PART I: THE COMING OF THE CRUSADES

In spite of the historic significance of this speech, no precise record of Urban’s words survives. Numerous versions of his address, including three by eyewitnesses, were written after the end of the First Crusade, but all were coloured by hindsight and none can be regarded as authoritative. Nonetheless, by comparing these accounts with references to the ‘crusade’ in letters composed by the pope in 1095–6, the core features of his message can be reconstructed. For the primary source accounts of Pope Urban II’s sermon at Clermont see: Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana (1095–1127), ed. H. Hagenmeyer (Heidelberg, 1913), pp. 130–38; Robert the Monk, Historia Iherosolimitana, RHC Occ. III, pp. 727–30; Guibert of Nogent, Dei gesta per Francos, ed. R. B. C. Huygens, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, 127A (Turnhout, 1996), pp. 111–17; Baldric of Bourgueil, bishop of Dol, Historia Jerosolimitana, RHC Occ. IV, pp. 12–16. For the letters written by Urban at the time of the First Crusade see: H. Hagenmeyer, Die Kreuzzugsbriefe aus den Jahren 1088–1100 (Innsbruck, 1901), pp. 136–8; ‘Papsturkunden in Florenz’, ed. W. Wiederhold, Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Phil.-hist. Kl. (Göttingen, 1901), pp. 313–14; Papsturkunden in Spanien. I Katalonien, ed. P. F. Kehr (Berlin, 1926), pp. 287–8. An English translation of these accounts and letters is given in: L. and J. S.C. Riley-Smith, The Crusades: Idea and Reality, 1095–1274 (London, 1981), pp. 37–53.

On Pope Urban II and the Clermont sermon see: A. Becker, Papst Urban II. (1088–1099), Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica 19, 2 vols (Stuttgart, 1964–88); H. E. J. Cowdrey, ‘Pope Urban II’s preaching of the First Crusade’, History, vol. 55 (1970), pp. 177–88; P. Cole, The Preaching of the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1095–1270 (Cambridge, Mass., 1991), pp. 1–36; J. S. C. Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders, 1095–1131 (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 60–75. More generally on the preaching and progress of the First Crusade see: J. S. C. Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (London, 1986); J. France, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (Cambridge, 1994); J. Flori, La Première Croisade: L’Occident chrétien contre l’Islam (Brussels, 2001); T. Asbridge, The First Crusade: A New History (London, 2004). For an account that is dated and somewhat unreliable, but lively nonetheless, see: S. Runciman, ‘The First Crusade and the foundation of the kingdom of Jerusalem’, A History of the Crusades, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1951). The main primary sources for reconstructing the history of the First Crusade are: Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, ed. and trans. R. Hill (London, 1962); Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana (1095–1127), ed. H. Hagenmeyer (Heidelberg, 1913); Raymond of Aguilers, Le ‘Liber’ de Raymond d’Aguilers, ed. J. H. Hill and L. L. Hill (Paris, 1969); Peter Tudebode, Historia de Hierosolymitano itinere, ed. J.H. Hill and L. L. Hill (Paris, 1977); Caffaro di Caschifellone, ‘De liberatione civitatum orientis’, ed. L. T. Belgrano, Annali Genovesi, vol. 1 (Genoa, 1890), pp. 3–75; Ekkehard of Aura, ‘Hierosolimita’, RHC Occ. V, pp. 1–40; Ralph of Caen, Gesta Tancredi in expeditione Hierosolymitana, RHC Occ. III, pp. 587–716; Historia Belli Sacri, RHC Occ. III, pp. 169–229; Albert of Aachen, Historia Iherosolimitana, ed. and trans. S. B. Edgington (Oxford, 2007); H. Hagenmeyer, Die Kreuzzugsbriefe aus den Jahren 1088–1100 (Innsbruck, 1901); Anna Comnena, Alexiade, ed. and trans. B. Leib, 3 vols (Paris, 1937–76), vol. 2, pp. 205–36, vol. 3, pp. 7–32; Ibn al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades, extracted and translated from the Chronicle of Ibn al-Qalanisi, trans. H. A. R. Gibb (London, 1932), pp. 41–9; Ibn al-Athir, The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the crusading period from al-Kamil fi’l-Ta’rikh, trans. D. S. Richards, vol. 1 (Aldershot, 2006), pp. 13–22; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia and the Crusades, Tenth to Twelfth Centuries: The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa, trans. A. E. Dostourian (Lanham, 1993), pp. 164–73. For a selection of translated sources see: E. Peters (ed.), The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and other source materials, 2nd edn (Philadelphia, 1998). For an introduction to these sources see: S. B. Edgington, ‘The First Crusade: Reviewing the Evidence’, The First Crusade: Origins and Impact, ed. J. P. Phillips (Manchester, 1997), pp. 55–77. See also: S. D. Goitein, ‘Geniza Sources for the Crusader period: A survey’, Outremer, ed. B. Z. Kedar, H. E. Mayer and R. C. Smail (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 308–12.

