Sieges, starvation, and salvation: the First Crusade explained

In 1095, Pope Urban II called for an armed pilgrimage to retake the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

This would be the first of many such military campaigns known as 'crusades'. Over the next two centuries, European Christians made repeated attempts to recapture Jerusalem and other parts of the Middle East from Muslim control.

The First Crusade was a pivotal event in medieval history, and it has been the subject of much scholarly debate over the years.

Pope Urban II's call to crusade in 1095 was said to be made in response to the Muslim capture of Jerusalem in AD 637.

However, while was a significant blow to Christian pilgrims, who had previously been able to freely visit the city, it had been over 400 years since this had happened.

Alternatively, modern historians have seen the call to crusade as a response to the defeat of the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

But, once more, it had been over twenty years since that had occurred, so it seems like an unlikely cause.

Others point to a letter that the Byzantine emperor sent to the pope in 1095 for military assistance against the encroaching Seljuk Turks.

It appears that the emperor may have expected the pope to send paid mercenaries.

Ultimately, Pope Urban II may have simply used the letter as a useful pretext to retake Jerusalem and unite Christendom against Islam.

Regardless of the direct cause, Pope Urban called for a crusade while he was at the Council of Clermont in France, in November of 1095.

The First Crusade was not well-organized nor well-planned. The major feudal lords who took up Urban's call did so for their own reasons, and they did not coordinate their efforts.

However, raising an army and organising a large invasion force took time, so the lords took a few months to arrange their affairs.

In the meantime, a different group started out first. 

The Peasant's Crusade was the first group to respond to Urban's call. They were a motley group of untrained peasants and commoners, led by Peter the Hermit.

He was an inspiring preacher who told the people that God would provide them with a miraculous victory over non-Christians.

As many as 40,000 common people from northern France and parts of Germany followed Peter the Hermit as they made their way east, towards the Holy Land.

However, on the way, the common people who had joined the People's Crusade used it as an excuse to attack local Jewish people, particularly in the Rhineland.

The Jews were seen as enemies of Christendom, and many crusaders saw the opportunity to kill them as a way to gain God's favor. 

In May of 1096, a crusader mob in Mainz attacked a Jewish community, killing many people and plundering their homes and businesses.

This event set off a wave of anti-Jewish violence across Europe, as crusaders targeted Jews for conversion or death.

Eventually, the Peasant's Crusade reached the Byzantine empire in July 1096 and crossed into Asia Minor, where the Turkish armies were waiting.

The crusaders were poorly organized and had little chance of success against trained soldiers.

In their first battle with the Muslim forces, the People's Crusade was easily defeated in October 1096. 

Thousands were slaughtered, while some were captured alive and sold as slaves. Peter the Hermit had fled back to Constantinople and would join the First Crusade when it eventually arrived.

The main body of the First Crusade, which is often known as the Princes' Crusade (to distinguish it from the Peasant's Crusade) set out from France in the late summer of 1096.

The crusaders were a mixed group of people from all over Europe. There were knights, nobles, peasants, and commoners.

Many of them had no experience in warfare. They formed into four different armies based upon the region of Europe they originated from, and were led by different groups of nobles.

Each of the four armies took different routes towards the east so that the considerable number of men didn't exhaust the food reserves along each road.

The main French forces were led by Raymond IV of Toulouse, while the army from Lorraine was commanded by Godfrey of Bouillon, and his brother Baldwin of Boulogne.

A third army of Italian-Norman men were led by Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred.

The fourth group was made up of northern French solders led by Robert Curthose (Robert II of Normandy), Stephen of Blois, Hugh of Vermandois, and Robert II of Flanders.

The combined number of people who set out as part of these forces, both soldiers and support staff, may have been as many as 100,000 strong.

In 1096, the main body of the crusade, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, arrived in Constantinople, which was the capital city of the Byzantine Empire.

At this time, the Byzantine Empire was one of the richest and most powerful states in the Mediterranean world.

The Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I, appeared to be shocked by the large size of the armies that had responded to his letter.

He was probably even more surprised to learn that the soldiers were volunteers rather than paid mercenaries with battle experience.

However, the newly arrived forces posed a problem for the emperor. All of the soldiers needed to be fed and hydrated on a daily basis and, despite its wealth and size, the city of Constantinople could not support this number of men for long.

Alexios had to decide to either turn the forces away or move them across the Bosphorus strait as quickly as possible to alleviate the pressures on his empire.

