November 27 - Pope Urban II Calls for the First Crusade

This Day in History: 27 November 2020

 

27 November 1095

 

925 years ago, today, Pope Urban II made the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to wage war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land. As Pope, Urban made internal reform his main focus, railing against simony and other clerical abuses that were prevalent in the Middle Ages. He showed himself to be a powerful and adept cleric. When he was elected as Pope in 1088, he applied his statecraft to weakening support for his rivals, notably Clement III.

 

Urban's war cry had between 60,000 to 100,000 people respond to it, marching on Jerusalem. However, not all who responded did so out of piety, as some European nobles were tempted by the prospect of increased land holdings and riches to be gained from the conquest. These nobles were responsible for the death of a great many innocents both on the way to the Holy Land in and there, absorbing the riches and estates of those who they deemed opponents to their cause. Due to the Christian peasants' inexperience, they were initially beaten back. This crusade was the first of seven major military campaigns fought over the next two centuries known as the Crusades.

 

Want to find out more about the first Crusade? Click here for more information, or here for a video with more about the other Crusades.

Pope Adrian IV

Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Britain today - the first ever Papal state visit. You can find plenty of coverage of here and here. There has only be one Pope, however, who actually came from Britain. He was Pope Adrian IV (c1100-1159), who was born in Hertfordshire as Nicholas Breakspeare. He was initially refused admission to join a monastery but eventually joined an abbey in France and worked his way to the top, becoming Pope in 1154. His time as Pope was marked by a power struggle with the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I, and a close relationship with English King Henry II. It is possible that he suggested that Henry should invade Ireland in order to bring it under papal control. Traditionally he died in 1159 after choking on a fly in his wine, but is more likely to have been tonsilitis!