In this documentary report I shall look at the account of Urban II’s speech we are given by Fulcher of Chartres and assess it’s usefulness according to it’s likely reliability and it’s concurrence with the other accounts of Urban’s speech and the evidence we have from his letters. I shall first look at who Fulcher of Chartres was, as his role in society is important for understanding how he may have come to be aware of or present at the council of Clermont. A brief look at Fulcher will also provide an insight into what his opinions may have been and how this may colour his representation of the events. I shall also look at the message as we see it in Fulcher’s version of events and then at the overall view we are given from the evidence. I shall also look at the conclusions that ‘modern’ scholars have come to. Finally I shall look at the outcomes of this council and how much the outcomes reflect the aims we are told about in the accounts of the council of Clermont. Fulcher of Chartres was educated by the Church in Chartres and he travelled to the East in the entourage of Richard of Normandy and Stephen of Blois. He later followed Baldwin of Boulonge to Edessa when he broke away from the main body of Crusaders to found the first crusader state. He was appointed chaplain to Baldwin in 1097. He was present at the council of Clermont in 1095 and provides us with one of the most reliable sources for Urban II’s speech there. Fulcher’s version of Urban II’s speech focuses firstly on the reprimands issued by Urban to the People of France for their infighting; He quotes Urban as addressing the council as being “Urged by necessity... come into these parts as an ambassador with a divine admonition” . He reports the Pope as complaining to ... ... middle of paper ... ... Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants, (Princeton: 1921), 36-40 August. C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants, (Princeton: 1921), 42-43 Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, 1, pp. 382 f., trans in Oliver J. Thatcher, and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Medieval History, (New York: Scribners, 1905), 513-17 Dana C. Munro, “The Speech of Pope Urban II. At Clermont, 1095”, The American Historical Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Jan., 1906), pp. 231-242 Dana C. Munro, "Urban and the Crusaders", Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, Vol 1:2, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1895), 5-8 Fulcher of Chartres, A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, 1095-1127, trans. Francis Rita Ryan, ed. Harold S. Fink, (Knoxville, 1969) http://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/fulcherofchartres.html
Chronicle of the First Crusade is an excerpt from Gesta Francorum Jherusalem peregrinantium, written in three installments, 1101, 1106, and 1124–27, by Fulcher of Chartres, a French chaplain and chronicler of the First Crusade. Born in approximately 1059, and educated for the priesthood in Chartres, in what is now France, Fulcher attended the Council of Clermont, accompanying his overlord, Stephen of Blois, to southern Italy, Bulgaria, and Constantinople in 1096, following the call to action instigated by Pope Urban II as response to a request for assistance from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I. In June 1097, Fulcher became chaplain to Baldwin of Flanders, with whom he remained, traveling with him to Jerusalem in the winter of 1099. Fulcher, who remained in Jerusalem for the remainder of his life, dying there in approximately 1127, provides, as an eyewitness to the events, the Christian perspective of the Siege of Jerusalem.
Foss explains, “What Urban needed was an enterprise, clearly virtuous in serving the ends of Christiandome… in these moments of reflection, the popes mind turned towards Jerusalem.” Urban II reflects back on the first taking of the Holy City after the defeat of the Byzantine Empire in 1071, and begins to question what his people know about the Turkish race and really the ideology of Islamic thought. Foss goes on to examine the ignorance of westerners and needed to be “reminded [by the pope] of the infamous heathens, their cruelty and hatred of Christians,” hoping this would justify the first Holy Crusade. However, Foss identifies the creativity of the Pope’s language to persuade the knights and army of the people to embark on the Holy Crusade based on the Muslims cruel actions turned onto their fellow Christians. Claiming the Muslims “Killed captives by torture…poor captives were whipped…and others were bound to the post and used as a target for arrows.” Foss examines the Popes words as an effective effort of persuasion in creating an army of crusaders to help clean “…Holy places, which are now treated with ignominy and polluted with Filthiness” and any sacrifice in Jerusalem is a “promise of a spiritual reward… and death for
Urban II speaks to his clergy about the problems in the Church and as Fulcher tells the story he seems he seems rightly bestowed with the compliments Fulcher gives him.
