1. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the
First Crusade
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson you will be able to…
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*

2. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the First Crusade
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*
So what has been asked before?
Explain why Byzantium was important in Pope Urban II’s decision to call the
First Crusade at Clermont in (12 marks)
Explain why Jerusalem was important to crusaders in the First Crusade. (12 marks)
How important was spiritual motivation for participants in the First Crusade? (24 marks)
Why did knights go on the First Crusade? (12 marks)
How far was the desire for wealth the principal motive for participants in the First Crusade?
Explain why the First Crusade went to Jerusalem.
How important was the recapture of Jerusalem as a motivation for participants in the First Crusade? (24 marks)

3. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the First Crusade
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*
The Role of the Pope
Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade at Clermont on 27 November In a speech full of emotional rhetoric, he called up the image of Jerusalem and called for a war of liberation. He spoke also of the suffering of the Christians in the East. So the Crusade was to be a war of liberation, of fellow Christians and of a place – Jerusalem, a city sanctified by Christ, the focal point of the Christian faith, the site of the Holy Sepulchre and Christ’s burial place. The Crusade then, would also be a pilgrimage and a spiritual penance for participants.
• When Pope Urban II preached at Clermont in November 1095, reports suggest he raised several issues. Because all known reports of Clermont were written after the capture of Jerusalem, they may have been coloured by that achievement, making his precise motives difficult to ascertain. Was Jerusalem really of primary importance, or just a means to an end?
• His calls to arms may have been motivated by a desire to aid Byzantium following the Emperor Alexius’s request for help at the Council of Piacenza, or to reunite the Greek and Roman churches after the schism of Carl Erdmann suggested the real reason was to answer the request for help sent by the Byzantine Emperor. As the Seljuk Turks swept into the Near East in the mid-eleventh century they conquered Armenia, Syria and Palestine. In 1071 the Seljuk leader, Alp Arslan, won a decisive victory over Byzantium at the Battle of Manzikert. Anatolia was lost and a Seljuk capital established at Nicaea, a short distance from Constantinople. Antioch was lost by Byzantium in Expansion continued under Alp Arslan’s son, Malikshah. From 1081 Alexius I rallied the Empire and in 1095 at the Council of Piacenza he requested help from the west against the Seljuks. However, by 1095 the Turkish threat to Byzantium was receding; was the Crusade, as Erdmann suggested, really designed to help the Greeks against their Seljuk enemies and facilitate a union with the Orthodox Church, so asserting papal supremacy? He may have wished to enhance papal authority in the west as part of the investiture contest with the German Emperor.
• His speeches stress the need to aid Eastern Christians; above all, the liberation of Jerusalem may have been uppermost in his mind. He may have wished to ensure easier access for pilgrims to the holy places.
• In some reports the Pope spoke of the feudal anarchy caused by knightly violence and Urban may have hoped to enhance the Peace of God movement and export such violence elsewhere.

4. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the First Crusade
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*
Other motivations
Spiritual motivation will prompt discussion of key ideas and concepts such as: the lure of Jerusalem and the Holy Places, especially the Holy Sepulchre; the crusade as pilgrimage and the importance of the crusader vow: the indulgence and the promise of
remission of sins and crusade as a penitential act. Also, by the Apocalypse – the masses were inspired through their fear of judgement day and a desire for salvation. The Church had won its battle for control over the hearts and minds of the European
population, and the crusades were the logical conclusion of this victory as the masses sought their salvation and remission of their sins. Jerusalem lay at the heart of the Christian faith as the Holy City. In an age of relics and miracles, every stone in the city was sacred and had to be saved from the Turks so it could offer salvation to Christians. The good harvest in 1096 signalled God’s approval of the Crusades, replacing his displeasure with the people that had led to the previous poor harvests.
• Social attitudes will provide a useful means of evaluation since feudal and familiar obligation provided motivation for many knights. Many were attracted by values such as status and the knightly ethos, vendetta and their sense of honour, and a resolution to their knightly dilemma.
• Students may give examples of key moments in the course of the crusade to illustrate motivation, such as Antioch and the finding of the Holy Lance, or the siege of Jerusalem; or may discuss the motives of key participants and social groups.
• Evaluation may also include economic motives, as put forward by traditional historians such as Runciman. Western Europe was overpopulated, resulting in land shortages and squabbles over inheritance. As such it was the second and third sons that led the drive for land in the east as part of a colonial expansion of western civilisation. Many saw the possibility of settling in the east, notably the Normans such as Bohemond, from Southern Italy and Baldwin of Boulogne, who took his wife and sons. The preceding years had seen a succession of bad harvests due to drought, making it increasingly difficult to survive in the poverty-stricken west. The east was known to be prosperous, with its luxury goods and reputation as the ‘land of milk and honey’. The possibility of seizing the treasure and possessions of the Turks was reported as forming part of Urban’s initial appeal in The pope had granted the crusaders pilgrim’s rights, which meant that debts need not be settled until the crusader returned, whilst the church
protected property. As such, there was everything to gain and nothing to lose. The poor sought to improve their lot from nothing.

5. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the First Crusade
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*
What about specific groups such as knights?
In 1096 over knights from western Europe set out on the First Crusade, a hugely
expensive undertaking, estimated at four years’ annual income for most knights. Analysis of
their motives may evaluate the traditional view of landless younger sons motivated by money
and land, greed and booty. Context may contrast this with the goal of pilgrimage and
importance of the Holy places in crusader motivation.
• Social attitudes provide a useful means of evaluation, feudal and familial obligation
provided motivation for many knights, while many were attracted by values such as
status and the knightly ethos, vendetta and their sense of honour, a resolution to their
knightly dilemma.
• Spiritual motivation will develop key ideas and concepts such as the lure of Jerusalem
and the Holy Places – especially the Holy Sepulchre; the crusade as pilgrimage and the
importance of the crusader vow; the indulgence and the promise of remission of sins;
and crusade as a penitential act. Also, the fear of the Apocalypse, as knights whose
social status was maintained through violence were inspired by their fear of judgement
day and a desire for salvation.
• Ties between the knights of western Europe and the Papacy through the conquest of
Iberia, the peace of God and ideas of milites Christi may be developed, as will particular
examples of knights, such as Bohemond, Tancred and Baldwin.

6. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the First Crusade
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*
Factors suggesting the desire for wealth might include:
• there was poverty in Western Europe among the peasants as a rising population put pressure on agricultural land which had not been helped by bad weather affecting harvests and causing famine and disease.
• luxuries were known to come from the east and travellers and pilgrims testified and it was believed that Jerusalem was the 'golden' city
• primogeniture had begun to bite in Western Europe among the nobility and there was a problem - particularly in France - relating to landless younger sons and subsequent internecine warfare. The attempt by the Church to control this through the Peace of God had not been successful. The point was made strongly in Urban II's call to arms and men like Baldwin and Bohemond were in this position. Bohemond, for example, went no further than Antioch and Baldwin was diverted to Edessa.
Factors suggesting an alternative view might include:
• there was a preponderance of popular piety at this time with people involving themselves directly in the means of their own salvation, shown by an increase in veneration of relics, pilgrimages, the cult of saints and religious patronage. Jerusalem was the major place of pilgrimage and the crusaders regarded the journey as a pilgrimage to free the Holy City and its relics from the hands of the infidels and restore the disrupted pilgrim route. This was underlined in the personification of the city as a theme for many popular preachers of the crusade
• personal piety and apocalyptic views meant that the offer of forgiveness of sins was eagerly taken up, especially by knights whose hands were stained with blood and were looking to resolve their 'knightly dilemma'. This links to the beginning of chivalry and the view of the knight as a 'holy warrior' as shown by Gregory VII's milites Christi
• people participated on the crusade because of kinship/family ties and the social pressures related to them. Tancred and Bohemond were nephew and uncle; Godfrey and Baldwin were brothers among many other examples. This kinship was not uncommon in the lower ranks as well as the leadership
• Urban II recruited powerful nobles and knights in service to them may have felt obliged to go on the crusade with their masters. Raymond of Toulouse took many of his household knights as did other crusader leaders. Some nobles, such as Fulk IV of Anjou, did not go but put still put pressure on some of their knights to participate.
Good answers are likely to/may show an awareness that evidence does not suggest that a desire for wealth was a major motive:
• material sacrifices were made on a major scale by many to finance their journey as crusader charters demonstrate
• most of the surviving combatants returned home rather than remaining to gain territory or status in the Holy Land.

7. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the First Crusade
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*

8. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the First Crusade
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*

9. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the First Crusade
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*

10. LO: To revise the causes and motivations of the First Crusade
Describe the key causes E-D
Explain their impact C-B
Judge the most important factor A-A*