Facts about Crusades: The First Crusade
- 05
Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos originally requested military aid from the West, a plea that helped prompt Pope Urban II to call the First Crusade.
- 04
Popular enthusiasm for the First Crusade produced the People's Crusade, an ill-fated early wave led by Peter the Hermit that was crushed by Seljuk forces before reaching Jerusalem.
- 03
During the First Crusade, the siege of Antioch lasted nearly eight months before the city fell to crusader forces in 1098.
- 02
Launched in 1096, the First Crusade was called by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095, urging Christian knights to reclaim the Holy Land.
- 01
The First Crusade culminated in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, after which crusaders established the Kingdom of Jerusalem as a Christian state.