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In Clermont (Southern France), a large church cathedral gathered, at which Pope Urban II announced the beginning of the Crusade and delivered a long speech to numerous listeners gathered on the Clermont Plain outside the city. “The land that you inhabit,” said the Pope, addressing his listeners, “... has become cramped with your multitude. It is not abundant in riches and barely gives bread to those who process it. From here comes the fact that you bite each other and fight with each other ... Now your hatred may cease, enmity will cease and civil strife will slumber. Take the path to the holy grave, pluck that land from the wicked people and subjugate it to yourself. " "Whoever is woeful here," continued the Pope, "and poor, will be rich there." Having seduced those present with the prospect of rich production in the East, Urban II immediately found a warm response from them. Electrified by tempting promises, the audience cried out, "This is God's will!" - and rushed to sew red crosses on their clothes. The news of the decision to go to the East quickly spread throughout Western Europe. The members of the movement received the name of the crusaders. The church promised all the crusaders a number of benefits: deferral of payments on debts, protection of families and property, forgiveness of sins, etc.

1095-1096 LEADERS OF THE FIRST CRUSH TRAVEL.

Among those who led the campaign, first of all, it should be noted the French Bishop Ademar du Puy - a brave and prudent warrior-priest, appointed by the papal legate and who often acted as a mediator in disputes between intractable military leaders; Norman prince Southern Italy and Sicily of Bohemond of Tarentum (son of Robert Guiscard); Count Raymund of Toulouse; Duke of Lorraine Gottfried of Bouillon; his brother Baldwin; Duke Hugh of Vermandois (brother of the French king); Duke Robert of Normandy; Count Etienne de Blois and Count Robert II of Flanders.

March 1096 THE CRUSADERS START ON THE WAY

Jewish pogroms in Europe accompanied the departure of the first crusaders.

April-October 1096 THE CRUSH OF THE POOR.

A crowd of unarmed pilgrims led by the preacher Peter the Hermit and an impoverished knightWalter Golyak went overland to the Holy Land. Many died of hunger; the rest were almost without exception killed by the Turks in Anatolia.

The crusade of the feudal lords was preceded by the campaign of the poor, which differed from the military colonization movement of the feudal lords both in the composition of the participants and in its goals. Therefore, this campaign should be viewed as something independent and separate.

The peasants strove to find in the East deliverance from the oppression of the feudal lords and new lands for settlement. They dreamed of shelter from the endless feudal strife that ruined their economy, and escape from hunger and epidemics, which, given the low level of technology and the most severe feudal exploitation, were common in the Middle Ages. Under these conditions, the preachers of the Crusade met a lively response to their preaching from the broadest peasant masses. Following the call of the church for the Crusade, the peasants began to abandon their lords in great numbers.

In the spring of 1096 unorganized detachments of the poor peasantry set off. Having shod the bulls, as they do with horses, the peasants harnessed them to carts and, placing their simple property there, together with children, old people and women, moved to Constantinople. They walked unarmed, having neither supplies nor money, plundering and begging on the way. Naturally, the population of those countries through which these "crusaders" moved, mercilessly exterminated them.

According to the chronicler, countless, like the stars in the sky or the sand of the sea, masses of peasants came mainly from Northern and Central France and from West Germany up the Rhine and further down the Danube. The peasants did not even imagine how far away Jerusalem was. At the sight of everyone big city or the castle, they asked if this was not Jerusalem to which they were striving.

October 1096 THE RUNNING OF THE "PEASANT" CRUSH.

The heavily thinned peasant detachments reached Constantinople and were hastily transported to Asia Minor by the Byzantine emperor, who was not expecting such help from the West. There, in the very first battle, the detachments of the peasants were utterly defeated by the Seljuk army. Peter of Amiens abandoned the peasant detachments to their fate and fled to Constantinople. The overwhelming majority of the peasants were destroyed, and the rest were enslaved. The attempt of the peasants to flee from their feudal lords and find land and freedom in the East ended, thus, tragically. Only a small remnant of the peasant detachments later united with the detachments of the knights and took part in the battles of Antioch.

1096-1097 biennium COLLECTION OF FORCES IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

Various troops moved to the agreed place of assembly - Constantinople - in four main streams. Gottfried and Baldwin with their troops and others German armies followed the Danube valley through Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, and then through the Balkans; on the way there were skirmishes with local forces. This army reached Constantinople first and for the whole winter camped under the city walls. Bishop Ademar, Count Raimund and others came from Southern France across Northern Italy a grueling march along the deserted Dalmatian coast, past Durazzo (modern city of Durres in Albania) and further east to Constantinople. Hugo, both Robert and Etienne with troops from England and Northern France crossed the Alps and headed south through Italy. Leaving his companions to winter in southern Italy, Hugo sailed to Constantinople, was shipwrecked, but was rescued by the Byzantines and sent to the capital, where he actually became a hostage of Emperor Alexei I Comnenus. The following spring, both Robert and Etienne sailed across the Adriatic, landed at Durazzo and headed east towards Constantinople. The Norman army of Bohemund and Tancred followed the same path from Sicily.

