.

[Potatoto]

Wat? You're not Hungary :O

[ScotlandIsBest]

save maybe sent thru pm? cleared save? idk

[ArBo]

Yeah, Berry sent me the save in PM.

Denmark up - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-9...Ln0M-furgcK2ow
Defeated a small rebel force with OWO.

[General Dragon.]

Probably will need an extension for this.

EDIT: France up!
https://www.sendspace.com/file/1kvlzd

[paladinbob123]

The King of Jerusalem shook his head at the news that the european theatre had re-erupted with new conflict, as another war broke out in the mainland and Baldwin could'nt conceal his disgust at the advancement of those old leaders in europe , again , spending the youth of tommorow on old grievances and the advancement of factions positions. For now, the lands of Jerusalem lay surrounded with turks to the north and east, not advancing into the field , but just content to observe waiting for any advantage to befall the holy city.

The main routes the pilgrims once took to fulfill there purpose had been broken with the turkish offensive , causing many to turnback , seeking absolution for the failure of their pilgrimages , and complaining to the church , of the interference along the long route , to seek the blessings of the holy places, that lay isolated and behind turkish lines. The Scottish had promised to come , to support the effort, and had even sent the King , a personal note , promising aid, but he feared they likewise had broken their pledge as they moved to saddle themselves as known english lackay's to advance the anglo-norman efforts for supremacy.

King Baldwin spat on the ground , cursing the scots with blasphemous words , which he would have to seek absolution later for, in his private chapel , as he grabbed their note of promise, tearing it to pieces and let the papers scraps fall into the open fire , where they turned black , and ultra light , the ashen scraps flying into the air, still glowing red with embers , as they disappeared into the ether, reflective , King Baldwin thought , like the promises the men of Scotland had made....



----------------


Pilgrimage
"Every man who undertakes the journey to the Our Lord's Sepulcher needs three sacks: a sack of patience, a sack of silver, and a sack of faith."—Symon Semeonis, an Irish medieval pilgrim

As medieval pilgrims made their way to the places where Jesus Christ lived and suffered, they experienced, among other things: holy sites, the majesty of the Egyptian pyramids (often referred to as the "Pharaoh's granaries"), dips in the Dead Sea, unfamiliar desert landscapes, the perils of traveling along the Nile, the customs of their Muslim hosts, Barbary pirates, lice, inconsiderate traveling companions, and a variety of difficulties, both great and small.

Unlike the knights, princes, and soldiers of the Crusades, who traveled to the Holy Land for the purpose of reclaiming it for Christendom, these subsequent pilgrims of various nationalities, professions, and social classes were motivated by both religious piety and personal curiosity. The travelers not only wrote journals and memoirs for themselves but also to convey to others the majesty and strangeness of distant lands. In their accounts, the pilgrims relate their sense of astonishment, pity, admiration, and disappointment with humor and a touching sincerity and honesty.

The fundamental teachings of Christianity count no place more holy than any other: Jesus himself says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20, KJV). Throughout the Middle Ages, however, Christians sought to close the distance between themselves and God by engaging in physical travel toward a spiritual goal. Such journeys served a variety of functions: a pilgrim might set out to fulfill a vow, to expiate a crime, to seek a miraculous cure, or simply to deepen his or her faith. None of these purposes is specific to Christian pilgrimage—the idea of the sacred journey is a feature of many religions—yet by the fourth century A.D., pilgrimage had become a recognized expression of Christian piety. Persons from all walks of life made religious journeys, with far-reaching consequences for society and culture as a whole.

The earliest Christian pilgrims wished to see the places where Jesus and the apostles had lived on earth. This meant journeying to the Holy Land, a relatively easy feat in the fourth century, when the Roman empire still unified the Mediterranean world. Major theologians of the period, including Saints Jerome and Augustine, endorsed spiritual travel as a retreat from worldly concerns. In this sense, they equated pilgrimage with the monastic way of life, which pilgrims sometimes embraced after completing their journeys. The best-documented early travelers to the Holy Land worked to achieve individual spiritual enrichment by reading and living the Bible on location. For example, Paula, a disciple of Saint Jerome, had this experience at Bethlehem: “Here, when she looked upon the inn made sacred by the virgin and the stall where the ox knew his owner and the ass his master’s crib (Isaiah 1:3), . . . she protested in my hearing that she could behold with the eyes of faith the infant Lord wrapped in swaddling clothes and crying in the manger, the wise men worshipping Him, the star shining overhead, the virgin mother, the attentive foster-father, the shepherds coming by night to see the word that had come to pass” . For Paula, the Biblical texts and the very spot where she stood helped her to witness sacred events and so to believe more deeply.


