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The People's Crusade and First Crusade

Peter the Hermit and the People's Crusade

eter the Hermit was eager to reach the Holy Land and started his own Crusade. Peter was a French monk who had previously tried to get to Jerusalem but had turned back because of the problems caused by the Turks. After hearing Pope Urban's speech he began travelling around France and Germany preaching and gathering an army of ordinary people. His army of followers were eager to go to Jerusalem with promises of absolution for their sins and freedom from a life of hunger and deprivation.

The army's journey across land was not without its problems due to the huge number of people travelling at the same time. The army reached Semlin in Hungary but the inhabitants were not prepared for the large number of extra mouths to feed because the harvests had not yet been brought in. The crusaders started stealing food from the surrounding area and some were killed when the Hungarians took up arms against them.

When the army was nearing Byzantine it was attacked by professional soldiers after a dispute and almost a quarter of Peter's men were killed. At Constantinople the Emperor Alexius welcomed the army but soon ordered them to move on due to their lack of discipline and repeated attacks and thefts from surrounding villages. Alexius warned Peter to wait for better trained troops to arrive before attacking the Turks but was ignored.

The army camped at Cibotos where it was decided to wait for the Turks to attack. But a group led by Geoffrey Burel, tired of waiting spurred the army into action and went in search of the Turks instead. The undisciplined army soon fell into an ambush and turned an ran. The Turks had the advantage and chased the Crusaders back to their camp killing many of them. A couple of thousand managed to escape back to a castle near the sea-shore, where after a brief siege they were rescued by Alexius' warships once he had received news of their disaster. Peter's Crusade was over.

The First Crusade

No kings took part in the First Crusade; it was left to the more important barons of Europe and by August of 1096 they had made their plans and began their journeys to the Holy Land.

Several groups of Crusaders left Europe taking different routes to the Holy Land. If they had all taken one route that route would have run out of supplies to feed the armies. Taking several routes meant that there would hopefully be the supplies needed to feed the Crusaders all the way to the Holy Land.

The groups were led by: -

  • Hugh of Vermandios, the son of Henry I of France.
  • Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lorraine and his cousin Baldwin of le Bourg.
  • Robert, duke of Normandy, eldest son of William the Conqueror, Robert count of Flanders and Stephen, count of Blois, who was married to Adela, the daughter of William the Conqueror.
  • Raymond, count of Toulouse.
  • Bohemund, Prince of Taranto and his nephew Tancred.

Leaders of the First Crusade

Hugh of Vermandios

Hugh of Vermandios was the son of Henry I, King of France. Hugh was the highest ranking noble to take part in the First Crusade but did not have that much wealth and no reputation for fighting. Taking part in the Crusade may have been a means to improve his wealth and position. Hugh was the first of the nobles to start the Crusade and travelled down Italy to Bari, a coastal town near the heel of the country. His sea crossing to Durres (Albania) ended in disaster when a storm hit the ships and many drowned but Hugh managed to survive. The Greeks kept Hugh virtually a prisoner as he and his surviving Crusaders were escorted to Constantinople.

Godfrey de Bouillon

Godfrey de Bouillon was the second son of Eustace II, the Norman Count of Boulogne. Godfrey was chosen as the ruler of Jerusalem in 1099 after the crusaders of the First Crusade took control of the city. Godfrey refused to wear a golden crown in Jerusalem where his Saviour had only worn a crown of thorns. He wanted to be known as advocate or lay defender of the Holy Sepulchre rather than King. Shortly after the crusaders had taken Jerusalem the separate Muslim armies overcame their differences in order to rid their home of the Christian army. Egypt supplied the largest number of men. The huge Muslim army made its way towards Jeruslem. Godfrey was aware of the threat and managed to put together an army of his own. The two armies met at Ascalon where the Muslim army was defeated by the much smaller Christian force. This was the last battle of the First Crusade. Godfrey died in July 1100 possibly from typhoid. His brother Baldwin became the next King of Jerusalem.

Baldwin of Boulogne

Baldwin of Boulogne was the brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, the first King of Jerusalem. Baldwin took control of the area of Edessa and became the count of Edessa in 1098. When Godfrey died on 18th July 1100 the post of ruler f Jerusalem became vacant. The head of the Church in Jerusalem, Dagobert of Pisa, claimed that the Church itself should rule and as he was its representative he should have the job, but Baldwin disagreed. With a force of a thousand or so men Baldwin travelled to Jerusalem to claim the throne for himself. The people of Jerusalem chose Baldwin as they recognised the need for a strong leader who could defend the city. Baldwin, unlike his brother, was happy to be called King of Jerusalem and to wear a crown.

