The First Crusade

The first crusade played a very important part in Medieval England. The first Crusade was an attempt to re-capture Jerusalem. After the capture of Jerusalem by the Muslims in 1076, any Christian who wanted to pay a pilgrimage to the city faced a very hard time. Muslim soldiers made life very difficult for Christians and trying to get to Jerusalem was filled with danger for a Christian. This greatly angered all Christians.

Those who volunteered to go to fight the Muslims cut out red crosses and sewed them on their tunics. The french word "croix" means cross and the word changed to "croisades" or crusades. The fight against the Muslims became a Holy War. Many people did volunteer to fight in the First Crusade. There were true Christians who wanted to reclaim Jerusalem for their belief and get the Muslims out of the city. There were those who knew they had committed sin and that by going on the Crusade tehy might be forgiven by God. They had also been told by the pope that if they were killed, they would automatically got to heaven as they were fighting for God.

The first crusade had a very difficult journey getting to the Middle East. They could not use the mediterrean sea as the Crusaders did not control the ports on the coast of the Middle East. Therefore, they had to cross land. They travelled from France through Italy, then Eastern Europe and then through what is now Turkey. The covered hundreds of miles, through scorching heat and and also deep snow in the moutain passes. The Crusaders ran out of fresh water and according to a survivor of the Fisrt Crusade who wrote about his experiences after his return, some were reduced to drinking their own urine, drinking animal blood or water that had been in the sewage. Food was brought to them but it was very expensive.

After the success of the Crusaders, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was created and its first king was Godfrey of Bouillon who was elected by other crusaders. He died in 1100 and was succeeded by his brother Baldwin of Boulogne.

The capture of Jerusalem did not end the Crusades as the Crusaders wanted to get rid of the Muslims from the whole region and not just Jerusalem. The desire led to the other Crusades.