The Children's Crusades in brief. Children's Crusades
No scrupulously accurate evidence from contemporaries about the children’s campaign has been preserved. Because history is overgrown with many myths, speculations and legends. However, it is certain that the initiators of such an enterprise are Stefan from Cloix and Nicholas from Cologne. Both were shepherd boys.
The first said that Jesus himself appeared to him and ordered him to deliver a certain letter to the King of France, Philip II, so that he would help the children in organizing the campaign. According to another version, Stefan accidentally met one of the nameless monks who pretended to be a god. It was he who captivated the child’s mind with divine sermons, ordered the liberation of Jerusalem from the “infidels” and returned it to the Christians, and handed over the same manuscript.
Stephen. (wikipedia.org)
The shepherd began to preach so fervently that many teenagers and even adults began to follow him throughout France. Soon the young speaker was able to reach the royal court of Philip II. The king became interested in the idea of arranging for children because he was seeking favor from Pope Innocent III in the war with England. But Rome remained silent for a long time, and the European monarch abandoned this intention.
Holy Sepulcher
However, Stephen did not stop, and soon a large procession of teenagers with banners moved from Vendôme to Marseille. The children sincerely believed that the sea would part before them and open the way to the Holy Sepulcher.
The children followed Stefan and Nicholas. (wikipedia.org)
A hard journey through the Alps
In May of the same year, a certain Nicholas organized his campaign from Cologne. Their path lay through the rugged Alps. About thirty thousand teenagers moved towards the mountains, but only seven were able to get out of there alive. Even for an army of adults, making the way through these mountains was not easy. In addition, the matter was aggravated by difficult passes and transitions. The children dressed too lightly and did not prepare sufficient supplies of provisions, and therefore many froze and died of hunger in this area.
But even in the Italian lands they were not greeted joyfully. The Italians still had fresh memories of the devastating campaigns of Frederick Barbarossa after the previous crusade. And the German children, enduring losses and hardships, barely made it to coastal Genoa.
Italian cities. (wikipedia.org)
The child crusaders did not at all believe that the sea, after numerous prayers, would not part for them. Then many participants settled in the trading city, while others went down the Apennine Peninsula to the residence of the Pope in order to receive all-powerful support and patronage from him. In Rome, the children managed to achieve an audience, at which Innocent, to the chagrin of Nicholas, strongly recommended that the young crusaders turn home. The return journey through the Alps turned out to be even more difficult: very few returned to the German principalities. The available evidence regarding the fate of Nicholas varies: some claim that he died on the way back, and others that he disappeared after visiting Genoa. Thus, none of the German child crusaders reached the Holy Land.
And from Vendôme to Marseille
As noted earlier, Stephen of Cloix led the crusade from the city of Vendôme. Despite the fact that they were helped by the Franciscan Order and that the harsh Alps were away from their route, the fate of the French children was no less tragic. And in coastal Marseille, where they reached from the starting point, the sea did not open the way for the crusaders. Therefore, the teenagers had to resort to the help of certain Hugo Ferrerus and Guillemot Porcus, two local merchants who offered to deliver them to the Holy Land on their ships. It is known that the children boarded seven ships, each of which could accommodate seven hundred people each. After that, no one ever saw the children in France.
Children's Crusade. (wikipedia.org)
Some time later, a monk appeared in Europe, claiming that he accompanied the children all the way. According to him, all participants in the campaign were deceived: they were brought not to Palestine, but to the shores of Algeria, where they were later driven into slavery. It is quite possible that the Marseille merchants agreed in advance with the local slave traders. And it is possible that some of the young crusaders nevertheless reached the walls of Jerusalem, but no longer with a sword in their hands, but in shackles.
Kurt Vonnegut: "The Children's Crusade"
The Children's Crusade of 1212 ended in complete failure. He greatly impressed his descendants and contemporaries and was reflected in art. Several films have been made about this event, and Kurt Vonnegut, describing his experience of the bombing of Dresden, called the book “Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children’s Crusade.”