Bohemund

Bohemund (or Bohemond) of Taranto was a leader of a Norman army from southern Italy and Sicily who joined the First Crusade along with his nephew Tancred. He became Bohemund I, Prince of Antioch in 1099 after Antioch had fallen to the Crusaders. His actions went against an oath he had taken promising to hand over captured lands to Alexius Comnenus of Byzantine. Bohemond was captured by Muslims in 1100 and held for ransom and was freed in 1103 to return to Europe where he married the daughter of Philip I of France.

To be completed....

See the timeline below or this graphical version for more detailed information.

Episode Events

1095

At the Council of Piacenza a delegation visited Pope Urban II led by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus to raise the problems he was having fighting the Muslims in the East. Pope Urban removed the excommunication that had been placed on the Emperor by Pope Gregory and promised to help.
On the last day of the Council or Clemont Pope Urban II preached about the oppression being inflicted on the Christians in the Middle East by the Muslim Seljuks. Christian churches were being destroyed and Christians attacked. The Pope called for the Christians in the West to help.

1096

Following Pope Urban's speech at Clermont Peter the Hermit, a simple man with a powerful ability to move people by his words, started preaching for Christians to help their fellow Christians in the East. He started to gain a large number of followers eager to go to Jerusalem with promises of absolution and freedom from a life of hunger and depravation. His followers were poor, not prepared for the journey and not armed.
On Holy Saturday, the 12th of April, Peter the Hermit arrived in Cologne and preached to the Germans for a Crusade. He was eager for some nobility to join his ranks as so far he had only attracted peasants including women and children. The French part of his army was led by Walter Sans Avoir. Walter was not wiliing to wait in Cologne and with a number of crusaders left to travel on to Hungary.
Peter the Hermit's army of ordinary people was large and it needed feeding. One of the more noble members of the army was Walter Sans Avoir, also known as Walter the Penniless. When the army reached Cologne in April Peter decided to halt the army to take advantage of the good supply of food. Walter was impatient and with a small section of the army continued on. They passed through Hungary but at the town of Semlin a dispute broke out when some of his men stole food. When his men were refused food at Belgrade because the harvest had not yet been gathered Walter's army began pillaging the surrounding area. Finally Alexius Comnenus sent supplies and an escort to guard the Crusaders as they marched to Constantinople. The guard ensured that the Crusaders didn't cause any more trouble. [1]
As the army of crusaders moved east they entered many Jewish communities. Many of the Westerners were unable to distinguish the Jews from Muslims and tensions arose. At first the Jews were able to move the army on with bribes but finally violence erupted. First at Speyer, and then in the city of Mainz the crusaders massacred indiscriminately. At Mainz the attackers were led by Count Emich of Leiningen, a German.
At Constantinople the Emperor Alexius welcomed Peter's army but there were too many people and no provision had been made for them. There was a general lack of discipline that resulted in repeated attacks and thefts from surrounding villages. Alexius warned Peter to wait for better trained troops to arrive before moving on but the pressure of the army was so great on Constantinople that they were forced to move before help could arrive.
The People's Crusaders were shipped across the Bosporus to a disused army base at Civetot. From there they attacked the surrounding areas but they had little affect.
While the People's Crusade led by Peter the Hermit was being crushed in the Holy Land, preparations for the First Crusade carried on in Europe. Those leaders involved were Raymond of Toulouse, Hughes Count of Vermandois, Robert Count of Flanders, Robert Duke of Normandy and Etienne Count of Blois. The leaders arranged to meet at Constantinople and set off taking different routes. Some followed the path across Europe taken by Peter the Hermit, while others took a more southerly routes via the Alps and the Adriatic.
Hugh of Vermandios was the first of the barons to reach Constantinople. His army had travelled via Italy and Greece using ships rather than across land like the other barons. [2]
The Turks attacked the People's Crusades in their base at Civetot and ended their Crusade.

