People's Crusade
The People's Crusade was a precursor to the First Crusade ; it lasted about six months, from April to October 1096. It is also known as the Peasants' Crusade or the Crusade of the Poor .
background
Pope Urban II had planned the beginning of the crusade for August 15, 1096, but did not expect that the enthusiasm he sparked could break out unchecked. Months earlier, in April 1096, an army of small farmers and the lower nobility had unexpectedly come together and left for Jerusalem on their own account . The rural population has been plagued by drought, hunger and epidemics for years, and some of them seem to have seen the crusade as a way of escaping their troubles. They were spurred on by a series of celestial phenomena that began in 1095 and that appeared to be a divine blessing to the movement, including a meteor shower , polar lights , a lunar eclipse, and a comet . An outbreak of poisoning by ergot ( ergotism ) which commonly masses pilgrims traveling led, had just before the Council of Clermont occurred. The belief that the end of the world and the second coming of Christ would be approaching was widespread. The answer to Urban’s appeal was beyond imagination: if the Pope had expected a few thousand knights , he was now faced with a migration of up to 40,000 men, women and children who were untrained as fighters.
A charismatic monk named Peter the Hermit from Amiens was the spiritual leader of the movement. He was known to ride a donkey and to wear simple clothes. He had vigorously preached the Crusade in northern France and Flanders , claimed to have been summoned to the sermons by Jesus Christ himself (and pretended to have a divine letter to prove it), and it is likely that some of his followers believed that he, and not Urban, was the real originator of the crusade idea. It is often believed that Peter's army was a gang of illiterate people, incompetent peasants who had no idea where to go and who believed that every city they reached on their way was Jerusalem itself. This may for some even applied, but a long tradition of pilgrimages to Jerusalem ensured that the location and distance of the city were well known. While the majority were inexperienced in combat, there were also a few well-educated lesser nobles, such as Walter Sans-Avoir , who was experienced in warfare . Since the Pope had promised indulgence and immunity for every crusader, it was inevitable that a lot of rabble mingled with the pilgrims. Thieves and violent criminals of all kinds went with them. Less for a religious motive than as a welcome opportunity to escape from the law and in the hope of prey. This was undoubtedly one of the reasons for the tensions that arose along the way and determined the unfortunate course of this crusade.
Emicho and the Germans
At the end of April 1096 a certain Volkmar set out from the Rhineland with over 10,000 people to join Peter the Hermit 's train and marched - probably along the Danube through Bavaria and the margraviate of Austria - to Hungary . A little later, Peter's student Gottschalk set out with an even larger crowd to follow Volkmar.
A third army was gathering under Emicho I. In addition to many simple-minded pilgrims who believed in his alleged vocation and some of whom had even followed a goose allegedly inspired by God, German and French knights with military teams also joined him. Steven Runciman cited the following participants (for the criticism of Runciman's presentation cf. Alan V. Murray): A Count von Zweibrücken, von Salm, von Viernenberg, von Dillingen, Drogo de Nesle (from Picardy ), Clarambaud de Vendeuil (from Picardy ), Thomas de La Fère and Guillaume I Vicomte de Melun , who was called “le Charpentier” (the carpenter) because of his enormous physical strength.
Count Emicho was an experienced warrior who, although having earned a dubious reputation through illegal excesses, suddenly claimed that Jesus Christ had appeared to him, who had promised him the imperial crown and help in the conversion of European Jews if he joined the crusade . According to another tradition, an angel drew a cross on his chest and made him the leader in the fight against the Antichrist .
This became tragic due to the fact that Count Emicho saw the Jews as followers of the Antichrist, so he tried either to force them to convert through compulsory baptism or to kill them otherwise.
On the basis of these alleged visions, he caused his followers on May 3, 1096 to attack the Jewish community in the city of Speyer . Johannes I , Bishop of Speyer , whose benevolence had been secured by a handsome gift, placed the Jews under his protection. Even so, twelve Jews were captured and slain when they refused to convert to Christianity. The bishop had several of the murderers captured and their hands cut off as punishment.