1096-1097 biennium FRICTION BETWEEN BYZANTINE AND CRUSADERS.

Alexei I hoped that, at best, several thousand mercenaries would respond to his call for help - this would make it possible to replenish the thinned ranks of the Byzantine army. But Basileus did not expect (and certainly was not interested in this) that an independent, violent army, far exceeding 50 thousand people, would gather under the walls of his capital. Due to the long-standing religious and political differences between Byzantium and Western Europe, Alexei I did not trust the crusaders - especially in view of the presence of Bohemund, with whom Basileus fought only recently and who proved to be an extremely dangerous enemy. In addition, Alexei I, who only had to win back the lost Asia Minor possessions from the Turks, was not too interested in the main objective crusaders - the capture of Jerusalem. The Crusaders, in turn, did not trust the Byzantines with their cunning diplomacy any more. They did not feel the slightest desire to ascend in the role of pawns and win the empire from the Turks for Alexei I. Mutual suspicions seriously influenced the result of this and subsequent Crusades. In the very first winter, when the crusaders were camped near Constantinople, due to general suspicion, petty skirmishes with the Byzantine guard constantly occurred.

Spring 1097 AGREEMENT BETWEEN ALEXEI I ROOM AND THE CRUSADERS.

Gottfried of Bouillon takes the oath to Alexei Comnenus and the Crusader army passes through Anatolia.

Combining firmness with diplomacy, Alexei I managed to avoid serious conflicts. In exchange for a promise of help, he received oaths of loyalty from the commanders of the campaign and assurances that they would help him to recapture Nicaea (the modern city of Iznik in Turkey) and any other former Byzantine possessions from the Turks. Then Alexei ferried them across the Bosphorus, carefully avoiding an arbitrarily brief accumulation of large contingents of crusaders within the walls of his capital. In addition, he provided them with provisions and an escort of the Byzantine troops to Jerusalem itself (the latter pursued a second goal: to make sure that the crusaders did not ravage the Byzantine lands on the way).

Together with Alexei I Comnenus and his main forces, the crusaders laid siege to Nicaea. The position of the besieged was greatly facilitated by the availability of water in Lake Askaniev, which, moreover, made it difficult to close the ring of the blockade. However, the crusaders with great difficulty dragged the boats from the sea to the lake and, thus, were able to completely besiege the city. Combining a skillful siege with skillful diplomacy, Alexei I agreed with the Niceneans that the city would be surrendered to him, after which the combined forces of the Byzantines and Crusaders successfully stormed the outer fortifications. The crusaders were offended that Basileus refused to give them the city for plunder. Then, in two parallel columns, they continued their advance to the southeast. There was no one-man management; all decisions were made at the council of war, and Bishop Ademar du Puy acted as mediator and conciliator.

The left column, led by Bohemund, was unexpectedly attacked by a Turkish cavalry army under the command of personally Kilidj-Arslan, the Sultan of the Kony Seljuks.
Using the traditional tactics of horse archers, the Turks (their number, according to some information, exceeded 50 thousand people) inflicted heavy damage on the column of crusaders, who, not only were in a clear minority, but also could not enter into close combat with the elusive, mobile enemy. Bohemond's column was about to disrupt the formation when the heavy cavalry of the second column, led by Gottfried of Bouillon and Raimund of Toulouse, slammed into the left flank of the Turks from the rear. Kilidge Arslan was unable to provide cover from the south. The Turkish army was caught in a vice and lost about 3 thousand people killed; the rest fled in panic. The total losses of the crusaders amounted to approximately 4 thousand people. (Other sources bring the number of troops of Kilidj-Arslan to 250 thousand people, and the losses of the Turks are considered to have reached 30 thousand people. There are also statements that Sultan Suleiman commanded the Turks under Dorilee.)

Battle of Nicaea Engraving by Gustave Dore	The crusaders cut the Taurus mountains Engraving by Gustave Dore

July-November 1097 ATTACK ON SYRIA.

