Gay Crusaders at war in the Holy Land!

One thinks of The Crusades as being a very macho affair full of swinging swords and the clash of steel – and indeed it was for over two hundred years. During that period, some of the leading warriors provoked gossip over their preference for men between the sheets. Being gay didn’t in any way diminish their military prowess. Far from it. They were super-courageous gay crusaders on the battlefield – determined to defend their fellow warriors!

It’s Pride month 2024 so let’s celebrate these LGBT heroes of the Middle Ages!

And before we start – let’s deal with the sceptics. Yes, the term ‘homosexual’ and LGBT were not known in the Middle Ages – or indeed before the mid-19th century. But even the most casual reading of church councils during the Templar period reveal that educated people were very aware of same-sex relations between men – condemning it vigorously. And then the argument that the word ‘sodomy’ was an umbrella term for every kind of sexual ‘deviance’. Again, it’s very easy to find writings from the period where man-on-man sex is specified within that umbrella term distinguishing that activity from assaulting a donkey or mere onanism.

Homosexuality was not conjured into existence by nineteenth century psychologists. It’s existed for all time. So no more ‘gay erasure’ folks – let’s lift the lid on the Gay Crusaders!

FIND OUT MORE: Were the Knights Templar gay?

King Baldwin I of Jerusalem – gay crusader

Baldwin was a smart and brave crusader who was the first official Christian king of Jerusalem – ruling from 1100 to 1118. He defended and expanded the territory of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, putting in place the infrastructure that would enable it to exist for nearly a century. But he died childless and both during and after his life, it was heavily intimated that he was a homosexual.

The youngest son of the Count of Boulogne, Baldwin was sent off as a young man to become a priest and rise up through the church. But a life of prayerful contemplation had little appeal. He soon tore off the cassock and picked up the shield and sword. His older brother, Godfrey of Bouillon, led the First Crusade becoming the first ruler of Jerusalem when it was conquered from the Muslims in 1099. Meanwhile, Baldwin installed himself as Count of the newly formed crusader territory of Edessa.

The following year, Godfrey died and Baldwin was invited to take his place as Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri (Defender of the Holy Sepulchre), the title his brother had chosen because to be called king was to usurp the role of Jesus as the true king of the city. Straight away, he suppressed all internal dissent and launched a vigorous campaign against the Fatimid empire based in Egypt. Not long after, he was proclaimed king – not sharing his brother’s qualms about the title.

Baldwin cut a dash in public as a very handsome monarch – described at the time by William of Tyre:

He is said to have been very tall and much larger than his brother…He was of rather light complexion, with dark-brown hair and beard. His nose was aquiline and his upper lip somewhat prominent. The lower jaw slightly receded, although not so much that it could be considered a defect. He was dignified in carriage and serious in dress and speech. He always wore a mantle hanging from his shoulders…[He] was neither stout nor unduly thin, but rather of a medium habit of body. Expert in the use of arms, agile on horseback, he was active and diligent whenever the affairs of the realm called him.

Married three times but no children. One contemporary chronicler and several modern historians have suggested that Baldwin (pictured below) was homosexual, having an affair with a converted male Muslim. One historian has even described Baldwin as living “in a chainmail closet”.

Richard the Lionheart – LGBT monarch and gay crusader

Richard the Lionheart (1157-1999) is most popularly recognised as the king who ruled England when Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men were robbing the rich to help the poor in Sherwood Forest. In reality, Richard hardly set foot in England which was one part of the Angevin empire he had inherited from his equally militaristic father: Henry II. That empire stretched down into France reaching the Pyrenees.

Together with Philip II of France and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, he led the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. Barbarossa was drowned while crossing a river in Asia Minor which left Richard and Philip in total control. They proved to be a quarrelsome couple – possibly because earlier in life, so many have speculated, they were an amorous couple.

In 1187, one chronicler wrote that Richard and Philip were so close that “at night the bed did not separate them”. Contemporaries had little doubt what was going on even if some modern historians have strained credulity arguing that medieval diplomacy between world leaders was often conducted under the sheets. Yeah, right.

While besieging the Muslim-held city of Acre, Richard refused to join battle with Philip who launched a full-blown attack with just the French forces in a fit of pique. It was noted at the time that Philip’s siege engines were beautifully constructed – a triumph of medieval design. Sadly for him, the Saracen forces at Acre unleashed ‘Greek fire’ at his forces reducing the exquisite siege engines to ashes. Philip was distraught and retired to his tent, grieving his terrible loss.

At which point, Richard decided to appear carried in a silk litter and parading around Acre’s battlements ‘so that the Saracens might be awed by this presence’. This was a calculated slap in the face to his former lover. You couldn’t take Acre – but I will.

LGBT Saracens – the Fatimid caliph Al-Zafir

To the south of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem was the sprawling Fatimid empire. This was a Shia Muslim realm centred on Egypt that had previously ruled Jerusalem. Their sultans ruled in opulence from the city of Cairo, which was a constant nest of political intrigue. In April 1154, the young sultan Al-Zafir (1133-1154) was murdered on the orders of his own vizier (chief minister) Abbas ibn Abi al-Futuh.

Abbas used his own son to lure the sultan to the vizier’s palace at night where he was set upon and killed. How had the sultan allowed his own security to be so compromised? Well, one theory is that the two men were in a homosexual relationship. Al-Zafir dropped his guard because he believed Nasr, the son of Abbas, was his faithful lover.

The Knights Templar – gay crusaders?

In the year 1307, arrest warrants were issued by the King of France to imprison and torture the leadership of the Knights Templar. The two main charges were heresy and sodomy. In seven years of judicial hearings, there were hundreds of allegations of homosexual behaviour between knights – especially at the initiation rituals. Allegations of kissing in different parts of the body, especially the ‘base of the spine’.

The church had been vexing about same sex relations between men throughout the Middle Ages. Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072), a leading ecclesiastical thinker, went into lurid detail about the crime of sodomy. He felt a particular punishment should be reserved for those who engage ‘with another man in feminine copulation’.

The problem with sodomy, in the view of the church, was that it allowed the Devil to enter a human body. Or as one writer put it: ‘it makes the citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem into an heir of the Babylonian underworld’. At the Third Lateran Council in 1179, Saint Thomas Aquinas laid down the law that any sex not leading to procreation was a definite no-no. Yet despite his best efforts, gay crusaders took absolutely no notice whatsoever.

FIND OUT MORE: Were the Knights Templar gay?

If you would like to know more about the Knights Templar, then get your hands on a copy of my book: The Knights Templar – History & Mystery. Published by Pen & Sword and available on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and WHSmith. Don’t miss out on your copy!