The year is 1096. People across Europe have heard Pope Urban's call and are making their preparations for Crusade. Before the elite forces of the Princes' Crusade have fully made their preparations, tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered in a series of expeditions known as the People's Crusade. This fifth episode of Crusades O'Clock charts the progress of these ultimately doomed contingents of armed pilgrims. Some of these forces became bogged down in anti-Jewish violence in France and Germany, or were defeated and dispersed by the forces of the King of Hungary, in whose lands they were causing a disturbance. Those that did make it to Muslim lands were cleverly and comprehensively defeated by the young Sultan of Rum, Kiliq Arslan.

The First Crusade is underway! This promises to be an exciting, but in places somewhat troubling episode, and lays the way for the first of our series of narratives on the more successful Princes Crusade, to be released in a fortnight's time.

#Crusade #Byzantium #Seljuks