Gautier-sans-Avoir - 1096 A.D.
(Walter the Penniless)
The first Crusade (1095-1099) preached by Pope
Urbain II on 20 November 1095 in Clermont, and by other preachers, in particular Adémar
de Montheil and Pierre l'Ermite.
Mars 1095 : council of Plaisance; Byzantine
ambassadors come to explain the situation of Islam.
20 November 1095 : Call to arms by Clermont.
April 1096 : the first group leaves, lead by Pierre
l'Ermite and Gautier-sans-Avoir.
Gautier-sans-Avoir, Seigneur de Poissy : French
knight, died in 1096. he lead part of the first popular Crusade which was massacred before
reaching Constantinople. Most of his companions were killed before reaching Byzance and he
died in an ambush by the Turcs near Nicée.
Pierre l'Ermite (1050?-1115) : French Religious, he
preached the first Crusade and was one of the main leaders of the popular Crusade who was
arrested by the Turks en Asia Minor. After having assisted at the conquest of Jerusalem,
he founded a Belgian monastery at Neufmoustier.
August 1096 : the popular crusade arrives in
Constantinople. At the same time, the Crusade of the Knights marches, commanded by
Godefroi de Bouillon, Raymond IV de Saint-Gilles, comte de Toulouse, Hugues de Vermandois,
Bohémond de Tarente and his nephew Tancrède, Étienne de Blois and Robert de Normandie.
October 1096 : arrival in Asia Minor of the popular
Crusade; it is mostly massacred, and the Byzantines bring the survivors to Constantinople.
Mai 1097 : arrival in Constantinople of the last
contingent of the Crusade of the barons (between 50 000 and 100 000 men).
A cross on the left shoulder was not a new sign for
the pilgrims, those who left for the Holy Land had adopted it as a universal sign, thus
the origin of their name. However, the name appears only around 1250 to designate the
expedition to Jerusalem by soldiers of Christ. During the XI and XII centuries, people
talked mostly of «voyages to Jerusalem», of pilgrimages or expeditions, without being
more precise.
The first group is a «horde»: it is the most
numerous group, without arms or food, undisciplined. It is impossible to really tell their
number, they may be more than 100 000, maybe 300 000. Enormous for the Middle Ages, where
armies seldom have more than 2 000 or 3 000 men. This enormous crowd joins the combatants,
lead by local chiefs or preachers who appeared before the Crusade. These preachers are
«crazy about God» seen everywhere, particularly in the West of France (Robert
d'Arbrissel in the valley of the Loire). Among them are Gautier-sans-Avoir and Pierre
l'Ermite, who has already been to Jerusalem where he preached the first Crusade. This
person is the object of a charismatic veneration.
This group is fascinated by the idea that the end
of the world is near: they don’t have any hope of returning. The times are propitious
for such an exodus, because during the last 10 years, a series of natural calamities,
famines and epidemics, have hit the Rhine region and the North of France. Popular
effervescence, contagious enthusiasm of the people who exhort one another and various
signs (comets, etc.) fire the popular imagination.
This first group leaves at the winter’s end,
in April 1096, having exhausted the last year’s harvest: the cereals nearly gone. The
pilgrims leave with wives and children, haphazardly (they don’t have maps) descending
the Danube valley (many are from the Rhine region).
It is then that the first great pogroms start: Worms, Mayence, Cologne,
Trêves, Metz, Ratisbonne, Prague, etc., the cities where the Jews live were ancient,
prosperous, installed by princes. These pogroms are launched by fanatical knights,
sometimes colored by an apocalyptic view of the world: there exist an idea of an «emperor
of the last days» who will go to Jerusalem to deposit his crown on the Golgotha; it is
then pure folly. Emich de Leimlingen claims to be the future King. These massive pogroms
are the start of a phenomena; until then there had only been weak efforts, by knights of
France doing to Spain (Reconquista). The idea of going to Jerusalem releases a major
interrogation of Christocentrism: who is
responsible for the death of Christ. The Jews are targeted.