The crusaders continued their offensive and captured Iconium (the modern city of Konya in Turkey), the capital of Kilij-Arslan. (Meanwhile, under their cover and taking advantage of the weakening of the Turks, Alexei with his Byzantine army occupied the western provinces of Anatolia.) Another battle ensued - at Heraclea (the present-day city of Eregli in the Turkish vilayet of Konya); then the crusaders crossed the Taurus mountains and headed for Antioch. During this offensive, a detachment under the command of Tancred and Baldwin took a heavy battle at Tarsus. After that, Baldwin branched off from the main column, crossed the Euphrates and captured Edessa (aka Bambika, or Hierapolis; the modern city of Membij in Syria), which became the center of an independent county.

October 21, 1097 - June 3, 1098 THE SIEVE BY THE ANTIOCHE CRUSADERS (modern city of Antakya in Turkey).

Emir Bagasian skillfully and energetically established the defense of the city. Soon after the outbreak of the siege, the Turks made a successful sortie, which led to heavy losses among the disorganized crusaders, and subsequently often resorted to similar tactics. From Syria, Turkish armies came to the aid of the besieged twice, but both times were repulsed in the battles of Harenck (December 31, 1097; February 9, 1098). For a while, hunger raged among the crusaders, because they did not take care of the supply of provisions, and the supplies quickly melted. The besiegers were saved by the very timely arrival of small English and Pisa flotillas, which captured Laodicea (the modern city of Latakia in Syria) and Saint-Simeon (the modern city of Samandag in Turkey) and delivered provisions. During the seven months of the siege, relations between the commanders of the Crusader forces escalated to the limit, especially between Bohemond and Raimund of Toulouse. In the end - mainly thanks to Bohemund and the betrayal of one of the Turkish officers - Antioch was captured (June 3), with the exception of the citadel. A little more, and it might be too late: on the way, two days' journey, there was at least a seventy-five thousandth army of the Mosul emir Kirboga. Etienne de Blois, feeling that the situation was becoming hopeless, fled. A bloody massacre continued for several days in the city, and four days later the Muslim army of Kirboga arrived at the walls of Antioch and in turn laid siege to the city.

The crusaders were blocked and cut off from their ports. Bagasian still held the citadel. The crusaders were again on the brink of starvation; the urban population was caught between two fires. Alexei I, who was crossing the Taurus mountains with his army, in order to occupy Antioch, according to the agreement concluded with the crusaders, met Etienne Blois, and the latter assured Basileus that the crusaders were doomed. Accordingly, the Byzantine army retreated to Anatolia. The despair that reigned in the city was suddenly dispelled upon the discovery of the Holy Spear (the one that pierced the side of Jesus during the crucifixion). Few of the historians or theologians believe that the spear was exactly that (in fact, even then many doubted among the crusaders themselves), but it had a truly miraculous effect. Confident of victory, the crusaders launched a massive sortie.

The starving crusaders managed to recruit only 15 thousand combat-ready soldiers (of which less than a thousand were mounted). Under the command of Bohemund, they crossed the Orontes in front of the astonished Muslims. Then, repelling the attacks of the Turks, the crusaders counterattacked. Squeezed between the river and the nearby mountains, the Muslims were deprived of the ability to maneuver and could not withstand the selfless attacks of the crusaders. Having suffered heavy losses, the Turks fled.

July-August 1098 PLAGUE IN ANTIOCHIA.

One of the victims of the epidemic was Bishop Ademar du Puy. After his death, relations between the commanders of the campaign escalated even more, especially between Bohemond (who was determined to maintain control of Antioch) and Raimund of Toulouse (who insisted that the crusaders were obliged to return the city to Byzantium, according to the oath given to Alexei).

January-June 1099 THE ATTACK ON JERUSALEM.

After much debate, all the crusaders, except Bohemund and his Normans, agreed to march to Jerusalem. (Bohemond remained in Antioch, where he founded an independent principality.) The crusaders, whose number now reached 12 thousand people, slowly marched along sea ​​coast to Jaffa (the supply of provisions was carried out by the Pisa fleet), and then turned away from the coast and moved to Jerusalem.

The city was defended by a strong Fatimid army, far outnumbering the besiegers. By this time, almost all the crusaders recognized Gottfried of Bouillon as commander; helped him by Raimund of Toulouse and Tancred. To completely blockade the city, the troops of the crusaders were not enough, and it was not necessary to expect that the besieged would be able to starve to death. Despite the severe shortage of water, the crusaders began to resolutely prepare for the assault: to build a high wooden siege tower and a ram. Showered from the city fortifications with a rain of arrows, they rolled the tower up to the wall, threw wooden bridge, and Gottfried led the troops on the attack (part of the army climbed the walls along the assault ladders). Apparently, this was the only operation coordinated from start to finish in the entire two-year campaign. Having made their way into the city, the crusaders ruthlessly slaughtered the entire garrison and the population, both Arab and Jewish (according to the chronicles, up to 70 thousand people died in the massacre that began after the assault). Having renounced the royal title, Gottfried was elected Guardian of Jerusalem.