{'Dum Pater Familias' is an old chant performed by pilgrims on the way of Saint James the Great of Santiago de Compostella. This pilgrimage route had originated in the 9th Century and the Chant was performed back in the 12th Century. This chant is found in Codex Calixtinus (A 12th Century guide for pilgrims).}

Sacred architecture complemented the interior meditations of visitors to the sites of Christ’s mission on earth. In the 320s and 330s, Constantine, the first Roman emperor to embrace Christianity, constructed sumptuous buildings on several locations that had already become popular destinations for pilgrims. These churches often incorporated a round or centrally planned element, a form associated with tombs and the shrines of martyrs. In Jerusalem, Constantine built a basilica at the place where Christ was crucified and a rotunda around the Holy Sepulcher, the site of Jesus’ burial and resurrection; in a later European ivory depicting the holy women on Easter morning , his tomb appears as a round structure, evoking the church there. In Bethlehem, Constantine commissioned another church over the cave revered as Jesus’ birthplace—when Paula visited, she glimpsed it through an opening in the floor of a richly decorated octagonal structure probably adorned with images of the Nativity. The distinctive features of these buildings were widely copied in churches, tombs, and baptisteries throughout Europe, sometimes with specific references to the Holy Land. Octagonal glass bottles made as souvenirs for pilgrims also replicate the forms of Constantine’s buildings in the Holy Land—and demonstrate the market for such things among religious tourists of Jewish as well as Christian faith.

The city of Rome became another major destination for pilgrims. Easier of access for European pilgrims than the Holy Land, Rome had also been the home of many saintly martyrs, including the apostles Peter and Paul, and the places where they were buried attracted pious travelers from a very early date. Constantine erected great basilicas over the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, and pilgrims visited these as well as other churches associated with miraculous events. A distinction of these sites was the presence of holy relics, material objects like the bones or clothes of the saints, the sight or touch of which was supposed to draw the faithful nearer to saintliness.

Rome was particularly rich in relics, but as the Middle Ages progressed, other places acquired important relics and became centers of pilgrimage themselves. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, huge numbers of pilgrims flocked to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, where the relics of the apostle Saint James the Greater were believed to have been discovered around 830. Canterbury was a popular destination for English pilgrims, who traveled to witness the miracle-working relics of Thomas Becket, the sainted archbishop of Canterbury who was martyred at the hands of knights of King Henry II in 1170 and canonized shortly thereafter. The relics of local saints drew visitors from closer range to sites like Saint Frideswide in Oxford, and San Nicola Peregrino in Trani.

In addition to attracting religious travelers, the veneration of relics provided a springboard for the creation of works of art. Sculptors and goldsmiths made the reliquaries required to enshrine the holy objects, and jewelers produced small containers for sacred material suitable for the faithful to wear . The translation of relics from one place to another, either within a church or across a great distance, was cause for celebration and often depicted in art . Artists made objects that allowed pilgrims to commemorate their journey, ranging from simple badges to elaborate miniature reliquaries . It was customary for pilgrims to bring offerings to the shrines they visited, and many of these, too, were works of art: costly liturgical vessels, elaborate priestly vestments, and other precious objects enriched the treasury of every pilgrimage church.

