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79-649: The Historia belli sacri , also called the Historia de via Hierosolymis or Historia peregrinorum , is a chronicle of the First Crusade and the early years of the Crusader states written by an anonymous monk of the Abbey of Montecassino . It covers the years 1095–1131 and must have been mostly compiled around 1130. It is sometimes called the "Monte Cassino Chronicle" for simplicity. The Historia belli sacri

158-1094: A Turkish ambush led by the Seljuk Kilij Arslan I at the Battle of Civetot in October 1096. In what has become known as the Princes' Crusade, members of the high nobility and their followers embarked in late-summer 1096 and arrived at Constantinople between November and April the following year. This was a large feudal host led by notable Western European princes: southern French forces under Raymond IV of Toulouse and Adhemar of Le Puy ; men from Upper and Lower Lorraine led by Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin of Boulogne ; Italo-Norman forces led by Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred ; as well as various contingents consisting of northern French and Flemish forces under Robert Curthose of Normandy, Stephen of Blois , Hugh of Vermandois , and Robert II of Flanders . In total and including non-combatants,

237-525: A charismatic priest called Peter the Hermit . Peter was the most successful of the preachers of Urban's message, and developed an almost hysterical enthusiasm among his followers, although he was probably not an "official" preacher sanctioned by Urban at Clermont. It is commonly believed that Peter's followers consisted entirely of a massive group of untrained and illiterate peasants who did not even know where Jerusalem was, but there were also many knights among

316-633: A combined force of French, Aragonese and Catalan knights in the Siege of Barbastro , taking the city that had been in Muslim hands since the year 711. This had the full support of Alexander II, and a truce was declared in Catalonia with indulgences granted to the participants. It was a holy war but differed from the First Crusade in that there was no pilgrimage, no vow, and no formal authorisation by

395-537: A common identity and shared history based on tribe or ethnicity so they frequently united and divided during the 11th and 12th centuries. Although small, all developed an aristocratic military technique and, in 1031, the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba in southern Spain created the opportunity for the territorial gains that later became known as the Reconquista . In 1063, William VIII of Aquitaine led

474-447: A large enterprise was continent-wide. Estimates as to the size of the crusader armies have been given as 70,000 to 80,000 on the number who left Western Europe in the year after Clermont, and more joined in the three-year duration. Estimates for the number of knights range from 7,000 to 10,000; 35,000 to 50,000 foot soldiers; and including non-combatants a total of 60,000 to 100,000. But Urban's speech had been well-planned. He had discussed

553-404: A legation to Patriarch Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople, which ended in mutual excommunication and an East–West Schism . Early Christians were used to the employment of violence for communal purposes. A Christian theology of war inevitably evolved from the point when Roman citizenship and Christianity became linked. Citizens were required to fight against the empire's enemies. Dating from

632-797: A local level, the preaching of the First Crusade ignited the Rhineland massacres perpetrated against Jews. At the end of 1095 and the beginning of 1096, months before the departure of the official crusade in August, there were attacks on Jewish communities in France and Germany. In May 1096, Emicho of Flonheim (sometimes incorrectly known as Emicho of Leiningen) attacked the Jews at Speyer and Worms . Other unofficial crusaders from Swabia, led by Hartmann of Dillingen, along with French, English, Lotharingian and Flemish volunteers, led by Drogo of Nesle and William

711-519: A new emotional and personal piety that was not easily harnessed by the ecclesiastical and lay aristocracy. Typically, preaching would conclude with every volunteer taking a vow to complete a pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; they were also given a cross, usually sewn onto their clothes. Yaghi-Siyan In the 1080s most of Anatolia and Syria were ruled by two relatives of

790-505: A pilgrimage, and even so, many died and many more turned back. The pilgrims that survived these extremely dangerous journeys, “returned to the West weary and impoverished, with a dreadful tale to tell.” News of these deadly attacks on pilgrims as well as the persecution of the native Eastern Christians caused anger in Europe. News of these persecutions reached European Christians in the West in

869-773: Is based in large part on the equally anonymous Gesta Francorum and also incorporating fragments from the Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem , the Gesta Tancredi and other unknown texts. Although heavily reliant on the Gesta Francorum , it is an important source for the Italo-Norman crusaders. Like the histories of Robert the Monk and Guibert of Nogent 's Dei gesta per Francos , both of which were used as sources by its anonymous author,