Having learned that the fifty-thousandth army of Emir al-Afdal was moving from Egypt to liberate Jerusalem, Gottfried led out 10 thousand of the remaining crusaders to meet her. Unlike the Turks, whose army consisted mainly of horse archers, the Fatimids relied on a combination of fanaticism and striking power; This combination served faithfully at the dawn of Islam. Against the heavily armed and armored crusaders, the Fatimid army was powerless. Gottfried smashed them to smithereens, and the battle culminated in a crushing cavalry charge.

During the campaign, an additional goal was also to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslims.

Initially, the address of the Pope was addressed only to the French knighthood, but later the campaign turned into a full-scale military campaign, and his idea covered all the Christian states of Western Europe.

Feudal lords and common people of all nationalities moved to the East by land and sea, liberating the western part of Asia Minor from the power of the Seljuk Turks and eliminating the Muslim threat of Byzantium, and in July 1099 they conquered Jerusalem.

During the 1st Crusade, the Kingdom of Jerusalem and other Christian states were founded, which are united under the name of the Latin East.

Background to the conflict

One of the reasons for the crusade was a call for help, with which he turned to the Pope byzantine emperor Alexey I.

This call was driven by several circumstances. In 1071, the army of Emperor Roman IV Diogenes was defeated by the Sultan of the Seljuk Turks Alp-Arslan in the defeat at Manzikert.

This battle and the subsequent overthrow of Roman IV Diogenes led to the outbreak of a civil war in Byzantium, which did not subside until 1081, when Alexei Comnenus ascended the throne.

By this time, various leaders of the Seljuk Turks managed to take advantage of the civil strife in Constantinople and seized a significant part of the Anatolian plateau.

In the first years of his reign, Alexei Komnenos was forced to wage a constant struggle on two fronts - against the Normans of Sicily, who were advancing in the west and against the Seljuk Turks in the east. The Balkan possessions of the Byzantine Empire were also subjected to devastating raids by the Polovtsians.

In this situation, Alexei quite often used the help of mercenaries from Western Europe, whom the Byzantines called Franks or Celts. The generals of the empire highly appreciated the fighting qualities of the European cavalry and used mercenaries as striking units. Their corps was in need of constant replenishment.

In 1093-94. Alexei apparently sent the Pope a request for help in hiring the next corps. It is possible that this request served as the basis for the call for the Crusade.

Rumors of atrocities committed in Palestine could have served as another reason.

At this moment, the Middle East found itself on the front line between the Sultanate of the Great Seljuks (which occupied a significant part of the territory of modern Iran and Syria) and the Fatimid state of Egypt.

The Seljuks were supported mainly by Sunni Muslims, while the Fatimids were mainly supported by Shiite Muslims.

There was no one to protect the Christian minorities in Palestine and Syria, and during the hostilities, representatives of some of them were plundered and destroyed. This could give rise to rumors of terrible atrocities perpetrated by Muslims in Palestine.

In addition, Christianity originated in the Middle East: the first Christian communities existed on this territory, most of the Christian shrines were located on this territory, since Christians believe that it was in the territory of the Middle East that the Gospel events took place. For this reason, Christians considered this land theirs.

But at the end of the VI century. Mohammed (570-632) unites the Arabs and inspires them to embark on a campaign of conquest to create an Arab-Muslim empire.

Syria and Palestine are given to them by victories at Agenadein (634) and Yarmouk (636). Jerusalem is occupied in 638 by Alexandria in 643 and soon after Egypt all of North Africa is conquered. Cyprus occupied in 680

Only in the X century. Byzantium recaptures part of the lost territories. Crete and Cyprus were recaptured by Nikifor Phoca in 961 and 965. He also makes a cavalry raid into Syria (968) and occupies Kholm, Tripoli and the Lattakie region.

His associate Mikhail Burtses fights off Alep (969) John Timischeus takes Damascus and Antioch, but Jerusalem remains in the power of the Fatimid emir. Securing northern Syria for himself, Emperor Basil II does not feel strong enough to intercede for Christians, against whom Caliph Al-Hakim begins persecution (1009-1010), which continues until the Crusades. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is almost completely destroyed. In 1030-31 Ephesus was recaptured from the Arabs.

In the second half of the XI century. (between 1078 and 1081) Turks appear in Asia Minor, creating a number of small kingdoms of the Seljuk Turks. (Damascus, Alepskoe, etc.) The Arabs also attempted conquest in the Latin (Western) world (Spain in the VIII century, South Italy in the IX, piracy Arab countries North. Africa).

