The First Crusade: Jerusalem Reclaimed
Thousands answered a pope's call to reclaim the Holy Land and after years of blood, took Jerusalem in a frenzy.
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In 1095, Pope Urban II urged Western Christians to take up arms to free Jerusalem from Muslim rule. A mass movement of warriors and pilgrims surged east.
After a grueling march and sieges, the Crusaders reached Jerusalem in 1099 and captured it after a brutal assault, killing many of its inhabitants.
They founded a chain of Crusader states, beginning two centuries of holy war between Europe and the Islamic world.
"Peasants and knights alike marched east under the sign of the cross. The city fell, and the massacre that followed scarred relations for centuries."
The First Crusade established Crusader states in the Levant and opened centuries of conflict between Christendom and the Islamic world. Its legacy of suspicion and myth still echoes in East-West relations.
The Full Story
The Call to Arms
Urban's preaching tapped piety, adventure, and the hope of pardon. The response was so vast it included a disastrous popular crusade of untrained pilgrims.
The Siege of the City
After months of campaigning, the capture of Jerusalem was swift and savage, a culmination of years of hardship on the road.
A Lasting Wound
The Crusades left a deep mark on interfaith memory, shaping later encounters between Europe and the Middle East.