Today, in the Western context, there are often considered to have been eight numbered crusades to the Holy Land. Who decided on this numbering, and when was this numbering formalized/popularized? Furthermore, what distinguishes a numbered crusade from a minor "non-numbered" one?

by EatingPizzaWay

WelfOnTheShelf

I answered a similar question a few years ago:

Why are the Crusades numbered the way that they are

The short answer is...we don't really know. There are actually a few different ways of numbering them and even today historians disagree about how to do it, or even whether they should be numbered at all.