As a result, Christians began to have the idea that they needed to protect their fellows from persecution and return the lost lands and shrines.

The calls of the Pope, the frantic sermons of Peter the Hermit and other religious figures caused an unprecedented upsurge. V different places France, Germany and Italy hastily outfitted campaigns. In addition, thousands of people spontaneously gathered in detachments and moved to the East.

During the second half of the 1st millennium, Muslims conquered most North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Spain and many other territories.

However, by the time of the Crusades, the Muslim world was divided inside, there were constant internecine wars between the rulers of various territorial entities, and even the religion itself was split into several streams and sects. External opponents, including the Christian states in the West, did not fail to take advantage of this. Thus, the Reconquista in Spain, the Norman conquest of Sicily and the Norman attacks on the North African coast, the conquests of Pisa, Genoa and Aragon in Mallorca and Sardinia and the military actions of Christian rulers against Muslims at sea clearly demonstrated the vector of direction of Western European foreign policy at the end of the 11th century.

The desire of the Pope to increase his power through the formation of new states in the occupied territories, which would depend on the Pope, also played a significant role. Then it happened. Western Europeans, although they plundered a lot of gold, suffered enormous moral and human sacrifices for those times, and the Muslims lost twice as many, and subsequently they had a crisis.

Western Europe

The idea of ​​the first crusade in particular and of the entire crusade movement as a whole originates in the situation that developed in Western Europe at the end of the early Middle Ages. After the division of the Carolingian empire and the conversion of the warlike Hungarians and Vikings to Christianity, there was relative stability. However, over the previous several centuries, a whole class of warriors had formed in Europe, who now, when the borders of states were no longer threatened by a serious threat from the outside, had to use their forces in internecine conflicts and suppressing peasant revolts. Blessing the crusade, Pope Urban II said: "Whoever is destitute and poor, there will be joyful and rich!"

Incessant military conflicts with Muslims have allowed the idea of ​​the Holy War against Islam to flourish. When the Muslims occupied Jerusalem, the heart of the Christian religion, Pope Gregory VII in 1074 called upon the soldiers of Christ (Latin milites Christi) to go to the East and help Byzantium, which three years earlier had suffered a serious defeat at the Battle of Manzikert, to reconquer sacred lands... The pope's appeal was ignored by the chivalry, but nevertheless drew attention to events in the East and provoked a wave of pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Soon there were reports of harassment and persecution suffered by Muslim pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem and others. sacred cities... The news of the oppression of the pilgrims caused a wave of outrage among Christians.

In early March 1095, the embassy of Emperor Alexei Comnenus arrived at the cathedral in Piacenza with a request to provide assistance to Byzantium in the fight against the Seljuks.

November 26, 1095 in French city Clermont held a council, at which, in the face of the nobility and clergy, Pope Urban II made a passionate speech, urging the audience to go to the East and free Jerusalem from the rule of Muslims. This appeal fell on fertile ground, since the ideas of the Crusade were already popular among the people of Western European states, and the campaign could be organized at any time. The pope's speech only outlined the aspirations of a large group of Western European Catholics.

Byzantium

The Byzantine Empire had many enemies on its borders. So, in 1090-1091 she was threatened by the Pechenegs, but their onslaught was repulsed with the help of the Polovtsy and Slavs. At the same time, the Turkish pirate Chaka, dominating the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Bosphorus, disturbed the coast near Constantinople with his raids. Considering that by this time most of Anatolia had been captured by the Seljuk Turks, and the Byzantine army suffered a serious defeat from them in 1071 in the battle of Manzikert, then the Byzantine Empire was in a state of crisis, and there was a threat of its complete destruction. The peak of the crisis fell on the winter of 1090/1091, when the pressure of the Pechenegs, on the one hand, and their kindred Seljuks, on the other, threatened to cut off Constantinople from the outside world.

In this situation, Emperor Alexei Komnenos conducted diplomatic correspondence with the rulers of Western European countries (the most famous correspondence with Robert of Flanders), calling on them for help and showing the plight of the empire. A number of steps have also been outlined to bring the Orthodox and Catholic Churches closer together. These circumstances aroused interest in the West. However, by the beginning of the Crusade, Byzantium had already overcome a deep political and military crisis and had been in a period of relative stability since about 1092. The Pecheneg horde was defeated, the Seljuks did not conduct active campaigns against the Byzantines, and on the contrary, the emperor often resorted to the help of mercenary detachments, consisting of Turks and Pechenegs, to pacify his enemies. But in Europe they believed that the position of the empire was disastrous, counting on the humiliating position of the emperor. This calculation turned out to be incorrect, which later led to many contradictions in Byzantine-West European relations.