IN 1212 The so-called Children's Crusade took place, an expedition led by a young seer named Stephen, who inspired the belief in French and German children that with his help, as poor and devoted servants of God, they could return Jerusalem to Christianity. The children went to the south of Europe, but many of them did not even reach the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, but died along the way. Some historians believe that the Children's Crusade was a provocation staged by slave traders in order to sell participants in the campaign into slavery.
In May 1212, when the German people's army passed through Cologne, in its ranks there were about twenty-five thousand children and teenagers heading to Italy to reach from there by sea Palestine. In the chronicles XIII century This campaign, which was called the “Children’s Crusade,” is mentioned more than fifty times.
The crusaders boarded ships in Marseilles and some died from a storm, while others, as they say, sold their children to Egypt as slaves. A similar movement spread to Germany, where the boy Nikolai gathered a crowd of about 20 thousand children. Most of them died or scattered along the road (especially many of them died in the Alps), but some reached Brindisi, from where they were supposed to return; most of them also died. Meanwhile, the English king John, the Hungarian Andrew and, finally, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, who accepted the cross in July 1215, responded to the new call of Innocent III. The start of the Crusade was scheduled for June 1, 1217.
Fifth Crusade (1217-1221)
Case Innocent III(died July 1216) continued Honorius III. Although Frederick II postponed the trip, and John of England died, after all 1217 Significant detachments of crusaders went to the Holy Land, with Andrey Vengersky, Duke Leopold VI of Austria And Otto of Meran at the head; this was the 5th Crusade. Military operations were sluggish, and 1218 King Andrew returned home. Soon new detachments of crusaders arrived in the Holy Land, under the leadership of George Vidsky and William of Holland(on the way, some of them helped Christians in the fight against Moors V Portugal). The crusaders decided to attack Egypt, which was at that time the main center of Muslim power in Western Asia. Son al-Adil,al-Kamil(al-Adil died in 1218), offered an extremely profitable peace: he even agreed to the return of Jerusalem to Christians. This proposal was rejected by the crusaders. In November 1219, after more than a year's siege, the crusaders took Damietta. Removal of Leopold and the King from the Crusader camp John of Brienne was partially compensated by arrival in Egypt Louis of Bavaria with the Germans. Some of the crusaders, convinced by the papal legate Pelagius, moved towards Mansura, but the campaign ended in complete failure, and the crusaders concluded 1221 peace with al-Kamil, according to which they received a free retreat, but pledged to cleanse Damietta and Egypt in general. Meanwhile on Isabella, daughters Maria Iolanta and John of Brienne, married Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. He committed himself to the pope to begin a crusade.
Sixth Crusade (1228-1229)
Frederick in August 1227 actually sent a fleet to Syria with Duke Henry of Limburg at its head; in September he sailed himself, but had to soon return to shore due to a serious illness. Landgrave Ludwig of Thuringia, who took part in this crusade, died almost immediately after landing in Otranto. Dad Gregory IX did not respect Frederick’s explanations and excommunicated him for not fulfilling his vow at the appointed time. A struggle began between the emperor and the pope, which was extremely harmful to the interests of the Holy Land. In June 1228, Frederick finally sailed to Syria (6th Crusade), but this did not reconcile the pope with him: Gregory said that Frederick (still excommunicated) was going to the Holy Land not as a crusader, but as a pirate. In the Holy Land, Frederick restored the fortifications of Joppa and in February 1229 concluded an agreement with Alkamil: the Sultan ceded Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and some other places to him, for which the emperor undertook to help Alkamil against his enemies. In March 1229, Frederick entered Jerusalem, and in May he sailed from the Holy Land. After the removal of Frederick, his enemies began to seek to weaken the power of the Hohenstaufens both in Cyprus, which had been a fief of the empire since the time of Emperor Henry VI, and in Syria. These discords had a very unfavorable effect on the course of the struggle between Christians and Muslims. Relief for the crusaders was brought only by the discord of the heirs of Alkamil, who died in 1238.