Before departing, the pilgrim normally received a blessing from the local bishop and made a full confession if the pilgrimage was to serve as a penance. To signal his special vocation, the pilgrim put on a long, coarse garment and carried a staff and small purse—Saint James is often depicted with this distinctive gear , as well as a broad-brimmed hat and the shell-shaped badge awarded to those who reached his shrine at Compostela. Serious-minded pilgrims engaged in constant devotions while en route, and some carried prayer books or portable altars to assist them. Monasteries located along the pilgrimage roads provided food and lodging and also offered masses and prayers. Some monastic churches also housed relics of their own, and these often incorporated an interior passageway called an ambulatory, which allowed pilgrims to circulate and venerate the relics without interrupting the monks in their regular orders of prayer. The need to accommodate larger numbers of pilgrims caused many churches to undertake major renovations, for example, Saint-Denis, which was dramatically altered under Abbott Suger in the early twelfth century.





Pilgrimages To The Holy Land And Communities In The Holy Land


To a Christian, Jerusalem during the Middle Ages (500–1500) was both a place on a map and an idea. On the map, it was a far-off city that Christians, if they could read, knew of from the Bible, and if they could not, they learned about from their priests and bishops. As an idea, though, Jerusalem and other sites in the Holy Land fired the spiritual imagination of Christians, because these sites were the birthplace of their faith. Here could be found the place where Christ had been born, the areas where he had lived and taught, the place where his mother had shed tears for his death, and the sites of his death, burial, and Resurrection. For Christians, Jerusalem and the surrounding region were the holiest places on earth.

The goal of any Christian living at that time was to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. At the time of the Crusades, the tradition of making such a trip to a sacred place already had a long history, dating back to the 300s and even earlier. Christians wanted to see the buildings that the Roman emperor Constantine had erected to house the holy sites during his reign in the fourth century. The flow of pilgrims slowed with the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in the seventh century. Also, continuing political turmoil in Europe up through the ninth century made pilgrimages to the Holy Land the privilege of a select few.


Two events took place that made it easier to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land. First, Hungary, through which pilgrims who traveled on foot had to pass, converted to Christianity. Then the Christian Byzantines extended their empire into Asia Minor and the Balkans. With these friendly nations in control of much of the route, travel to Jerusalem by land became easier, and by about the year 1000 the flow of pilgrims resumed. Early in the eleventh century, Hakim, the Muslim caliph who ruled over Jerusalem, destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem as well as other buildings that Constantine had constructed. Pilgrims after this time found a different place than the one their ancestors had gone to, but these buildings would be restored after the First Crusade in 1099.

Not every Christian in Europe could afford to make a journey that was as long, exhausting, and expensive as a trip to the Holy Land. Many peasants and commoners had to remain content with visiting sacred sites in Europe—if they could afford to do even that. Those who did make a trip to the Holy Land, therefore, tended to be from the higher classes, including landowners, clerics (members of the clergy), and prosperous merchants, simply because they had the money.

The typical pilgrim was likely to be a member of the nobility—perhaps a count, a baron, a knight, or a landowning vassal (a person who had sworn allegiance to a lord and, in return, obtained the lord's protection. Women, of course, made the trip, but they rarely went on their own. The pilgrim might have been accompanied by one or more family members; perhaps, too, by companions who had fought with him in battles against the Muslims in Spain. Each pilgrim, if he could afford it, would bring along a servant, and any party of pilgrims would almost certainly have included a priest or monk, who functioned not only as a spiritual adviser but also as a kind of "tour guide."

While a party of pilgrims might have consisted of just a half dozen people, many such small groups often left on pilgrimages together. Also, parties of pilgrims would encounter others along the route and travel together for greater safety. Thus, a caravan of pilgrims often included a great many people, perhaps dozens or more, and the number grew as the pilgrims proceeded. Occasionally, the numbers were much higher. One group, led by Duke Richard II of Normandy, was reported to have consisted of seven hundred pilgrims. In 1064 and 1065 a group of bishops and nobles led a German pilgrimage whose size was estimated by people at the time at between seven thousand and twelve thousand.

Women, Pilgrimages, and the Crusades
Because of the difficulties and dangers of the journey, pilgrims tended to be men, but many women made the journey with the same enthusiasm as men did. Much of what historians know about pilgrimages comes from women who wrote about the journeys, such as Etheria of Aquitaine (a region in France), who made the pilgrimage in the fourth century.