On May 18, Emicho and his army stood in front of the city of Worms . There, Adalbert II of Saxony, Bishop of Worms , placed himself protectively from the Jews and placed them in his palace. However, Emicho and his people broke down the gates of the episcopal residence on May 20th and killed five hundred Jews. On May 25, Emicho arrived in front of the large city of Mainz , where the city gates had been closed by order of Bishop Ruthard of Mainz . Since Emicho's helpers managed to open the city gates from the inside, the Jews tried to buy themselves out with large sums. However, this was just as futile as protecting the bishop, as his palace was stormed by Emicho's people. Few of the town's 1,000 or so Jews escaped.
In Cologne , the Archbishop of Cologne , Hermann III. von Hochstaden to prevent extreme excesses, but the synagogue was burned down and a Jew and a Jewess were killed.
While Emicho then stopped his murderous acts, other hordes moved on and killed Jews in Trier , Metz , Neuss , Wevelinghoven , Eller and Xanten before they dispersed or joined the army of Gottfried von Bouillon 's crusaders .
Walter and the French
On April 12, 1096, Peter gathered his "army" in Cologne , where he wanted to preach to the Germans and motivate other participants. But the French did not want to wait for Peter and the Germans, and under the leadership of Walter von Sans-Avoir, several thousand French crusaders set out and reached Hungary before Peter on May 8th, which they crossed without incident. They came to the Save near Belgrade , which at that time formed the border of the Byzantine Empire . The Belgrade commander was surprised by the march, had no instructions on how to handle them and initially refused entry, which led the crusaders to raid the area to get food. Skirmishes ensued with the Belgrade garrison , sixteen of Walter's men attempted to rob a market in Semlin across the river, which only made matters worse; they were stripped of their armor and clothing, which was displayed on the castle walls. Eventually the crusaders were allowed to move on to Niš , where they were supplied and waited for news from Constantinople about their onward journey. At the end of July, the crusaders arrived in Constantinople under Byzantine escort.
From Cologne to Constantinople
Peter and the other crusaders left Cologne around April 20th. About 20,000 people followed him immediately, while another group left later. When they reached the Danube , some traveled on by boat, but the crowd marched overland and reached Hungary near Ödenburg . They too crossed the country without incident and met the others at Semlin.
In Semlin the crusaders became suspicious when they saw Walter's sixteen suits of armor hanging on the walls; Finally, a dispute over the price of a pair of shoes sparked a turmoil in the market which, presumably against Peter's will, grew into a general attack on the city, killing 4,000 Hungarians. The crusaders then fled across the Sava to Belgrade, fought battles with the Belgrade troops, the residents fled and the crusaders sacked the city and then burned it down.
After a march of seven days, they reached Niš on July 3rd. The city commander promised an escort for Peter's army to Constantinople as well as food if they moved on immediately. Peter agreed, he set out the next morning - but some Germans got into an argument with some locals on the street and burned down a mill, Peter lost control and Niš sent his entire garrison against the crusaders. They were completely defeated, many of them killed. All in all, about a quarter of the crusaders were lost, the rest regrouped in Bela Palanka . When they reached Sofia on July 12th, they met a Byzantine escort who delivered them safely to Constantinople on August 1st.
Breakdown of leadership
The Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos , who also did not know what to do with such an unusual and unexpected "army", had it quickly crossed the Bosporus on August 6th . Since then, it has been debated whether he sent them away without a Byzantine leader, knowing that they would be slaughtered by the Seljuk Turks , or whether they insisted on traveling through Asia Minor despite his warnings. Presumably, the crusaders with their violent attacks were also a burden on the population. Emperor Alexios warned Peter not to get involved with the Turks, whom he thought were superior, and advised him to wait for the other crusaders, the main train, the Pope Urban had toasted, and who was still on the way.
Peter, the French under Walter Sans-Avoir, and Italian groups who arrived at the same time, now met. They began to plunder cities, reached Nicomedia , where a dispute broke out between the Germans and Italians on the one hand and the French on the other. The Germans and the Italians withdrew and elected a new leader, an Italian named Rainald , while the French Gottfried Burel took command. Peter had lost his hold on the crusade.
