Notes

In 1096, a French monk named Peter the Hermit pulled together a disorganized army of peasants and soldiers with his fiery sermons. Together, they plunged eastward toward Constantinople in what came to be known as the People’s Crusade. Peter stayed behind in Constantinople as his army crossed over into Anatolia. Unfortunately, the People’s Crusade did not turn out well. Nearly all of the crusaders were killed by Turkish soldiers.

Meanwhile, European lords had organized a proper military force that comprised four major armies. The first army, led by the French lord Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, then a part of the Holy Roman Empire, set out in August 1096. Four months later, they finally reached the seat of the Byzantine Empire on the Black Sea.

The other three armies hailed from kingdoms in southern Italy, southern France, and Belgium. The leaders of each were mainly French lords, and most of the soldiers were Frenchmen. Not a single king rode in the First Crusade.

By 1097, all four armies had reached Constantinople, where they formed a combined fighting force that numbered nearly 30,000. With a promise to restore any lands that they conquered to the Byzantine emperor, the Crusaders rallied and continued eastward to confront the Muslim Turks.The Crusades moved people across Europe to take up arms against the groups European Christians called infidels. In 1212, religious zeal as well as poverty gave rise to what came to be known as the Children’s Crusade. Although historians debate the events and the participants surrounding this phenomenon, most agree that at least two youths from France and Germany did set in motion an unusual expedition to the Holy Land that year.