Many women accompanied the leaders of the Crusades. During the First Crusade, the wives of Baldwin of Boulogne and Raymond of Toulouse traveled with their husbands. Eleanor of Aquitaine went along with her husband, King Louis VII of France, during the Second Crusade, and Richard I of England married Berengaria, daughter of the king of Navarre, while en route to the Third Crusade. Many of the women who went suffered great hardships. Some were killed during battles. Others died of disease, including a large number during the siege of Antioch in the First Crusade. Some went along as prostitutes. Others served in such roles as cooks and washerwomen. Interestingly, whenever the Muslims accidentally captured a washerwoman, they always returned her unharmed.

There also are many reports that women took part in battles. They often provided water, wine, and food to the troops or carried stones used as weapons during sieges of castles or cities. One report tells of a woman who was helping fill up a moat during the Third Crusade when she was struck by an arrow. As she lay dying, she insisted that her body be used to help fill the trench.


Penance
The chief purpose of a pilgrimage was to do penance, or repent for sins. According to church teaching, sinners could achieve salvation in heaven by showing that they were sorry for their sins, confessing them to a priest, and then offering penance to acknowledge that their sins were offenses against God. Frequently, penance consisted of prayer or giving aid to the poor, but another way to repent was to go on a pilgrimage. The journey itself, because it was so difficult, was part of the penance.


A pilgrim to the Holy Land had to prepare carefully for the journey. Pilgrims first had to confess their sins to a priest, and the priest had to approve the pilgrimage. Without this approval, the pilgrim could not gain any spiritual benefit from the journey. A pilgrim also had to take a public vow before the priest. This vow marked the official beginning of the pilgrimage. The priest would list the specific places the pilgrim was to visit. He would then bless the pilgrim and offer a mass. Later, when the pilgrim returned, the priest would declare that the vow had been fulfilled and that the pilgrim was pardoned of the sins that had required the pilgrimage.





Preparations
A pilgrimage to the Holy Land took months. Typically, European pilgrims would start as soon as they could in the spring and hope that they could make it to the Holy Land, visit the sites, and return before winter, though problems such as illness frequently caused delays. Accordingly, a pilgrim had to make many arrangements before departure. One was to raise enough money to make the journey. A noble or other prosperous pilgrim who wanted to travel in style might spend up to an entire year's income to make the journey. Poorer pilgrims often spent much more than a year's income and often relied on donations and support from their families. Landowners often financed the journey by mortgaging their estates (that is, borrowing money on them) or a portion of them. Others sold personal property to raise the money needed.


After the money was raised, the question arose as to how the pilgrim would keep personal affairs in order during a long absence. Shopkeepers and merchants had to find someone to run their businesses. A noble had to find someone to manage his estate. If the noble was entangled in a dispute with a rival noble, plans had to be made for the defense of the estate. This responsibility would often fall to a relative who was a knight. A noble or vassal also had to see to it that any additional duties he had were taken care of. For example, a vassal who also served as a magistrate, or judge, on his lord's estate had to make arrangements for this task to be fulfilled.


There was always the possibility that a pilgrim would die during the journey. With that in mind, many landholders donated their land to a monastery (a religious community run by monks). Their donation was made with the provision that when they returned, they would continue to receive the income from the land until their death. If they died during the pilgrimage, the monastery would own the land, but any income from it would be used to support the pilgrim's widow and children during their lifetimes. Writing a will was a privilege for only a few during this time. All pilgrims, however, were allowed to write wills. This was not an empty precaution. A cemetery outside Jerusalem held the bodies of many pilgrims who did not survive the journey.


Departure
After the ceremony of taking the vow, a pilgrim would typically depart on foot. A noble would often be followed by dozens, if not hundreds, of well-wishers and family members for the first mile or two. After proceeding for a few miles on foot, pilgrims with means would then gather their horses; pack animals; and, in some cases, wagons and continue the journey on horseback. Poorer pilgrims, of course, would walk all the way to the Holy Land if they took the overland route.


