People's Crusade

Hello and welcome back to Echoes of Empires.

It's Nick Holmes and this is episode 139 called The People's Crusade and the First Holocaust.

In the last few episodes, we've explored the background to the First Crusade from the rise of the Seljuk Turks to the collapse of Byzantium at the Battle of Mansekert in 1071.

And we've looked at the political, economic and religious position of medieval Europe and why Christianity, a religion of peace, became a religion of war.

But the First Crusade got off to a terrible start, with the initial armies little more than bands of brigands and discontented peasants and minor nobles.

This was despite the fact Pope Urban II was well organised and had set a timetable for the great lords of Western Europe to depart on 15 August 1096.

But before that date, two groups of crusaders set off for the east, which historians have referred to as the People's Crusade and closely associated with it the German Crusade.

The first was a random collection of peasants and lesser nobles who were slaughtered by the Turks, while the second contained a higher proportion of knights but was so badly organised and led that it never made it anywhere near Constantinople and collapsed soon after initiating a ruthless attack on the German Jews in what has been called the First Holocaust.

Over 100,000 men, women, and children entered Byzantine lands and crossed into Anatolia.

This is called the People's Crusade.

So Peter the Hermit ends up leading, I'm talking women, children, men, old people, in, in an attempt to go back to the Holy Land.

Now they're going to get annihilated.

They're gonna get wiped out.

But this is the first wave, uh, uh, regarding the First Crusade.

The first people to arrive is called the People's Crusade led by Peter the Hermit.

Described by Anna as the Celts, as one might guess, are in any case an exceptionally hot-headed race and passionate.

Historians still argue about the exact numbers, with estimates ranging from sixty thousand to over one hundred thousand, but all agree that it was a massive and unprecedented movement of people.

This first wave, known as the People's Crusade or the Peasants' Crusade, was a disaster before it even left the heart of Christendom.

As some of these bands moved through the Rhineland in the spring of ten ninety-six, a dark and violent interpretation of the crusading message took hold.

Goaded by radical preachers, they decided that before marching thousands of miles to fight the enemies of Christ in the East, they should first deal with the infidels in their midst.

... are beginning to muster their knights and soldiers and head towards Con- Constantinople to rendezvous with, uh, Emperor Alexius of the Byzantine Empire.

Before they get there, though, another group has already arrived, and it's the People's Crusade, led by Peter the Hermit.

Yes.

Petey.

Yeah.

[laughs]

The People's Crusade has begun.

They meet in Cologne, and they march across Germany into Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, until they eventually reach Constantinople way ahead of schedule.

Bishop Adhemar of Lepuy became the first to take the cross.

People's Crusade Although the Pope intended the campaign for trained warriors, popular enthusiasm led to the departure of large groups of peasants and townspeople.

Led by figures like Peter the Hermit, these forces moved through Europe ahead of the official armies.

During their journey, some groups engaged in violence against Jewish communities in Germany.