Crusade, or Cruzado, a name given to the expeditions of the Christians against the infidels, for the conquest of Palestine; so called, because those who engaged in the undertaking wore a cross on their cloaths, and bore one on their standard.

This expedition was also called the holy war, to which people flocked in great numbers out of pure devotion, the pope's bulls and the preaching of the priests of those days making it a point of conscience. The several nations engaged in the holy war were distinguished by the different colours of their crosses: the English wore white, the French red, the Flemish green, the Germans black, and the Italians yellow. From this enterprise several orders of knighthood took their rise. They reckon eight croisades for the conquest of the holy land; the first begun in the year 1095, at the solicitation of the Greek emperor and the patriarch of Jerusalem.