People's Crusade (1096): Peter the Hermit's Doomed March

The People’s Crusade was the first wave of the crusading movement launched by Pope Urban II, a mass march of mostly poor pilgrims led by the preacher Peter the Hermit between April and October 1096. Setting out months before the organised armies of the First Crusade, it crossed Hungary and the Balkans to Constantinople, only to be destroyed by the Seljuk Turks near Civetot in Anatolia. Its fate showed how enthusiasm without supplies, discipline or leadership could end in disaster.

Background: preaching the crusade

After Urban II proclaimed the crusade at Clermont in November 1095, the message spread far beyond the knights he addressed. Popular preachers carried it to towns and villages, promising spiritual rewards to anyone who took the cross.

The most successful was Peter the Hermit, an ascetic from the region of Amiens in northern France who rode a donkey and went barefoot. Contemporary writers describe his remarkable power over crowds. During the winter of 1095–1096 he preached across Berry, Champagne and Lorraine, gathering followers as he moved towards the Rhineland.

The march through Europe

An advance group under the knight Walter Sans-Avoir left first and crossed Hungary relatively peacefully, though it clashed with local people near Belgrade. It reached Constantinople in July 1096.

Peter’s much larger following left Cologne around 20 April 1096. In Hungary, according to the chronicler Albert of Aachen, a quarrel over the sale of a pair of shoes at Semlin (Zemun) escalated into an attack on the town in which many Hungarians were killed. At Nish, in Byzantine territory, fighting broke out with the garrison and Peter’s people suffered heavy losses before Byzantine escorts restored order.

Other bands formed in Germany at the same time. Some, notably that of Count Emicho, attacked the Jewish communities of the Rhineland in May and June 1096. These bands never reached Constantinople; most were broken up by the Hungarians.

Constantinople and Civetot

Peter reached Constantinople on 1 August 1096. Emperor Alexios I Komnenos had asked for trained soldiers, not a disorderly crowd, and reports of looting in the suburbs alarmed him. Within a week he had the pilgrims ferried across the Bosporus to a camp at Civetot (Greek Kibotos) on the Gulf of Nicomedia, advising them to wait for the princes’ armies.

Waiting proved impossible. Groups raided the countryside around Nicaea, the capital of Sultan Kilij Arslan I. In late September a German and Italian force captured the castle of Xerigordon, but Turkish troops besieged it and cut off its water. After about eight days the defenders surrendered; those who converted to Islam were taken captive and the rest were killed.

The disaster of 21 October 1096

Rumours, reportedly spread deliberately, claimed that the Germans had taken Nicaea. Against the advice of Walter Sans-Avoir, the leaders decided to march out. On 21 October 1096 the main army, perhaps around 20,000 strong, left Civetot and was ambushed in a wooded valley a few kilometres from the camp.

The Turkish archers routed the column and then fell on the camp itself. Walter Sans-Avoir was among the dead. A few thousand survivors held out in an old fortress by the sea until a Byzantine fleet rescued them. Peter the Hermit, who had gone to Constantinople to seek help, escaped the slaughter.

Myths and facts

Myth: It was an army of peasants only. Many participants were poor, but the expedition also included knights and minor nobles, and its leaders had some military experience.

Myth: Walter “the Penniless”. His byname Sans-Avoir is often translated as “without means”, but many historians think it refers to his family’s lordship of Boissy-sans-Avoir near Paris, not to poverty.

Myth: Peter the Hermit started the crusade. Some medieval writers claimed Peter had visited Jerusalem and inspired the whole movement. Modern historians treat this as legend; the initiative belonged to Urban II.

Consequences and legacy

The destruction at Civetot left Kilij Arslan confident that crusaders were easy prey, a misjudgement he paid for when the princes’ armies took Nicaea and beat him at Dorylaeum in 1097. The episode also reinforced Byzantine suspicion of Western crusaders.

Peter the Hermit joined the main expedition. He was caught trying to desert during the siege of Antioch but redeemed himself, preached to the army before the assault on Jerusalem in 1099 and died in 1115 at Neufmoustier near Huy.

Timeline

• 1095, 27 November: Urban II preaches the crusade at Clermont.
• 1096, c. 20 April: Peter the Hermit’s following leaves Cologne.
• 1096, May–June: Rhineland massacres of Jews by other bands.
• 1096, July: Walter Sans-Avoir’s group reaches Constantinople.
• 1096, 1 August: Peter reaches Constantinople.
• 1096, early August: The pilgrims are ferried to Civetot.
• 1096, late September: Siege and fall of Xerigordon.
• 1096, 21 October: The main army is destroyed near Civetot.

Why it matters

The People’s Crusade showed the extraordinary popular response to Urban II’s call, and its violence and collapse revealed the dangers of an uncontrolled holy war. It remains the most vivid example of the crusading movement’s mass enthusiasm and its human cost.