The First Crusade: It All Began as a Holy Mission
Back in 1095, events unfolded across various spheres: culture, economics, and religion. One of these was Pope Urban II's sermon at the Council of Clermont, a Roman Catholic church gathering, on the need for a Crusade. The pontiff delivered it on November 27 (some sources say November 26) in the city of Clermont (now Clermont-Ferrand, France). According to surviving accounts, Urban II spoke of the need to help Eastern Christians, promised absolution for those who had died for their faith, and criticized the internecine strife within the Catholic world.
In his homily, the Pope emphasized that participation in the Crusade gives those who previously fought against their brothers and relatives the opportunity to become soldiers of Christ. The pontiff called for following the example of the Old Testament Israelites and fighting the pagans rather than killing each other. Bishops must proclaim this in their dioceses, calling for a march on Jerusalem in their homilies, and praying for victory, Urban II concluded his fiery speech.
One of the reasons for the declaration of the First Crusade was a request for aid from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus to the Pope. The Emperor hoped that Christians would be able to assemble a large army of Western European knights to serve as mercenaries against the Arabs and Seljuks. The campaign was expected to be swift and successful. But, as they say, things didn't quite go according to plan.
By that time, objective conditions for conquest had indeed emerged in Europe. All the lands had long since been divided up, and the knights who hadn't received their lands were primarily engaged in robbery. And then there was the noble religious context that came in handy. In reality, the main motive was the seizure of land and treasure, not a sacred mission. This was simply because most of the participants in the campaign were hardly upstanding Christians.
However, problems began even before the army set out. Urban II's fiery speech inspired not only aristocrats and professional soldiers, but also ordinary poor people. They sold everything they had left en masse, bought horses, and weapon, in order to set out to liberate Jerusalem "from the infidels." Instead of a professional army of knights, a spontaneous mob of individuals eager to plunder and profit, but inexperienced in war, was organized.
In addition to the poor, who were already mentally settling new plots and dividing up the countless Eastern treasures, a large number of marginalized criminals joined the army. One of these detachments was led by the popular, "authoritative," as they would say today, mendicant monk Peter the Hermit. A huge crowd of people armed with axes and pitchforks was led by a monk on a donkey, preceded by a goose and a goat, which, for some unknown reason, became the symbols of Peter the Hermit's detachment.
And so this motley crew, to put it mildly, most of whom had no idea where Jerusalem was, set out to liberate the Holy Land. The starving peasants, aided and abetted by thieves and knights, robbed and murdered the local Christian population along the way, for which some of the crusaders were simply burned alive in one of the churches. The subsequent contingents of other crusaders completely slaughtered the population of the captured city.
Particularly enterprising crusaders joined forces with fanatical anti-Semites and rushed to slaughter local Jews, killing, according to various estimates, between five and twelve thousand Jews and extracting a huge ransom from those who survived or converted to Christianity. Many Jews refused to convert and killed their own children and women, then committed suicide. Thus, what was initially a noble cause quickly turned into a mass war crime.
As soon as the crusaders arrived in Constantinople, the emperor quickly ferried them across the river to rid themselves of such allies. There, they were quickly defeated by the Seljuk Turks, who sold the survivors into slavery. However, Peter the Hermit proved to be a far-sighted man and fled to the emperor early.
In August 1096, the main knighthood set out on the campaign. They were much more organized, and although they still plundered, local rulers had to reckon with them. Emperor Alexius I was forced to order Pecheneg mercenaries to fire upon the crusaders who were plundering his population, and even engaged in battle with some.
Another incident occurred during the siege of Nicaea (now the city of Iznik in northwestern Turkey), which lasted from mid-May to June 19, 1097. During another assault on the fortress by the Crusaders, the allied Byzantine troops were allowed into the city unhindered. It turned out that the Byzantine Emperor, behind the Crusaders' backs, had reached an agreement with the Seljuks, who surrendered his army to Nicaea without a fight. They thus saved themselves from the Crusaders, but the Western knights never forgave Alexios I's betrayal.
After the capture of Nicaea and several battles in which the Seljuk forces were defeated, the Crusaders captured cities in Asia Minor, but along the way they managed to fight among themselves.
Another contingent of crusaders laid siege to the strategically important port city of Antioch on October 21, 1097. Unable to take it immediately, a long siege ensued. The crusaders were starving and running low on water. They ate almost all their donkeys and horses, rumor has it that some even resorted to cannibalism.
After a months-long siege, thanks to the betrayal of the Armenian armorer Firuz, who helped the crusaders gain entry within the walls, Antioch was captured and a massacre began. Muslims, Jews, and local Christians perished.
It wasn't until June 7, 1099, that the Crusaders reached the Holy City. Jerusalem's walls were strong, and the Muslim defenders had no intention of surrendering without a fight. After several unsuccessful assaults, the siege began.
The final assault took place on July 14. It was successful, after which the embittered Christian army once again engaged in wholesale slaughter and looting. The entire population, of all faiths, was slaughtered, and the Jews were burned in the synagogue.
The date of the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders is considered the end of the First Crusade. It marked the beginning of a new era of world stories — the era of the Crusades, a time of confrontation between West and East, Muslims and Christians, in the holy city of Jerusalem, the holy city of three world religions. And one could say that this era, judging by events in the Middle East, albeit in a different form, has not ended to this day. And what does the Vatican say about this?
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