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948-472: Is clear that the response to the speech was much greater than even the Pope, let alone Alexios, expected. On his tour of France, Urban tried to forbid certain people (including women, monks, and the sick) from joining the crusade, but found this nearly impossible. In the end, most who took up the call were not knights, but peasants who were not wealthy and had little in the way of fighting skills, in an outpouring of

1027-523: Is worse still and yet more distressing, clerics and monks and woe of unprecedented woes, even bishops are defiled with the sin of sodomy and it is now trumpeted abroad that one bishop has succumbed to this abominable sin. The emperor warned that if Constantinople fell to the Turks, not only would thousands more Christians be tortured, raped and murdered, but “the most holy relics of the Saviour,” gathered over

1106-596: The Great Seljuk Empire sultan Malik-Shah I : Anatolia was ruled by Suleiman ibn Qutulmish , the sultan's cousin, and Syria by Tutush I , the sultan's brother. Between the two regions was the principality of Philaretos Brachamios , who, while paying nominal allegiance to the Byzantine Empire, was de facto an independent ruler over the region that also included Antioch ( Turkish : Antakya ). Around 1084/1085, Suleiman succeeded in conquering

1185-533: The Historia belli sacri is "a serious and careful effort to rework the Gesta story and add to it significant information which is not found in any other source." It was, after all, "written in an age when there were still survivors of the First Crusade." There is a complete English translation. For a long time the only known manuscript of the Historia belli sacri was to be found in the library of Montecassino. It

1264-516: The Historia ′s accounts are more fanciful. It places all the leaders of the Crusade at the Council of Clermont , although they were certainly not all there. It also has them begging Pope Urban II to lead them personally. It says that at the siege of Antioch a miraculous image of Christ that could not be pierced by Turkish arrows appeared in the cathedral. More credibly, it says that after the siege,

1343-657: The Levant , there were no further substantive attempts to recover the Holy Land. Christian and Muslim states had been in conflict since the latter's founding in the 7th century. During the century following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632, Muslim forces captured Jerusalem and the Levant , North Africa , and most of the Iberian Peninsula , all of which had previously been under Christian rule. By

1422-584: The Slavs or Western Christians. Normans in Italy; Pechenegs , Serbs and Cumans to the north; and Seljuk Turks in the east all competed with the Empire, and to meet these challenges the emperors recruited mercenaries, even on occasion from their enemies. The Islamic world also experienced great success since its foundation in the 7th century, with major changes to come. The first waves of Turkic migration into

1501-456: The atabeg of Mosul for help. The crusaders knew they had to take the city before Kerbogha's reinforcements arrived. Bohemund secretly negotiated with one of Yağısiyan's guards, an Armenian convert named Firouz , and on 3 June he helped Bohemund's men to open the gates of the city to crusaders. On the night of June 3, 1098, the crusaders entered the city; Yağısiyan fled with his bodyguard, while his son Shams ad-Daulah stayed behind to defend

1580-658: The atabeg of Mosul . Egypt and much of Palestine were controlled by the Fatimids. The Fatimids, under the nominal rule of caliph al-Musta'li but actually controlled by vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah , lost Jerusalem to the Seljuks in 1073 but succeeded in recapturing the city in 1098 from the Artuqids , a smaller Turkish tribe associated with the Seljuks, just before the arrival of the crusaders. According to historian Jonathan Riley-Smith and Rodney Stark , Muslim authorities in

1659-475: The son of Malik Shah , his sons, Ridwan and Duqaq , fought for control of Syria, claiming Aleppo and Damascus , respectively. Yağısiyan, being the governor of a nearby city, became heavily involved in the ensuing power struggle in Syria. Although he collaborated with Ridwan to capture Urfa (Edessa) in 1096, next year he changed sides and supported Duqaq against Ridwan and his ally Sökmen . His army, however,

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1738-509: The 11th century, Christians were gradually reversing Islamic control of Iberia through the Reconquista , but their ties to the Holy Land had deteriorated. Muslim authorities in the Levant often enforced harsh rules against any overt expressions of the Christian faith. The First Crusade was the response of the Christian world to the expansion of Islam, through the Fatimids and Seljuks, into

1817-426: The 11th century, the population of Europe had increased greatly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish. The Catholic Church had become a dominant influence on Western civilization. Society was organized by manorialism and feudalism , political structures whereby knights and other nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rent from lands and manors. In

