Urban II
Pope from 1088, for a time kept out of St Peter’s by a rival pope. At Piacenza and Clermont in 1095 he called for an armed expedition to the East, the First Crusade. He died two weeks after Jerusalem was taken.
When Urban became pope there were two claimants. Fulcher of Chartres says that Guibert of Ravenna, backed by the emperor, for some time kept Urban out of St Peter’s in Rome, and that Urban gained full control only in the year the crusaders passed through, with the help of Matilda of Tuscany (Fulcher of Chartres, History 1.5). In 1095 he held a synod at Piacenza, where envoys of the emperor of Constantinople asked for help (Bernold of Constance, Chronicle 1095 (pp. 461–462)). His own letter to Flanders says that at the council in Auvergne he enjoined an expedition to free the churches of the East, for the remission of sins (Urban II, Letters, to the faithful in Flanders (December 1095)). Bernold of Constance calls him the chief author of the expedition (Bernold of Constance, Chronicle 1096 (p. 464)).
He died at Rome on 29 July 1099, after eleven years and five months as pope (Bernold of Constance, Chronicle 1099 (p. 467)). Jerusalem had fallen to the crusaders on 15 July (Gesta Francorum 10 (after the capture)).
In the timeline
- 1095 to 1099, firm dateThe First Crusade
In 1095 Pope Urban II calls the knights of the West to go east in arms for the remission of their sins. Four years later the armies storm Jerusalem and massacre its defenders and inhabitants, as their own writers report.
Primary sources
Letters of Urban II
- Urban II, Letters, to the faithful in Flanders (December 1095)sourcebooks.fordham.edu
Gesta Francorum
- Gesta Francorum 10 (after the capture)sourcebooks.fordham.edu