1097

When the crusaders arrived at Constantinople they were greeted by Emperor Alexius. The Emperor was happy for the crusaders to capture areas of the Holy Land but he wanted the land to be under his control. Alexius persuaded the Leaders of the crusaders to swear an oath of allegiance to him and to hand over the land they captured. They could however be allowed to live on and rule that land but not own it.
Kilij Arslan, the Seldjuk Sultan, after easily defeating the army of the People's Crusade underestimated the strength of the Crusaders who were in Constantinople. Arslan had trouble on his eastern borders and had taken his army away from Nicaea which he thought was protected well enough. When word reached him of the advance by the Crusaders on the city his army was too far away to prevent the start of the siege.
The Crusaders began their campaign with a siege of the city of Nicaea. The walls of the city were several miles long and as it lay on the eastern shore of a large lake a section of the walls rose out of the water. The Crusaders surrounded the city but were unable to gain entry. Attempts at undermining the walls were unsuccessful. Towards the end of May the Turks attacked the Crusaders and inflicted heavy losses but were beaten back. When it was discovered the the city was getting supplies from across the lake the Emporer Alexius sent a number of boats to prevent any further shipments getting through. This was the final straw for the defenders inside the city and on June 19th moments before the Crusaders launched an attack they surrendered. But they did not surrender to the Crusaders but to the Emperor instead. This infuriated the Crusaders who were expecting a large haul of treasure from the city. Alexius treated the captured Turks well and allowed many to buy their own freedom. But the city was important for the Crusaders as control of it ensured they could not be attacked as they moved further east. [3]
The Crusaders defeated an army led by Kilij Arslan, the Seljuk Sultan of Rum, who wanted revenge for the capture of Nicaea. In the battle many of the Crusaders were killed but the Turks were forced to flee and abandon their tents and treasure after being surprised by the arrival of a second Crusader army. After a couple of days rest the army continued south east but were short of water. At Heraclea a Turkish army was defeated and the Crusaders would the supplies they needed. [2]
In October of 1097 the Crusaders had reached Antioch. The march had been long and difficult and many had died or deserted due to starvation, diseases and the very wet weather. At once they laid siege to the city. The Turks in the city were prepared and waited to be rescued. [3]

1098

At the end of May, after a hard winter where the Crusaders has made no real gains, Stephen of Blois decided to abandon the Crusade and return home. He assumed that the Crusaders would not succeed and his excuse was that he was ill. But the Crusaders did succeed and in June, the city of Antioch fell. By the tiime he had returned to France, news of his desertion had already arrived.
The siege of Antioch was ended not by force but by betrayal. A hand full of Crusaders climbed a ladder into the city and simply opened the gates from the inside. The hoard of the Christian army surged into the city killing anyone or anything in their way. The destruction was brutal and no mercy was shown. As soon as the Crusaders were in the city the situation changed. Outside a Moslem army arrived and in turn besieged the city. Some Crusaders managed to escape over the walls and flee but the majority were trapped without food in the city. [3]
Spurred on by the find of the Spear of Longinus, the spear that was supposed to have pierced Jesus on the cross, the Crusaders emerged from the city of Antioch to face the Moslems. The Moslems were defeated, many being killed and many fleeing. After the battle the ownership of the city was disputed. Bohemund and Raymond of Toulouse argued over its possession and after several months of debate Raymond accepted Bohemund's right to it. In truth, the city should have been handed over to Emporer Alexius. [3]

1099

After a delay of many months the crusaders under the leadership of Raymond of Toulouse left Antioch and headed south towards Jerusalem. [2]
The Crusader army reached Masyaf, where a treaty was agreed. The Crusaders agreed to continue their march rather than capture or destroy the town. [4]
Count Raymond sent a small part of his army to attack the port of Tortosa, now called Tartus, on the Syrian coast. The Criusaders lit many fires around the port to make believe their number was greater than it was. Fooled by the deception, the governor of the port, and his garrison, fled by sea leaving the port open for the Crusaders to capture. The port was strategically important and a boost to the Crusaders' success. [4]
A year after their victory at Antioch the remaining Crusaders finally reached Jerusalem, their goal. They camp outside of the city and begin a siege. [5]
The Crusaders capture Jerusalem. When they ended the siege and entered the city they murdered non-Christians including Muslims and Jews and forced many to leave. [6]
A week after Jeruslam was captured by the Crusaders Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen as its first ruler.
The driving force behind the capture of Jerusalem, Pope Urban II, died just weeks after the city had fallen.
The last battle of the First Crusade was fought between the Christians and Muslims at Ascalon. Led by Godfrey of Bouillon, the king of Jerusalem, the heavily out-numbered Christian army used their heavy armour to good affect. The Muslim army consisted mainly of Egyptians intent of driving the Christians out of Jerusalem. [6]
See Also

Event Participants and Locations

Selection of references used:

  • 1: Alfred Duggan, The Story of the Crusades
  • 2: Z.N. Brooke, A History of Europe
  • 3: J.D.Griffith Davies, England in the Medieval Ages, 1928
  • 4: Steven Runciman, The First Crusade
  • 5: C.H.Frith, Cromwell, 1935, Mackays Limited Chatham (1935)
  • 6: Alan & Veronica Palmer, Pimlico Chronology of Britsh History, ISBN:0-7126-7331-8

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