Politics in the First Crusade

Abstract

In 1095 Pope Urban II incited the Crusades with a speech urging Christian armies to free the holy sites, especially Jerusalem, from Muslim control. The Crusades sparked a fire of religious fervor among thousands of young knights and other Christian believers. Other crusaders were adventurers, fortune seekers, and the poor and destitute. In part the Roman Catholic Church sought the return of the Holy Land to Christian rule. First Crusade consisted of organized armies under a number of nobles. Other people joined them en route or traveled to port towns, then sailed to Constantinople on their own to meet up with the Crusaders, creating a force of an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 in late 1096 and early 1097. The majority were Franks, descended from those peoples united in France under Charlemagne in the eighth and ninth centuries. From Constantinople, the Crusaders crossed to Asia Minor and traveled southward overland through Muslim states and principalities in present-day Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Discussion4

Discovery of the Holy Lance at Antioch4

A Divided Army of God5

Conclusion12

End Notes13

Politics in the First Crusade

Introduction

The roots of the institution of the crusade are to be found in the political, cultural and theological developments that shaped Western European society during the eleventh century. Throughout the medieval West the political fragmentation following the breakup of the Carolingian empire led to a decentralization and diffusion of political power both in terms of geography and social hierarchy. As a result of these long term developments a substantial share of the execution and administration of political and economic power passed to a new knightly elite which had emerged by the eleventh century. These knights, called milites (singular miles), did not only claim an important position in the social hierarchy, they also developed the means to defend and enlarge their political and economic power. The typical knight of the eleventh century distinguished himself by his military prowess as a mounted soldier, his social connections with other knights and his close association with ecclesiastical institutions, in particular local monasteries.

Political life was dominated by violent conflicts between smaller or larger groups of knights who were increasingly capable and willing to co-ordinate and apply the military force supplied by mounted combat troops and vested in fortified strongholds that became the centre of knightly power. At the same time, the association with ecclesiastical institutions was an important element of knightly identity and group solidarity. There was an acute awareness that life in all its aspects was to a great extent dependent on a favorable disposition of God's grace. The patronage of monastic institutions and the veneration of saints by way of pilgrimages, prayers and donations were high on the agenda of knights seeking to confirm and consolidate their power and identity. It was these new knightly elite of the eleventh century that was targeted and who responded most enthusiastically when Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade in 1095. The knights' military expertise and experience, their desire to acquire power and ...