Political motives of the Crusades

by popeyepopeye3

Recently I have been doing a lot of research into the Crusades. Although numerous articles and websites state that the Crusades were politically driven and that the social elites used religion as a tool for their own political desires they never back up their evidence with any primary sources.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any primary sources, (e.g documents written during the crusades) which show that they were politically driven?

Thanks

WelfOnTheShelf

More can certainly be said, but for now, here is something I wrote recently about the various possible motivations for crusading.