The Crusades: History and Background from Clermont to Acre
From Clermont in 1095 to Acre in 1291: what the Crusades were, what the popes required of the crusaders, and which widespread notions the sources do not support.
On 27 November 1095 Blessed Pope Urban II spoke in an open field outside Clermont in the Auvergne to a crowd that no church could have held. What he set in motion there we now call the Crusades: almost two centuries of armed pilgrimages to the Holy Land, from the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 to the fall of Acre in 1291. Hardly any chapter of Church history is so often told in truncated form. This guide keeps to the sources: to the eyewitnesses of Clermont, to the decisions of the popes and to the dates.
- The Crusades were military expeditions undertaken by Christians of the West after a solemn vow, in order to free the holy places in Jerusalem and to come to the aid of the Christians of the East.
- The impetus came from Pope Urban II on 27 November 1095 at Clermont. Jerusalem was taken on 15 July 1099; Acre, the last great city of the crusaders, fell in 1291.
- Whoever took the cross sewed it onto his garment as a cloth cross. That is where the name comes from.
- The Council of Clermont counted the journey as penance only for one who went to Jerusalem “for devotion alone, not to obtain honor or money”.
What were the Crusades?
The Crusades were military expeditions of the 11th to 13th centuries, undertaken by Christians of the West after a solemn vow, in order to free Jerusalem and the holy places and to help the hard-pressed Christians of the East. They take their name from the cloth cross the participants wore on their garments.
The chroniclers call the undertaking a way or a pilgrimage: via Sancti Sepulchri, the way to the Holy Sepulchre, or sancta peregrinatio, the holy pilgrimage. For taking part itself, people spoke of the cross, in Latin crux, in Old French croisement. Pilgrimages to Jerusalem had been made long before. An itinerary from Bordeaux is dated to the year 333, and in 1065, according to the chronicle of Lambert of Hersfeld, more than 12,000 Germans travelled to the Holy Land under Bishop Gunther of Bamberg.
Then the situation changed. In 1009 the Caliph Hakim had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre destroyed. In 1070 the Seljuks took Jerusalem, and in 1071 they defeated the Byzantine army at Manzikert. By 1092, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, not one of the great metropolitan sees of Asia remained in Christian hands.
Why did Pope Urban II call for a crusade in 1095?
Pope Urban II called for a crusade in 1095 because the Seljuks had conquered large parts of the Byzantine Empire, the Christians of the East were being oppressed and the pilgrims’ road to the Holy Sepulchre had become unsafe. The expedition was meant to help the Churches of the East and to free Jerusalem.
The Council of Clermont sat from 18 to 28 November 1095. On 27 November the Pope spoke in the open air. Fulcher of Chartres, who later went on the crusade himself, renders the speech as follows: the brethren in the East were in urgent need of help; the Turks had advanced as far as the Arm of St George, as the strait at Constantinople was called, and had defeated the Christians there in seven battles. Those who had hitherto fought against their own brethren should now come to the aid of the Christians of the East.
In December 1095 Urban wrote to the faithful in Flanders that he had called upon the princes of Gaul “to liberate the Churches of the East”. As leader in his stead he appointed Bishop Adhémar of Le Puy.
“Praesentibus dico, absentibus mando, Christus autem imperat.” To those who are present I say it, to those who are absent I enjoin it, but it is Christ who commands it.
Urban II at Clermont according to Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana I, 3
What does “Deus vult” mean?
“Deus vult” is Latin and means “God wills it”. According to the account of Robert the Monk, the crowd at Clermont answered Pope Urban II’s speech with this cry, and the Pope thereupon appointed it as the battle cry of the crusaders.
Robert writes that the Pope saw in the unanimous cry the fulfilment of the Lord’s word: where two or three are gathered together in his name, there is he in the midst of them. “Sit ergo vobis vox ista in rebus bellicis militare signum”: let this cry be your battle cry in war. According to the chronicler Peter Tudebode, Bohemond learned in 1096, at the siege of Amalfi, that the crusaders passing through were crying as with one voice “Deus hoc vult”, “God wills this”. One manuscript writes “Deus lo vult”. The rosaries of our Deus Vult series bear the cry on the centrepiece, understood in prayer as surrender to the will of God.
How many Crusades were there?
Eight Crusades are usually counted: seven to the Holy Land between 1096 and 1254 and an eighth, which King Louis IX led to Tunis in 1270. This division leaves out many smaller expeditions. There were crusades right up to the 17th century.
| Crusade | Who went | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| First 1096–1099 |
Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond, Bishop Adhémar | Capture of Jerusalem on 15 July 1099 |
| Second 1147–1148 |
Conrad III, Louis VII, preached by St Bernard of Clairvaux | Siege of Damascus abandoned in July 1148 |
| Third 1189–1192 |
Frederick Barbarossa, Philip II Augustus, Richard the Lionheart | Acre regained in 1191, Jerusalem not |
| Fourth 1202–1204 |
Boniface of Montferrat, the fleet of Venice | Constantinople captured and sacked on 12 April 1204 |
| Fifth 1217–1221 |
Andrew II of Hungary, John of Brienne | Damietta captured in 1219, given up again in 1221 |
| Sixth 1228–1229 |
Emperor Frederick II | Treaty of Jaffa: Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth regained |
| Seventh 1248–1254 |
St Louis IX, King of France | Damietta captured in 1249, the King taken prisoner on 5 April 1250 |
| Eighth 1270 |
King Louis IX | Death of the King before Tunis on 25 August 1270 |
The occasion of the second crusade was the fall of Edessa on 25 December 1144; that of the third was the defeat at the Sea of Tiberias on 4 July 1187 and the loss of Jerusalem in the same year. The Catholic Encyclopedia expressly calls the usual numbering arbitrary, because it passes over many undertakings, among them the expeditions of the 14th and 15th centuries. The years in the table give the departure and end of the campaigns; the overview in the Catholic Encyclopedia sometimes draws the limits differently, for instance 1095 to 1101 for the first crusade.
What were the military orders of the Crusades?
The military orders were religious communities of knights who took the three religious vows and at the same time undertook the protection of pilgrims and the defence of the Holy Land. The three great military orders of the Crusades were the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Order.
The Templars began in 1118 with Hugh of Payns and eight companions, who vowed before the Patriarch of Jerusalem to protect the pilgrim roads. The Council of Troyes gave them a rule and the white mantle in 1128; according to William of Tyre, the red cross was added under Pope Eugene III. The Hospitallers go back to the pilgrims’ hospital of a certain Gerard in Jerusalem, which Pope Paschal II confirmed in 1113. They wore the black mantle with a white cross. The Teutonic Order arose in 1190 as a field hospital of pilgrims from Bremen and Lübeck before Acre; Innocent III gave it the white mantle with a black cross in 1205.
The Templars were suppressed by papal decree on 22 March 1312, not condemned. Our crusader wall picture shows a Knight Templar with the psalm verse Non nobis, Domine, non nobis (Ps 113:9 in the Vulgate).
Which myths about the Crusades are untrue?
Several widespread images of the Crusades do not stand up to the sources: the Church demanded piety, not greed for plunder; the sack of Constantinople in 1204 happened against the will of the Pope; and the call came from Urban II, not from Peter the Hermit. Even so, the sources do not conceal the atrocities.
| Keyword | The common image and what the sources say |
|---|---|
| Plunder | “The crusaders wanted to get rich.” Canon 2 of Clermont counts the journey as penance only for one who undertakes it “for devotion alone”. Godfrey of Bouillon sold or mortgaged many of his estates to pay for the expedition. |
| Impetus | “Peter the Hermit started the crusade.” Eyewitnesses mention his preaching but do not give him the leading role. The idea goes back to Urban II. |
| 1204 | “The Pope wanted to conquer Constantinople.” Innocent III had directed the crusaders to Palestine and sharply rebuked his legate after the sack. |
| End | “With Acre in 1291 it was all over.” According to the Catholic Encyclopedia there were crusades up to the 17th century, among them that of Lepanto in 1571. |
About the sack of 1204, Innocent III wrote to his legate that the swords which they should have wielded against the heathen were now dripping with Christian blood. Venice received half of the booty, and clerics and knights too robbed relics from the churches.
Staying honest also means naming the dark sides. Disorderly bands that set out in 1096 ahead of the main army plundered along their way and murdered Jews in German cities. In Mainz the Jews had taken refuge in the archbishop’s palace. At the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 the crusaders killed the inhabitants without regard to age or sex. Both belong to the history of the Crusades: the pious intention that the Church demanded, and the failure of many who bore the cross.
How did the Crusades end?
The Crusades to the Holy Land ended in 1291, when Acre, the last great crusader city, fell after a siege of several weeks. The idea of the crusade lived on: the Catholic Encyclopedia still counts the naval Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and campaigns against the Ottomans up to the 17th century among them.
The siege of Acre began on 5 April 1291. Some 25,000 defenders held the walls without a common commander; the fortress of the Templars held out ten days longer than the city.
On 7 October 1571 the fleet of the Pope, Spain, Venice and Genoa under Don John of Austria was victorious at Lepanto. On the same day the Rosary confraternities in Rome walked in procession through the city. The holy Pope Pius V thereupon ordered a commemoration of the Rosary. The 1962 calendar keeps the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 7 October. If you would like to pray the Rosary in its traditional form, you will find all the prayers in our prayer companion to the Rosary.
For our Deus Vult series we knot four rosaries by hand from 550 paracord, 4 mm thick. The Our Father beads are 10 mm shield-shaped metal beads bearing the Jerusalem cross; the centrepiece bears “Deus vult” on the front and the Jerusalem cross on the back. The 8 cm crucifix shows the psalm verse Non nobis, Domine on its reverse.
We designed the centrepiece, crucifix and Our Father beads ourselves; they are made especially for our rosaries. Depending on the model, the Hail Mary beads are of stainless steel, metal or black agate, and with the crucifix each rosary measures about 54 cm.
Mentioned in this article
Deus Vult Cruciata Rosary
Hand-knotted from black 550 paracord, with 10 mm metal beads, shield-shaped Our Father beads bearing the Jerusalem cross and the “Deus vult” centrepiece.
View the rosary
Frequently asked questions about the Crusades
When was the First Crusade?
The First Crusade began in 1096, after Urban II had called for it at Clermont in November 1095. The armies gathered at Constantinople in 1097, captured Antioch in 1098 and took Jerusalem on 15 July 1099.
Who was Godfrey of Bouillon?
Godfrey of Bouillon was Duke of Lower Lorraine and one of the leaders of the First Crusade. According to the chronicles, he would not wear a crown in Jerusalem, where the Saviour had worn the crown of thorns, and contented himself with the title of Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre. He died on 18 July 1100. For young readers his story is available as a children’s book about Godfrey of Bouillon (in German).
What was the Children’s Crusade?
The Children’s Crusade of 1212 was the setting out of thousands of children and young people, led by a shepherd boy from Vendôme and a boy from Cologne. The expedition got as far as Brindisi. Merchants in Brindisi sold some of the children as slaves; almost all the rest died of hunger and exhaustion.
What is the difference between a crusade and a pilgrimage?
The crusade was an armed pilgrimage. Like the pilgrim, the crusader took a vow and travelled to the holy places, but he went as a soldier. For the duration of the journey the Church took him, his family and his property under her protection.
- Fulcher of Chartres: Historia Hierosolymitana, Book I, chs. 1 to 9. In: Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens occidentaux, vol. 3, Paris 1866, pp. 319 to 332. archive.org
- Robert the Monk: Historia Iherosolimitana, Book I, chs. 1 to 5, ibid. pp. 727 to 732. Peter Tudebode: Historia de Hierosolymitano itinere, Book I, ibid. pp. 9 to 15.
- Urban II: speech at Clermont in five versions and letter to the Flemings of December 1095, translated by D. C. Munro (1895) and A. C. Krey (1921). Internet Medieval Sourcebook
- Council of Clermont 1095, Canon 2, Latin after Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 58, n. 28, English after D. C. Munro (1895). Internet Medieval Sourcebook
- Eugene III: crusade bull Quantum praedecessores, given at Vetralla on the Kalends of December, translated by E. F. Henderson (1910). Internet Medieval Sourcebook
- Innocent III: letter to his legate, the Cardinal Priest of San Marcello (Patrologia Latina 215). Solomon bar Samson: account of Mainz in May 1096, translated by Jacob Marcus (1938). Internet Medieval Sourcebook
- William of Tyre: Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum XII, 7 (founding of the Templars).
- The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York 1907 to 1912: articles Crusades (L. Bréhier, 1908), Urban II, Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Order, Godfrey of Bouillon, Lepanto, Feast of the Holy Rosary. newadvent.org
- Missale Romanum 1962, calendar and proper for 7 October.
Last checked on 19 October 2026.
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