77 Epilogue: How the First Crusade Changed the World

Consider, I pray, and reflect how in our time God has transferred the West into the East. For we who were Occidentals now have been made Orientals. He who was a Roman or a Frank is now a Galilaean, or an inhabitant of Palestine. One who was a citizen of Rheims or of Chartres now has been made a citizen of Tyre or of Antioch. We have already forgotten the places of our birth; already they have become unknown to many of us, or, at least, are unmentioned. Some already possess here homes and servants which they have received through inheritance. Some have taken wives not merely of their own people, but Syrians, or Armenians, or even Saracens who have received the grace of baptism. Some have with them father-in-law, or daughter-in-law, or son-in-law, or stepson, or step-father. There are here, too, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. One cultivates vines, another the fields. The one and the other use mutually the speech and the idioms of the different languages. Different languages, now made common, become known to both races, and faith unites those whose forefathers were strangers. As it is written, "The lion and the ox shall eat straw together." Those who were strangers are now natives; and he who was a sojourner now has become a resident. Our parents and relatives from day to day come to join us, abandoning, even though reluctantly, all that they possess. For those who were poor there, here God makes rich. Those who had few coins, here possess countless and those who had not had a villa, here, by the gift of God, already possess a city. Therefore, why should one who has found the East so favorable return to the West? God does not wish those to suffer want who, carrying their crosses, have vowed to follow Him, nay even unto the end. You see, therefore, that this is a great miracle, and one which must greatly astonish the whole world. Who has ever heard anything like it? Therefore, God wishes to enrich us all and to draw us to Himself as His most dear friends. And because He wishes it, we also freely desire the same; and what is pleasing to Him we do with a loving and submissive heart, that with Him we may reign happily throughout eternity.

-Foucher of Chartres, History of the Expedition to Jerusalem

            Since I started this project I said that we were going to take a big picture look at the history of France. I firmly believe that you cannot tell the history of the French people or their country without mentioning major changes throughout the world. I understand that at times these episodes might seem to go off on tangents, perhaps even detailing things that should have only gotten a quick mention. I am distinctly amused by one negative review on Apple Podcasts by someone who calls himself ‘Iulius Caesar’ that reads that my podcast is more Roman history than French history and that “Caesar would be proud.” This was from a few years ago when I was covering Gaul, which was part of the Roman Empire for 400 years. I honestly still have no idea what that criticism was for, as I don’t know how you can tell the history of Roman Gaul without mentioning, you know, the Roman part.

More recently I have had listeners tell me they are skipping over this history of the First Crusade because it feels more like Middle Eastern history than French history. A cursory understanding of the history of the First Crusade definitely makes it seem like this was a Middle Eastern affair, but if we step back and study the broader movement within which the First Crusade took place we can see that it is much more than that. The First Crusade was one of the most important events in human history, one which redefined France and Christianity. Through France it remade Europe and ultimately the world.

            Why was the First Crusade so important? Given that this is a French History Podcast, we are going to put aside the immediate political changes made in the Levant with the creation of the four Crusader States, and the impact it had upon the Turks and Arabs. Even ignoring those major changes, we can still hold up this event as one of the defining conflicts in human history. As a culmination of prior events, the First Crusade was the first time that the official leaders of the Christian religion deliberately enacted an offensive holy war. This event fundamentally transformed Christianity.

            Christianity began as a largely pacifist religion. It was a minority religion, often regarded as nothing more than a mystery cult, within the Roman Empire. When its followers faced persecution, Christians willingly went to their deaths rather than fight back. As Christianity became the official religion of the empire, soldiers struggled to rectify their religious beliefs with their martial duties. In many cases, Christians ignored the potential inconsistencies with Jesus’ teachings and their need to enact violence. Either that, or they viewed their religion and their military duty as separate spheres.

            When the Germanic peoples invaded the Roman Empire, Christianity was yet again relegated to a subordinate position. The Germanic tribes nominally converted to appease their Christian subjects. Yet, while Germanic leaders accepted the rites and rituals involved with the new religion they largely refused to adhere to any of its prohibitions on moral conduct. Germanic peoples still practiced concubinage and engaged in brutal wars, often against their own family members.

Christian theologians had debated how to reconcile military violence with Christ’s teachings at least going back to Saint Augustine. Yet, from its founding until the 700s, the warrior class was either non-Christian or openly ignored Biblical tenets. From Theodosius until Charles Martel, Europe was a place that had Christianity and warrior cultures (Roman and Germanic), but the overlap was incomplete.

            Christianity began to change under Charles Martel. As a bastard, Charles had to assert his right to rule based on something other than the traditional and legal way to power: one’s birthright. To justify his reign and administer Francia, he uplifted the church, granting it powers it had never had in the country before. In exchange, he lived a pious life, confining himself to one wife and upholding the moral dictates of the church. The triumphal act which cemented his authority as a Christian leader was the Battle of Poitiers 732. By defeating a large Muslim army, he became known as a Defender of the Faith. Moreover, he justified his later wars with Islamic powers in Septimania as defending Christianity.

