The Underlying Causes Of The First Crusade

The First Crusade originated as the brainchild of the Catholic Pope Urban II and was announced at the Council of Claremont in Aquitaine in 1095 as a call to arms to reclaim Jerusalem and holy sites like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus Christ was crucified and aide the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus against the Shia Muslim Seljuk Turks, who had taken Anatolia after a series of victories over the Byzantine Empire including the Battle of Manzikert. These events were recorded by Alexius I’s daughter, Anna Comnena who wrote the story of her father’s life in her great work, the Alexiad. Jerusalem was controlled by the Fatimid Caliphate which was located around Northern Africa and was predominantly Shia Muslim. This led to conflict with Sunni group over their interpretations on the succession of the Prophet Mohammed.
The underlying motivation for most of European interest in the First Crusade is the indulgence that Pope Urban II offers all who pledge to go crusade which grants eternal salvation to the individual. Immediately following his announcement groups of Christians across
The first wave of the First Crusade is known as the People’s Crusade and is the result of unarmed peasants eager to go on crusade though they are untrained and unarmed. Peter the Hermit called on anybody who would join him on departing before Pope Urban’s August date. Peter and his followers pillaged their way through the Byzantine Empire and were finally defeated by Seljuk Turks. The Peace of God Movement aimed at preventing some of the civilian casualties due to the religious sanctions on warfare established in the doctrine which protected ecclesiastic property as well as women and children and other