In the autumn of 1239, Thibault of Navarre, Duke Hugo of Burgundy, Count Peter of Brittany, Amalrich of Monfort and others arrived in Acre. And now the crusaders acted discordantly and rashly and were defeated; Amalrich was captured. Jerusalem again fell for some time into the hands of a Heyyubid ruler. The alliance of the crusaders with the emir Ishmael of Damascus led to their war with the Egyptians, who defeated them at Ascalon. After this, many crusaders left the Holy Land. Arriving in the Holy Land in 1240, Count Richard of Cornwall (brother of the English king Henry III) managed to conclude a profitable peace with Eyyub (Melik-Salik-Eyyub) of Egypt. Meanwhile, discord among Christians continued; barons hostile to the Hohenstaufens transferred power over the kingdom of Jerusalem to Alice of Cyprus, while the rightful king was the son of Frederick II, Conrad. After Alice's death, power passed to her son, Henry of Cyprus. The new alliance of Christians with Eyyub's Muslim enemies led to Eyyub calling to his aid the Khorezmian Turks, who took Jerusalem, which had recently been returned to Christians, in September 1244 and terribly devastated it. Since then, the holy city was lost forever to the crusaders. After a new defeat of the Christians and their allies, Eyyub took Damascus and Ascalon. The Antiochians and Armenians had to at the same time undertake to pay tribute to the Mongols. In the West, crusading zeal cooled down due to the unsuccessful outcome of the last Campaigns and due to the actions of the popes, who spent money collected for the Crusades on the fight against the Hohenstaufens, and declared that they would help the Holy See against emperor you can free yourself from your earlier vow to go to the Holy Land. However, the preaching of the Crusade to Palestine continued as before and led to the 7th Crusade. Took the cross before others Louis IX French: During a dangerous illness, he vowed to go to the Holy Land. With him went his brothers Robert, Alphonse and Charles, Duke of Burgundy, c. William of Flanders, c. Peter of Brittany, Seneschal of Champagne John Joinville (a famous historian of this campaign) and many others.
The Sretensky Monastery Publishing House is preparing to publish a new book by a famous religious scholar, researcher of modern sectarianism, historian, public figure, writer “Chronicles of the crusades of the Frankish pilgrims to the Overseas lands and related events, as presented by Alexander Dvorkin.” With the permission of the author and the publisher, we publish an excerpt from the manuscript of this book.
One day in May 1212, a twelve-year-old shepherd boy, Stephen, from the small town of Cloix near Orleans, appeared in Saint-Denis, where the court of King Philip Augustus was staying. He brought with him a letter to the king, which, according to him, was given to him by Christ Himself. The Savior appeared to him while he was tending his sheep, and called him to go and preach. The king was not too impressed and told the boy to return home. However, Stefan, inspired by the mysterious stranger who appeared to him, already saw himself as a charismatic leader who managed to succeed where adults admitted their powerlessness. For the last fifteen years the whole country has been overrun by itinerant preachers calling for a crusade against the Muslims in the East or Spain, or against the heretics in the Languedoc. The hysterical boy could well have been inspired by the idea that he, too, could become a preacher and repeat the feat of Peter the Hermit, legends of whose greatness were passed on from mouth to mouth. Not at all embarrassed by the king's indifference, Stephen began to preach right at the entrance to the Abbey of Saint Denis, declaring that he was gathering children to save Christianity. The waters will part before them, and, as if through the Red Sea, he will lead his army straight to the Holy Land.
The boy, who spoke very eloquently and emotionally, undoubtedly had the gift of persuasion. The adults were impressed, and the children flocked to him like flies to honey. After his initial success, Stephen went on a tour to proclaim his call in different cities of France, gathering around him more and more converts. He sent the most eloquent of them to preach on his behalf. They all agreed to meet in Vendôme in about a month and from there begin their campaign to the East.