1896-683: The Archbishop of Cologne, did their best to protect the Jews. A decade before, the Bishop of Speyer had taken the step of providing the Jews of that city with a walled ghetto to protect them from Christian violence and given their chief rabbis the control of judicial matters in the quarter. Nevertheless, some also took money in return for their protection. The attacks may have originated in the belief that Jews and Muslims were equally enemies of Christ, and enemies were to be fought or converted to Christianity. The four main crusader armies left Europe around

1975-496: The Byzantine Empire was a historic centre of wealth, culture and military power. Under Basil II , the territorial recovery of the empire reached its furthest extent in 1025. The Empire's frontiers stretched east to Iran, Bulgaria and much of southern Italy were under control, and piracy in the Mediterranean Sea had been suppressed. Relations with the Empire's Islamic neighbours were no more quarrelsome than relations with

2054-519: The Carpenter , as well as many locals, joined Emicho in the destruction of the Jewish community of Mainz at the end of May. In Mainz, one Jewish woman killed her children rather than let the crusaders kill them. Chief rabbi Kalonymus Ben Meshullam committed suicide in anticipation of being killed. Emicho's company then went on to Cologne, and others continued on to Trier, Metz, and other cities. Peter

2133-532: The Christian camp and attacked foraging parties further afield. Yağısiyan knew from his informants that there were dissensions among the Christians; both Raymond IV of Toulouse and Bohemund of Taranto wanted the city for themselves. While Bohemund was away foraging on 29 December 1097, Raymond attacked but was pushed back by Yağısiyan's troops. On 30 December reinforcements from Duqaq were defeated by Bohemund's foraging party and retreated to Homs . Only after

2212-714: The Christian women of the city went to release the imprisoned Patriarch of Antioch , John VII , only to find that he could not stand, his legs having been weakened by so long a confinement. The chronicle ends with the death of Prince Bohemond II of Antioch . First Crusade In the Holy Land (1095–1291) Later Crusades (1291–1717) Northern (1147–1410) Against Christians (1209–1588) Popular (1096–1320) Period post-First Crusade Second Crusade Period post-Second Crusade Third Crusade Period post-Third Crusade Fourth Crusade Fifth Crusade Sixth Crusade and aftermath Seventh Crusade End of

2291-826: The Crusader states in the Levant The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades , initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages . The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic rule . While Jerusalem had been under Muslim rule for hundreds of years, by the 11th century the Seljuk takeover of the region threatened local Christian populations, pilgrimages from

2370-497: The Eastern churches in their time of need. Alexios and Urban had previously been in close contact in 1089 and after, and had discussed openly the prospect of the reunion of the Christian churches. There were signs of considerable cooperation between Rome and Constantinople in the years immediately before the crusade. In July 1095, Urban turned to his homeland of France to recruit men for the expedition. His travels there culminated in

2449-491: The Hermit also may have been involved in violence against the Jews, and an army led by a priest named Folkmar attacked Jews further east in Bohemia. Coloman of Hungary had to deal with the problems that the armies of the First Crusade caused during their march across his country towards the Holy Land in 1096. He crushed two crusader hordes that had been pillaging the kingdom. Emicho's army eventually continued into Hungary but

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2528-560: The Holy Land and Byzantium. In Western Europe, Jerusalem was increasingly seen as worthy of penitential pilgrimages . While the Seljuk hold on Jerusalem was weak (the group later lost the city to the Fatimids), returning pilgrims reported difficulties and the oppression of Christians. The Byzantine need for military support coincided with an increase in the willingness of the western European warrior class to accept papal military command. By

2607-401: The Holy Land often enforced harsh rules "against any open expressions of the Christian faith": In 1026 Richard of Saint-Vanne was stoned to death after he was seen saying Mass. Muslim officials also ignored the constant robberies and massacres of Christian pilgrims, such as an incident in 1064 in which Muslims ambushed four German bishops and a party of several thousand pilgrims as they entered

2686-555: The Holy Land, slaughtering two-thirds of them The persecution of Christians became even worse after the Seljuk Turks invasion. Villages occupied by Turks along the route to Jerusalem began exacting tolls on Christian pilgrims. In principle, the Seljuks allowed pilgrims access to Jerusalem, but they often imposed huge tariffs and condoned local attacks. Many pilgrims were kidnapped and sold into slavery while others were tortured. Soon only large, well-armed groups would dare to attempt