Muslim world

Most of Anatolia on the eve of the Crusade was in the hands of the nomadic tribes of the Seljuk Turks and the Seljuk Sultan Rum, who adhered to the Sunni trend in Islam. Some tribes in many cases did not recognize even the nominal power of the Sultan over themselves, or enjoyed wide autonomy.

By the end of the 11th century, the Seljuks pushed Byzantium within its borders, occupying almost all of Anatolia after defeating the Byzantines in the decisive battle of Manzikert in 1071.

However, the Turks were more concerned with solving internal problems than with the war with Christians. The constantly renewed conflict with the Shiites and the civil war that erupted over the inheritance rights of the Sultan's title attracted much more attention of the Seljuk rulers.

On the territory of Syria and Lebanon, Muslim semi-autonomous city-states pursued a relatively independent policy from empires, guided primarily by their regional rather than general Muslim interests.

Egypt and most of Palestine were controlled by the Shiites of the Fatimid dynasty. A significant part of their empire was lost after the arrival of the Seljuks, and therefore Alexei Komnin advised the crusaders to conclude an alliance with the Fatimids against a common enemy.

In 1076, under Caliph al-Mustali, the Seljuks captured Jerusalem, but in 1098, when the crusaders had already advanced to the East, the Fatimids conquered the city.

The Fatimids hoped to see the crusaders as a force that would influence the course of politics in the Middle East against the interests of the Seljuks, the eternal enemy of the Shiites, and from the very beginning of the campaign they played a subtle diplomatic game.

On the whole, Muslim countries were going through a period of deep political vacuum after the deaths of almost all leading leaders at about the same time. In 1092 the Seljuk wazir Nizam al-Mulk and the Sultan Malik Shah died, then in 1094 the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadi and the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir died.

Both in the east and in Egypt, a fierce struggle for power began. Civil War among the Seljuks led to the complete decentralization of Syria and the formation of small, warring city-states there. The Fatimid Empire also had internal problems.

Christians of the East

The Catholic Church vilely promoted the cruel treatment of Christians by Muslims.

In fact, many of the Christians of the East, contrary to the opinion of the church, did not turn into slaves (with some exceptions), and could also keep their religion. So it was in the possessions of the Seljuk Turks and cities in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Therefore, the arguments catholic church about the plight of their "brothers" in the East are partially incorrect.

This is evidenced by the data that when the first detachments of the crusaders entered the territory of the Turks, the majority of the local population were Christians, while Muslims preferred to peacefully coexist with Christians.

Chronology of events of the campaign

Peasant crusade

Urban II determined the beginning of the crusade on August 15 (Feast of the Ascension of the Mother of God), 1096. However, long before that, an army of peasants and petty knights, led by the Amiens monk Peter the Hermit, a talented orator and preacher, had independently advanced to Jerusalem.

The scale of this spontaneous popular movement was enormous. While the Pope (Roman Patriarch) hoped to attract only a few thousand knights to the campaign, Peter the Hermit in March 1096 led a crowd of many thousands - however, mostly unarmed poor people who set off with their wives and children ...

This huge (according to objective estimates, only several tens of thousands (~ 50-60 thousand) of the poor made several "armies" on the Campaign, of which more than 35 thousand people were concentrated in Constantinople, and up to 30 thousand crossed into Asia Minor) unorganized the horde faced the first difficulties in Eastern Europe.

Leaving their native lands, people did not have time (and many simply could not because of their poverty) stock up on food, since they set off too early and did not catch the rich harvest of 1096, which was born in Western Europe for the first time after several years of drought and hunger.

Therefore, they figured that Christian cities of Eastern Europe will provide them with food and everything they need free of charge (as was always the case in the Middle Ages for pilgrims who went to the Holy Land), or they will supply food at a reasonable price.

However, Bulgaria, Hungary and other countries through which the poor peasants' route ran did not always agree to such conditions, and therefore between local residents and conflicts erupted by violent militias who robbed them of their food.

Descending along the Danube, the participants of the campaign plundered and devastated the Hungarian lands, for which a united army of Bulgarians, Hungarians and Byzantines attacked them near Niš.

About a quarter of the militias were killed, but the rest reached Constantinople by August with little or no loss. There, the followers of Peter the Hermit were joined by armies that had advanced from Italy and France. Soon, the crusading poor peasants that flooded the city began to organize riots and pogroms in Constantinople, and Emperor Alexei had no choice but to ferry them across the Bosphorus.

Once in Asia Minor, the participants in the campaign quarreled and split into two separate armies.