Shocked contemporaries spoke of 30 thousand who gathered to fight for the Cross - and all were under 12 years old
At the end of June, groups of children began approaching Vendôme from different directions. Shocked contemporaries spoke of 30 thousand gathered - all under 12 years of age. Undoubtedly, at least several thousand children from all over the country flocked to the city. Some of them were from poor peasant families: their parents willingly sent their offspring to such a great mission. But there were also children of noble birth who secretly escaped from their homes. Among those gathered were girls, several young priests and a few older pilgrims, attracted partly by piety, partly by pity and partly by the desire to profit from the gifts with which the compassionate population showered the children. Chroniclers called Stephen's inner circle "minor prophets." Groups of young pilgrims, the leader of each of which carried a standard with an oriflamme (Stephen declared it the motto of the campaign), accumulated in the city and soon, having overflowed it, were forced to settle outside its walls - in the field.
When friendly priests blessed the young crusaders, and the last grieving parents finally stepped aside, the expedition headed south. Almost everyone walked. However, Stefan, as befits a leader, demanded a special method of transportation: he rode on a cart painted in bright colors with a canopy protecting him from the sun. On both sides of him galloped boys of noble birth, whose condition allowed them to have their own horse. No one objected to the comfortable travel conditions of the inspired prophet. Moreover, he was treated as a saint, and locks of his hair and pieces of clothing were distributed among the most faithful as miraculous relics.
The journey turned out to be painful: the summer turned out to be record hot. The pilgrims were entirely dependent on the kindness of the local people to share food with them, but due to the drought they themselves had few supplies, and even water was often in short supply. Many children died along the way, and their bodies were left lying on the side of the road. Some could not stand the test, turned back and tried to return home.
In the morning the whole crowd rushed to the port to see how the sea would part before them
Finally, the minor crusade reached Marseilles. The inhabitants of this trading city welcomed the children cordially. Many were given overnight accommodation in houses, others settled on the streets. The next morning the whole crowd rushed to the port to see how the sea would part before them. When the miracle did not happen, bitter disappointment set in. Some of the children, declaring that Stefan had betrayed them, rebelled against him and headed back to their homes. But the majority remained, and every morning they came to the sea, expecting that God would answer their prayers. A few days later, two businessmen were found - Hugo Ferreus and Guillaume Porcus (literal translation from French - something like “Iron” and “Swine”), who expressed their selfless readiness to transport the young crusaders to the Holy Land for God’s reward alone. Stefan, without hesitation, happily agreed to such a generous offer. The children were put on seven ships hired by businessmen, which left the port and headed out to the open sea. 18 years passed before news of their fate reached Europe.
Meanwhile, rumors of Stephen's mission spread to the east, and the extravagance that gripped the French children also infected Germany, especially its Lower Rhine regions. A few weeks after the Orleans shepherd began his sermon, a German peasant boy, Nicholas, who was not yet 10 years old, began to make fiery speeches in the square in front of the Cologne Cathedral. The young preacher appeared with a machine on which was a cross in the shape of the Latin “T”. Shocked listeners told each other that he would cross the sea without getting his feet wet and establish an eternal kingdom of peace in Jerusalem.
Nicholas, like Stephen, had a natural gift of eloquence and, wherever he appeared, he irresistibly attracted children who were ready to go on pilgrimage with him. But while the French children expected to conquer the Holy Land by force, the Germans thought they could convert the Saracens to Christianity through peaceful preaching. A few weeks later, a crowd of thousands of children and all sorts of disorderly rabble gathered in Cologne, which from there moved south through the Alps. Most likely, the Germans were on average slightly older than the French, and they had more girls and more children of noble birth with them. Their column was also accompanied by many thieves and other criminals who needed to leave their homeland as quickly as possible, as well as the ubiquitous prostitutes.
