Kreuzzüge#

Crusades: From 1096, when the first crusade was started, the Danube Valley served European crusaders as a passage to the Holy Land. Itha, the mother of Margrave Leopold III, and Thiemo, Archbishop of Salzburg, participated in the 1st crusade, the Babenbergs Heinrich II and Otto von Freising, together with Bernhard von Marburg of the Sponheim dynasty, took part in the 2nd crusade, during which he died (1147/1148). During the 3rd crusade Duke Leopold IV had the famous conflict with King Richard I, the Lion-Hearted in Akko in 1191. Duke Friedrich I died in 1198 as a member of a vanguard preceding the 6th crusade, Duke Leopold VI launched a crusade against the Albigenses in southern France in 1212 and took part in the crusade to Egypt from 1217 to 1219, during which the fortification of Damiette was conquered. Crusades caused great losses among European knights, as they were not adequately equipped to cope with the climate and the weapons of the Muslims (bow and arrow), but also enabled Europeans to have come into contact with a world that had been unknown until then ( Byzantine Influences ). The new orders of knighthood ( Teutonic Order, Knights of St. John(Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Templar) also settled in Austria.

Literature#