After meeting with the leaders of the crusade and giving them approval to pass through his lands, the Byzantine emperor provided ships to ferry them across the water to Asia Minor and the Muslim territories. They landed in April of 1097.

The decision to allow the crusaders to cross their territory was a risky one, but it proved to be crucial in the eventual success of the crusade. 

Once on the opposite shore, the crusaders were in hostile territory and had to embark on a difficult journey across Asia Minor in order to reach the Holy Land. 

They were constantly harassed by the Seljuk Turks and had to fight several battles along the way.

The first major battle of the crusade was the Siege of Nicaea, in 1097. The crusaders arrived at Nicaea in early May, and they quickly began to besiege the city.

The Seljuk Turks inside the city were outnumbered and outmatched by the crusaders.

The Turkish governor, Kilij Arslan, had fled from the city when the crusaders approached in order to raise a relief force.

However, before he could return, Nicaea surrendered in June 1097 after only a one-month siege.

When the crusaders entered the city, they were shocked to learn that Manuel Butumites, a Byzantine commander, had reached an agreement with the defenders that Nicaea was to be officially handed back to Emperor Alexius.

This meant that the crusaders, who had done all the fighting and dying, were not able to take charge of the city nor gain any wealth from its capture.

While the western knights were disappointed, the fall of Nicaea was still a significant victory, as it gave them a friendly city in Asia Minor.

The next major battle came just a few weeks later at Dorylaeum, in July of 1097.  The Seljuk Turks, under the command of Kilij Arslan, had been gathering an army to oppose the crusaders, and they attacked them while they were crossing the high, open plains of central Asia Minor. 

The crusaders were outnumbered and surrounded, but they were able to fight their way out of the encirclement and defeat the Seljuk Turks.

The battle was a close one, but this victory boosted morale and gave the crusading forces the confidence to continue their march towards Jerusalem.

The crusaders arrived in Antioch in early October of 1097. The crusaders were again outnumbered, but they were able to maintain a siege of the city during the difficult winter months.

Lack of food meant that starvation weakened the attacks. By May, some of the crusaders were losing hope. 

A small number of leaders, the most famous of which was Stephen of Blois, gave up on the crusade and returned to Constantinople.

Finally, Antioch was captured by the remaining crusaders on the 3rd of June, 1098, after one of the defenders accepted a bribe to allow the besiegers to sneak into the city one night.

However, the crusaders were quickly besieged inside the city themselves, as a large Muslim relieving force, led by Kerbogha of Mosul, arrived soon after the city had fallen to the Europeans.

Short of food and likely not to be able to survive the siege, a period of infighting and rivalry broke out among the crusaders.

However, on the 15th of June, 1098, a religious leader among the crusaders, called Peter Bartholomew, claimed to have miraculously found the Holy Lance under the floor of one of the churches in Antioch.

This sacred relic was said to be the spear that had pierced Jesus' side during his crucifixion. 

The discovery of the Holy Lance helped to unite and inspire the crusaders, who believed that the relic would provide them with a miraculous victory over the enemy.

So, on the 28th of June, 1098, the crusaders charged out of the city of Antioch, led by Bohemond of Taranto, and defeated the Muslim army against tremendous odds.

The capture of Antioch and the defeat of the Muslim army was a significant victory.  It gave the crusaders a secure location to use as a base in the Holy Land, and it opened up the way to Jerusalem.

However, it also caused tensions within the crusade, as some crusaders wanted to return home with their loot while others pressed on towards Jerusalem.

The final battle of the First Crusade was the Siege of Jerusalem. The crusaders finally arrived at Jerusalem in June 1099, after a difficult march through hostile territory.

The city was defended by the Fatimid Caliphate, but the crusaders met with little resistance from the Muslim defenders.

On the 15th of July 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon and his soldiers were to break through the city walls and enter Jerusalem.

Once inside, the crusaders massacred the Muslim and Jewish population of the city. The crusaders then began to establish Latin Christian rule over the city.

The First Crusade was a resounding success for the Latin Christians. They had captured Jerusalem and established a foothold in the Holy Land.

The crusaders also formed four new Crusader states: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the County of Tripoli. 

However, this victory would not last. Within a few years, Muslim forces began to retake many of the cities that had been captured by the crusaders.

By 1144, only Jerusalem and Antioch remained in Christian hands. 

Despite its eventual failure, the First Crusade was an important event in medieval history.

It demonstrated the power of medieval Christianity and showed that European knights were capable of defeating even the most powerful Muslim armies.