The expedition was divided into two parts. The first, numbering, according to chroniclers, at least 20 thousand people, was led by Nicholas himself. On the way through the Western Alps, this group lost most of their children: young pilgrims died of hunger, at the hands of robbers, or, frightened by the difficulties of the campaign, returned home. However, on August 25, several thousand travelers reached Genoa and asked for shelter within the city walls. The Genoese authorities initially agreed to accept them, but, on reflection, began to suspect a secret German conspiracy. As a result, the children were allowed to spend only one night in the city, but it was announced that everyone could live here forever. The young pilgrims, who had no doubt that the next morning the sea would part before them, immediately agreed to these conditions.
Alas, the sea in Genoa turned out to be as deaf to their prayers as in Marseille - to the prayers of their French peers. Many children, disappointed, decided to stay in the city that sheltered them. Several Genoese patrician families trace their origins to these young German pilgrims. Nicholas himself moved on with the majority of his army. A few days later they reached Pisa. There were two ships there that were about to set sail for Palestine. Their teams agreed to take some of the children with them. They may have reached Beyond the Seas, but their fate remains completely unknown. However, Nicholas, still waiting for a miracle, reached Rome with his most faithful followers, where they were received by Pope Innocent. The Pontiff was touched by the children's piety, but also amazed by their naivety. Gently but firmly, he told them to go home, saying that when they grew up, they could fulfill their vows and go fight for the Cross.
The difficult return journey destroyed almost the entire remainder of this children's army. Hundreds fell from exhaustion during the journey and perished miserably on the highways. The worst fate, of course, befell the girls, who, in addition to all other disasters, were subjected to all kinds of deception and violence. Many of them, fearing shame in their homeland, remained in Italian cities and settlements. Only small groups of children, sick and exhausted, ridiculed and abused, saw their homeland again. The boy Nikolai was not found among them. It is said that he was alive and later, in 1219, fought at Damietta in Egypt. But the angry parents of the missing children insisted on the arrest of his father, who allegedly used his son for his own purposes, ingratiating his vanity. Along the way, the father was accused of slave trading, tried “together with other deceivers and criminals” and hanged.
Another German children's expedition was no more successful. She walked through the Central Alps and, after incredible trials and suffering, reached the sea at Ancona. When the sea refused to part for them, the children headed south along the eastern coast of Italy and eventually reached Brindisi. There, some of them were able to board ships heading to Palestine, but most trudged back. Only a few were able to reach their homes.
The ships arrived in Algeria. The children were bought by local Muslims, and the unfortunate ones spent their lives in captivity
However, despite all their torment, they had a better fate than the French children. In 1230, a priest from the East arrived in France and told about what happened to the young pilgrims who left Marseille. According to him, he was one of the young priests who went with Stephen, and with him boarded the ships provided by the merchants. Two of the seven ships were caught in a storm and, together with their passengers, sank near the island of St. Peter (Sardinia), the rest soon found themselves surrounded by Saracen ships from Africa. The passengers learned that they had been brought to this place under a pre-arranged deal to be sold into slavery. The ships arrived in Algeria. Many of the children were bought immediately by local Muslims and spent the rest of their lives in captivity. Others (including a young priest) were taken to Egypt, where Frankish slaves fetched higher prices. When the ships arrived in Alexandria, most of the human cargo was purchased by the governor to work on his lands. According to the priest, about 700 of them were still alive.
A small consignment was delivered to the slave markets of Baghdad, where 18 young men, refusing to convert to Islam, suffered martyrdom. Young priests and the few who knew how to read and write were luckier. The governor of Egypt, Al-Adil's son Al-Kamil, showed interest in Western literature and writing. He bought them all and kept them with him as translators, teachers and secretaries, without trying to convert them to his faith. They lived in Egypt in quite acceptable conditions, and in the end this priest was allowed to return to France. He told the parents of his fellow sufferers everything he knew, after which he sank into obscurity.
