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People's Crusade
  • 1096
  • Medieval era

People's Crusade

Prelude to the First Crusade (April–October 1096)

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Photo: Jean Colombe · Commons · Public domain · Resized

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The People's Crusade was the beginning phase of the First Crusade whose objective was to retake the Holy Land, and Jerusalem in particular, from Islamic rule. In 1095, after the head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Urban II started to urge faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the People's Crusade was conducted for roughly six months from April to October 1096. It is also known as the Peasants' Crusade, Paupers' Crusade or the Popular Crusade as it was executed by a mainly untrained peasant army prior to the main church-organized crusade. It was led primarily by Peter the Hermit with forces of Walter Sans Avoir. The peasant army of this crusade was largely destroyed by the forces of the Seljuk Turks under Kilij Arslan at the Battle of Civetot in northwestern Anatolia, though some survivors joined the armies of the Prince's Crusade in Constantinople.

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Image: Jean Colombe, Public domain · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

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