A History of the Crusades-Vol 1 (15 page)

The Pope had asked his bishops to preach the
Crusade; but far more effective preaching was done by poorer men, by
evangelicals such as Robert of Arbrissel, founder of the Order of Fontevrault,
and still more by an itinerant monk called Peter. Peter was an oldish man, born
somewhere near Amiens. He had probably tried to make the pilgrimage to
Jerusalem a few years previously, but had been maltreated by the Turks and
forced to turn back. His contemporaries knew him as Little Peter
— chtou
or
kiokio
in the Picard dialect — but later the hermit’s cape that he
habitually wore brought him the surname of ‘the Hermit’, by which he is better
known to history. He was a man of short stature, swarthy and with a long, lean
face, horribly like the donkey that he always rode and which was revered almost
as much as himself. He went barefoot; and his clothes were filthy. He ate neither
bread nor meat, but fish, and he drank wine. Despite his lowly appearance he
had the power to move men. There was an air of strange authority about him. ‘Whatever
he said or did’, Guibert of Nogent, who knew him personally, tells us, ‘it
seemed like something half-divine.’

Peter probably had not assisted at the Council
of Clermont; but before the year 1095 was out he was already preaching the
Crusade. He began his tour in Berry, then moved during February and March
through Orleannais and Champagne into Lorraine, and thence past the cities of
the Meuse and Aachen to Cologne, where he spent Easter. He gathered disciples
whom he sent to the districts that he could not himself visit. Among them were
the Frenchmen Walter Sans-Avoir, Rainald of Breis, Geoffrey Burel and Walter of
Breteuil, and the Germans Orel and Gottschalk. Wherever he or his lieutenants
went, men and women left their homes to follow him. By the time that he reached
Cologne his train was estimated at about 15,000 persons; and many more joined him
in Germany.

Apocalyptic
Enthusiasm

The extraordinary success of his preaching was
due to many causes. Life for a peasant in north-western Europe was grim and
insecure. Much land had gone out of cultivation during the barbarian invasions
and the raids of the Norsemen. Dykes had been broken, and the sea and rivers
had encroached on to the fields. The lords often opposed the clearing of the
forests in which they hunted for their game. A village unprotected by a lord’s
castle was liable to be robbed or burnt by outlaws or by soldiers fighting
petty civil wars. The Church sought to protect the poor peasants and to
establish
bourgs
in empty lands; but its help was fitful and often
unavailing. Greater lords might encourage the growth of towns, but lesser
barons opposed it. The organization of the demesne was breaking down, but no
orderly system was taking its place. Though actual serfdom had vanished, men
were tied to the land by obligations that they could not easily escape.
Meanwhile the population was increasing, and holdings in a village could not be
subdivided beyond a certain limit. ‘In this land’, said Urban at Clermont,
according to Robert the Monk, ‘you can scarcely feed the inhabitants. That is
why you use up its goods and excite endless wars amongst yourselves.’ Recent
years had been especially difficult. Floods and pestilence in 1094 had been
followed by drought and a famine in 1095. It was a moment when emigration
seemed very attractive. Already in April 1095 a shower of meteorites had
presaged a great movement of peoples.

Apocalyptic teaching added to the economic
inducement. It was an age of visions; and Peter was thought to be a visionary.
Medieval man was convinced that the Second Coming was at hand. He must repent
while yet there was time and must go out to do good. The Church taught that sin
could be expiated by pilgrimage and prophecies declared that the Holy Land must
be recovered for the faith before Christ could come again. Further, to ignorant
minds the distinction between Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem was not very
clearly defined. Many of Peter’s hearers believed that he was promising to lead
them out of their present miseries to the land flowing with milk and honey of
which the scriptures spoke. The journey would be hard; there were the legions
of Antichrist to be overcome. But the goal was Jerusalem the golden.

