[geeks] Vista is a job creator...

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 @ 17:36 +0100, Mike Meredith said:

> Ouch, you've tickled my historical nerve ...
> 
> On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 01:44:13 -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> > Tue, 26 Sep 2006 @ 20:12 -0500, Lionel Peterson said:
> > > Yea, but there was no real pay (they volunteered...)
> > 
> > Um, no.  A lot of them were paid, many were hired mercenaries, and
> > there was quite a lot of looting going on.
> 
> There were some who went for pay that doesn't go 'clink' ... after all
> many crusaders were from families that were relatively wealthy for the
> time. 

It took a lot of wealth to participate in the first place, unless you
were someone's hired soldier, or otherwise serving a noble house.

> However they were paid, and in a coin that had rather more importance to
> the wealthy of the time ... Church indulgences. Crusaders were typically
> (always?) forgiven all sins if they completed the crusade.

Reminds me of the opening scenes in "Kingdom of Heaven" where the
priests were standing along the road east telling all the soldiers that
it was not a sin to murder an infidel.

> Volunteered ... hmm. Well some did, but I wonder how much choice certain
> feudal vassals had if their lord decided to go and was determined to go
> in force.

Very true.

It's kind of like this: "I'm going on crusade, and I'm taking everything
with me.  You can come and fight, or stay here and starve.  If you don't
go and survive, I'll be... unhappy when I return."

So, yes, technically they did "volunteer"... :)

The other big issue people forget is that a lot of the crusades did not
go to the middle east, but were raids into Europe itself.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The strength of the Constitution lies
entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it.  Only if every
single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the
constitutional rights secure." -- Albert Einstein]