Crusades was a 1995 historical documentary series presented by former Monty Python

Monty Python

Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...

 member Terry Jones

Terry Jones

Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....

. It looked at the crusades

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

 and included elements of black comedy

Black comedy

A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

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1. "Pilgrims in Arms"

The first episode recounts Byzantine Emperor Alexius

Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power. The title 'Nobilissimus' was given to senior army commanders,...

's appeal to Pope Urban II

Pope Urban II

Pope Urban II , born Otho de Lagery , was Pope from 12 March 1088 until his death on July 29 1099...

 for help in fighting Muslim Turks, the first crusaders as they neared Jerusalem, and the first casualties of the crusades: Jews massacred in Worms

Worms, Germany

Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...

 and Cologne, Germany.

2. "Jerusalem"

The second episode covers hardships encountered by crusaders as they neared the Holy City, including intense heat and starvation. Also the Siege of Antioch

Siege of Antioch

The Siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade in 1097 and 1098. The first siege, by the crusaders against the Muslim city, lasted from October 21, 1097, to June 2, 1098. The second siege, against the crusaders who had occupied it, lasted from June 7 to June 28, 1098.-Background:Antioch...

 and Turkish retaliation.

3. "Jihad"

The third episode chronicles the response that the Arab world gave to the gains of the Crusades. Jones takes the viewer from Syria to Jordan to shed light on the Arabs counter-crusade led by Muslim leader Saladin

Saladin

Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...

. Additionally, experts detail the political intrigue behind Saladin's rise to power as he tried to lead Muslims in winning back Jerusalem from the Christians.

4. "Destruction"

The Crusade of Richard I of England

Richard I of England

Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...

 is explored to find the seeds of his eventual failure. The fourth episode examines the massacres during the siege of Acre, the Treaty of Ramla

Treaty of Ramla

The Treaty of Ramla was signed by Saladin and Richard the Lionheart in June 1192 after the Battle of Arsuf. Under the terms of the agreement, Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control. However, the city would be open to Christian pilgrimages. Also, the treaty reduced the Latin Kingdom to a...

 in 1192 when Richard was forced to concede Jerusalem to Saladin, and the establishment of the Empire of Latins

Latin Empire

The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...

 in Constantinople after the Crusade of Venetian statesman Enrico Dandolo

Enrico Dandolo

Enrico Dandolo — anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus — was the 41st Doge of Venice from 1195 until his death...

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