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The First Crusade Motivations (The Pope did not foresee the wide ranging…
The First Crusade Motivations
Jerusalem was the inspiration and objective of the First Crusade, when Urban II exhorted Christendom to go to war for the Holy Sepulchre, at the Council of Clermont, it was apparently his reference to the Holy City which inspired thousands of men, women and even children to undertake the Journey to the Holy Land
Although it is certain that such an extraordinary migration was not in the Pope's mind, his precise expectations are impossible to recapture; accounts of his speech and subsequent evens were written after the capture of Jerusalem. Urban's letters mention Jerusalem, but speak also of the liberation of the eastern Church, a reminder that the expedition was conceived in response to the request from the Byzantine emperor Alexius Um for aid against the Turks, delivered at Piacenza in March 1095
The Pope did not foresee the wide ranging response to his appeal, which he directed at the Knightly class
The lesser nobility of Champagne enabled him to hit the right note; the violence and political fragmentation of 11th centaury France had produced a group of men whose purpose in life was fighting, but the Church had reacted with the peace of God
The Christian warrior embodied a contradiction in terms and at Clermont Urban offered to resolve the conflict: by joining Christ's militia a knight could do what he was good at with the blessing of the Church
Piety was therefore a major motivating force among the 'upper classes' of crusaders, mixed with knightly desire for glory and the lure of adventure
The idea that many were landless younger son's seeking their fortune in the east had been abandoned, it routinely took a knight around two years' income to equip himself, much more for an expedition to the Holy Land
Most crusaders returned home when they completed their pilgrimage, and charters show that they envisaged either dying on the expedition or returning home to reclaim their lands
Men who carved out careers for themselves in the east, including Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond of Toulouse were by no means lacking prospects in the west
This is not to say that greed played no part in the crusaders motives, it drove the German count, Emich of Leisingen, who superintended the merciless attacks on the Rhineland Jews
And the genuine piety of Bohemond I of Taranto, later Prince of Antioch, was mixed with powerful ambition
Complex though their motives were, it is easier to understand why the knights joined the First Crusade than to explain the participation of hordes of peasants
The poor were not the target of Urban's appeal, rather they were the audience of itinerant preachers like Peter the Hermit, whose eloquence persuaded generations of historians that he was the instigator of the crusade - those who heard him preach were receptive to his message for all sorts of reasons
The theme of Jerusalem was all-important to them
They undertook the expedition not as a military campaign but as a pilgrimage, an important feature of 11th centaury life
People prayed at local shrines and travelled far afield to centres that housed holy relics, to seek help and health in an uncertain world
A journey to a major shrine like Rome or the Church of St.James at Compostella was an adventure, but could also be undertaken as a penance and earn forgiveness for past sins
The most important place of pilgrimage was Jerusalem, the scene of Christ's passion and resurrection, its very stones were holy relics
The Holy City maintained a centuries old tradition of welcoming pilgrims, but when Peter and other poplar preachers told of alleged Muslims' ill-treatment of Christians, they aroused the anger of their listeners
For many, the crusade was a massive pilgrimage blessed by the pope and with powerful armed protection
Jerusalem had resonance beyond its status as a shrine, however, it was also the heavenly city and would be the scene of the Last Days, as told in the book of Revelation
One of the underlying beliefs of 11th century was that Domesday would arrive at the millennium - this date is not known precisely, but believed to be 1,000 years since the completion of the New Testament - and that the scene of Judgement would be Jerusalem, in Christian hands
The poor had a special commitment to the idea of Domesday because theirs would be the kingdom of Heaven, and among the vast numbers who travelled to the Holy Land there were countess non-combatants - women, clerics, the old and the young - as well as able bodied men who could fight as foot-soldiers