The final serious attempt to launch a major
crusade to the East occurred on the very eve of the Protestant
Reformation. Pope Leo X (1513–21) believed that he had no greater
task than to organize the defense of Latin Christendom. Sultan Selim
I (“the Grim”) (1512–20) was among the most ruthless and
effective rulers of the Ottoman Empire. His name struck fear in the
hearts of Christians, for they knew of his plans to conquer Europe.
Leo invoked Selim’s name when he wrote to Europe’s leaders
begging them to put aside their disputes and make ready to take up
the cross of Christ. The new king of France, Francis I (1515–47),
expressed youthful, bold, and probably sincere promises to put the
resources of his kingdom at the disposal of the crusade. In the
interim, he requested and received Leo’s permission to tax the
French clergy for the crusade. Overjoyed, the pope wrote to King
Henry VIII of England (1491–1547), Maximilian I of the German
empire (1486–1519), Charles I of Spain and the Netherlands
(1516–56), and Manuel I of Portugal (1495–1521), urging them to
join with Francis in this holy enterprise. All the monarchs were
enthusiastic about the crusade, but not about Francis. They doubted
his sincerity, suggesting that he was interested only in collecting
tithes. Maximilian even proposed that Germany, England, and Spain
should organize their own crusade, which could then conquer France
before heading off to the East.
The urgency for a crusade was ratcheted up in 1517
when, in the space of two years, Selim and his armies conquered Syria
and Egypt. The Ottoman Empire was now truly massive, encompassing the
entire eastern Mediterranean. Europeans were terrified. All the
monarchs reiterated their firm intention to crusade, but all insisted
that a truce must first be in place. As Henry VIII told a Venetian
ambassador to his court:
No general expedition against the Turks will ever
be effected so long as such treachery prevails among the Christian
powers that their sole thought is to destroy one another; and I think
how I could quit this kingdom when such ill will is borne me by
certain persons.
To get the ball rolling, Leo appointed a committee
of cardinals to gather data concerning Ottoman movements and to make
recommendations for a general crusade. The committee finished its
work efficiently and in a timely fashion. It recommended that a
universal truce be imposed on Europe that would last until six months
after the crusade ended. Because it was clear that the kingdoms would
not line up behind one ruler, the committee proposed two great
armies, one led by the Holy Roman emperor and one by the king of
France. As in the Second Crusade, the two forces would work
separately but cooperatively. The army should consist of a minimum of
sixty thousand infantry, drawn from Germany, Spain, and Bohemia. In
addition, four thousand cavalry would come from Italy and France, and
another twelve thousand light cavalry from Spain, Italy, Dalmatia,
and Greece. The crusader fleet would be donated by Venice, Genoa,
France, Brittany, Portugal, and England and would be under the joint
command of the kings of England and Portugal. The land forces should
march into Italy and assemble at Ancona and Brindisi, where the fleet
would ferry them across to Durazzo. From there, they could follow the
ancient Via Egnatia straight to Constantinople. They reckoned the
total cost of the expedition at 8 million ducats. A general
ecclesiastical tithe could pay part of the sum; the rest would come
from the kings and barons, who, after all, had the most to lose if
the Turks conquered Europe.
Francis committed himself and his armies fully to
the plan and began collecting the new clerical tithes without delay.
Maximilian offered a more ambitious counterproposal. He suggested
that the crusade be organized along a three-year plan. In the first
year, he, Charles of Spain, and Manuel of Portugal would land in
North Africa and begin marching east. With naval support from England
and France, Maximilian felt certain they could conquer Egypt within
the year. Meanwhile, an army of Hungarians, Poles, and other east
Europeans would attack the Turks in the Balkans. The second year,
Francis and his armies would march to Ancona, as the papal commission
suggested, and sail to Durazzo. They would then meet the Hungarian
and Polish troops at Novi Pazar and conquer all of Greece. The third
year, they would close the trap. The French, Hungarian, and Polish
troops would besiege Constantinople by land, and the German, Spanish,
and Portuguese would surround it on the sea. When the capital
surrendered, they would join into one huge army and push the Turks
out of Anatolia and Syria. Thus, in the space of three years
Maximilian proposed undoing the Muslim conquests of the past
millennium.
In March 1518, Leo proclaimed a five-year truce in
Europe. England and Venice ratified it immediately. The pope sent
legates to France, Germany, Spain, and England to oversee crusade
preparations. A tangible excitement filled the courts of Europe,
particularly that of England. Young Henry VIII and his lord
chancellor Cardinal Wolsey were dead serious about getting the
crusade on its feet. Wolsey realized that for a truce to be taken
seriously, it must rest on more than just papal words; it would have
to be hammered out among Europe’s most powerful states. He rightly
saw that France was the greatest obstacle to such a truce. Without
papal assistance, Wolsey negotiated a peace between France and
England as a precursor to a universal peace. On October 3, 1518, the
French and English were the first to sign Wolsey’s Treaty of
London, which proclaimed an eternal peace throughout Christendom.
Signatories agreed to attack in unison any other signatory that broke
the general peace. The pope was overjoyed. In his ratification of the
treaty, he proclaimed, “Be glad and rejoice, O Jerusalem, for now
your deliverance can be hoped for!” Within a year, twenty-five
princes had signed the peace treaty. In gratitude, Leo granted
Cardinal Wolsey full authority over the forming crusade.
It seemed that at last the states of Europe would
organize a powerful crusade against the Turks. A summit meeting
between Francis I and Henry VIII was scheduled, and all countries
were informed that they should send ambassadors to the meeting to
coordinate preparations for the expedition. But on January 12, 1519,
Emperor Maximilian I died, and the crusade died with him as Europe
was plunged into a struggle of imperial succession. Charles I and
Francis I wanted the imperial crown, and both promised to lead even
greater crusades against the Turks if they got it. The reality was
rather different. Whichever monarch won the German throne would
hardly be on good terms with the loser, and Europe would again be
divided. All of Wolsey’s work was for nothing. Pope Leo watched in
horror as this bold new crusade became merely a tool of political
rhetoric.
When King Charles I became Emperor Charles V
(1519–58), Francis washed his hands of everyone and everything.
Within a few years, he had allied France with the Ottoman Empire, an
alliance that was to last for centuries. The homeland of the crusades
was now in league with the Muslims. Leo continued to promote the
crusade to Charles V, but even the pope abandoned it in 1520 when
news of Selim’s death arrived in Rome. The new sultan, Suleiman,
was known to be a quiet and scholarly man committed to peace. All of
Europe breathed a sigh of relief.
Europe was wrong—the new sultan was quiet and
scholarly, but not peaceful. Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–66) was
the most dangerous foe the West had ever faced. He brought the
Ottoman Empire to new heights of prosperity while pursuing an
aggressive policy of conquest. In 1521, he captured Belgrade. The
next year, he began a massive naval bombardment of the Hospitallers
at Rhodes. With their fortresses in ruins, the knights were allowed
to leave the island with honor, but it was a bitter defeat for the
West. Suleiman decisively defeated Christian armies at the Battle of
Mohács in 1526, opening the way for him to besiege Vienna in 1529.
The battle was close, but Vienna held out. Had it fallen, all of
Germany would have been at the mercy of the Turkish armies.
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