Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,994
The End Of The "Holy" Murder Torches!
When Pope Urban II called in 1096 to recapture the "holy places" for Christians ...
... he actually has the princes and the nobility in mind.
What he did not expect was that the enthusiasm he sparked for the "holy" cause could also appeal to the normal people.
But that's exactly how it happened!
Before the "First Crusade" - so called in our historiography - set off for Jerusalem in August 1096, the common people had already been on the move for three months!
In April 1096 a charismatic monk named Peter the Hermit was from Amiens ...
... set off, accompanied by a bunch of crusaders from Germany, which was led by a certain Volkmar from the Rhineland and was more than 10,000 strong.
A few weeks later, Peter's student Gottschalk set out with an even larger crowd to follow Volkmar!
Meanwhile, a third army gathered under Count Emicho I. In addition to many pilgrims who believed in his calling and some of whom had even followed a goose allegedly inspired by God, German and French knights with military teams also joined him. The vast majority of people are “common people” and the lower nobility...:
The different clusters have no uniform leadership, no common strategy - only one common goal: to recapture the "holy" land!
There may have been a total of around 50,000 men, more or less well armed, all of them fanatical.
In Hungary the fanaticism of the crusaders breaks out for the first time: after a dispute over a pair of shoes in the market in Semlin, the Christian fanatics kill 4,000 residents!
Until they cross the Sava River and leave Hungarian soil, they have to defend themselves from constant attacks by Hungarian armed forces - but still find time to plunder and burn the city of Belgrade ...:
In the city of Sofia they reach the Byzantine sphere of influence - the number of holy warriors has already decreased by more than 25 percent.
Emperor Alexios I Komnenus ...
... lets the unpredictable mass immediately set over the Bosporus on the soil of the Seljuq Empire - just get away quickly with them!
Arrived in the "holy land" on the other side of the Bosporus ...
... the crusaders immediately begin to plunder cities and fight each other for the booty. Germans and Italians on the one hand and the French on the other ...:
The Germans and the Italians withdraw, elect a new leader, an Italian named Rainald, while the French Gottfried Burel ...
... takes command. Peter the Monk had lost his influence on the crusade - he left for Byzantium, ostensibly to organize supplies, but did not return.
Eventually the holy murder burners reach the area around Nicaea, the Seljuk capital and fortress, whose suburbs they plunder.
The Germans march with 6,000 crusaders to the fortress Xerigordon and conquered it in order to use it as a base for the raids in the area. Most of the locals were Christians, whose salvation was the pretext for the whole enterprise. Instead of rescue, there was murder and pillage.
In response, the Seljuks sent a sizeable army against Xerigordon, which on September 29 captured the city's water supply, which was outside and which the Germans had overlooked. After eight days, the crusaders have to give up. Those who want to remain Christians are killed; those who convert to Islam are sold into slavery
The Seljuks, masters of the “holy land”, use the greed of the cruisers for a ruse: In their main camps, Seljuk spies spread the rumor that the Germans who had conquered Xerigordon had also brought Nicaea into their possession.
As soon as the rumor has started circulating, the Christians set out excitedly to share in the spoils of war. On the morning of October 21st, all of the able-bodied part of the Mordbrennerhaufens marched off in the direction of Nicaea, while women, children, the elderly and the sick remained in the camp.
Three miles from camp, at a point where the road meets a ravine near Drakon, they run into a perfectly planned Seljuk ambush on October 21, 1096!
Most of them are killed, only boys and girls spare the Ottomans so that they can be sold into slavery.
3,000 survivors, including Gottfried Burel, who triggered the disaster, are lucky enough to be able to retreat to an abandoned castle.
The Byzantines eventually sent troops to lift the siege that followed and led the 3,000 back to Constantinople, the only survivors of the People's Crusade. These are disarmed and quartered under guard in a special district of Constantinople, where they await the arrival of the main army of the First Crusade, which they join.
When Pope Urban II called in 1096 to recapture the "holy places" for Christians ...
... he actually has the princes and the nobility in mind.
What he did not expect was that the enthusiasm he sparked for the "holy" cause could also appeal to the normal people.
But that's exactly how it happened!
Before the "First Crusade" - so called in our historiography - set off for Jerusalem in August 1096, the common people had already been on the move for three months!
In April 1096 a charismatic monk named Peter the Hermit was from Amiens ...
... set off, accompanied by a bunch of crusaders from Germany, which was led by a certain Volkmar from the Rhineland and was more than 10,000 strong.
A few weeks later, Peter's student Gottschalk set out with an even larger crowd to follow Volkmar!
Meanwhile, a third army gathered under Count Emicho I. In addition to many pilgrims who believed in his calling and some of whom had even followed a goose allegedly inspired by God, German and French knights with military teams also joined him. The vast majority of people are “common people” and the lower nobility...:
The different clusters have no uniform leadership, no common strategy - only one common goal: to recapture the "holy" land!
There may have been a total of around 50,000 men, more or less well armed, all of them fanatical.
In Hungary the fanaticism of the crusaders breaks out for the first time: after a dispute over a pair of shoes in the market in Semlin, the Christian fanatics kill 4,000 residents!
Until they cross the Sava River and leave Hungarian soil, they have to defend themselves from constant attacks by Hungarian armed forces - but still find time to plunder and burn the city of Belgrade ...:
In the city of Sofia they reach the Byzantine sphere of influence - the number of holy warriors has already decreased by more than 25 percent.
Emperor Alexios I Komnenus ...
... lets the unpredictable mass immediately set over the Bosporus on the soil of the Seljuq Empire - just get away quickly with them!
Arrived in the "holy land" on the other side of the Bosporus ...
... the crusaders immediately begin to plunder cities and fight each other for the booty. Germans and Italians on the one hand and the French on the other ...:
The Germans and the Italians withdraw, elect a new leader, an Italian named Rainald, while the French Gottfried Burel ...
... takes command. Peter the Monk had lost his influence on the crusade - he left for Byzantium, ostensibly to organize supplies, but did not return.
Eventually the holy murder burners reach the area around Nicaea, the Seljuk capital and fortress, whose suburbs they plunder.
The Germans march with 6,000 crusaders to the fortress Xerigordon and conquered it in order to use it as a base for the raids in the area. Most of the locals were Christians, whose salvation was the pretext for the whole enterprise. Instead of rescue, there was murder and pillage.
In response, the Seljuks sent a sizeable army against Xerigordon, which on September 29 captured the city's water supply, which was outside and which the Germans had overlooked. After eight days, the crusaders have to give up. Those who want to remain Christians are killed; those who convert to Islam are sold into slavery
The Seljuks, masters of the “holy land”, use the greed of the cruisers for a ruse: In their main camps, Seljuk spies spread the rumor that the Germans who had conquered Xerigordon had also brought Nicaea into their possession.
As soon as the rumor has started circulating, the Christians set out excitedly to share in the spoils of war. On the morning of October 21st, all of the able-bodied part of the Mordbrennerhaufens marched off in the direction of Nicaea, while women, children, the elderly and the sick remained in the camp.
Three miles from camp, at a point where the road meets a ravine near Drakon, they run into a perfectly planned Seljuk ambush on October 21, 1096!
Most of them are killed, only boys and girls spare the Ottomans so that they can be sold into slavery.
3,000 survivors, including Gottfried Burel, who triggered the disaster, are lucky enough to be able to retreat to an abandoned castle.
The Byzantines eventually sent troops to lift the siege that followed and led the 3,000 back to Constantinople, the only survivors of the People's Crusade. These are disarmed and quartered under guard in a special district of Constantinople, where they await the arrival of the main army of the First Crusade, which they join.
