THE FIRST CRUSADE

THE ARMED PILGRIMAGE that later generations would call the First Crusade unleashed a massive movement in the west, and fascinated both contemporary annalists and later historians. With the exception of a period of persecution by the Egyptian Fatimid Caliph al-Ḥākim in the early eleventh century, Christians had, in fact, been able to visit Jerusalem without hindrance, and Muslim, Jewish and Christian peoples lived side by side under a tolerant Muslim rule, although the situation became more difficult during the periodic Seljuk incursions. In Europe, however, the pope and emperor had been in armed conflict for a generation, and in Francia and Germany, the feuding and local warfare of a growing number of armed knights trying to secure their own land and position had escaped the control of princely rulers and was having catastrophic consequences for the peasantry and the church, often the defenceless target for unlicenced brutality. In one sense, the First Crusade was an extension of the “Peace of God”, the attempt led by the church, but also taken up by princes for their own good political reasons, to lessen and control the ferocious and dangerous feuding that characterised the eleventh century.

Pope Urban ii's call mobilised immense numbers of people from all social classes. The “People's Crusade” of ordinary folk, who demonstrated their Christian fervour by massacring Jewish communities across Germany and Hungary, were slaughtered by the Seljuk Turks when they crossed the Bosphorus. The more formidable army of the princes arrived in 1097, and was given the assistance of its Byzantine hosts, after the emperor had first secured the agreement of the leaders that anywhere conquered that had once been part of the empire would be returned to Constantinople's rule. It is impossible to know the size of this army, but it is clear that the initial force was, by the standards of the times, very large. An array of princes of the second order had brought significant forces, chiefly from Francia, Burgundy, Provence, Lorraine, Flanders, and Italy. There were no leaders of royal rank. It is probable that many were motivated by religious fervour, recognising the big sacrifices many had to make to come, but for some there may have been calculations of self-interest.