First Crusade

In November 1095, Pope Urban II preached a Crusade to the east in Clermont after receiving a plea for aid from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I. It resulted in a mass movement of people from France, Italy and Germany towards the Holy Land. Their journey would bring them down through the Balkans, towards Constantinople, a perilous journey across Anatolia and a sequence of savage encounters with Islamic forces. Attrition was devastating, and estimations of the size of the Crusader forces at the siege of Jerusalem were as low 1,200-1,300 knights and 12,000 foot. The First Crusade resulted in the establishment of a string of Christian states along the eastern coast – The Principality of Antioch, The County of Edessa, The County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Origins

In 1071, the Seljuk Turks fought and defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert. This set in sequence a chain of events leading to a plea from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I to seek aid from the Christians of the west. He was expecting a compact and professional group of soldiers to come to his aid, but instead he received a mass movement of people overcome with religious zeal in an attempt to liberate Jerusalem.

At the Council of Clermont Pope Urban II preached the idea of the crusade to the gathered bishops and ecclesiastics of France. The enthusiasm was startling, and the idea spread. Urban had in mind a military expedition to the east, and had beforehand acquired the support of the Raymond of Toulouse, a powerful and wealthy secular leader, and the great ecclesiastical magnate Adhemar of Le Puy. In the meantime, the idea had caught the fascination of the poor, helped to no end by the charismatic Peter the Hermit, who went on to organise and lead the People’s Crusade.

In his effort to organise a highly efficient military expedition, many important magnate were persuaded to join. Raymond of Toulouse, Robert of Normandy, Robert of Flanders, Stephen of Blois, Hugh of Vermandois, Godfrey of Bouillon (Later to become secular ruler of Jerusalem) and Bohemond of Taranto were all very important, powerful men. They were the ‘Princes’ of the so named ‘Princes Crusade’. They were followed by many of their vassals and others of equivalent rank. It has often been asserted that these men were moved by the prospect of material gain, but scholars have since the 1980’s moved to squash this idea. For example, the possibility of gain in the east was a gamble, leading to the conclusion that It is hard to believe that most crusaders were motivated by crude materialism... It makes much more sense to suppose, in so far as one can generalise about them, that they were moved by idealism.

To the lower class of nobles, the Crusade offered the chance of adventure and social mobility. Baldwin of Boulogne, for example, was the younger brother of Godfrey of Bouillon. His experience on the Crusade lead to him becoming Prince of Edessa and later King of Jerusalem. Land was an important factor in motivating military men to go on Crusade. After the victory at Ascalon following the conquest of Jerusalem, only around 300 knights and 2,000 foot remained with Godfrey as ruler of Jerusalem, leading for most of them wealthier lands and riches in the east than they ever could have achieved in Europe. For Bohemond, who was to become Prince of Antioch, his social status was elevated substantially. He was amongst the lesser nobles in terms of wealth and status before the departure of the Crusade but his military triumphs and growing reputation as a fierce soldier, especially over Ridwan of Aleppo and Kerbogha during the Siege of Antioch cemented his new status and reputation. For the Italian city states, the allure of new trade routes, which would threaten the dominance of The Fatimid cities of Egypt and Constantinople became a huge motivation. They provided naval supremacy along with the Byzantines during the Crusades, often helping with reinforcements, provisions and siege expertise (Particularly at the siege of Jerusalem).

Urban phrased his appeal for Holy War in 1095 in the context of remission of sin. The growing religious intensity of the age, signified by the Investiture Contest, along with the Christianising evolution of the knighted, military class, meant that the promise of the remission of sin was extremely appealing to a religious, warrior aristocracy. It is easy to overemphasise the religious motivation of Crusaders, but it was common for the Christian knight to seek both genuine religious redemption and wealth in the form of captured booty from the enemy and all these factors helped in the process of preaching and organising the great expedition to the east.

The Peoples Crusade

The widespread religious zeal that the preaching of the crusade whipped up lead to a pogrom against the Jews in Germany. For many, the prospect of a long and terrible march over Europe and Asia Minor to fight the infidel seemed remote when there were infidels living amongst them in their own towns and cities. The massacres of the Jews as the crusaders departed from Western Germany was a result of the religious frenzy the Crusades inspired. More generally, it displayed the popular support the Crusaders now enjoyed, as the masses were quickly caught up in the general enthusiasm to take the cross.

The charismatic wandering preacher – Peter the Hermit – quickly became a symbol of the lower orders devotion to the taking of the cross. The preaching of crusade was most intense amongst the humbler clergy. Although Urban asked his bishops to preach the crusade, by far the most effective preaching was taken by men such as Robert of Arbrissel and Peter. Peter was an oldish man, born near Amiens, who had tried to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem years earlier but had been maltreated by the Turks and forced to turn back. His clothes were filthy, he rode a humble donkey barefooted and his appeal to the peasantry was overwhelming. Throughout February and March 1095 he traversed through Orleannais, Champagne, Lorainne, Meuse, Aachen, and to Cologne, where he spent Easter. As he went he gathered disciples, most notable of which being Walter Sans Avoir, Rainald of Breis, Geoffrey Burel and Walter of Breteuil, and the Germans Orel and Gottschalk. By the time he reached Cologne his following numbered around 15,000 men, women and children, and many more joined him in Germany.

Realising the immense logistical challenge of maintaining and feeding such a vast array of peasants and lesser nobles, Peter decided to halt in Cologne for some time in order to continue preaching the cross and persuade some of the German nobility to join him. In Flanders and France the local nobility preferred to travel with the expedition of their Lord who was to go on Crusade, but no great German Prince was going to the Holy Land. Among the many Germans he persuaded to take the cross were several of the lesser nobility, such as Count Henry of Schwarzenberg, Walter of Teck and the three counts of Zimmern.