Children’s Crusade, 1212 AD
Background of Crusades… In 1099, in the First Crusade, Jerusalem was liberated. In 1187, the Saracens (Islamicists) recaptured Jerusalem. In all subsequent Crusades, Jerusalem was never recaptured. There had been three additional Crusades after this, and for about 15 years prior to our story, numerous people were trying to whip up the frenzy to launch an additional Crusade. The time was ripe with religious fervor.
In May of 1212, around Easter, a shepherd-boy of about 12 years old named Stephen, from a village called Cloyes, sought an audience with King Philip II of France. Stephen claimed to have personally met Christ while tending sheep. Stephen claimed that Jesus had given him the command via a letter to lead the Crusade.
When his scholars confirmed the letter to be inauthentic, King Philip refused to see Stephen, or to read the letter. Stephen, undeterred, began preaching with an extraordinary eloquence, that children would succeed where adults had failed. Children flocked to Stephen, many as young as six years old, and the movement grew. These unarmed, unsupervised children committed to march to Jerusalem and liberate it by force from the Saracens. Stephen preached that when they got to Marseilles, the sea would literally part and give them clear passage to the Holy Land. They were given the blessing of local priests in towns they went through, and families in most cases willingly encouraged their children to join the movement. Stephen was treated as a prophet – with locals requesting locks of his hair as relics. They depended on charity for their provision as they traveled. The road was rough, and many children died en route. Contemporaries spoke of over 30,000 children marching en masse, unsupervised, none of them over 12 years old. This number is probably inflated, but there were certainly multiple thousands of children in this motley band. In Marseilles, they waited for God’s miracle. After a few days, two merchants offered their seven ships to provide free passage to the Holy Land. Stephen and his band were taken aboard, and set out to sea. It was eighteen years before any news was heard of them.
Germans are not to be outdone by the French! In the Rhineland, within a few weeks, word of the French movement was received, and soon after Stephen started his mission, a young boy named Nicholas (age uncertain, but seems older than Stephen) began preaching a similar story. A major difference was that the German youth considered their mission to conquer Jerusalem through the conversion of the heathen, instead of through military conquest. It was similar in that Nicholas preached that children would do what the adults could not do, and also in the belief that the Mediterranean would part for them. Chroniclers of the day estimated Nicholas’ numbers to be in excess of 50,000 children – but these numbers, too, are likely exaggerated.
The German expedition had a very arduous journey over the Alps in the summertime. When they reached Genoa in late August (on the coast, on the west side of Italy, directly north of the island of Sardinia) less than a third of the original number was there. The Genoese, when they saw this mass of children, suspected a plot of the Germans. After the initial confusion was sorted out, they made the children an offer: they could stay for one night of lodging only. Any children who wished to stay as citizens and live in the city could do so. Many of them, by now disillusioned, chose to stay. Many great, ancient families of Genoa today, apparently, trace their lineage to these children. The rest of the children expected the sea to part the next morning, so they were content with the arrangement.
The Mediterranean was no more cooperative than it was for the French children. The remaining children continued south, expecting the sea to open for them further down the coast. They got to Pisa, where some of them accepted passage aboard two ships bound for Palestine. They were never heard from again. Nicholas and the rest of the children trudged on to Rome, where they had an audience with Pope Innocent III. The Pope praised them for their courage, but firmly told them to go home, grow up, and return as adults to fulfill their vows to go fight for the Cross. The German children began to dissipate and were either assimilated into the Italian towns or trudged back to their homes the following Spring. Upon their return, the parents of the children were furious over the failure of the expedition (not to mention the loss of their children) and placed the blame on Nicholas’ father. He was taken and hanged.
What happened to the French children? We have only one clue. 18 years after these events, in the year 1230, a lone priest arrived in France. He claimed to be one of the youthful ‘priests’ that accompanied Stephen on the merchants’ ships. His story claimed that of the seven ships, two were sunk in bad weather with all souls lost. The five that survived sailed to Algeria where, by prior arrangement, most of the children were sold into captivity. Others, including this priest, were shipped to Egypt and those that were literate were treated much better, being put to work in teaching Western languages and as interpreters. These in Egypt were not compelled to convert. A few were taken to the slave markets of Baghdad, and eighteen were martyred there for refusing to convert to Islam. At the time of his telling, he claimed there were about seven hundred of the pilgrims still alive. If this one priest’s story is to be believed, he was deliberately released so as to bring the story back to France.
http://historyguide.org/ancient/children.html
http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/childrens-crusade-thousands-children-march-holy-land-never-return-003044
Christian History, “The Crusades”, Issue 40, (Vol. XII, No. 4) pp 30-31.
