When you think of crusades, you probably picture knights storming Jerusalem or battling pagans in the Baltic. Yet the medieval papacy launched a whole parade of oddball holy wars that most people have never heard of. In this roundup we spotlight the 10 bizarre crusades that slipped through the cracks of history, each a mix of politics, ambition, and outright madness.
Why These 10 Bizarre Crusades Still Matter
10 The Crusade Against Markward
The saga begins with a straight‑up political showdown: Pope Innocent III declared a crusade against Markward of Annweiler, a German noble who had seized Sicily after Emperor Henry VI’s death. Markward claimed the late emperor’s will named him regent, a move that infuriated the pope, who suddenly framed the dispute as a holy war.
What makes this episode bizarre is that Markward was a faithful Christian who had actually fought in the Third Crusade. Still, the papacy raised a crusader army under Walter of Brienne, hoping to wrest control of the island. The whole affair was unpopular, as many saw it as a power grab rather than a fight against heresy.
Before any grand battle could unfold, Markward died of an unexpected illness, ending the conflict without a single clash. Though anticlimactic, the episode set a precedent for future crusades that were driven more by politics than piety.
9 Humbert’s Crusade
In 1343 Pope Clement VI mounted a joint Venetian‑Hospitaller expedition to capture the Turkish port of Smyrna. The mission flopped spectacularly, prompting the pope to issue a broader call for a crusade against the city. Only one eager soul answered: Humbert, the impulsive Dauphin of Viennois.
Humbert was swiftly appointed commander and set sail with roughly nine hundred men. En route, his tiny fleet was ambushed by the Genoese, who feared he might target the nearby island of Chios. The skirmish left his force rattled but still determined.
When Humbert finally reached Smyrna in 1346, he discovered the original expedition had dissolved into a brawl between Hospitallers and Venetians. Disillusioned, he packed up his troops and headed home, leaving the crusade to fade into obscurity.
8 The Battle Of Nicopolis
When the Ottoman Turks pushed into Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary cried out for a crusade. Even though the papacy was split between Rome and Avignon, both popes agreed to sanction a massive expedition against the Muslim advance.
The war‑break halted the Hundred Years’ War, freeing up a wave of young French and Burgundian nobles eager to prove themselves. The 24‑year‑old son of the Duke of Burgundy was elected leader, turning the campaign into a flamboyant contest of who could outfit the most glittering retinue.
Reaching the Balkans in 1396, the crusaders clashed with Sultan Bayezid I—known as Bayezid the Thunderbolt—at Nicopolis. While the Hungarians urged caution, the western knights charged head‑first up a steep hill toward a fortified position. The reckless assault ended in slaughter, crushing the crusade in a single, disastrous blow.
7 The Stedinger Crusade
The Stedinger were a band of independent peasants from northern Germany who flat‑out refused to pay tithes or perform unpaid labor for the Archbishop of Bremen. After they repelled the archbishop’s first army in 1229, the bishop escalated the conflict by branding the peasants heretical.
Archbishop Gregory IX appealed to Pope Innocent III, who proclaimed a crusade against the Stedinger in 1232. Though the peasants were not doctrinally heretical, they had simply resisted feudal taxes. The papal bull promised full indulgences to anyone who fought them.
The Stedinger managed a single victory against a crusader force but were ultimately overwhelmed when a fresh papal army crushed them in 1234, ending the short‑lived crusade against the stubborn farmers.
6 The Anti‑Colonna Crusade
Late‑13th‑century Rome was a battlefield of noble families: the Orsini, the Caetani, and the Colonna. In 1294 the Orsini and Caetani teamed up to elect Benedetto Caetani as Pope Boniface VIII, enraging the Colonna, who looted the papal treasury two years later.
Pope Boniface responded by kidnapping the Colonna cardinals Giacomo and Pietro, forcing the family to return the stolen loot. Even after the money was handed back, the Colonna felt betrayed and launched a series of attacks on the papal household.