Contrary to many commonly held notions about the first crusade, in his book, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, Jonathan Riley-Smith sets out to explain how the idea of crusading thought evolved in the first crusade. In his book, Riley-Smith sets out five main arguments to show how these ideas of crusading evolved. Firstly, he argues that Pope Urban’s original message was conventional, secondly that a more positive reaction was drawn from the laity (due to the ideas surrounding Jerusalem), thirdly, that the original message of crusading had changed because of the horrible experiences of the first crusaders, fourth, that due to these experiences the crusaders developed their own concept of what a crusade was, and lastly, that these ideas were refined by (religious) writers and turned into an acceptable form of theology. Riley-Smith makes excellent points about the crusade; however, before one can delve directly into his argument, one must first understand the background surrounding the rise of the first crusade.
The First Crusade is often cited as one of the most damnable consequences of religious fanaticism. A careful inspection of the circumstances and outcomes, however, will reveal a resultant political restructuring of Europe under the banner of Christendom. The purpose of this investigation is to investigate Pope Urban II’s motives in initiating the First Crusade, with a particular focus on the consolidation of the Western Church’s influence in Europe. Among the primary sources that will be consulted are the letter sent by Patriach Alexios of Constantinople to Urban, and an account of Urban’s speech at Clermont. Relevant excerpts from both of these primary sources, as well as contextual evidence and a wide array of historiography, will be taken
Cobb, Paul. "Introduction." Ibn Munqidh, Usama. Book of Contemplation Islam and the Crusades. New York: Penguin Books, 2008. xv-xlii.
Urban’s decision to begin the Crusade was based on more than just the idea that he was doing the Lord’s will. The Christian idealism was mind over m...
What is a Crusade? How did a Crusader crusade? What caused him to seek “holy war?” Is a Crusade a Holy War or a Pilgrimage? Did a crusader only leave to find his own economic benefits? What caused the success of the first crusaders? These are some of the many questions that laid before me when I started my research. The crusading movements are such widely debated among the modern historian that they leave many readers confused about what actually caused the crusades, and what a crusade actually entails. In the coming pages I hope to give my reader something to ponder, understand, and acknowledge about it’s origins, and eventually lead my reader into the first crusading movement. Thus, the argument I intend to make examines the events in previous centuries, and the culmination of political and moral changes, as well as economic ones that occurred before Urban’s call for crusade. We will explore Feudalism, it’s war-centric society and how this caused Urban (as well as some Popes and religious figures before him) to seek a peaceable solution that would ensure safety for the clergy, the peasant, and the non-violent. Furthermore, Pope Urban sought to continue Pope Gregory's (and Cluniac) reform to solidify Papal authority over Christendom, and respond to years of Muslim raids along the Mediterranean and upper Italian Coastlines that threatened Italian unity. In effect, the first crusading movement represented and embodied the European culture, society, and ideologies of the time.
Robinson, John J. Dungeon, Fire, and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades. New York: M. Evans &, 1991. Print.
Spanning from 1095 to 1212 C.E, the Crusades were an effort made by medieval Christians to regain their holy lands back from the Muslims. There were five crusades in total going in order from the First Crusade to the Children's Crusade. A few were effective in their own respects although these Crusades proved costly to the European Kingdoms as a result of large losses of life. This paper will explore these crusades and explain why some succeeded whereas others failed.
Blackburn, Paul. trans. Poem of the Cid. ed. George Economou. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991). Nelson2 "Some Comments on the Song of the Cid". Lynn H. Nelson. Nelson1 "The Song of El Cid". Lynn H. Nelson. Routledge, Michael. "Songs". The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades. ed. Johnathon Riley Smith. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). Schneider, Joe P. "El Cid". The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Rice, Eugene E. and Anthony Grafton. The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559. 2nd. ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1994.
Asbridge, T. (2010). Crusades: The War for The Holy Land UK. Simon and Schuster UK Ltd.
Douglas, J. D., Philip Wesley Comfort and Donald Mitchell. Who's Who in Christian History. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1992.