The First Crusade

In Lent 1095, the chronicler Bernold of Constance records, envoys of the emperor of Constantinople came to a synod that Pope Urban II was holding at Piacenza and begged for help against the pagans, who had overrun the country up to the walls of the city. The pope urged many to promise on oath that they would go (Bernold of Constance, Chronicle 1095 (pp. 461–462)). In November he held a council at Clermont in Auvergne (Fulcher of Chartres, History 1.1) (Fulcher of Chartres, History 1.6).

Four writers set down what Urban said there, each some years later, and they differ. Fulcher of Chartres has him ask for aid to the Christians of the East against the Turks and promise remission of sins to all who die on the way or in battle (Fulcher of Chartres, History 1.2–3). Robert the Monk has him address the Franks, tell of outrages against Christians, name Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre as the goal, and be answered with the shout “It is the will of God” (Robert the Monk, History of Jerusalem the sermon at Clermont). Baldric of Dol has him shame the knights who prey on fellow Christians (Baldric of Dol, History of Jerusalem the sermon at Clermont). Guibert of Nogent has him speak of Antichrist and the end of the age (Guibert of Nogent, Deeds of God through the Franks the sermon at Clermont). Urban’s own letter to Flanders, written within weeks, says that a barbaric fury had seized the churches of the East and the Holy City, and that he had enjoined an expedition to free those churches, for the remission of sins, under the bishop of Le Puy (Urban II, Letters, to the faithful in Flanders (December 1095)).

The first bands left in the spring of 1096 (Fulcher of Chartres, History 1.6). Albert of Aachen, writing some decades later, reports attacks on the Jews of Cologne and Mainz as the bands gathered. At Mainz the men of Count Emicho stormed the bishop’s hall, where the Jews had taken refuge, killed about seven hundred and carried off their goods. Albert ascribes it to greed and adds that God compels no one to the faith (Albert of Aachen, History on Emicho and the Jews of the Rhineland).

Anna Komnene, who names herself the daughter of the emperor Alexios I Komnenos (Anna Komnene, Alexiad preface), wrote the history of his reign. Her father, she says, dreaded the coming of the Franks. The simpler among them wished to worship at the Holy Sepulchre; men like Bohemond hoped to seize the capital itself (Anna Komnene, Alexiad 10.5). Alexios made the leaders swear to hand over whatever towns they took that had belonged to the empire, and Godfrey of Bouillon swore only after a fight outside the walls (Anna Komnene, Alexiad 10.9–10).

The army took Nicaea, spent nine months before Antioch and came to Jerusalem (Letter of the crusade leaders to the pope (1099)). On 15 July 1099 it broke in (Gesta Francorum 10 (after the capture)) (Fulcher of Chartres, History 1.27–28). The anonymous Gesta Francorum says that in the Temple of Solomon the crusaders waded in blood to their ankles, and that the dead were afterwards heaped outside the gates (Gesta Francorum 10 (the fall of Jerusalem)) (Gesta Francorum 10 (after the capture)). Raymond of Aguilers, who writes as one of the army, tells of blood to the knees and bridle reins and calls it a just judgment of God (Raymond of Aguilers, History the Frankish victory). Fulcher counts almost ten thousand killed in the Temple and says that neither women nor children were spared (Fulcher of Chartres, History 1.27–28). The leaders’ own report to the pope uses the same image: “our men rode in the blood of the Saracens up to the knees of their horses” (Letter of the crusade leaders to the pope (1099)). The Gesta adds that Count Raymond had the commander of the citadel and his men escorted unharmed to Ascalon (Gesta Francorum 10 (the fall of Jerusalem)) (Gesta Francorum 10 (after the capture)). Then, Fulcher says, clergy and laity went together to pray at the Holy Sepulchre (Fulcher of Chartres, History 1.27–28).

Eight days later the leaders chose Godfrey to rule the city, and soon afterwards chose a patriarch, Arnulf (Gesta Francorum 10 (after the capture)). Bernold had called the expedition a journey to free the Christians, of which the pope was the chief author (Bernold of Constance, Chronicle 1096 (p. 464)). It ended with a ruler and a patriarch of the crusaders’ choosing in Jerusalem (Gesta Francorum 10 (after the capture)). The later crusade that took Constantinople is told in the Fourth Crusade Sacks Constantinople.