Before the Crusades, most pilgrims did, in fact, travel by land. Their route depended on where they started the journey. Eventually, pilgrims from countries such as France or from the Holy Roman Empire would reach eastern Europe. After traveling through the kingdom of Hungary and the Balkans, they would arrive at Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. They then would travel across Anatolia, a region in western Asia Minor, and over the Taurus Mountains to Antioch, a Syrian seaport at the extreme northeastern tip of the Mediterranean Sea. From there they would proceed down the eastern coast of the Mediterranean through western Syria to Palestine and on to Jerusalem. A pilgrim from France faced a journey of some 1,500 or more miles (more than 2,400 kilometers), at the rate of perhaps 25 miles (or about 40 kilometers) a day. If all went well, the journey would take at least two hard months, but rarely did everything go as planned.


At about the time of the Crusades, many pilgrims were making the journey by sea. By this time the Turks were in control of much of Asia Minor, and they harassed Christian pilgrims. Pilgrims also knew that the Turks had fought the early crusading armies that had taken this route. One of the ironies of the early Crusades is that they were fought in part to keep the overland route to the Holy Land open. While the First Crusade succeeded in capturing Jerusalem, the overland route became more dangerous than it ever had been before. At the same time that the Crusaders were fighting to keep the Holy Land open, many pilgrims were actually en route to the Holy Land by sea.


These pilgrims would converge on one of the port cities along the Italian coast, typically Venice. By about the twelfth century Venice was a major maritime power and the chief point of departure for pilgrims, and the city derived much of its income catering to the pilgrim trade. After the Crusades, official guides to the Holy Land were appointed, licensed, and paid by the city. The city was expensive, so pilgrims arriving there would have to find accommodations suited to their means. A noble would have little difficulty affording comfortable lodging. A poorer pilgrim had to make do in a hostel (an inexpensive sleeping place) or even sleep on the ground outside the walls of the city.


The next step was to book passage on a ship. On the city square, tables were set up, one for each ship planning to depart to the Holy Land. Pilgrims would simply approach one of the tables and buy their tickets. Payment had to be in Venetian gold ducats, and money changers were everywhere, ready to exchange into the local currency whatever money the pilgrims had brought—for a fee, of course. Passage on a ship cost about sixty ducats, though poorer pilgrims were often able to book the worst shipboard accommodations for thirty ducats. They would then board a ship, which would sail down the Adriatic Sea to the eastern Mediterranean and onward to one of the port cities on the Levant, the European term for the countries that bordered the eastern Mediterranean. Along the way the ship would make port at islands such as Cyprus to stock up on provisions and provide some rest for weary travelers.


Dangers
A trip to the Holy Land was dangerous, more so the farther a pilgrim traveled away from home. In Europe the roads were still fairly good. People usually welcomed pilgrims to their towns (many of which also contained sacred sites that pilgrims wanted to visit), for the pilgrim trade was a source of income for them as well. Sometimes these towns were the destination of pilgrims who were not headed to the Holy Land. Often pilgrims found hospitality at castles and farms along the way.


The first real danger facing the pilgrims who took the land route to Italy was crossing the Alps. Although pilgrimages started in the spring so as to take advantage of favorable weather, crossing mountainous terrain was always risky. A spring snowstorm could blow up, rivers could rise above their banks during the spring thaw, and bridges were often weakened by the ravages of winter. Whatever route they took, pilgrims confronted the danger of injury or illness, and many arrived in the Holy Land sick or exhausted from the journey. Some ran out of money. A drought during the summer could make food scarce, thereby causing it to become more expensive to purchase. Those who traveled by sea also had a long and difficult journey. Storms at sea could capsize the ships and send pilgrims to their deaths.




One constant danger was bandits. Pilgrims were easy targets, for they typically traveled with few defenses, although a nobleman and his companions might be armed, and prosperous merchants sometimes hired armed guards. Bandits knew that the pilgrims carried money and luxury goods to trade for food and other supplies along the way, and many robbers made a good living off them. Matters were no easier at sea. Pilgrim ships were frequently the prey of pirates, and the commanders of these ships had to go out of their way to avoid areas where pirates were known to lurk.


Another problem related to banditry was extortion. Along the way, local landowners and even entire villages demanded "toll" money for safe passage. Anyone who resisted paying the toll might be killed or at least mugged for money. In the Alps many local nobles held bridges and demanded a toll from pilgrims before allowing them to cross.


