When did the Crusades begin?
Crusades
1095
The term crusade used in modern historiography at first referred to the wars in the Holy Land beginning in 1095, but the range of events to which the term has been applied has been greatly extended, so that its use can create a misleading impression of coherence, particularly regarding the early Crusades. The term used for the campaign of the First Crusade was iter "journey" or peregrinatio "pilgrimage".[1] The terminology of crusading remained largely indistinguishable from that of pilgrimage during the 12th century, reflecting the reality of the first century of crusading where not all armed pilgrims fought, and not all who fought had taken the cross. It was not until the late 12th to early 13th centuries that a more specific "language of crusading" emerged.[2] Pope Innocent III used the term negotium crucis "affair of the cross" for the Eastern Mediterranean crusade, but was reluctant to apply crusading terminology to the Albigensian crusade. The Song of the Albigensian Crusade from about 1213 contains the first recorded vernacular use of the Occitan crozada. This term was later adopted into French as croisade and in English as crusade.[3] The modern spelling crusade dates to c. 1760.[4] Sinibaldo Fieschi (the future pope Innocent IV) used the terms crux transmarina for crusades in Outremer against Muslims and crux cismarina for crusades in Europe against other enemies of the church.[5] Medieval Armenian term for Crusades — xacˇ‘e˘nkalk‘.[6]