What Pope Urban thought of Peter and the
success of his preaching no one now knows. His letter to the Bolognese suggests
that he was a little nervous of uncontrolled enthusiasm; but he did not, or
could not, prevent it from spreading in Italy. Throughout the summer of 1096 a
casual but constant stream of pilgrims without leaders or any form of
organization began to flow to the East. No doubt he hoped that they and Peter’s
followers would safely reach Constantinople and there would await the coming of
his legate and the military chieftains, who would incorporate them into the
orderly ranks of the great Christian army.

Urban’s insistence that the expedition should
assemble at Constantinople shows how confident he was that the Emperor Alexius
would welcome it. Byzantium had asked for soldiers from the West; and here they
were answering the summons, not as a few individual mercenaries but in whole powerful
armies. His confidence was ingenuous. No government is unwilling to make
allies. But when these allies send large armies, over which it has no control,
to invade its territory, expecting to be fed and housed and provided with every
amenity, then it questions whether the alliance is worth while. When news of
the Crusading movement reached Constantinople it aroused feelings of disquiet
and alarm.

The Emperor s
Preparations

In 1096 the Byzantine Empire had been enjoying
for some months a rare interval of repose. The Emperor had recently defeated a
Cuman invasion of the Balkans so decisively that none of the barbarian tribes
of the steppes was likely now to attempt to cross the frontier. In Asia Minor,
thanks to civil wars encouraged by Byzantine diplomacy, the Seldjuk empire was
beginning to disintegrate. Alexius hoped soon to take the offensive against it,
but he wished to choose his own time. He still needed a breathing-space in
which he could repair his strained resources. The problem of man-power worried
him. He wished for mercenaries from the West; and no doubt he hoped that his
ambassadors in Italy were successful in their recruitment. Now he was informed
that instead of the individual knights or small companies that he expected to
join his forces, whole Frankish armies were on the move. He was not pleased, as
he knew from experience that the Franks were an unstable race, greedy for money
and unscrupulous in keeping agreements. They were formidable in attack; but
under the circumstances that was a doubtful advantage. It was with some
apprehension that the imperial court learnt, in the words of the princess Anna
Comnena, that ‘all the West and all the barbarian tribes from beyond the
Adriatic as far as the Pillars of Hercules were moving in a body through Europe
towards Asia, bringing whole families with them’. Not only the Emperor but his
subjects were uneasy. As a monitory portent great hordes of locusts swept over
the Empire, leaving the com untouched but devouring the vines. Inspired,
perhaps, by a hint from the authorities who were anxious not to spread
despondency, popular soothsayers interpreted this to mean that the Franks would
do no harm to good Christians, whose symbol was the com, the source of the
bread of life, but would destroy the Saracens, a people whose sensuality might
well be symbolized by the vine. The Princess Anna was a little sceptical of the
interpretation; but the likeness of the Franks to locusts was certainly
apparent.

The Emperor Alexius set about calmly making his
preparations. The Frankish armies would have to be fed as they travelled
through the Empire; and precautions must be taken to keep them from ravaging
the countryside and robbing the inhabitants. Stores of provisions were
accumulated in each main centre through which they would pass, and a police
force was detailed to meet each detachment when it arrived within the Empire
and to accompany it to Constantinople. There were two great roads across the
Balkan peninsula, the north road that crossed the frontier at Belgrade and
struck south-east through Nish, Sofia, Philippopolis and Adrianople, and the
Via Egnatia, from Dyrrhachium through Ochrida and Edessa (Vodena) to
Thessalonica and on through Mosynopolis and Selymbria to the capital. Since the
great German pilgrimage of 1064 the former road had seldom been used by
travellers from the West. The total number of pilgrims had declined and those
that had attempted the journey had preferred the alternative route. Moreover,
Alexius received his information about the Crusade from Italy. He therefore
anticipated that the Frankish armies would cross the Adriatic and make use of
the Via Egnatia. Supplies were sent to Dyrrhachium and the intervening cities;
and the governor of Dyrrhachium, the Emperor’s nephew John Comnenus, was
instructed to give the Frankish leaders a cordial welcome, but to see that they
and their armies were all the time supervised by the military police.
High-ranking envoys from Constantinople would be sent to greet each leader in
turn. Meanwhile the admiral Nicholas Mavrocatacalon took a flotilla to Adriatic
waters to watch the coasts and give warning of the approach of the Frankish
transports.