Later sources identify the two criminal Marseilles slave traders with two merchants who, a few years later, were accused of participating in a Saracen plot against Emperor Frederick II in Sicily. Thus, according to popular memory, both ended their days on the gallows, having paid for their heinous crime.
For the first time at the very beginning of the 11th century. Pope Urban II called on Western Europe for crusades. This happened in the late autumn of 1095, shortly after the gathering (congress) of churchmen ended in the city of Clermont (in France). The Pope addressed crowds of knights, peasants, and townspeople. monks gathered on the plain near the city, calling for a holy war against Muslims. Tens of thousands of knights and poor villagers from France responded to the pope’s call; all of them went to Palestine in 1096 to fight against the Seljuk Turks, who had recently captured the city of Jerusalem, considered sacred by Christians.
The liberation of this shrine served as a pretext for the Crusades. The crusaders attached cloth crosses to their clothes as a sign that they were going to war for the religious purpose of expelling infidels (Muslims) from Jerusalem and other sacred places for Christians in Palestine. In reality, the goals of the crusaders were not only religious. By the 11th century. land in Western Europe was divided between secular and ecclesiastical feudal lords. According to custom, only his eldest son could inherit the lord's land. As a result, a large layer of feudal lords who did not have land was formed.
They were eager to get it in any way. The Catholic Church, not without reason, feared that these knights would encroach on its vast possessions. In addition, the churchmen, led by the Pope, sought to extend their influence to new territories and profit from them. Rumors about the riches of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean, which were spread by pilgrim travelers who visited Palestine, aroused the greed of the knights. The popes took advantage of this, throwing out the cry “To the East!”
L. Gumilyov also believes that at this time a passionary impulse occurred in Western Europe and this overheated society needed to be cooled through expansion.
In the 12th century. the knights had to equip themselves for war many times under the sign of the cross in order to retain the captured territories. However, all these crusades failed. At the beginning of the 13th century, the idea began to spread throughout the cities and villages of France, and then in other countries, that if adults were not allowed to free Jerusalem from the “infidels” for “their sins,” then “innocent” children would be able to do it .
Pope Innocent III, the instigator of many bloody wars undertaken under the religious banner, did nothing to stop this crazy campaign. On the contrary, he stated: “These children serve as a reproach to us adults: while we sleep, they joyfully stand up for the Holy Land.” The crusade was also supported by the Franciscan order.
The Children's Crusade began with the fact that in June 1212, a shepherd boy named Stephen (Etienne) appeared in a village near Vendôme, who announced that he was a messenger of God and was called to become a leader and again conquer the Promised Land for Christians: the sea was supposed to dry up before the army of spiritual Israel.
On one of the warm days of May 1212, Stephen met a pilgrim monk coming from Palestine and asking for alms.
The monk accepted the offered piece of bread and began to talk about overseas miracles and exploits. Stefan listened in fascination. Suddenly the monk interrupted his story, and then suddenly dropped that he was Jesus Christ.
Everything that followed was like a dream (or this meeting was the boy’s dream). The monk-Christ ordered the boy to become the head of an unprecedented crusade - a children's crusade, for "from the mouths of babies comes power against the enemy." And then the monk disappeared, melted away
Stefan walked throughout the country and everywhere caused stormy enthusiasm with his speeches, as well as with the miracles that he performed in front of thousands of eyewitnesses. Soon, boys appeared in many places as crusade preachers, gathered around themselves whole crowds of like-minded people and led them, with banners and crosses and with solemn songs, to the wonderful boy Stephen. If anyone asked the young madmen where they were going, he received the answer that they were going overseas to God.
Stefan, this holy fool, was revered as a miracle worker. In July, singing psalms and banners, they set off for Marseilles to sail to the Holy Land, but no one thought about ships in advance. Criminals often joined the army; playing the role of participants, they lived off the alms of pious Catholics.
