The Probert Encyclopaedia of Warfare

FIRST CRUSADE

The immediate cause of the first Crusade was the preaching of Peter of Amiens, or Peter the Hermit, who in 1093 had joined other pilgrims on a journey to Jerusalem. On his return he gave Pope Urban II a description of the unhappy situation of Christians in the East, and presented a petition for assistance from the Patriarch of Jerusalem. The statements of the pope at the Councils of Piacenza and Clermont in 1095 produced a profound sensation throughout Europe, and in 1096 several armies set out in different divisions, most of which, being ignorant of military discipline and unprovided with necessaries, were destroyed before reaching Constantinople, which had been chosen for their place of meeting. A well-conducted regular army, however, of 80,000 men was headed by Godfrey of Bouillon; Hugh of Vermandois, brother to Philip, king of France; Baldwin, brother of Godfrey; Robert II of Flanders; Robert II of Normandy, brother of William II, king of England; Raymond of Toulouse; and other heroes. They traversed Germany, Hungary, and the Byzantine Empire, passed over into Asia Minor, conquered Nicaea in June 1097, and shortly after, on the 4th of July, fought the first pitched battle at Dorylaeum, being completely victorious after a severe contest. They then marched through Asia Minor upon Antioch, which, with the exception of the citadel, fell into their hands by treachery in June 1098.

Surrounded in turn by a Turkish army, they were soon reduced to pitiable straits, but succeeded in routing their besiegers on June the 28th. After remaining nearly a year in the neighbourhood of Antioch they commenced, in May 1099, their march against Jerusalem, the siege of which they commenced in June. Their numbers were now reduced to little more than 20,000 men; but after a fierce struggle the town was taken by storm on July the 15th, and Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen king of Jerusalem, or, as he preferred to term himself, Protector of the Holy Sepulchre. At his death in 1100 he was succeeded by his brother Baldwin, who had in the earlier part of the Crusade established himself in Edessa, and made himself ruler of an extensive territory stretching over the Armenian mountains and the plain of Mesopotamia.
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