            After Charles Martel died, his son, Pepin the Short, became the first to accept kingship based on religious authority. After deposing the last Merovingian, Pepin had Pope Stephen II anoint him in a ceremony that set a precedent for medieval Europe. Charlemagne continued the practice in 800 when Pope Leo III crowned him Emperor of the Romans. Under the Carolingians, the Continent began its transformation from a Europe with Christianity to a Christian Europe.

            The Carolingian project fragmented due to internal conflict and military incursions from Vikings, Muslims and Magyars. Christian Europe went on the defensive militarily as Christians sought to protect themselves from Muslim and pagan attacks. The theological ramifications of this period were that there was little discussion of Christian conquest. From the 9th to the 10th centuries the best that Christians could do was often to fight their opponents to a standstill while missionaries gradually convinced non-believers to convert. When Christianity expanded it was largely not because of military success but because non-Christians accepted baptism as a means of accessing Christian markets and the ability to form political alliances.

            In the 10th and 11th centuries, soldiers from the Kingdom of France began to go on the offensive against Muslims. In 972 a coalition of southern lords put aside their political differences and united as fellow Christians to expel the Muslim force occupying coastal Provence. The conquest of Fraxinetum provided a military blueprint for a Christian war, one which French theologians became intimately familiar with. The coalition originally came together after the capture of Maiolus of Cluny Abbey, one of the largest and most influential religious houses in all of Christendom. Four popes came from Cluny Abbey, including Pope Urban II. His decision to call the First Crusade was unquestionably impacted by the example of the Southern French reconquest of Fraxinetum

            In the early 1000s the Normans first arrived in large numbers in southern Italy. Originally coming as pilgrims, often on their way to the Holy Land, the local Lombard lords began hiring them as mercenaries. Half a century later, the Normans were the dominant power in the Italian boot. But their conquests did not end there. From Italy, Normans under Roger Bosso conquered the island of Sicily, which was then divided between warring emirs and had been under Muslim control for over a century. The actual conquest was mostly accomplished by Muslim soldiers who sided with the Normans. Furthermore, while Norman Sicily favored Christians, it practiced widespread tolerance. Yet, the conquest of a formerly Christian territory, then under Muslim control, inspired devout Christians. Pope Urban II studied the French conquest of Fraxinetum and the Norman conquest of Sicily and saw that Christian soldiers were capable of conquering non-Christian territory and converting people to the faith. But not just any people. Urban II specifically believed that it was the French who would undo the Islamic conquests in Iberia and the Middle East. This belief drove him to declare the First Crusade at Clermont in 1095. From there he sent out messengers to preach holy war across France.

In hindsight, it is understandable why Urban II chose France to lead the first holy war. There were at this time only two major Christian polities that might have provided enough soldiers needed for such an endeavor: the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Yet, the Holy Roman Empire had consistently been the church’s greatest rival, as its emperors demanded the right to appoint bishops and even popes. Urban II was even then fighting for political control of Italy and religious control of Europe against Clement III, the Emperor’s choice for pope. France was by default the only country that could lead a major holy war.

            The First Crusade was both a catalyst for change and the culmination of a millennia-long process. From its foundations until the 300s we can say that Christianity was a pacifist religion, or at least mostly non-violent. From the 300s to the 900s, Christians developed theology to justify the use of violence in specific circumstances, though this was largely defensive. Beginning with Fraxinetum and ending with the calling of the First Crusade, Christian theology justified war for religious means as a good action. War became not just a good but the greatest good. Urban II declared that those who engaged in holy war were cleansed of all sins and immediately went to heaven should they perish in the struggle.

Furthermore, Urban II did not confine holy war to any singular conflict. He preached a general spirit of Christian warfare. He specifically said that Christian conflict against Muslims in Iberia was just as important as in the Holy Land. Thus, a measure of the Reconquista can be attributed to France as well. While Iberian Christians engaged in the temporal struggle with Muslims, the French-born pope developed the theology of holy war that would not only justify any action by Christians committed against non-believers but would see waves of foreign knights travel to Iberia, with most coming from France.

While Saint Augustine laid out the theological foundations for defensive holy war in City of God, offensive holy war catalyzed under Urban II in response to the French conquest of Muslim territory. This ideology of holy war had a long-lasting impact. Just over a century after the First Crusade, France became the first country in Christendom to have a crusade within its borders. In the early 13th century, French Catholic knights from the north brutally slaughtered over 200,000 Cathars in the south. On 22 July 1209, Catholic knights surrounded the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Béziers, where the town’s Cathar population huddled together, claiming the right of sanctuary. The papal legate Arnaud Amaury claimed that as heretics the Cathars had vacated the right to sanctuary, as had any Catholics inside the church for collaborating with them. In an apocryphal retelling, Amaury declared, “Kill them all, God will know his own.” Thus, the Northern knights set the church on fire, in a massacre that was equal to any enacted by Christians against Muslims. The Albigensian Crusade was so brutal that Raphael Lempkin, the Polish lawyer who coined the term ‘genocide,’ dubbed it as such.