2765-665: The Hungarians and may have captured Belgrade. At Niš , the Byzantine governor tried to supply them, but Peter had little control over his followers and Byzantine troops were needed to quell their attacks. Peter arrived at Constantinople in August, where his army joined with the one led by Walter, which had already arrived, as well as separate bands of crusaders from France, Germany, and Italy. Another army of Bohemians and Saxons did not make it past Hungary before splitting up. Peter's and Walter's unruly mob began to pillage outside

2844-575: The Islamic world disregarded the world beyond, so that, when the First Crusade arrived, it came as a surprise. Malik-Shah was succeeded in the Anatolian Sultanate of Rûm by Kilij Arslan , and in Syria by his brother Tutush I who started a civil war against Berkyaruq to become sultan himself. When Tutush was killed in 1095, his sons Ridwan and Duqaq inherited Aleppo and Damascus , respectively, further dividing Syria amongst emirs antagonistic towards each other, as well as Kerbogha ,

2923-531: The MS is not only a copy of the Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem , usually attributed to Pons of Baladun and Raymond of Aguilers , but rather a compilation, by an unknown editor, of portions of three distinct works: the Historia Francorum (for the period up to the siege of Antioch ), the Historia belli sacri (for the period from there to the conquest of Ramla ) and the Gesta Francorum (for

3002-593: The Middle East enmeshed Arab and Turkic history from the 9th   century. The status quo in Western Asia was challenged by later waves of Turkish migration, particularly the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in the 10th   century. These were a minor ruling clan from Transoxania. They converted to Islam and migrated to Iran to seek their fortune. In the following two decades they conquered Iran, Iraq and

3081-699: The Near East. The Seljuks and their followers were Sunni Muslims, which led to conflict in Palestine and Syria with the Shi'ite Fatimid Caliphate . The Seljuks were nomads, Turkish-speaking, and occasionally shamanistic, unlike their sedentary, Arabic-speaking subjects. This was a difference that weakened power structures when combined with the Seljuks' habitual governance of territory based on political preferment and competition between independent princes rather than geography. Romanos IV Diogenes attempted to suppress

3160-421: The Seljuks' sporadic raiding, but was defeated at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the only time in history that a Byzantine emperor became the prisoner of a Muslim commander. The battle was a stinging setback that presaged notable Seljuk gains, and contributed to the call for the First Crusade. Key cities such as Nicaea and Antioch were lost in 1081 and 1086 respectively, cities that were especially famous in

3239-532: The West due to their historical significance and would later also be targets of reconquest by the crusader armies. From 1092, the status quo in the Middle East disintegrated following the death of the effective ruler of the Seljuk Empire, Nizam al-Mulk . This was closely followed by the deaths of the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah and the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir Billah . Wracked by confusion and division,

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3318-640: The West, and the Byzantine Empire itself. The earliest initiative for the First Crusade began in 1095 when Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military support from the Council of Piacenza in the empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. This was followed later in the year by the Council of Clermont , during which Pope Urban II supported the Byzantine request for military assistance and also urged faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem . This call

3397-707: The appointed time in August 1096. They took different routes to Constantinople , some through Eastern Europe and the Balkans, some crossing the Adriatic Sea. Coloman of Hungary allowed Godfrey and his troops to cross Hungary only after his brother, Baldwin, was offered as a hostage to guarantee his troops' good conduct. They gathered outside the Roman-era Walls of Constantinople between November 1096 and April 1097. Hugh of Vermandois arrived first, followed by Godfrey, Raymond, and Bohemond. Recruitment for such

3476-470: The beginning of the siege did Ridwan decide to leave Aleppo and challenge the crusaders. Ridwan's army was defeated in the Battle of the Lake of Antioch on 8–9 February 1098. While the crusader army was away from the city fighting Ridwan, Yağısiyan marched out to attack the foot-soldiers left behind to defend the camp, but he too was pushed back when the victorious crusaders returned. In March Yağısiyan ambushed

3555-422: The centuries, would be lost. “Therefore in the name of God... we implore you to bring this city all the faithful soldiers of Christ... in your coming you will find your reward in heaven, and if you do not come, God will condemn you.” The major ecclesiastical impetuses behind the First Crusade were the Council of Piacenza and subsequent Council of Clermont , both held in 1095 by Pope Urban II , and resulted in