On the side of the Seljuks who attacked them, there was a significant advantage - they were more experienced and organized warriors, and besides, unlike Christians, they knew the area very well, so soon practically all the militias, many of whom had never held weapons in their hands and did not have serious weapons, were killed.

This 1st battle in the northwest of Asia Minor at Dorileum, "in the valley of the Dragon", can hardly be called a battle - the Seljuk cavalry attacked and destroyed the first smaller group of poor crusaders, and then fell on their main forces.

Almost all pilgrims died from arrows or sabers of the Seljuk Turks, the Muslims did not spare anyone - neither women, nor children, nor old people, who were many among the "would-be crusaders" and for whom it was impossible to get good money when sold in the market as slaves.

Of the approximately 30 thousand participants in the "March of the Beggars", only a few dozen people managed to reach the Byzantine possessions, about 25-27 thousand were killed, and 3-4 thousand, mostly young girls and boys, were captured and sold for Muslim bazaars of Asia Minor. The military leader of the "March of the Poor" knight Walter Golyak was killed in the battle at Dorileum.

The spiritual leader of the "would-be crusaders" Pyotr Hermit, who managed to escape, later joined the main army of the 1st Crusade. Soon, the Byzantine corps, which approached, could only lay down a hill up to 30 meters high from the bodies of the fallen Christians and perform the funeral ceremony for the fallen.

German crusade

Although anti-Semitic sentiment reigned in Europe for many centuries, it was during the 1st Crusade that the first massive persecution of Jews took place.

In May 1096, a German army of about 10,000 men, led by the petty French knight Gauthier the Beggar, Count Emiho of Leiningen and the knight Volkmar, set out north across the Rhine valley - in the direction opposite to Jerusalem - and staged a massacre of Jews in Mainz, Cologne, Bamberg and other cities in Germany.

Crusade preachers only fueled anti-Semitic sentiments. People perceived calls to fight Jews and Muslims - the main, according to the churchmen, enemies of Christianity - as a direct guide to violence and pogroms.

In France and Germany, Jews were considered the main culprits of the crucifixion of Christ, and since they were incomparably closer than distant Muslims, people wondered why they should go to dangerous journey to the East, if you can punish the enemy at home?

Often the crusaders gave Jews a choice - to convert to Christianity or die. The majority preferred a false renunciation to death, in addition, in Jewish communities, to which news of the arbitrariness of the crusaders reached, there were frequent cases of mass renunciation and suicide.

According to the chronicle of Solomon bar Simeon, "one killed his brother, the other killed his parents, wife and children, grooms killed their brides, mothers killed their children." Despite attempts by local clergy and secular authorities to prevent the violence, thousands of Jews were killed.

To justify their actions, the crusaders cited the words of Pope Urban II, who at the Clermont Cathedral called for punishing with the sword not only Muslims, but also everyone who professed any other religion other than Christianity.

Outbreaks of aggression against Jews were observed throughout the history of the Crusades, despite the fact that the church officially condemned the massacres of civilians and advised not to destroy the Gentiles, but to convert them to Christianity.

The Jews of Europe, for their part, also tried to resist the crusaders - they organized self-defense units, or hired mercenaries to protect their neighborhoods, tried to negotiate protection with the local hierarchs of the Catholic Church.

Also, the Jews warned about the advancement of the next detachments of crusaders of their fellows and even Muslims in Asia Minor and North. Africa and even collected funds that were sent through the Jewish communities to increase the economic power of Muslim emirs, who actively fought against the invasions of Christian Europeans and were tolerant of Jews.

Crusade of the nobility

After the defeat of the army of the poor and the massacre of the Jews in August 1096, knighthood finally advanced under the leadership of powerful nobles from different regions Europe.

Count Raimund of Toulouse, together with the papal legate Ademar of Monteil, Bishop of Le Puy, led the knights of Provence.

The Normans of southern Italy were led by Prince Bohemond of Tarentum and his nephew Tancred. The brothers Gottfried of Boulogne, Eustache of Boulogne and Baldwin of Boulogne were the commanders of the Lorraine people, and the warriors of Northern France were led by Count Robert of Flanders, Robert of Normandy (the eldest son of William the Conqueror and brother of William the Red, King of England), Count Stephen of Blois and Hugo of Anderson brother of Philip I, King of France).

Road to Jerusalem

The guide of the crusaders through Asia Minor was the Armenian prince Bagrat, brother of the ruler of the largest Armenian principality in the Euphrates region, Vasil Goh. Mateos Urhaetsi reports that with the exit of the army of the crusaders from Nicaea, letters notifying about this were sent to the ruler of Mountainous Cilicia, Constantine Rubenides and the ruler of Edessa, Toros. Crossing Asia at the height of summer, the soldiers suffered from heat, lack of water and food. Some, unable to withstand the hardships of the campaign, perished, many horses fell.