Accusing the pope of heresy and murder, the Colonna were formally excommunicated, and a crusade was declared against them. After being driven out of Rome, they allied with the French king to assault the pope at Anagni. The French halted Sciarra Colonna from beating the pontiff to death, but Boniface died days later, effectively ending the anti‑Colonna crusade.
5 The Italian Crusades
Even after the anti‑Colonna crusade fizzled, the papacy kept meddling in Italian politics, repeatedly declaring crusades against rival city‑states throughout the 14th century. In 1309 a dispute over Ferrara sparked a papal crusade against Venice, though the Venetians backed down before any fighting began.
In 1317 the pope launched yet another crusade targeting the Estensi of Ferrara, the Visconti of Milan, and even Frederick of Montefeltro. The conflict dragged on for years, expanding in 1324 to include Mantua and again in 1327 to confront Emperor Louis IV.
Later, in 1355 a crusade was declared against several noble families of Romagna, which Cardinal Gil Albornoz subdued over two years. Another papal crusade against the Visconti followed in 1363. Though fought mainly by mercenaries, participants received full indulgences and the usual crusader privileges.
4 The Aragonese Crusades
Pope Martin IV, effectively a puppet of the French royal house, became embroiled in a fight with King Peter III of Aragon, who had invaded Sicily. The pope excommunicated Peter and demanded he hand over the Aragonese crown to a French prince.
When Peter refused, Martin declared a crusade against Aragon. The French king Philip III marched across the Pyrenees, besieging Girona, but the Aragonese navy cut off the French supply lines. A dysentery outbreak ravaged the French camp, even striking the king himself.
Terrified of dying on a latrine, Philip ordered a retreat across the mountains. The Aragonese ambushed the exhausted troops in a narrow pass, slaughtering many. Philip escaped to Perpignan, where he soon died, bringing the Aragonese crusade to a grim close.
3 The Trade Crusade Of Alexandria
Peter de Lusignan, king of Cyprus and the last ruler of a major crusader state, spent the 1360s canvassing Europe for support to launch a crusade against Egypt. With papal backing and fleets from Venice and Genoa, he set his sights on Alexandria in 1365.
Peter’s stated aim was to conquer Egypt—a wildly ambitious goal given his limited resources. Modern scholars suspect his true motivation was economic: Italian merchants were bypassing Cyprus by buying directly from Alexandria, and Peter hoped to redirect trade through his island by devastating the Egyptian port.
After seizing and pillaging Alexandria, the crusaders withdrew at the sound of the approaching Egyptian army. Both Venice and Genoa later issued full apologies for their participation, acknowledging the disastrous nature of the venture.
2 The Contra‑Catalan Company Crusade
In 1303 the Byzantine emperor hired the Catalan Company, a band of mercenaries led by the ex‑pirate Roger de Flor. Their tenure was marked by betrayals, including the murder of Roger and a botched siege of Constantinople.
By 1311 the Company had crossed into Greece, defeating Duke Walter of Athens and seizing his duchy. Although the Catalans had previously taken Athens after the Fourth Crusade, Walter’s heirs appealed to the pope, claiming the mercenaries usurped their rightful lands.
Pope declared a crusade against the Catalans in 1330, accusing them of over‑friendly ties to the Turks. The crusade failed to garner popular support, and the Catalan Company continued to rule Athens for another half‑century.
1 The Waldensian Crusade
The final and perhaps most obscure crusade of the Middle Ages was waged against the Waldensians, a Christian sect emphasizing poverty. Declared heretical in the 12th century, the Waldensians persisted in southern France and northern Italy well into the late 1400s.
In 1487 Pope Innocent VIII launched a crusade against them in the Dauphiné. The Waldensians retreated into the Alpine caves, where they fought a series of brutal assaults by crusader forces. Historian Peter Lock summed up the campaign as a small‑scale, violent episode that achieved nothing of lasting significance.
Despite the ferocity of the attacks, the Waldensian movement survived, illustrating how even a waning papacy could still muster a crusade against dissenting believers.