3634-562: The church. Shortly before the First Crusade, Urban II had encouraged the Iberian Christians to take Tarragona , using much of the same symbolism and rhetoric that was later used to preach the crusade to the people of Europe. The Italo-Normans were successful in seizing much of Southern Italy and Sicily from the Byzantines and North African Arabs in the decades before the First Crusade. This brought them into conflict with

3713-481: The citadel. During his escape, Yağısiyan fell from his horse, and as his guards found it impossible to bring the injured governor with them, they left him on the ground and rode away without him. He was found by an Armenian who cut off his head and sent it as a gift to Bohemund. Antioch surrendered on 30 June. Antioch was claimed by both Bohemund and Raymond, with Raymond stationed in Yağısiyan's residence and Bohemund in

3792-502: The city from the Philaretos but when he tried to expand his domain to Aleppo in 1086, he was killed in battle against Tutush who proceeded to annex the city on behalf of Malik-Shah I. Yağısiyan was appointed as the governor of the city by the sultan the following year. Malik-Shah I died in 1092, and his brother at Damascus, Tutush I, granted Yağısiyan more territory around Manbij and Turbessel . When Tutush died in 1095 fighting

3871-466: The city in search of supplies and food, prompting Alexios to hurriedly ferry the gathering across the Bosporus one week later. After crossing into Asia Minor, the crusaders split up and began to pillage the countryside, wandering into Seljuk territory around Nicaea. The far more-experienced Turks massacred most of this group. Some Italian and German crusaders were defeated at the Siege of Xerigordon at

3950-456: The coming attacks. When the news about the approaching army of the First Crusade reached Antioch, Yağısıyan whose army of 6,000 was no match for the Crusaders and he tried to form a united front to defend Antioch. But because of jealousies between the Seljuk governors and the anarchy in the main sultanate after the death of Malik-Shah, he got very little support. Sökmen, whose principality

4029-485: The contemporary histories of the First Crusade, the Historia belli sacri provides the most information on the negotiations between the Crusaders and the Fatimid Caliphate . The Historia is also the only source to go into detail concerning Bohemond of Taranto 's exceptionally long journey through the Balkans to Constantinople, which took six months with a comparatively small army, and after which he lodged in

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4108-442: The crimes being committed against Christians in the east; and about a new kind of war, an armed pilgrimage, and of rewards in heaven, where remission of sins was offered to any who might die in the undertaking. They do not all specifically mention Jerusalem as the ultimate goal. However, it has been argued that Urban's subsequent preaching reveals that he expected the expedition to reach Jerusalem all along. According to one version of

4187-526: The crusade at Piacenza, but the only record of which is by Bernold of St. Blasien in his Chronicon . The five versions of the speech differ widely from one another regarding particulars, but all versions except that in the Gesta Francorum agree that Urban talked about the violence of European society and the necessity of maintaining the Peace of God; about helping the Greeks, who had asked for assistance; about

4266-464: The crusade with Adhemar of Le Puy and Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse , and instantly the expedition had the support of two of southern France's most important leaders. Adhemar himself was present at the council and was the first to "take the cross". During the rest of 1095 and into 1096, Urban spread the message throughout France, and urged his bishops and legates to preach in their own dioceses elsewhere in France, Germany, and Italy as well. However, it

4345-520: The crusaders began the Siege of Antioch , capturing the city in June 1098. Jerusalem, then under the Fatimids , was reached in June 1099 and the Siege of Jerusalem resulted in the city being taken by assault from 7 June to 15 July 1099, during which its residents were ruthlessly massacred. A Fatimid counterattack was repulsed later that year at the Battle of Ascalon , ending the First Crusade. Afterwards,

4424-411: The crusaders who were bringing wood and other material back from the port of St. Simeon; when the crusader camp at Antioch heard that Raymond and Bohemund had been killed, there was mass confusion, and Yağısiyan attacked the rest of the army under Godfrey of Bouillon . Bohemund and Raymond soon returned and Yağısiyan was once more pushed back into the city. At this time the governor turned to Kerbogha ,

4503-496: The end of September. Meanwhile, Walter and Peter's followers, who, although for the most part untrained in battle but led by about 50 knights, fought the Turks at the Battle of Civetot in October 1096. The Turkish archers destroyed the crusader army, and Walter was among the dead. Peter, who was absent in Constantinople at the time, later joined the second wave of crusaders, along with the few survivors of Civetot. At

