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First Crusade Research Paper

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The main objective of the first crusade was overcome by a secondary objective which later became the reason why we call it the First Crusade. The initial objective was to respond to the Byzantine Emperor who requested western volunteers to help fight against invading Turks. In The reconquest of jerusalem and the holy land soon became the main objective of the Crusade. Pope Urban in 1095 called upon his people telling them to go jerusalem and liberate the church of God out of devotion and not for honor and wealth. Calling the crusade increased the popes standings in a papacy which was struggling at the time due to the investiture controversy. During this time, religion was very important and people took it very seriously. Jerusalem was the …show more content…

During this time a monk named Peter the Hermit, carried a huge cross town to town and preaching to the people. This made people want to get out and go reconquest Jerusalem. They were starting to get antsy and eventually a horde of poor men, women and children set out on the trip to Jerusalem known as the “People’s Crusade” or “Peasants Crusade”. The name was given to the crusader because they had started their expedition before the great leaders that lead the main crusade. The People’s Crusade was unorganized and mostly unarmed. Women and children were the majority of the tens of thousands of individuals heading to jerusalem. They traveled down the Danube valley and passed through Constantinople before the main crusade was supposed to meet. They were led by Peter the Hermit and a few other higher ranking knights but later became too much for them to control. Along their journey through germany and hungary their number grew shorter due to battles with the natives of the land. When the “People's Crusade” crossed the Asia minor they were surprised and slaughters by the Turks. A few thousand including Peter the Hermit survived and would eventually continue their march to

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