Fulcher of Chartres, pp. 132–3; Robert the Monk, p. 729; Guibert of Nogent, p. 113; Baldric of Bourgueil, p. 13.

Fulcher of Chartres, p. 134; Guibert of Nogent, p. 116; Hagenmeyer, Kreuzzugsbriefe, p. 136; Robert the Monk, pp. 727–8; B. Hamilton, ‘Knowing the enemy: Western understanding of Islam at the time of the crusades’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd series, vol. 7 (1997), pp. 373–87.

Hagenmeyer, Kreuzzugsbriefe, p. 136; Fulcher of Chartres, pp. 134–5; Baldric of Bourgueil, p. 15; J. A. Brundage, ‘Adhémar of Le Puy: The bishop and his critics’, Speculum, vol. 34 (1959), pp. 201–12; J. H. Hill and L. L. Hill, ‘Contemporary accounts and the later reputation of Adhémar, bishop of Le Puy’, Mediaevalia et humanistica, vol. 9 (1955), pp. 30–38; H. E. Mayer, ‘Zur Beurteilung Adhemars von Le Puy’, Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, vol. 16 (1960), pp. 547–52. Urban appears to have woven an assortment of additional themes into his ‘crusading’ message: that fighting in the name of the papacy as a ‘soldier of Christ’ fulfilled quasi-feudal obligations to God, lord of ‘the kingdom of Heaven’ that joining the expedition would allow one to follow in the footsteps of Christ by imitating the suffering of his Passion; that the Last Days were approaching, and that only the conquest of Jerusalem could usher in the prophesied Apocalypse.

On Urban as the progenitor of crusading, attitudes towards martyrdom and the development of the crusading ideal see: C. Erdmann, The Origin of the Idea of Crusade (Princeton, 1977); J. T. Gilchrist, ‘The Erdmann thesis and canon law, 1083–1141’, Crusade and Settlement, ed. P. W. Edbury (Cardiff, 1985), pp. 37–45; E. O. Blake, ‘The formation of the “crusade idea”’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 21 (1970), pp. 11–31; H. E. J. Cowdrey, ‘The genesis of the crusades: The springs of western ideas of holy war’, The Holy War, ed. T. P. Murphy (Columbus, 1976), pp. 9–32; J. Flori, La formation de l’idée des croisades dans l’Occident Chrétien (Paris, 2001); J. S. C. Riley-Smith, ‘Death on the First Crusade’, The End of Strife, ed. D. Loades (Edinburgh, 1984), pp. 14–31; H. E. J. Cowdrey, ‘Martyrdom and the First Crusade’, Crusade and Settlement, ed. P. W. Edbury (Cardiff, 1985), pp. 46–56; J. Flori, ‘Mort et martyre des guerriers vers 1100. L’exemple de la Première Croisade’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, vol. 34 (1991), pp. 121–39; C. Morris, ‘Martyrs of the Field of Battle before and during the First Crusade’, Studies in Church History, vol. 30 (1993), pp. 93–104; J. S. C. Riley-Smith, What Were the Crusades?, 3rd edn (Basingstoke, 2002); C.J. Tyerman, ‘Were there any crusades in the twelfth century?’, English Historical Review, vol. 110 (1995), pp. 553–77; C. J. Tyerman, The Invention of the Crusades (London, 1998).