            This was not the only holy war between different Christians that was fought on French soil. The French Wars of Religion from 1562 to 1592 between Catholics and Protestants claimed the lives of 1 out of every 6 French, roughly 2-4 million people. While Christian holy war was significantly developed by the French as a justification for seizing territory from Muslims, far more Europeans died in their holy wars than Turks or Arabs. France had unleashed a beast it could not contain.

            Nor was France the only one impacted. Throughout Europe’s history there were many religious conflicts, sometimes against Muslims from the Ottoman Empire and other times between Christians. The Thirty Years’ War served as the culmination of these conflicts, when 4.5m to 8m died in the Catholic-Protestant conflict.

            If Christian holy war began in France and spread throughout Europe, it then made its way around the world. In 1492, the same year that Spain conquered the last Muslim stronghold of Grenada, Cristofo Columbo discovered the New World. Some historians have since claimed that the Reconquista did not end in 1492, as the Spanish conquistadors took their holy war to the Americas, justifying atrocities, conquest and subjugation of its indigenous peoples with the theology of holy war. Even after holy war itself fell out of fashion, European empires justified their conquests as part of a civilizing mission, one which included spreading Christianity to the world. Thus, the First Crusade is a world-significant event with many French roots.

            The other significant change that the First Crusade brought about was the recreation of the European nobility. When Europe was under the rule of Germanic kingdoms the warrior aristocracy existed as a natural outgrowth of Germanic culture. Powerful military leaders ruled over tribes and passed on their wealth and power to their descendants. This began to change in the 8th century when Pepin the Short replaced birthright legitimacy with religious legitimacy when he usurped the throne. Yet, while the Carolingians based their own personal right to rule on divine appointment, they left the Germanic warrior aristocracy intact. This lasted under the Carolingians, but as Europe again devolved into petty states the right of warriors to rule came under criticism from the church and from the victims of noble violence. If France served as the birthplace of offensive Christian holy war, it also laid the foundation for a Christian peace. In the late 10th and early 11th centuries French commoners, clergy and nobles promoted the Peace of God and Truce of God movements to restrain aristocratic excesses and punish those who committed violence against fellow Christians.

            As Europe Christianized the traditional Germanic warrior-elite had to Christianize as well to justify their right to rule, their actions and their very existence. What followed was the adoption of new Christian warrior values. Already, there were a number of warrior Christian saints, such as Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint George the Dragon Slayer and Demetrius of Thessaloniki. The warrior aristocracy thus affiliated themselves with martial Christian heroes and sought to emulate their personas and actions. All these reforms culminated in the creation of chivalry, which began in France and then spread throughout Europe.

            Accompanying the chivalric code was a romantic culture of Christian virtue. The first troubadour poetry came out of the Crusade of 1101. Provençal soldiers wrote poems and songs extolling the virtues of Christian warriors and courtly love. Following the First Crusade, the nobility transformed their image of themselves from wealthy and powerful landowners ruling by right and might, to just and good leaders put in power by God. In practice, there was often little difference between a 6th century Germanic war-leader and a 12th century French lord. Nevertheless, how they portrayed themselves stood in stark contrast to the past and did bring about some moral reform.

            Later Crusades were a European endeavor, with kings and even a Holy Roman Emperor fighting in the east. Yet, the First Crusade was a French affair. It was devised and called by a French-born pope who rose to prominence in Cluny Abbey. The Seven Great Lords were all from the Kingdom of France, except Bohemond who was a French-speaking Norman. The bulk of the professional army originated in France. Even the failed People’s Crusade began in France and was led by the Frenchman Pierre the Hermit.

            As the instigators of the Holy War, France, more than any other European country, felt its first repercussions. In the south it produced troubadour culture. Across the country chivalry developed. Through France, a new romantic worldview spread. Simultaneously, religiously-inspired violence became more common, leading to large-scale holy wars within Europe between different Christian sects. These European religious wars had their beginning in France with the Albigensian Crusade, though they only ended four centuries later. Thus, one cannot tell the history of France and of the world, without discussing the First Crusade.

            Many thanks to those who lent their voices for each chapter’s quotes. In order they are the hosts of Pontifacts Podcast, La Fayette We Are Here!, The History of Georgia Saqartvelo, Her Half of History, The History of China Podcast, the Podcast on Germany, The History of Byzantium, and Deep into History. Follow the links to each on our website and check out these great history podcasts.