Once a pilgrim reached the Holy Land, conditions did not improve. Muslim bandits patrolled the roads leading to Jerusalem and robbed pilgrims when they were almost within sight of their goal. The large group of German pilgrims mentioned earlier in the chapter had to do battle with Arab bandits when they were just two days from Jerusalem. Fighting off the Arabs as best they could, they took shelter in a nearby deserted village and were saved only when Egyptian troops came to their rescue and escorted them to Jerusalem. In fighting the Arabs, though, the pilgrims broke with the tradition that they were to avoid violence because of their pious undertaking. Some historians regard this battle, in which they combined war with a religious mission, as a foreshadowing of the Crusades. After the Crusades, when Jerusalem was restored to Muslim hands, many Christians, even knights, joined Arab bandits in this profitable enterprise.


Arrival
Upon arriving in Ramleh, usually one day's journey from the last stop in Jerusalem, pilgrims were issued instructions. They were always to show Christian charity, patience, and tact. They were to avoid any behavior that could be considered aggressive or offensive. They were not to enter a mosque (a place of worship for Muslims), and they were to stay away from Muslim graveyards. They were always to travel in groups to protect themselves from bandits and pickpockets. Nobles had to be reminded not to engrave their coat of arms into walls and other objects at holy places as well as at inns; graffiti was a problem even a thousand years ago. In particular, pilgrims were not to carry off pieces of holy places or relics, remnants of objects that were held sacred because of their association with saints, though many ignored this instruction and took away with them objects such as stones found at the holy sites.


Typically, visitors arrived at the gates of Jerusalem around nightfall, having left Ramleh in the morning. They paid an admission fee at the Gate of David at the western edge of the city and proceeded to the Hospital of Saint John. The "hospital," which today would be called a hostel, was run by an order of monks who came to be known as the Knights Hospitallers and who would play a role as warrior-monks during the Crusades. At the hospital, pilgrims could get accommodations, and those who were ill or injured could receive medical care.


The sites
The next morning most pilgrims headed directly for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the most sacred site in the city. To get there, they may have walked down the Via Dolorosa, or Street of Sadness. This was the route that Christ had taken when he carried his cross to his Crucifixion. All along the way, shopkeepers and street merchants, hawking their products, tried to attract the attention of the pilgrims. Many of the pilgrims were crying in religious ecstasy or singing hymns. A visit to the holy sites in Jerusalem was a noisy and raucous affair, not a quiet and reverential experience.


The Church of the Holy Sepulchre had been built by Constantine and his mother, Helena, in the 300s. Legend holds that she discovered the True Cross, the cross on which Christ was crucified, in the rubble of a demolished Roman temple. The church was a jumble of shrines and chapels, many of them maintained by Christian sects such as the Nestorians, the Armenians, the Jacobites, and the Coptic Christians. Within the immense building, pilgrims could see many of the places connected with Christ's death. They were often amazed that these places were close enough to one another that they could be enclosed in a single building.


Once inside, they were awed by the places where Christ had been crucified and buried. They could see the hole on Mount Calvary where the cross had been planted in the ground. They viewed the places where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had taken Christ's body down from the cross and prepared it for burial, where Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene, and where his mother had grieved for him. They stood on the spot where the Roman soldiers had divided Christ's garments. To see the tomb of Christ, a pilgrim had to wait for a Muslim to unlock the door. This was a custom that predated the Crusades and continued into modern times. For a devout Christian pilgrim, arriving at Christ's tomb after months of hardship and danger was to reach the center of the world—indeed, the center of the universe.



Most pilgrims wanted not just to see the church but to spend the night there and hear mass the following morning. Priests and monks hoped that they would be granted the privilege of saying mass in the church. Many young nobles came to the church to be knighted. Pilgrims who were fortunate enough to spend the night discovered that they were locked inside until the following morning.