The Emperor himself remained at Constantinople,
awaiting further news. Knowing that the Pope had fixed 15 August as the date of
departure for the expedition he did not hurry over his preparations, when
suddenly, at the end of May 1096, a messenger came posting from the north to
say that the first Frankish army had come down through Hungary and had entered
the Empire at Belgrade.

BOOK III

THE JOURNEY TO THE WARS

CHAPTER I

THE PEOPLE’S
EXPEDITION

‘
The Lord was
not able to bring them into the land which he promised them.’
DEUTERONOMY
IX, 28

Peter the Hermit arrived with his followers at
Cologne on Holy Saturday, 12 April 1096. There he began to realize the
difficulties that beset the leader of a popular expedition. The vast motley
collection of enthusiasts that he had gathered together consisted of men from
many districts and of many types. Some brought their women with them, some even
their children. Most of them were peasants, but there were townsfolk among
them, there were junior members of knightly families, there were former
brigands and criminals. Their only link was the fervour of their faith. All of
them had given up everything to follow Peter; and they were eager to continue
on their way. It was, moreover, essential to keep them on the move if they were
to be fed; for few districts in medieval Europe had a sufficient surplus of
foodstuffs to supply for long the needs of so large a company. But Cologne was
set in a rich countryside with good river communications. Peter wished to take
advantage of the facilities that it provided to pause a while and preach to the
Germans. He was probably anxious to attract some of the local nobility to his
Crusade. In France and Flanders the knights preferred to join the company of
some great lord. But no great German lord was going to the holy war. His
preaching was successful. Among the many Germans that answered his call were
several of the lesser nobility, led by Count Hugh of Tubingen, Count Henry of
Schwarzenberg, Walter of Teck and the three sons of the Count of Zimmern.

But the Frenchmen were impatient. Walter
Sans-Avoir decided that he would not wait at Cologne. With a few thousand
compatriots he left the city as soon as the Easter Feast was over, probably on
Easter Tuesday, and set out on the road to Hungary. Marching up the Rhine and
the Neckar and down the Danube, he reached the Hungarian frontier on 8 May.
There he sent to King Coloman to ask for permission to cross the kingdom and
for help in obtaining provisions for his men. Coloman proved friendly. The army
passed through Hungary without an untoward incident. About the end of the month
it reached Semlin on the further frontier, and crossed the Rive Save into
Byzantine territory at Belgrade.

Walter
Sans-Avoir

The military commander at Belgrade was taken by
surprise. He had received no instructions how to deal with such an invasion. He
sent post-haste to Nish, where the governor of the Bulgarian province resided,
to inform him of Walter’s arrival. The governor, a conscientious but
undistinguished official called Nicetas, was equally uninstructed. In his turn
he dispatched a messenger to take the news as quickly as possible to
Constantinople. Meanwhile Walter at Belgrade demanded food for his followers.
The harvests were not yet gathered, and the garrison had none to spare; so
Walter and his troops began to pillage the countryside. His temper was inflamed
owing to an unfortunate occurrence at Semlin, where sixteen of his men, who had
not crossed the river with their companions, tried to rob a bazaar. The
Hungarians captured them and stripped them of their arms and their clothing,
which were hung on the walls of Semlin as a warning, and sent them on naked
across to Belgrade. When the pillaging round Belgrade began the commander
resorted to arms. In the fighting several of Walter’s men were killed and others
were burnt alive in a church.

Walter was eventually able to march on to Nish,
where Nicetas received him kindly and provided food, keeping him there till he
received an answer from Constantinople. The Emperor, who had believed that the
Crusade would not leave the West before the Feast of the Assumption, was forced
to speed up his arrangements. Nicetas was requested to send Walter on under
escort. Accompanied by this escort Walter and his army continued their journey
in peace. Early in July they reached Philippopolis, where Walter’s uncle,
Walter of Poissy, died; and by the middle of the month they were in
Constantinople.