Global InformationFirst Crusade information
| First Crusade | |||||||||
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| Part of the Crusades | |||||||||
 Miniature of Peter the Hermit leading the People's Crusade (Egerton 1500, Avignon, 14th-century) | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Crusader armies Army of Raymond of Saint-Gilles Army of Godfrey of Bouillon Army of Robert Curthose Army of Robert II of Flanders Army of Hugh the Great Armies of Bohemond of Taranto Armies of the People's Crusade Byzantine Empire |
Muslim States Seljuk Empire Emirate of Rum Danishmendids Fatimid Caliphate | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Crusader armies Raymond IV of Toulouse Adhemar of Le Puy # Godfrey of Bouillon Baldwin of Boulogne Hugh of Vermandois Stephen of Blois Robert II of Flanders Robert Curthose Peter the Hermit Bohemond of Taranto Tancred Byzantine Empire Alexios I Komnenos Tatikios Manuel Boutoumites |
Seljuks Kilij Arslan Yaghi-Siyan X Kerbogha Duqaq Ridwan Toghtekin Janah ad-Dawla Fatimids Iftikhar al-Dawla Al-Afdal Shahanshah | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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Crusaders Estimated at 130,000 to 160,000[1] * 80,000 to 120,000 infantry * 17,000 to 30,000 knights |
Muslims Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Moderate to high (estimates vary) | High | ||||||||
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the middle ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic rule. While Jerusalem had been under Muslim rule for hundreds of years, by the 11th century the Seljuk takeover of the region threatened local Christian populations, pilgrimages from the West, and the Byzantine Empire itself. The earliest initiative for the First Crusade began in 1095 when Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military support from the Council of Piacenza in the empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. This was followed later in the year by the Council of Clermont, during which Pope Urban II supported the Byzantine request for military assistance and also urged faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
This call was met with an enthusiastic popular response across all social classes in western Europe. Mobs of predominantly poor Christians numbering in the thousands, led by Peter the Hermit, a French priest, were the first to respond. What has become known as the People's Crusade passed through Germany and indulged in wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities, including the Rhineland massacres. On leaving Byzantine-controlled territory in Anatolia, they were annihilated in a Turkish ambush led by the Seljuk Kilij Arslan I at the Battle of Civetot in October 1096.
In what has become known as the Princes' Crusade, members of the high nobility and their followers embarked in late-summer 1096 and arrived at Constantinople between November and April the following year. This was a large feudal host led by notable Western European princes: southern French forces under Raymond IV of Toulouse and Adhemar of Le Puy; men from Upper and Lower Lorraine led by Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin of Boulogne; Italo-Norman forces led by Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred; as well as various contingents consisting of northern French and Flemish forces under Robert Curthose of Normandy, Stephen of Blois, Hugh of Vermandois, and Robert II of Flanders. In total and including non-combatants, the forces are estimated to have numbered as many as 100,000.
The crusader forces gradually arrived in Anatolia. With Kilij Arslan absent, a Frankish attack and Byzantine naval assault during the Siege of Nicaea in June 1097 resulted in an initial crusader victory. In July, the crusaders won the Battle of Dorylaeum, fighting Turkish lightly armoured mounted archers. After a difficult march through Anatolia, the crusaders began the Siege of Antioch, capturing the city in June 1098. Jerusalem, then under the Fatimids, was reached in June 1099 and the Siege of Jerusalem resulted in the city being taken by assault from 7 June to 15 July 1099, during which its residents were ruthlessly massacred. A Fatimid counterattack was repulsed later that year at the Battle of Ascalon, ending the First Crusade. Afterwards, the majority of the crusaders returned home.
Four Crusader states were established in the Holy Land: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Tripoli. The Crusader presence remained in the region in some form until the loss of the last major Crusader stronghold in the Siege of Acre in 1291. After this loss of all Crusader territory in the Levant, there were no further substantive attempts to recover the Holy Land.
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- ^ Asbridge 2012, p. 42, The Call of the Cross.