High Middle Ages

===Crusades===
{{Main|Crusades}}
[[File:Godefroi1099.jpg|thumb|After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, [[Godfrey of Bouillon]], leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]].]]
The Catholic Crusades occurred between the 11th and 13th centuries. They were conducted under papal authority, initially with the intent of reestablishing Christian rule in ''The Holy Land'' by taking the area from the Muslim [[Fatimid Caliphate]]. The Fatimids had captured Palestine in AD 970, lost it to the [[Seljuk Turks]] in 1073 and recaptured it in 1098, just before they lost it again in 1099 as a result of the [[First Crusade]].

====Military orders====
{{Main|Military order (religious society)}}
In the context of the crusades, monastic military orders were founded that would become the template for the late medieval [[chivalric order]]s.

The [[Knights Templar]] were a Christian military order founded after the [[First Crusade]] to help protect [[Christian pilgrimage|Christian pilgrims]] from hostile locals and highway bandits. The order was deeply involved in banking, and in 1307 [[Philip IV of France|Philip the Fair]] (Philippine le Bel) had the entire order arrested in France and dismantled on charges of alleged heresy.

The [[Knights Hospitaller]] were originally a [[Christianity|Christian]] organization founded in [[Jerusalem]] in 1080 to provide care for poor, sick, or injured [[pilgrimage|pilgrims]] to the [[Holy Land]]. After Jerusalem was taken in the First Crusade, it became a [[religious order|religious]]/[[Military order (society)|military order]] that was charged with the care and defence of the [[Crusader states]]. After the Holy Lands were eventually taken by Muslim forces, it moved its operations to [[Rhodes]], and later [[Malta]].

The [[Teutonic Knights]] were a German religious order formed in 1190, in the city of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], to aid Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Lands and to operate hospitals for the sick and injured in [[Outremer]]. After Muslim forces captured the Holy Lands, the order moved to [[Transylvania]] in 1211 and later, after being expelled, invaded pagan [[Prussia]] with the intention of Christianizing the [[Baltic region]]. Yet, both before and after the Order's main pagan opponent, [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]], [[Christianization of Lithuania|converted]] to Christianity, the Order had already attacked other Christian nations such as [[Novgorod Republic|Novgorod]] and [[Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385)|Poland]]. The Teutonic Knights' power hold, which became considerable, was broken in 1410, at the [[Battle of Grunwald]], where the Order suffered a devastating defeat against a joint Polish-Lithuanian army. After Grunwald, the Order declined in power until 1809 when it was officially dissolved.  There were ten crusades in total.