Two centuries of holy war for one city — and the two rival leaders whose respect for each other outlived the fighting.
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Each new word is hidden in a sentence. Read it aloud and say what you think the bold word means from the rest of the sentence — then reveal it and see how close you were.
Read each part. After it, there's a quick comprehension check (try the questions from memory first), then one thing to discuss.
In the year 1095, in a field in France, Pope Urban II gave a speech that would set two civilisations against each other for the next two hundred years. Jerusalem — sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike — had passed under Muslim rule centuries earlier, though Christian pilgrims had long been allowed to visit its holy sites. Now, the Pope told the crowd, Christians in the East needed help, and the road to Jerusalem itself should be opened. Take up the cross, he urged, and go. Those who did would be called crusaders.
The response astonished everyone. Knights, lords and ordinary people alike sewed cloth crosses onto their clothes and set out on a journey of thousands of miles. Many had never travelled beyond their own village. They would march for years, through hunger, disease and unfamiliar lands, driven by a mixture of faith, adventure and the hope of land or forgiveness.
Against every expectation, the First Crusade reached its goal. In 1099, after a long and terrible siege, the crusaders took Jerusalem. The capture was followed by a massacre of many of the city's inhabitants — a brutal episode remembered with horror on all sides. The victors set up a string of Christian states along the coast of the Holy Land, and for a while it seemed the war was won.
1. Who called for the First Crusade, and what did he ask people to do?
2. What did the crusaders achieve in 1099, and at what human cost?
1. Pope Urban II, in 1095, called on Christians in Europe to take up the cross, march east and open the road to Jerusalem.
2. They captured Jerusalem after a long siege, but the victory was followed by a massacre of many of the city's inhabitants.
The Christian hold on the Holy Land did not last. In the decades that followed, a gifted Muslim leader rose to unite the divided lands around them. His name was Salah ad-Din — known in the West as Saladin. Patient, disciplined and widely admired even by his opponents, he rebuilt Muslim strength and, in 1187, met the crusader army at the Battle of Hattin, where he won a decisive victory. Soon afterwards, Jerusalem itself surrendered to him. This time there was no massacre; the terms allowed most of the city's Christians to leave in safety, and Saladin's restraint became famous across Europe.
The loss of Jerusalem shocked Christendom and set off the Third Crusade. Among the kings who answered was Richard I of England — Richard the Lionheart — a soldier of formidable reputation. For several years, Richard and Saladin fought a long campaign up and down the coast, besieging cities and manoeuvring their armies. Neither could destroy the other.
What made their struggle unusual was the respect that grew between the two enemies. Stories spread of Saladin sending fresh horses and even ice to his rival when Richard fell ill, and of the two men exchanging courteous messages across the lines. They embodied, for later generations, the idea of chivalry: that honour and mercy might survive even in the middle of a holy war.
1. Who was Saladin, and how did he treat the Christians of Jerusalem when the city surrendered to him?
2. What was remarkable about the relationship between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin?
1. A Muslim leader who united the region and retook Jerusalem in 1187 after the Battle of Hattin; he allowed most of the city's Christians to leave safely, and his restraint was widely admired.
2. Though enemies, they showed each other real respect — Saladin is said to have sent Richard horses and ice when he was ill, and the two exchanged courteous messages.
The Third Crusade ended not in conquest but in compromise. In 1192, Richard and Saladin agreed a truce: Jerusalem would remain under Muslim rule, but unarmed Christian pilgrims would be allowed to visit its holy places in peace. Richard sailed home without ever entering the city he had fought so long to reach; Saladin died the following year, admired on both sides. Neither man had truly won.
Further crusades followed over the next century, but the tide had turned. One by one the remaining crusader strongholds fell, and by 1291 the last major fortress on the mainland was gone. The great project launched in that French field two hundred years earlier had, in military terms, failed.