4582-445: The few years after the Battle of Manzikert . A Frankish eyewitness says: "Far and wide they [Muslim Turks] ravaged cities and castles together with their settlements. Churches were razed down to the ground. Of the clergyman and monks whom they captured, some were slaughtered while others were with unspeakable wickedness given up, priests and all, to their dire dominion and nuns—alas for the sorrow of it!—were subjected to their lusts." It

4661-472: The forces are estimated to have numbered as many as 100,000. The crusader forces gradually arrived in Anatolia. With Kilij Arslan absent, a Frankish attack and Byzantine naval assault during the Siege of Nicaea in June 1097 resulted in an initial crusader victory. In July, the crusaders won the Battle of Dorylaeum , fighting Turkish lightly armoured mounted archers. After a difficult march through Anatolia,

4740-627: The majority of the crusaders returned home. Four Crusader states were established in the Holy Land: the Kingdom of Jerusalem , the County of Edessa , the Principality of Antioch , and the County of Tripoli . The Crusader presence remained in the region in some form until the loss of the last major Crusader stronghold in the Siege of Acre in 1291. After this loss of all Crusader territory in

4819-404: The mobilization of Western Europe to go to the Holy Land. Emperor Alexios, who worried about the advances of the Seljuks into his territory, sent envoys to the Council of Piacenza in March 1095 to ask Urban for aid against the invading Turks. Urban responded favourably, perhaps hoping to heal the East-West Schism of forty years earlier, and to reunite the Church under papal primacy by helping

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4898-405: The papacy attempted to mitigate it. Pope Alexander II developed recruitment systems via oaths for military resourcing that Gregory VII further extended across Europe. These were deployed by the Church in the Christian conflicts with Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula and for the Norman conquest of Sicily . Gregory VII went further in 1074, planning a display of military power to reinforce

4977-430: The papacy leading to a campaign against them by Pope Leo IX who they defeated at the Battle of Civitate . Nevertheless, when they invaded Muslim Sicily in 1059, they did so under the papal banner Invexillum sancti Petrior , or banner of St. Peter. Robert Guiscard captured the Byzantine city of Bari in 1071 and campaigned along the Eastern Adriatic coast around Dyrrachium in 1081 and 1085. Since its founding,

5056-459: The peasants, including Walter Sans Avoir , who was lieutenant to Peter and led a separate army. Lacking military discipline, Peter's fledgling army quickly found itself in trouble despite the fact they were still in Christian territory. The army led by Walter plundered the Belgrade and Zemun areas, and arrived in Constantinople with little resistance. Meanwhile, the army led by Peter, which marched separately from Walter's army, also fought with

5135-504: The period from 1050 until 1080, the Gregorian Reform movement developed increasingly more assertive policies, eager to increase its power and influence. This prompted conflict with eastern Christians rooted in the doctrine of papal supremacy . The Eastern church viewed the pope as only one of the five patriarchs of the Church, alongside the patriarchates of Alexandria , Antioch , Constantinople and Jerusalem . In 1054 differences in custom, creed and practice spurred Pope Leo IX to send

5214-531: The period from Ramleh to the battle of Ascalon ). The Historia belli 's section begins with this account of the crusaders' arrival at Antioch: On the next day, they came as far as Antioch, at midday, on the fourth day of the week, which is the twelfth kalends of November [21 October], and miraculously we besieged the gates of the city. Crastina autem die, pervenerunt usque ad Antiochiam, ad medietatem diei, in quarta feria, quod est duodecimo kalendas Novembris, et obsedimus mirabiliter portas civitatis. Of

5293-446: The principle of papal sovereignty in a holy war supporting Byzantium against the Seljuks, but was unable to build support for this. Theologian Anselm of Lucca took the decisive step towards an authentic crusader ideology, stating that fighting for legitimate purposes could result in the remission of sins. On the Iberian Peninsula, there was no significant Christian polity. The Christian realms of León , Navarre and Catalonia lacked

5372-448: The speech, the enthusiastic crowd responded with cries of Deus lo volt !–– God wills it. The great French nobles and their trained armies of knights were not the first to undertake the journey towards Jerusalem. Urban had planned the departure of the first crusade for 15 August 1096, the Feast of the Assumption , but months before this, a number of unexpected armies of peasants and petty nobles set off for Jerusalem on their own, led by

