Noncombatants

Although Pope Urban II discouraged the old, the feeble, and all others unfit for military service to participate in the armed pilgrimage many of them did. Noncombatants can be known as women, children, persons of the clergy, and other unarmed people. This pilgrimage was advertised to the people to bring them closer to god, affirm their place in their faith’s community, and to serve as a penitential purpose. Some countries such as England announced that if one set out on three crusades and returned they would be granted a noble title. All of these advantages made many noncombatants follow the armies.

Women played a huge role in the crusades. They supplied soldiers with supplies by using their own funds and helped colonize the holy land. The crusades cost a fortune to participate in. It was easy for an armed knight to go from knight status to selling his armor to be infantrymen to selling his weapon to become a noncombatant pauper. The women that furnished a knight with his equipment were most likely very wealthy. Pope Urban II also declared that no women could set out on a crusade unless accompanied by brothers, husbands, or legal guardians. Arab historian Ibn al-Athir reported that in 1191 Frankish women donned armor and participated in crusading activities. Adultery was not uncommon in the camps of the crusading armies. During the siege of Antioch (1097-98) the army believed that they suffered terribly because of their sins and drove all the married and unmarried women from the camps.

It is known that when numbers were low due to high casualties people of the clergy and children would fight to help support the armies. Clergymen that went on the crusades were generally there to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After the first crusade an order of priest warriors were created known as the Knights Templar. This gave the church a different function in the crusades. At first clergymen wouldn’t participate in the crusades because the church would not permit it. Most likely the clergymen that set out with the Knights Templar were looking to claim their own estates in the holy land.

Work Cited:
-Alfred J. Andrea. "Encyclopedia of the Crusades". Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2003
-Walter Porges. Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies. “The Clergy, The Poor, and The Noncombatants On The First Crusade”. January 1946