The madness that gripped French children also spread to Germany, especially in the Lower Rhine regions. Here came the boy Nikolai, who was not yet 10 years old, led by his father, also a vile slave trader, who used the poor child for his own purposes, for which later “together with other deceivers and criminals he ended up, as they say, on the gallows.” Nikolai appeared with a machine on which was a cross in the form of the Latin "T", and it was announced that he would cross the sea with dry feet and establish in Jerusalem the eternal kingdom of peace. Wherever he appeared, he irresistibly attracted children to him. A crowd gathered in 20 thousand boys, girls, as well as a disorderly rabble and moved south through the Alps.On the way, most of it died from hunger and robbers or returned home, frightened by the difficulties of the campaign: nevertheless, several thousand still reached Genoa on August 25. Here they were unfriendly driven away and forced them to quickly continue their campaign, because the Genoese were afraid of any danger to their city from the strange army of pilgrims.
When a crowd of French children reached Marseilles, singing hymns, they entered the suburbs and headed through the streets of the city straight to the sea. The inhabitants of the city were shocked by the sight of this army, looked at them with reverence and blessed them for the great feat.
The children stopped on the seashore, which most of them saw for the first time. Many ships were in the roadstead, and the sea stretched into an endless distance. The waves rushed onto the shore, then moved away, and nothing changed. And the children were waiting for a miracle. They were sure that the sea must make way for them and they will move on. But the sea did not part and continued to splash at their feet.
The children began to pray fervently... time passed, but there was still no miracle.
Then two slave traders volunteered to transport these “advocates of Christ” to Syria for “God’s reward.” They sailed on seven ships, two of them were wrecked on the island of San Pietro near Sardinia, and on the remaining five the merchants arrived in Egypt and sold the pilgrims - the crusaders as slaves. Thousands of them came to the court of the Caliph and were worthily distinguished there by the steadfastness with which they persisted in the Christian faith.
Both slave traders later fell into the hands of Emperor Frederick II and were sentenced to death by hanging. Moreover, this emperor, as they say, succeeded, as they say, in concluding peace in 1229 with Sultan Alkamil, again to restore the freedom of a large part of these unfortunate child pilgrims.
Children from Germany, under the leadership of Nicholas, expelled from Genoa, reached Brindisi, but here, thanks to the energy of the local bishop, they were prevented from undertaking a sea voyage to the East. Then they had no choice but to return home. Some of the boys went to Rome to ask the Pope for permission from the crusader vow. But the Pope did not fulfill their request, although, as they say, he had already ordered them to abandon their crazy enterprise; now he gave them only a postponement of the crusade until they came of age. The return journey destroyed almost the entire remainder of this children's army. Hundreds of them fell from exhaustion during the journey and died pitifully on the highways. The worst fate, of course, befell the girls, who, in addition to all other disasters, were also subjected to all kinds of deception and violence. Several managed to find shelter in good families and earn their own food in Genoa with their own hands; some patrician families even trace their origins to the German children who remained there; but the majority died in a pitiful manner and only a small remnant of the entire army, sick and exhausted, ridiculed and desecrated, saw their homeland again. The boy Nicholas allegedly survived and later, in 1219, fought at Damietta in Egypt.
The Children's Crusade is the name given to the popular movement of 1212 in historiography.
Middle Ages
The legendary Children's Crusade gives an excellent idea of the extent to which the mentality of the people of the Middle Ages differed from the worldview of the present time. Reality and fiction were closely intertwined in the head of a 13th-century man. The people believed in a miracle. Nowadays, the idea of a children's crusade seems wild to us, but then thousands of people had no doubt about the success of the enterprise. Although, we still do not know whether this actually happened.
It would be wrong to assume that the clergy was able to captivate the struggle for Jerusalem only by the chivalry, greedy for profit and seeking exploits, and the equally greedy Italian merchants. The crusader spirit was also maintained in the lower strata of society, where the charm of its myths was especially strong. The campaign of the young peasants became the embodiment of this naive commitment to him.