The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was not the only holy site in Jerusalem. There were many others, but at least two were almost certain to be on a pilgrim's itinerary, and both were located on the Mount of Olives. The first, the Tomb of the Virgin, was regarded as the burial spot of Christ's mother, Mary, and was located at the foot of the mount. The second, the Church of the Ascension, was on the Mount of Olives itself. This chapel was built on the place said to be where Christ had ascended into heaven after his death.


Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land would take in other sites as well, depending on the amount of time they had, the state of their purse, and the list of sites they had been instructed to see when they took their vow. Many went to other cities in Palestine, such as Jaffa, and some went as far as Egypt to see sites mentioned in the Old Testament. Among the most common places, other than Jerusalem, was Nazareth, Christ's childhood home. At Nazareth pilgrims would have seen the site of the Annunciation, where an angel had told Mary that she was to give birth, and the basilica that was built over the site. Although the Muslim caliph Hakim had ordered that this church be destroyed in 1010, the Crusaders rebuilt it in 1101. Also in Nazareth was Mary's house, which had been turned into a basilica in the sixth century. Tradition holds that a third site in Nazareth, Saint Joseph's House, was where Joseph and Mary had wed.


Chapel of the Innocents

A site that pilgrims could visit in Bethlehem was the Chapel of the Innocents. The chapel, which contains numerous bones, memorializes the Slaughter of the Innocents—the killing of children in and around Bethlehem by the Judean king Herod. When Herod learned of the birth of Christ and the prophecies that he was the Messiah, or the savior of the Jews, he was determined to put an end to this threat to his power. He ordered that all male children under the age of two years be killed. Biblical historians debate the number of children who were actually killed. Some put the number at thousands, and others believe that there were as few as twelve.


Christian communities in the Holy Land

In Bethlehem pilgrims visited the Church of the Nativity, built on the spot—a cave—where Christ had been born. At the Church of the Nativity, they would have seen the tomb of Saint Paula of Bethlehem, buried under the church at her death in 404. In 385 Paula (also known as Paulina and Pauline the Widow) traveled with her daughter, Eustochium, on a pilgrimage to Egypt and the Holy Land. The two women settled in Bethlehem, where they built a convent (a home for nuns) and a hospice (a guesthouse) for other pilgrims. Paula was the first abbess of the convent, and after her death her granddaughter, also called Paula, took over the convent, which continued to operate at the time of the Crusades.


While in Bethlehem, pilgrims could also find accommodations at another Christian community. This was the monastery built by Saint Jerome, one of the major fathers of the Christian church. Jerome first traveled to the Holy Land in about 373, and he was ordained a priest at Antioch. After spending time in Constantinople and Rome, he returned to the Holy Land and, like Saint Paula, settled in Bethlehem in 386. There, with the women's help, he built a monastery, where he wrote treatises about Christianity until his death in 420.


The convent of Saint Paula and the monastery of Saint Jerome were typical of the types of accommodation available to pilgrims in the Holy Land. As noted earlier, visitors to Jerusalem could find hospitality at the Hospital of Saint John, and these and other Christian institutions were welcome stops for weary and poor pilgrims. Throughout the region could be found monasteries, convents, and Christian churches run by various sects, or subgroups, of Christianity, as well as by the Eastern Orthodox Church. When the Crusades began, European Christians believed that these and other Christian communities in the Holy Land were under threat and that Muslims were guilty of terrible crimes against their members. It was to protect not only the sacred sites but also these Christian communities that the Crusades were launched.


Turn to Holy Roman Empire
https://www.dropbox.com/s/psnjbz8x7i...nE_21.sav?dl=0

[Captainnorway]

Turks https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QPV...ew?usp=sharing

The Castle of Metz has been reclaimed by the Holy Roman Empire

Emperor Henry marched with his army to the castle gates and was met by the overcrowded garrison. They were told to surrender and give up their foolish rebellion, but they did not...
The rebel forces lacked a commander and soon got defeated and retreated into the castle where they finally accepted the terms and dropped their weapons in order to save their lives.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cv4...ew?usp=sharing

[zender9]

Byzantium up:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...zantium_21.sav


Marmara Sea is finally cleared of hostile ships:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...6-32-41-05.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...6-36-18-25.jpg

[joker0002710]

Admin up! https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...C_Admin_21.sav