>Knights could have been thugs or even warlords but they weren't. Not because they would have been stopped by the state, which were fairly small and weak at the time, but because they largely chose not to.

>And many crusaders went further than that. They chose a risky expedition often at a great expense of their families for no discernible earthly benefit.

Come on, is well established history that they often got shipped out on Crusade for being thugs. Itinerant knights were a huge problem during periods of peace, so they got told that if they pissed off to the holy land, their existing crimes would be forgiven and they could be absolved of future sin, as long as that sin was not being committed in Europe.