Contrary to Alexios' advice, the crusaders incited one another, blatantly attacked neighboring cities and finally reached the area around Nicaea , the Turkish capital and fortress, whose suburbs they plundered. The Germans marched with 6,000 crusaders to the fortress Xerigordon and captured it to use it as a base for the raids in the area. Most of the locals were Christians, whose salvation was the pretext for the whole enterprise. Instead of rescue, there was murder and pillage. In response, the Turks sent a sizeable army against Xerigordon, which on September 29 captured the city's water supply , which was outside and which the Germans had overlooked. After eight days, the crusaders had to give up. Those who wanted to remain Christians were killed, those who converted to Islam were sold into slavery .
crisis
In the main camp of the crusaders, Turkish spies had meanwhile spread the rumor that the Germans who had conquered Xerigordon had also taken Nicaea into their possession, which led to an excited departure in order to still be able to share in the spoils of war . Of course, the Turks had the road to Nicaea with an ambush provided. When the truth about the events in Xerigordon reached the Crusaders, the excitement turned into panic. Peter the Hermit had gone back to Constantinople to get supplies and should be returning soon. Most of the leaders were in favor of waiting for his return (which he did not do). But Gottfried Burel, who had the largest following among the masses, prevailed with the argument that they were cowardly if they did not attack the Turks immediately. On the morning of October 21st, the entire able-bodied section of the army marched on Nicaea, while women, children, the elderly and the sick remained in the camp.
Three miles from the camp, at a point where the road meets a ravine near Drakon , was the Turkish ambush. Panic broke out immediately and within minutes the crusaders were retreating to the camp. Most of them were killed; only boys and girls were spared to be sold into slavery. 3,000, including Gottfried Burel, who triggered the disaster, were lucky enough to be able to retreat to an abandoned castle . The Byzantines eventually lifted the ensuing siege and returned the 3,000 to Constantinople, the only survivors of the People's Crusade. These were disarmed and billeted in a district of Constantinople, where they awaited the arrival of the main army of the First Crusade, which they joined.
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Norwich, p. 33.
- ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. 5th edition. DTV, 2006, p. 132.
- ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. 2006, p. 132.
- ^ Alan V. Murray: The army of Godfrey of Bouillon, 1096-1099: Structure and dynamics of a contingent on the First Crusade . In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire . Tome 70 fasc. 2, 1992. Histoire médiévale, moderne et contemporaine - Middeleeuwse, moderne en hedendaagse geschiedenis. pp. 301-329. In it p. 315 with note 74. Online
- ↑ The County of Zweibrücken emerged from the County of Saarbrücken after 1182, cf. Alan V. Murray The army of Godfrey of Bouillon, 1096-1099 ... , 1992, p. 319
- ^ The first Count of Salm, the German rival king Hermann von Salm, died in 1088; In 1096 his sons were still too young to be crusaders.
- ^ Probably Bernhard von Virneburg .
- ↑ Hartmann (I.) von Dillingen is the only participant in the crusade from the list of the Zimmerische Chronik whose participation is corroborated by another source, cf. Alan V. Murray, The army of Godfrey of Bouillon, 1096-1099 ... , 1992, p. 321.
- ↑ Possibly Thomas de Coucy , who was also called Thomas de La Fère.
- ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. 2006, p. 132.
- ↑ For more details see Emicho (crusader)
- ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. 2006, p. 133.
- ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. 2006, p. 134.
- ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. 2006, p. 135.
- ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. 2006, p. 135.
- ^ S. Setton: 283
swell
- Albert von Aachen : Historia Hierosolymitanae Expeditionis. around 1101
- Anna Komnena : Alexiade. Book 10th before 1118
- Gesta Francorum . before 1101
Secondary literature
- Frederic Duncalf: The Peasants Crusade . In: American Historical Review . tape 26 , 1921, pp. 440-453 .
- Kenneth M. Setton, Marshall W. Baldwin: A History of the Crusades, Volume I: The first hundred years . 1969, p. 281 ff . ( wisc.edu ).
- John J. Norwich: Byzantium - The Decline and Fall . Penguin Books, Edmonton 1996, ISBN 0-14-011449-1 .
- Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. 5th edition. DTV, 2006, ISBN 3-423-30175-9 , p. 132.