katchen
Banned
The problem was that by the time of the Crusades, European lords were not very good at transferring serfs from the land--even if it was to other land that they owned. Serfs were considered tied to the land, even when they overpopulated the land and were starving on the land, which in the 13th Century before the Black Death, they often were. And the one thing that Christian lords could NOT do was make chattel slaves of other Christians, even commoners.
This is what made it extremely difficult for the Crusaders to transfer French commoners to Outremer in mass numbers during the first years after the First Crusades after the massacres when the population was at it's lowest and population transfer would have made the most difference. French lords were effectively prohibited from bringing in serfs from France --even their own and even if they were starving where they were on their own lands--to work the unworked fields of Palestine and the Levant by feudal law and custom--and the lack of enough transport (though that could have changed). If there had been a thriving slave trade, say from Russia via Constantinople as there would be a couple centuries later, the numbers might have been made up. But as it was, the Crusaders were limited to finding the few local Arabs who were Christians or would say they were Christians to work the land (many were Ismaili Druse who would say anything and keep their real religion secret) and try to build up numbers. And that limited the number of knights the land could support too.
This is what made it extremely difficult for the Crusaders to transfer French commoners to Outremer in mass numbers during the first years after the First Crusades after the massacres when the population was at it's lowest and population transfer would have made the most difference. French lords were effectively prohibited from bringing in serfs from France --even their own and even if they were starving where they were on their own lands--to work the unworked fields of Palestine and the Levant by feudal law and custom--and the lack of enough transport (though that could have changed). If there had been a thriving slave trade, say from Russia via Constantinople as there would be a couple centuries later, the numbers might have been made up. But as it was, the Crusaders were limited to finding the few local Arabs who were Christians or would say they were Christians to work the land (many were Ismaili Druse who would say anything and keep their real religion secret) and try to build up numbers. And that limited the number of knights the land could support too.