The Crusades

I read a little bit of history about the Crusades today. I have to admit, the Crusades intrigue me. I watched the movie "Kingdom of Heaven", which is loosely based on events that happened during the crusades, and the dynamic political situation that developed in that movie got me thinking "How much of this is factual and true?" Needless to say that the movie producers took some liberties to sensationalize the plot, yet the movie very well depicts what was happening, namely a geographical movement for power and land. If you look back at the Crusades, there was just as much infighting among the differing Christian and Muslim factions as there were between Christian and Muslim. A Muslim group would fight a Christian group, then fight a Muslim Group, and vice-versa. It was interesting to me that some would take what was originally a Papal decree, a call to arms, as a way and means to further propagate power through the European feudal system of decreeing land to those considered "worthy" of controlling it. I think that is a major aspect that does not get mentioned; the Crusades had lots of political elements in line with the moral call to arms.