The crusades were good. 👍
Discussion
Ah, finally something you and I disagree on! I'm honestly too happy about that to even want to argue about it! 😅
From what I've read, I am a big fan of how the Templar Knights conducted themselves. But I'd like to be better read.
Of course, the french were easily pressured into admitting heresy and homosexuality, so their reputation is somewhat tarnished.
Imagine that. Some of the strongest men in the history of the planet. Took on armies outnumbered 1 to a thousand. Created and managed businesses. Practiced faith and religion. But they were french, and wilted under pressure. The french are the absolute worst.
But it was convenient to lie about the Knights Templar. They lent money without practicing usury. And instead of repaying, debtors lied and banished them from society.
Last Sunday we celebrated Victory Day in Malta, commemorating the Great Siege, when the Knights Hospitaller and militia servants ended the Ottoman Empire's expansion in the Mediterran.
While I agree that the Saracens needed to be opposed and driven out of our lands, the prevailing insane religious mania and horrible corruption of the time made the entire operation a horrible tragedy on balance. Fellow European nations being looted just because it was convenient when the soldiers passed through. Hundreds of thousands of European lives lost to (temporarily) conquer a "holy land" that was never holy to begin with, adding to the well-nigh permanent derangement of the European minds that still think, to this day, that somehow our heritage derives from the Middle East -- which it doesn't.