From time to time, the crusaders received help in money and food from brothers in the faith - both from local Christians and from those who remained in Europe - but for the most part they had to find food on their own, ravaging the lands through which they traveled.

The warlords of the crusade continued to challenge each other for supremacy, but none of them possessed sufficient authority to take on the role of a full-fledged leader.

The spiritual leader of the campaign was, of course, Ademar of Monteil, Bishop of Le Pu

When the crusaders passed the Cilician gates, Baldwin of Boulogne left the army. With a small detachment of soldiers, he set off on his own route through Cilicia and at the beginning of 1098 arrived in Edessa, where he won the trust of the local ruler Toros and was appointed his successor.

In the same year, Toros, as a result of a conspiracy with the participation of Baldwin, was killed.

The goal of the crusade was proclaimed the struggle against the "infidels" for the liberation of the "Holy Sepulcher" in Jerusalem from under their rule, and the ruler of Christian Edessa, Toros, became the first victim of the crusaders, with the overthrow and murder of which the county of Edessa was formed - the first crusader state in the Middle East ...

Siege of Nicaea

In 1097, the troops of the crusaders, having defeated the army of the Turkish sultan, began the siege of Nicaea.

The Byzantine emperor, Alexei I Komnenos, suspecting that the crusaders, having taken the city, would not give it to him (according to the vassal oath of the crusaders (1097), the crusaders had to give the captured cities and territories to him, Alexy).

And, after it became clear that Nicaea would fall sooner or later, Emperor Alexy sent ambassadors to the city demanding surrender to him.

The townspeople were forced to agree, and on June 19, when the crusaders prepared to storm the city, they were saddened to find that they were greatly "helped" by the Byzantine army.

Siege of Antioch

In the fall, the Crusader army reached Antioch, which stood halfway between Constantinople and Jerusalem, and on October 21, 1097, laid siege to the city.

On Monday, June 28, the crusaders, ready for battle, left the city - "the phalanxes, lined up in order, stood opposite each other and prepared to start a battle, the Count of Flanders got off his horse and, prostrating himself on the ground three times, cried out to God for help."

Then the chronicler Raimund of Azhilsky carried the Holy Lance before the soldiers.

Kerboga, deciding that he could easily deal with the small army of the enemy, did not heed the advice of his generals and decided to attack the entire army as a whole, and not each division in turn. He went for a trick and gave the order to depict a retreat in order to carry the crusaders into more difficult terrain for battle.

Scattering over the surrounding hills, the Muslims, on the orders of the Kerbogs, set fire to the grass behind them and showered them with arrows of the Christians pursuing them, and many soldiers were killed (including the standard-bearer of Ademar of Monteil).

However, the inspired crusaders could not be stopped - they rushed "at foreigners, like fire that sparkles in the sky and burns mountains."

Their zeal flared up to such an extent that many soldiers saw a vision of Saints George, Demetrius and Maurice galloping in the ranks of the Christian army.

The battle itself was short - when the crusaders finally caught up with Kerboga, the Seljuks panicked, "the vanguard cavalry troops fled, and many volunteers, volunteers who joined the ranks of the fighters for the faith who were eager to protect the Muslims, were put to the sword."

The assault on Jerusalem began at dawn on 14 July. The crusaders threw stones at the city from throwing machines, and the Muslims showered them with a hail of arrows and threw from the walls the "tarred<…>pieces of wood, wrapping them in burning rags. "

The shelling of stones, however, did not cause much harm to the city, as the Muslims protected the walls with sacks filled with cotton and bran, which softened the blow.

Under incessant shelling - as Guillaume of Tire writes, “arrows and javelins fell on people from both sides, like hail” - the crusaders tried to move the siege towers to the walls of Jerusalem, but they were hampered by a deep moat encircling the city, which began to fill up on 12 July.

The battle lasted all day, but the city held out. When night fell, both sides remained awake - the Muslims feared that another attack would follow, and the Christians feared that the besieged would somehow be able to set fire to the siege weapons.

On the morning of July 15, when the moat was filled up, the crusaders were finally able to unhindered bring the towers closer to the walls and set fire to the bags protecting them.

This was a turning point in the attack - the crusaders threw wooden bridges onto the walls and rushed into the city.

The knight Letold was the first to break through, followed by Gottfried of Bouillon and Tancred of Tarentum.

Raymond of Toulouse, whose army was storming the city from the other side, learned of the breakthrough and also rushed to Jerusalem through the southern gate.

Seeing that the city fell, the emir of the garrison of the Tower of David surrendered and opened the Jaffa Gate.