First Crusade Begins

Setting the scene

By 1095 CE, the Byzantine Empire, weakened by defeat at Manzikert (1071), had lost most of Anatolia to the Seljuk Turks. Emperor Alexios I Komnenos appealed to Pope Urban II for mercenaries to help reconquer lost territory. Urban saw an opportunity—to heal the East-West Schism, assert papal authority, and redirect the violent energy of European knights, who constantly fought each other. Pilgrimages to Jerusalem had become dangerous as Seljuks controlled the Holy Land, and stories (some exaggerated) of Christian persecution circulated.

What happened

On November 27, 1095, at the Council of Clermont in France, Pope Urban II preached a sermon calling for a crusade to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim control. He promised remission of sins and spiritual rewards to those who took the cross. The response was overwhelming—tens of thousands, from knights to peasants, took crusader vows. The First Crusade was launched, with multiple armies departing in 1096. The People's Crusade of peasants, led by Peter the Hermit, was massacred in Anatolia. The main princely armies, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse, and Bohemond of Taranto, succeeded.

Why it still matters

The First Crusade captured Jerusalem on July 15, 1099, massacring its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. The Crusaders established four Crusader states in the Levant. The First Crusade was the only successful crusade, and its success was due to Muslim disunity as much as Crusader zeal. The crusade inaugurated two centuries of holy war, deepened Christian-Muslim hostility, and established a precedent for papal-sanctioned violence. It also increased trade and cultural exchange between East and West, inadvertently contributing to the Renaissance. The First Crusade's legacy includes enduring religious conflict and the idea of holy war that persists today.

Background

The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, which were initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. Their aim was to return the Holy Land—which had been conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century—to Christian rule. By the 11th century, although Jerusalem had then been ruled by Muslims for hundreds of years, the practices of the Seljuk rulers in the region began to threaten local Christian populations, pilgrimages from the West and the Byzantine Empire itself. The earliest impetus for the First Crusade came in 1095 when Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos sent ambassadors to the Council of Piacenza to request military support in the empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. Crusader forces captured Jerusalem in 1099.