How it all began
At the beginning of the 13th century, the conviction became stronger in Europe that only sinless children could liberate the Holy Land. The incendiary speeches of preachers mourning the capture of the Holy Sepulcher by the “infidels” found a wide response among children and teenagers, usually from peasant families in Northern France and Rhineland Germany. Teenage religious fervor was fueled by parents and parish priests. The pope and the higher clergy opposed the enterprise, but were unable to stop it. Local clergymen, as a rule, were as ignorant as their flock.
Masterminds
1212, June - in the village of Cloix near Vendôme in France, a certain shepherd named Stephen from Cloix appeared, declaring himself a messenger of God, who was called to become the leader of Christians and re-conquer the Promised Land; the sea had to dry up before the army of spiritual Israel. Allegedly, Christ himself appeared to the boy and handed him a letter to give to the king. The shepherd boy walked throughout the country everywhere, causing wild enthusiasm with his speeches, as well as with the miracles he performed in front of thousands of eyewitnesses.
Soon, preacher boys appeared in many areas; they gathered around themselves entire crowds of like-minded people and led them with banners and crosses, with solemn songs to Stephen. If someone asked the young madmen where they were going, they answered that they were going “overseas, to God.”
The king tried to stop this madness and ordered the children to be returned home, but this did not help. Some of them obeyed the order, but most did not pay attention to it, and soon adults were also involved in the event. Stephen, who was already traveling in a chariot hung with carpets and surrounded by bodyguards, was accosted not only by priests, artisans and peasants, but also by thieves and criminals who had “taken the right path.”
In the hands of slave traders
1212 - two streams of young travelers headed to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Several thousand French children (maybe up to 30 thousand people, if you count adult pilgrims) under the leadership of Stephen arrived in Marseille, where cynical slave traders loaded them onto ships. Two ships sank during a storm off the island of San Pietro near Sardinia, and the remaining 5 were able to reach Egypt, where the shipowners sold the children into slavery.
Many of the captives allegedly ended up at the court of the caliph, who was amazed at the tenacity of the young crusaders in their faith. Some of the chroniclers claimed that subsequently both slave owners transporting children fell into the hands of the enlightened Emperor Frederick II, who sentenced the criminals to hanging. When concluding an agreement in 1229 with Sultan Alkamil, he, perhaps, was able to return some of the pilgrims to their homeland.
Crossing the Alps
In those same years, thousands of German children (maybe up to 20 thousand people), led by 10-year-old Nicholas from Cologne, headed to Italy on foot. Nicholas's father was a slave owner, who also used his son for his own selfish purposes. While crossing the Alps, two-thirds of the detachment died from hunger and cold; the remaining children were able to reach Rome, Genoa and Brindisi. The bishop of the last of these cities resolutely opposed the continuation of the march by sea and turned the crowd in the opposite direction.
He and Pope Innocent III freed the crusaders from their vow and sent them home. There is evidence that the pontiff only gave them a reprieve to carry out their plans until they reach adulthood. But on the way home, almost all of them died. According to legend, Nicholas himself survived and even fought at Damietta in Egypt in 1219.
And it could have been so...
There is another version of these events. According to her, French children and adults nevertheless succumbed to the persuasion of Philip Augustus and went home. The German children, under the leadership of Nicholas, reached Mainz, where some were persuaded to return, but the most stubborn continued their journey to Italy. Some of them arrived in Venice, others in Genoa, and a small group was able to reach Rome, some children showed up in Marseille. Be that as it may, most of the children disappeared without a trace.
Children's Crusade in History
These dark events probably formed the basis of the legend of the rat-catcher-flutist who took all the children away from the city of Gammeln (). Some Genoese patrician families even traced their ancestry back to the German children who remained in the city.
The improbability of this kind of event leads historians to believe that the “Children’s Crusade” was actually the name given to the movement of poor people (serfs, farm laborers, day laborers) gathered for the Crusade who had failed in Italy.
