Pope Urban II Calls for the First Crusade

What Happened?

In the late 1000s, the Christian Byzantine Empire in the East was in deep trouble. After a crushing defeat by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, it lost much of its land in Asia Minor and feared that even the capital city of Constantinople could be taken. At the same time, control of Jerusalem and other holy places in the region had shifted, making pilgrimages harder and more dangerous for European Christians who wanted to visit the places where they believed Jesus had lived, died, and risen.

Facing military pressure and religious tension, the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus sent a plea for help to the pope in the West. This was a big deal, because the Christian church had been split for years between Roman Catholics in the West and Orthodox Christians in the East. Pope Urban II saw Alexius’s request not only as a chance to defend fellow Christians, but also as an opportunity to increase the power and unity of the Roman Church and to present himself as a leader who could rally all of Christian Europe to a common cause.

On November 27, 1095, at the Council of Clermont in central France, Pope Urban II gave a famous sermon to a crowd of clergy, nobles, and ordinary people. He described frightening stories of Christians in the East suffering under what he called an “accursed race”, his harsh language about Muslims was meant to stir fear and anger. Urban told his listeners to stop fighting each other in Europe and instead take up arms to reclaim the Holy Land. When he promised that those who fought and died on this campaign would receive forgiveness of their sins, the crowd reportedly shouted, “Deus vult! Deus vult!”—“God wills it!”

Urban’s message spread quickly as church leaders and traveling preachers carried it across Europe. People responded for many different reasons. Some truly believed they were helping fellow Christians and serving God. Others were drawn by adventure, the chance to travel to distant lands, or the hope of gaining land and wealth. Knights were told they could turn their skills in warfare toward a “holy” goal, while some poor peasants believed this might be their one chance to change their lives and their standing in society.

Not everyone who answered the call was trained or disciplined. Before the main armies of nobles and knights were even ready, large crowds of peasants and minor warriors joined what became known as the People’s Crusade. These groups marched east in disorganized bands, often attacking Jewish communities in Europe along the way. Many crusaders treated local Jewish families as enemies, stealing from them or killing them in violent pogroms. This early wave of hatred showed that the crusading idea could easily turn into an excuse for attacking anyone labeled as “other.”

When the better-organized armies of the First Crusade finally reached the eastern Mediterranean, they fought their way through important cities like Nicaea and Antioch. In 1099, they captured Jerusalem after a brutal siege and massacred many of the city’s Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. For the crusaders, this felt like a victory blessed by God. For the people who lived there, and for many Muslims and Jews across the region, it was a shocking tragedy that strengthened feelings of anger, grief, and mistrust toward Western Christians.

The First Crusade led to the creation of several crusader states in the eastern Mediterranean, including the Kingdom of Jerusalem. European knights built castles, churches, and new governments, trying to hold onto land far from their original homes. At the same time, they relied heavily on local resources and often clashed with surrounding Muslim powers. The success of the First Crusade encouraged later popes to call for more campaigns, resulting in a long series of crusades that stretched over the next two centuries.

Even though some crusaders were genuinely motivated by faith and a desire to protect people they saw as their religious family, the crusades caused enormous suffering. They damaged relationships between Western and Eastern Christians, deepened hostility between Christians and Muslims, and led to repeated violence against Jewish communities. Today, historians see Pope Urban II’s call at Clermont as a turning point—a moment when religious passion, political power, and human ambition combined to create a powerful movement with consequences that would echo through history.

Why It Matters

Pope Urban II’s call for the First Crusade reminds us that big historical changes often begin with powerful words. One speech in 1095 helped launch wars that reshaped borders, deepened religious divides, and left a legacy of conflict that can still influence how groups see each other today. By studying the First Crusade, we learn to recognize how faith, fear, and promises of reward can be used to rally people, and why it is so important to question calls to “holy war,” listen to the voices of those who are harmed, and work toward justice and peace instead of violence in the name of religion.