2. What motivated warriors and pilgrims from across Christendom to participate in the First Crusade?

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about what motivated Europeans to join the First Crusade, focusing in particular: (i) the length, cost and riskiness of the journey; (ii) the view that people we motivated by money, i.e. that they would acquire great wealth on crusade, and the arguments for and against this position; (iii) the view that people were motivated by religious considerations, and the arguments for and against this position; (iv) the view that people were motivated by fellowship, i.e. a few family members had decided to go so they would go too; (v) the view that people were swept up in the general enthusiasm and fervour for going on crusade; (vi) the importance of the city of Jerusalem itself, and the arguments for and against this position; (vii) the potential for different people to have different motivations, or for the same person to be motivated by a range of factors; (viii) the question of actively chose to go on crusade, and who was forced to go simply because (e.g.) their feudal lord had told them to; (ix) the question of whether we can actually ever know what motivated those who went on crusade; (x) the particular motivations associated with the crusaders from Italian cities such as Genoa and Pisa; (xi) the evidence for crusaders' motivations.

Suggested reading:
– Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders, 1095-1131 (1997)
– Jonathan Riley-Smith, ‘Crusading as an Act of Love’, History Vol. 65, No. 214 (1980), pp. 177-92
– Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (1972) – Nicholas Morton, Encountering Islam on the First Crusade (2016)
– Conor Kostick, The Social Structure of the First Crusade (2008)
– Malcolm Barber and Keith Bate, Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th–13th Centuries (2013)

Course

In this course, Dr Nicholas Morton (Nottingham Trent University) considers three questions related to the First Crusade, 1095-99: (i) Why did Pope Urban II launch the First Crusade?; (ii) What motivated warriors and pilgrims from across Christendom to participate in the First Crusade?; and (iii) Why did the First Crusade succeed? In each module, we outline some potential approaches to the question, as well as considering the sources that are available that might help us answer the question.

Lecturer

Dr Nicholas Morton is a specialist in the history of crusading and the Medieval Mediterranean between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. More recently he has begun to focus specifically upon the theme of inter-faith relations between Christianity and Islam in this region. He has published extensively on topics connected to this subject area, writing a range of monographs and scholarly articles. He is also an editor for the Ashgate series Rulers of the Latin East.

Currently Dr Morton is completing a monograph exploring the First Crusaders' attitudes and behaviour towards the various non-Christian peoples they encountered during their campaign. This will be a highly revisionist work addressing many key scholarly and public orthodoxies surrounding the nature of Christian/Islamic interaction during the crusade.