Background of Crusades… In 1099, in the First Crusade, Jerusalem was liberated. In 1187, the Saracens (Islamicists) recaptured Jerusalem. In all subsequent Crusades, Jerusalem was never recaptured. There had been three additional Crusades after this, and for about 15 years prior to our story, numerous people were trying to whip up the frenzy to launch an additional Crusade. The time was ripe with religious fervor.
In May of 1212, around Easter, a shepherd-boy of about 12 years old named Stephen, from a village called Cloyes, sought an audience with King Philip II of France. Stephen claimed to have personally met Christ while tending sheep. Stephen claimed that Jesus had given him the command via a letter to lead the Crusade.
When his scholars confirmed the letter to be inauthentic, King Philip refused to see Stephen, or to read the letter. Stephen, undeterred, began preaching with an extraordinary eloquence, that children would succeed where adults had failed. Children flocked to Stephen, many as young as six years old, and the movement grew. These unarmed, unsupervised children committed to march to Jerusalem and liberate it by force from the Saracens. Stephen preached that when they got to Marseilles, the sea would literally part and give them clear passage to the Holy Land. They were given the blessing of local priests in towns they went through, and families in most cases willingly encouraged their children to join the movement. Stephen was treated as a prophet – with locals requesting locks of his hair as relics. They depended on charity for their provision as they traveled. The road was rough, and many children died en route. Contemporaries spoke of over 30,000 children marching en masse, unsupervised, none of them over 12 years old. This number is probably inflated, but there were certainly multiple thousands of children in this motley band. In Marseilles, they waited for God’s miracle. After a few days, two merchants offered their seven ships to provide free passage to the Holy Land. Stephen and his band were taken aboard, and set out to sea. It was eighteen years before any news was heard of them.
Germans are not to be outdone by the French! In the Rhineland, within a few weeks, word of the French movement was received, and soon after Stephen started his mission, a young boy named Nicholas (age uncertain, but seems older than Stephen) began preaching a similar story. A major difference was that the German youth considered their mission to conquer Jerusalem through the conversion of the heathen, instead of through military conquest. It was similar in that Nicholas preached that children would do what the adults could not do, and also in the belief that the Mediterranean would part for them. Chroniclers of the day estimated Nicholas’ numbers to be in excess of 50,000 children – but these numbers, too, are likely exaggerated.
The German expedition had a very arduous journey over the Alps in the summertime. When they reached Genoa in late August (on the coast, on the west side of Italy, directly north of the island of Sardinia) less than a third of the original number was there. The Genoese, when they saw this mass of children, suspected a plot of the Germans. After the initial confusion was sorted out, they made the children an offer: they could stay for one night of lodging only. Any children who wished to stay as citizens and live in the city could do so. Many of them, by now disillusioned, chose to stay. Many great, ancient families of Genoa today, apparently, trace their lineage to these children. The rest of the children expected the sea to part the next morning, so they were content with the arrangement.
The Mediterranean was no more cooperative than it was for the French children. The remaining children continued south, expecting the sea to open for them further down the coast. They got to Pisa, where some of them accepted passage aboard two ships bound for Palestine. They were never heard from again. Nicholas and the rest of the children trudged on to Rome, where they had an audience with Pope Innocent III. The Pope praised them for their courage, but firmly told them to go home, grow up, and return as adults to fulfill their vows to go fight for the Cross. The German children began to dissipate and were either assimilated into the Italian towns or trudged back to their homes the following Spring. Upon their return, the parents of the children were furious over the failure of the expedition (not to mention the loss of their children) and placed the blame on Nicholas’ father. He was taken and hanged.
What happened to the French children? We have only one clue. 18 years after these events, in the year 1230, a lone priest arrived in France. He claimed to be one of the youthful ‘priests’ that accompanied Stephen on the merchants’ ships. His story claimed that of the seven ships, two were sunk in bad weather with all souls lost. The five that survived sailed to Algeria where, by prior arrangement, most of the children were sold into captivity. Others, including this priest, were shipped to Egypt and those that were literate were treated much better, being put to work in teaching Western languages and as interpreters. These in Egypt were not compelled to convert. A few were taken to the slave markets of Baghdad, and eighteen were martyred there for refusing to convert to Islam. At the time of his telling, he claimed there were about seven hundred of the pilgrims still alive. If this one priest’s story is to be believed, he was deliberately released so as to bring the story back to France.
http://historyguide.org/ancient/children.html
http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/childrens-crusade-thousands-children-march-holy-land-never-return-003044
Christian History, “The Crusades”, Issue 40, (Vol. XII, No. 4) pp 30-31.
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