Yet the Crusades left a long echo. They opened trade and the exchange of ideas, books and goods between East and West, feeding the learning that would reshape Europe. They also left a bitter legacy of mistrust between faiths and peoples — one still invoked, and still argued over, today. The Crusades are remembered very differently depending on where the story is told: as heroism, as tragedy, or as a warning about what people will do, for good and ill, in the name of what they hold sacred.
1. What did the truce of 1192 decide about Jerusalem and about pilgrims?
2. In what two very different ways did the Crusades shape the centuries that followed?
1. Jerusalem stayed under Muslim rule, but unarmed Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit the holy sites in peace.
2. They opened trade and the exchange of ideas between East and West, but also left a lasting legacy of mistrust between faiths and peoples.
To tell a story set nine hundred years ago, you need to describe a world that no longer exists: what people used to believe, the journeys knights would make, the way a siege would drag on for months. English has two neat structures for exactly this — the settled habits and states of the distant past.
Read the sentence and decide which fits. Remember: for a state, only used to works.
1. Jerusalem be a destination for pilgrims of three different faiths. (a past state)
2. Every spring, fresh crusaders arrive by ship on the coast of the Holy Land. (a repeated action)
3. Saladin have a reputation for mercy that even his enemies admired. (a past state)
1. used to (state — "be"; "would" is not possible here)
2. would (or "used to") — a repeated action
3. used to (state — "have" meaning possess; "would" is not possible)
Each sentence uses the right idea but the wrong form. Write the corrected version of the underlined part.
1. Knights (would / marched) for years to reach the Holy Land. (keep "would")
2. The city (would be) far larger than any town the crusaders knew. (this is a state — fix it)
3. Pilgrims used to (travelling) enormous distances on foot. (fix the verb form)
1. would march (would + base verb)
2. used to be (state — "would be" is wrong; use "used to" or the past simple "was")
3. travel (used to + base verb, not -ing)
Fill each gap with used to or would in the correct form. Where the verb is a state, only used to works. Read it aloud once you're done.
Before the wars began, Jerusalem be open to pilgrims of every faith. Each year, travellers set out from distant countries and cross mountains and deserts to reach it. Life along those roads be hard and dangerous, and many spend years away from home before they returned.
used to (state — "be") · would (or "used to") set out · used to (state — "be") · would (or "used to") spend
Notice: the two "be" gaps must be used to; the two action gaps can be either, but would is the more storytelling choice.
Hold on to these two — you'll need them in the Speak tab, where the whole point is to bring a lost world back to life.
You've read the story and you have the words — so now the real thing is within reach. There's a full podcast episode that tells this story in much greater depth, in natural, real-speed English. It's optional: the lesson stands on its own without it.
From the Noiser podcast network. Hosted by historians, roughly 50 minutes. It plays in the page on the Noiser site, or search "Short History Of The Crusades" on Spotify.
Play on Noiser →This is the heart of the lesson — do all of it out loud. The timer is there to keep you going: fill the time with detail rather than rushing through it.
Tell the story of the Crusades in your own words, as if to someone who has never heard of them. Move through the arc: the Pope's call in 1095 → the astonishing march east and the capture of Jerusalem → the rise of Saladin and his recapture of the city → the long struggle with Richard the Lionheart, and the respect between them → the truce of 1192 and the long echo the wars left behind.
Bring the vanished world to life: use used to for how things were and would for what people repeatedly did, and work in at least five key words (sacred, pilgrim, formidable, crusade, citadel, besiege, terms, chivalry, truce, legacy).
Richard and Saladin fought each other for years, yet treated each other with respect. Is it possible — or even right — to admire an enemy? Build an argument, using other examples you know from history, sport or your own life, and decide where the line between respect and betrayal lies.
Describe a way of life, a place or a set of customs that used to exist but has now changed or disappeared. Lean on the grammar: what people used to believe or do, and the things they would do again and again.
Stuck for an idea? Pick one of these and run with it: