Hello, and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merrett and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson is looking at the causes of the First Crusade, and by the end of the day's lesson, we'll be able to explain the various causes of the First Crusade, and the reasons why people choose to go to crusade.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms, and our key terms for the day are Pope, crusade, and pilgrimage.

The Pope is the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

That's Church with a capital C, which is the organisation.

If it's a small C, it just means the building itself.

A crusade is a military expedition against a group considered by the papacy, the Pope, to be an enemy of the church, and a pilgrimage is a journey to a holy place.

Today's lesson will consist of three separate learning cycles and our first learning cycle is why was the First Crusade called? So let's get started.

Historians have identified a number of reasons why Pope Urban II called for the people of Western Europe to crusade against the Muslims in 1095.

Urban II was one of two popes at this time.

The other Pope Clement II, who was also called the anti-pope, had been installed by Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and he was a challenge to Urban's authority as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

At various times, people supported Clement III as opposed to Urban II, so Urban very much wanted to put an end to that and assert his authority over both the Holy Roman emperor for appointing him as Pope in the first place, and also of course, over the anti-pope Clement III himself.

So by calling for a crusade, Pope Urban II was able to establish himself as the true leader of the church and also assert his dominance over the Holy Roman Emperor.

As a Frenchman, Pope Urban II, he was born in Clermont.

He was also particularly concerned with the conflicts that were common amongst French nobles at this time.

And calling for a crusade allowed these French nobles to continue making war, but outside of France and against a common enemy as opposed to inside France and against other Christians.

So rather than fighting other Frenchmen, they can now all join together and fight the Muslims instead.

Right, let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So true or false statement: Pope Urban II called for a crusade as a way to show his power over the French King Philip I.

Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose a false, then congratulations, that is correct, but let's justify the answer now.

Why is it a false statement? Is it false because Pope Urban II called for the crusade to show his power over the English king, William II, or is it false because Pope Urban II called for the crusade to show his power over the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV? So choose your justification now.

Okay, if you chose B, then very well done, that is indeed the correct answer.

Now, Pope Urban II was also concerned about the spread of Islam in Europe and the Middle East, and you can see the map on the screen there gives you an idea about the number of different Islamic states that were, well, actually it's about 100 years before the crusade started, but just to give you an idea that it was not a single, united Islamic territory.

There were a variety of different Islamic nations.

Sometimes they worked together and sometimes they're fighting against each other, but in any case, what can't be doubted is that they were expanding, and frequently, this was at the expense of of Christian lands.

In particular, they're expanding into the Byzantine Empire, and this is what concerned the Pope, as well as the other Christian at this point in time.

So a crusade would help to push back against this spread and secure Christianity as the dominant religion.

The Byzantine emperor, who is called Alexios I Komnenos, so Komnenos was his family name and he was the first of the emperor was called Alexios, he'd asked for Pope Urban II's help in fighting back the Seljuk Turks, who had invaded the empire and taken over the region of Anatolia.

And if you look on the map in the screen there where it says, if you look for the Byzantine Empire, where it says empire, that whole region there, that's what Anatolia is.

So by agreeing to Emperor Alexios I Komnenos' request, Pope Urban II also hoped to heal the rift between the two branches of Christianity that have formed after the Great Schism, which had happened in 1054 and has split the church into Roman Catholicism in the West with its its base in Rome and Eastern orthodoxy with its base in Constantinople.

Now, many accounts from the 12th century state that Pope Urban II also wanted to reclaim Jerusalem for the Christians in order to secure a safe pilgrimage route to the Holy Land.

Having said this, though, there is evidence that this goal for the Crusades was only actually added after the Crusaders had already taken control over Jerusalem, so it's what's called a retrospective changing of the accounts.

And the reason why we think this is that there's little mention of the city in any of the Pope's letters to lead ambitions at the time, and the accounts we have of Pope Urban II's speech to call for a crusade were all written quite a few years after the speech was actually made and after the Crusades had been successful in taking Jerusalem, so there's evidence that suggests that this goal was put in retrospectively to justify the crusaders taking hold in Jerusalem, when arguably that's never what Pope Urban II envisioned in the first place for the Crusades.

Now, quick check for understanding, which Islamic group invaded the Byzantine Empire and caused the emperor to ask Pope Urban II for aid? Was it the Fatimids, the Seljuks, or the Umayyads? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose B, the Seljuks, then congratulations, that's the correct answer.

Right, let's go for our first test of the day.

So I'd like to now to write down three reasons why Pope Urban II called for a crusade in 1095.

So pause the video now whilst you do this and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on fine with that task.

So let's think about some of the answers that you may well have written down.

So you could have said that it was in order to assert his authority over antipope Clement III.

It could have been a case of asserting his dominance over the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV.

It might have been to push back against the spread of Islam.

It might have been to repair the splits within Christianity.

It might been a case of trying to stop the French nobles from fighting amongst themselves.

They might be in order to help the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I Komnenos.

And it may well have been to capture Jerusalem for Christianity.

So hopefully you've got at least three of those answers that are on the screen there in front of you.

Second task for today then.

So why do historians question whether Pope Urban II wanted a crusade in order to capture Jerusalem? So write a short answer to this question here, and in your answer you could ideally include the following, use the term 12th century, think about pilgrimage, and you can think about letters as well.

So pause the video now whilst you do this and I'll see you again once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got okay with that task.

So here's a model answer that I've written on the screen.

Let's read through it and hopefully yours follows a similar sort of aim.

So I said, "Many accounts from the 12th century state that Pope Urban II also wanted to reclaim Jerusalem for the Christians in order to secure a safe pilgrimage route to the Holy Land.

However, there is evidence that this goal for the crusades only added after crusaders had already taken control of Jerusalem.

Furthermore, there is little mention of the city in any of the Pope's letters to leading bishops at this time.

So hopefully you got something similar to myself there.

Right, let's go for our second learning cycle for today, which is why was the First Crusade answered? Now, tens of thousands of people answered Pope Urban II's call to crusade, and they did so for a variety of reasons.

Just, again, to put it into context, the First Crusade consisted of effectively two different crusading missions that were very, very close in time to each other.

The first one was a people's crusade, which is not what Pope Urban II asked for, but it's what he got anyway, and there were roughly 40,000 peasants who got involved in that particular adventure, and then very shortly after that, there was the Prince's crusade, which is what the Pope wanted and what he envisioned when he called for crusade, but it was significantly larger than what he thought it would be.

It was about 50,000 knights and lords and their retainers all joined that particular call.

Now, one of the more attractive reasons why people answered the call to crusade was the reward that the Pope offered.

Anyone who died whilst on crusade would have their sins removed and would automatically enter heaven when they died.

And while the church usually called for peace rather than war, it said that this war was good because it was about defending Christianity, and there were plenty of people who actually enjoyed going to war at this particular time.

That's what they were good at, it's what they knew, and now they could do this with the knowledge that they would also get into heaven and they would have the church's blessing as well.

So generally speaking, if you go to war and if you kill, if you loot, if you pillage as part of your occupation, if you do wanna get into heaven after that when you die, you've gotta do a lot of making up to God into the church, but now you can do all of those things, and it's all fine.

You had the church's backing.

Many people were also keen to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and see the places that they'd heard about in the Bible, and claiming Jerusalem in the name of Christianity would ensure that other Christians could safely travel there on pilgrimage as well.

Let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So why were Christians keen to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land? Is it because the Bible ordered them to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem at least once in their lives? Was it because they wanted to compare their towns with Muslim towns and learn what they could from them? Or was it in order to see the places that are spoken of in the Bible and walk in the footsteps of Jesus? So it makes your choice now.

Okay, if you chose C, then very well done, that is indeed the correct answer.

So some people joined the First Crusade for less holy reasons than what we've already stated.

As in any war, the lure of pillage and conquest encouraged some to make the journey and some people did gain land from the First Crusade.

However, in reality, this is only a very small handfuls of nobles that that applied to.

The vast majority of people didn't gain land.

In fact, the vast majority of crusaders actually returned home after the kingdom of Jerusalem was secured, which suggests that gaining land was not one of the vast majority of crusaders' priorities.

Throughout history, the storming of cities have been followed by mass looting.

It was kind of almost expected that if a city falls, then the people who did the attacking would get to take whatever they wanted from the city.

That's generally been the case throughout most of history, and for some people, the idea of looting the riches from Muslim cities would've persuaded 'em to take the cross.

A lot of Muslim cities were incredibly rich in comparison to European cities at this point in time.

Having said all this, though, the conditions on the First Crusade were incredibly harsh.

Many, many people died of starvation and dehydration.

Many crusaders resorted to cannibalism just to survive.

They wouldn't necessarily have known the conditions would've been this bad before they actually took the cross and started going to crusade, but many of them stuck it out right to the very end.

There were plenty that deserted, that left the army once things got really, really bad.

But there were plenty that stayed right to the very end and they lived through these conditions.

And because of this, though, the reality is is that although they may have wanted to loot and that might have been the reason why they went on crusade in the first place, in reality, it became far more important to use their time and their efforts and their energies to carry food and water than it was to carry any loot that they've managed to pick up.

Right, let's go for our next check for understanding now.

So I'd like you to pick two non-religious reasons that caused some people to go on crusade, so you can choose from conquering lands, pillaging, sightseeing, and escaping prison.

So choose two on the screen now.

Okay, if you chose A and B, then very well done, those are the correct answers.

Right, let's go for our next task for today then.

So what I'd like to do is to colour code the reasons on the screen for why people went on crusades.

And I'd like you to use one colour for religious reasons and a separate colour for non-religious reasons.

So pause the video now whilst you do this and I'll see you once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopeful you got on fine with that task.

So we look on the screen here.

I've colour coded all of the different reasons and in terms of non-religious reasons, there is pillaging and conquering land, and in terms of religious reasons, we've got the removal of sins, pilgrimage, to fight for God and the Church, and to capture Jerusalem as well.

So hopefully you've got the similar answers to myself there as well.

Let's go for our next task though.

I'd like to choose one of the religious reasons and one of the non-religious reasons and explain why they encourage people to go on crusades.

So for instance, why would pillaging encourage people to go on crusade? Why would the removal of sins encourage people to go on crusade? So pause the video now whilst should do that and I'll see you again once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you've got okay with that task.

So I've got a model answer on the screen here.

Let's think about what you could have written then.

So you could say that some people went on the First Crusade because the pope promised that if they died on crusade, their sins would be removed and they could enter heaven, and this would've encouraged people to go on crusade 'cause entering heaven is an important belief and aim in Christianity.

Some people went on the First Crusade because they wanted to pillage Muslim cities, and this would've encouraged them to go on crusade because this could have made them rich.

So if you've chosen different reasons, that's absolutely fine.

The key thing though is you've explained why those reasons actually encourage people to go on crusade in the first place.

Right, let's look at our third and final learning cycle for today then, which is historians' views.

So historians agree that the call for and answer to the First Crusade was due to a wide variety of reasons.

Different people joined the First Crusade for different reasons, and not all of the reasons discussed applied to everyone equally, as for instance, the 40,000 or so residents who joined the people's crusade would almost certainly not have expected to gain land from their expedition.

The princes who answered probably were hoping to gain land.

Some reasons were more common or more persuasive than others, however, and the historian Thomas Asbridge, he places emphasis on Pope Urban II's need to assert the authority of the Church over Western Europe and the Holy Roman Empire in particular as the main reason why the First Crusade was called.

It's unlikely that many people responded to the Pope's call because they shared his concern though.

So that might have been the reason why Pope Urban II called for the crusade, not necessarily the reason why so many people answered his call though.

And the historian Jonathan Phillips states that the primary reason was because of the strong religious feeling in Europe at that time.

People genuinely believed in God and heaven, so anything that would please God and guarantee their place in heaven would be a strong incentive.

To link back to that first reason that Thomas Asbury was making, you could argue that people answered the Pope's call because it was the Pope calling.

It didn't really necessarily matter what he said and what he wanted.

Simply the fact that he wanted something would've been good enough for some people.

As God's representative on Earth, the Pope should be listened to, and that may well have been a good enough reason for some people.

Unfortunately, a lack of sources from ordinary people, kind of just the common people at the time period, means that historians we can only ever make inferences, which is educated best guesses, which is based on evidence about why each crusader journey to the Holy Land in order to take part in the First Crusade.

Right, let's have a check for understanding now.

So a true or false statement here, the historian Thomas Asbridge thinks pushing back Islam was the main reason Pope Urban II called for a crusade.

Is that true or is that false? Okay, if you chose false, then very well done, it is indeed a false statement, but let's justify that statement now though.

So why is it false? Is it false because Thomas Asbridge thinks asserting authority was the main reason Pope Urban II called for a crusade? Or is it false because Thomas Asbridge thinks helping the Byzantines was the main reason Pope Urban II called for a crusade? So choose your justification now.

Okay, if you chose A, then very well done, that is indeed the correct answer.

Let's have another check for understanding now though.

So why does the historian Jonathan Phillips think so many people agreed to go on the First Crusade? Is it because lots of people wanted to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land? Is it because warfare was a quick and easy way to get rich and people wanted to pillage Muslim cities? Or is it because people were very religious and wanted a guaranteed way to get into heaven? So choose one of those answers now.

All right, if you chose C, then congratulations, that is indeed the correct answer.

Right, let's go for our final task for today then.

So I want you to think about this big question here, was the main reason for the First Crusade to capture the Holy Land for Christianity? And I'd like you to explain your answer in two paragraphs, and I want you to think about the following things within your answer as well, so I'd like you to consider evidence that supports this question.

I'd also like to consider other reasons why people went on crusade as well.

I'd like you to talk about different historians' views, and then finally, I'd like you to say whether you agree with the statement or not, and most importantly, explain the reasons why you hold the opinion that you hold.

Pause the video whilst you do this and I'll see once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on okay with that task.

So let's think about what you could have written then.

I've got a model answer on the screen here.

Let's have a read through it, and see whether it reads similar to what you've got.

So I said, "The main reason for the First Crusade was not to capture the Holy Land for Christianity.

This is because evidence suggests that Pope Urban II did not mention it in letters to bishops at the time he called for a crusade, and it was only added to the records of his speech years later in the 12th century.

Instead, the main reason for the First Crusade was because of Pope Urban II's promise that anyone who died whilst on crusade would go to heaven.

People were very religious at this time, so the threat of hell and the reward of heaven would've been powerful motivators for many people.

The historian Jonathan Phillips shares a similar view to this, as he believes the strong religious feelings in Europe at this time were the reason for the First Crusade." Another way you could have answered this particular question is as following: "The main reason for the First Crusade was to capture the Holy Land for Christianity.

This is because this is what the crusaders themselves wanted to achieve and they managed to do it.

If they had failed, then the First Crusade would not have been considered a success.

The historian Jonathan Phillips said that there was a strong religious feeling in Europe at this time, so capturing the Holy Land to make it easier for Christians to go on pilgrimage supports this view.

Although the Byzantine emperor would've argued that the First Crusade was called to protect the Byzantine Empire, in reality, most people in Western Europe at the time were not concerned with the Byzantine Empire because they followed a different version of Christianity." So hopefully your answer falls somewhat similar to one of my two answers there.

You may have noticed that I've used the same historian to support both answers there, even though my conclusions are very different, and the reason I was able to do that is because I've managed to take Jonathan Phillips' view and interpret it in different ways.

So I can look at the same perspective, Jonathan Phillips' ideas, I can draw different conclusions based upon the perspective that I'm going for there.

So I've deliberately interpreted Jonathan Phillips' views in different ways to give you an idea about how evidence can be used to support a variety of different conclusions.

Right, let's summarise today's lesson then.

So the First Crusade began because the Byzantine Empire needed help fighting back the Muslim Seljuk invaders.

Pope Urban II called for people to go and crusade, and offered them the chance to enter heaven if they died whilst on crusade.

People were very religious at this point in time, so many people eagerly agreed to do as the Pope commanded.

Jerusalem and the Holy Land were important pilgrimage destinations, which motivated some crusaders to take the journey.

And historians agree that there were a variety of reasons why people went on crusade, but disagree over what the main reasons were.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself, hopefully you've learned something, and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye bye.