|
Pope Urban II had called the Christians to join him in a Holy War to reclaim
the Holy Lands as an act of Christianity, but there were many activities that
took place that weren’t characteristics of Christianity. The Crusades were a
smokescreen for Pope’s craving for power and control. The Crusades were the idea
of Pope Urban II, a wise Frenchman. On November 18, 1095 AD, Pope Urban II
opened the Council of Clermont. Nine days later, the Pope made a very important
speech just outside the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. In his speech, he asked
the people to help the Christians’ effort to restore peace to the East.
The Crusades had originally been to help the Churches in the East, but the
now it was to reclaim the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem from the Muslims. Pope
Urban II stayed in France until September 1096 in hopes of providing leadership
for the First Crusaders. Urban had originally hoped for the crusading army to be
composed of mostly knights and other warriors, but his speech had already began
spreading throughout the west, and many people of different social classes
started joining the crusading army. (Foss, Michael. pg. 23) Because of this
Urban lost all control of the army, which led to the slaughter of Jews in
northern France. These poor people also caused strain on the armies supplies and
discipline.
They were never trained and they were poor, so they couldn’t bring anything
and were poorly disciplined(Foss, Michael. pg. 24). The entire crusading army
had planned on reaching the city of Constantinople, but because of their lack of
supplies and training the vast majority of them were slaughtered before they got
there. The few troops that did reach Constantinople split up into two groups.
One group tried to capture Nicaea, a key city that blocked the road of their
supply routes. This group was unsuccessful. The other group was attacked near
the city of Civetot in October.
|