5451-400: The suburb of Sancti Argenti for some time. It also records how at the beginning of the siege of Antioch , the local governor, Yaghi-Siyan , expelled the Christians from the city, and how a certain Hilary, a Muslim convert to Christianity, betrayed the Crusaders by divulging their weaknesses to the relieving army of Ridwan of Aleppo , only to be killed when the army was driven off. Several of

5530-430: The ten-day Council of Clermont, where on 27 November he gave an impassioned sermon to a large audience of French nobles and clergy. There are five versions of the speech recorded by people who may have been at the council ( Baldric of Dol , Guibert of Nogent , Robert the Monk , and Fulcher of Chartres ) or who went on crusade (Fulcher and the anonymous author of the Gesta Francorum ), as well as other versions found in

5609-574: The way to and recovery of Antioch and Jerusalem'). A second fragment of the Historia belli sacri was discovered in Latin manuscript 6041 A of the Bibliothèque nationale de France . This fourteenth-century Italian manuscript once belonged to François Roger de Gaignières . The catalogue of the Bibliothèque's Latin section, published in 1774, lists the third document of MS 6041 A as " a history of Jerusalem by Pons of Baladun and Raymond, canon of Le Puy" ( Pontii de Baladuno et Raimundi, canonici Podiensis, Historia Hierosolymitana ). The actual third document in

5688-406: The works of later historians (such as William of Malmesbury and William of Tyre ). All of these versions were written after Jerusalem had been captured, and it is difficult to know what was actually said versus what was recreated in the aftermath of the successful crusade. The only contemporary records are a few letters written by Urban in 1095. It is also thought that Urban also may have preached

5767-659: The works of the 4th-century theologian Augustine of Hippo , a doctrine of holy war developed. Augustine wrote that aggressive war was sinful, but war could be justified if proclaimed by a legitimate authority such as a king or bishop, it was defensive or for the recovery of lands, and it did not involve excessive violence. The breakdown of the Carolingian Empire in Western Europe created a warrior caste who now had little to do but fight amongst themselves. Violent acts were commonly used for dispute resolution, and

5846-428: Was also defeated by Coloman, at which point, Emicho's followers dispersed. Some eventually joined the main armies, although Emicho himself went home. Many of the attackers seem to have wanted to force the Jews to convert, although they were also interested in acquiring money from them. Physical violence against Jews was never part of the church hierarchy's official policy for crusading, and the Christian bishops, especially

5925-416: Was defeated. He had to accept Ridwan's supremacy. Later in 1097, Ridwan quarreled with his tutor Janah ad-Dawla , with whom Yağısiyan had a personal vendetta, and Yağısiyan became more amenable to an alliance. This was completed by marrying his daughter to Ridwan. The two were about to attack Shaizar when news of the crusade arrived, and all parties retreated to their own territories in order to prepare for

6004-412: Was far to the east and far from the crusades' route, refused to assist Yağısıyan. Even Ridwan, whose domain was next to Antioch, sent only a small number of troops. According to David Nicolle , mistrust between Yağısiyan and Ridwan influenced the First Crusade. Over the winter of 1097–98, Antioch was besieged by the Crusaders, and Yağısiyan sought help from Duqaq. He frequently sent out sorties against

6083-525: Was first edited by Jean Mabillon for his Museum Italicum (Paris, 1687). This edition was re-published in the Recueil des historiens des croisades (RHC) under the rubric Tudebodus imitatus et continuatus , since it was regarded by the editors as an "imitation" and "continuation" of Petrus Tudebodus ' Historia de Hierosolymitano itinere . The most recent edition gives it the title Hystoria de via et recuperatione Antiochiae atque Ierusolymarum ('history of

6162-555: Was in this climate that the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos wrote a letter to Robert II of Flanders saying: The holy places are desecrated and destroyed in countless ways. Noble matrons and their daughters, robbed of everything, are violated one after another, like animals. Some [of their attackers] shamelessly place virgins in front of their own mothers and force them to sing wicked and obscene songs until they have finished having their ways with them... men of every age and description, boys, youths, old men, nobles, peasants and what

6241-577: Was met with an enthusiastic popular response across all social classes in western Europe. Mobs of predominantly poor Christians numbering in the thousands, led by Peter the Hermit , a French priest, were the first to respond. What has become known as the People's Crusade passed through Germany and indulged in wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities, including the Rhineland massacres . On leaving Byzantine-controlled territory in Anatolia , they were annihilated in

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