1. often Crusade Any of the military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to recover control of the Holy Land from the Muslims.
2. A holy war undertaken with papal sanction.
3. A concerted effort or vigorous movement for a cause or against an abuse: a crusade for literacy; a crusade against drunk driving.
intr.v.cru·sad·ed, cru·sad·ing, cru·sades
To engage in a crusade.
[French croisade and Spanish cruzada, both ultimately from Latin crux, cruc-, cross.]
The Assistant Commissioner laughed a little; but the great man's thoughts seemed to have wandered far away, perhaps to the questions of his country's domestic policy, the battle-ground of his crusading valour against the paynim Cheeseman.
Students and scholars of the Crusades will welcome this full and thoughtful study on the experience of crusading as expressed in Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis of 1248, a first-hand account of the French king's attempts at crusading in the Holy Land.
Shortly thereafter, the success of the crusaders at reclaiming the Holy City entered into the historical consciousness of medieval Europe, and the deeds of the first crusaders became the model for future crusading activity.
Beginning with a consideration of the definitions of reconquest, holy war, and crusade, the author asserts that the influence of crusading on the idea of the reconquest was a topic not seriously addressed by scholars until Joss Goni Gaztambide's study of the papal bull of crusade in Spain (1958) and that Spanish historians since then have paid scant attention to that work.
Early crusading popes used gendered language that excluded women's participation, but after the loss of Jerusalem, popes used neutral and even inclusive language, thus inviting women's participation.
IN JUNE 1212, crusading forces commanded by Simon de Montfort had bogged down in a protracted siege before the castle and town of Penne d'Agenais in what is now southern France.
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