The First Crusade

The First Crusade (1096-1102) was conducted in three waves and was intended by the church to help the Byzantine emperor Alexius against Turkish forces. This main objective of the church was masked by the pious idea of a “holy war” to retake Jerusalem. The First Crusade was considered the only successful crusade in the Levant. Although successful the First Crusade had many problems such as the lack of supplies, noncombatants following crusading armies, and the undisciplined army itself. The three waves of the First Crusade were the People’s Crusade of 1096, the Crusade of the Great Lords, and the Crusade of 1101. In that order were the waves dispersed.

The first wave being the People’s Crusade of 1096 was very undersupplied and was broken into five major forces. Out of those five forces only two made it to Constantinople where those forces were either destroyed or driven back to Europe. Walter Sansavoir and Peter the Hermit led the two forces that made it to Constantinople. The other three forces were comprised of West German, French, English, and Flemish pilgrim warriors. The three other forces were mostly driven off at Hungary by the Hungarian forces that were ordered to defend the city from the crusaders. The Hungarian resistance was conducted because the two forces that made it through Hungary sack and pillaged a lot of its cities for resources. This lack of supplies caused problems even at the crusade’s start. Had the armies been efficiently supplied three other forces would have joined the first two.

After the failure of the first wave Pope Urban II began raising money for another wave that was known as the Crusade of the Great Lords. Learning from the first wave’s failure was crucial in the second wave’s success. Notable figures of the second wave consist of Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, Count Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Count Robert of Flanders, Duke Robert of Normandy, and Bohemond of Taranto. All of these figures were either brothers or sons of kings, but none themselves were kings. These figures of royalty led their armies to the Byzantine Empire where much of their armies began to pillage for lack of discipline. After taking oaths to the Byzantine emperor Alexius the European nobles combined their forces with the emperor and marched to Antioch from Nicaea. The combined forces exceeded 60,000 including noncombatants took the city of Antioch by 1098. The forces then marched to Jerusalem by 1099 and had lost over half its soldiers in the siege of Antioch. This force of just over 20,000 took the city of Jerusalem by a frontal attack in the summer of 1099. Once in the holy city the army destroyed the inhabitants of the city.

The final wave dubbed as the Crusade of 1101 was meant to reinforce the principalities that were formed in the earlier wave. This wave was conducted with more troops than its predecessor but was also met by defenses that were underestimated and over prepared for the crusaders. Pope Paschal II enforced this crusade by threatening crusade supporters with excommunication. The clergy at the time preached that joining the churches military campaign was a form of penance. All of this summed up resulted in a larger army of pilgrim warriors. This campaign that lasted only a year suffered many casualties and only gained the cities of Ankara, Haifa, and Tortosa. The shortcomings of the third wave were considered God’s punishment for their sins, but more mundane reasons were poor leadership, woeful organization, ignorance of the land, and just bad luck.

Sources:
Alfred J. Andrea. "Encyclopedia of the Crusades". Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2003
Helen Nicholson. "The Crusades". Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004
Corliss K. Slack. "Historical Dictionary of the Crusades". Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2003