Gone Medieval – The First Crusade: The Road to Jerusalem

Podcast: Gone Medieval (History Hit)
Host: Dr. Eleanor Janega
Guests: Matt Lewis (co-host), Dr. Tom Smith (historian)
Date: March 3, 2026

Overview

This episode marks the launch of a special series exploring "The Tumultuous Story of the Crusades," beginning with the First Crusade and the dramatic events leading to the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. Host Dr. Eleanor Janega, co-host Matt Lewis, and expert guest Dr. Tom Smith dive deep into the roots, motivations, strategies, and consequences of this epoch-defining "holy war"—from the pivotal Council of Clermont (1095) to the slaughter and political legacy in the Holy Land. Buckle up for passionate discussion, memorable anecdotes, and sharp analysis, all delivered in the podcast’s characteristically witty, irreverent, but rigorously informed style.

Main Discussion Themes & Key Insights

1. Defining a Crusade & Its Context in 1095

• What is a Crusade?

  • Papally-sanctioned campaigns, predominantly focused on regaining the Holy Land from Muslim control, though later included campaigns in Europe (e.g., Albigensian, Baltic).
  • Quote:
    "When we talk about Crusades, we're probably most likely talking about papal sanctioned attacks...generally for a religious purpose. So the classic being, let's go to the Holy Land and retake Jerusalem." – Matt Lewis [07:59]

• Why Did the First Crusade Happen?

  • Byzantine Emperor Alexios I, facing the expansionist Seljuk Turks, appeals to the Pope for military aid.
  • Motivations mixed: Defense of fellow Christians, desire to reclaim pilgrimage routes/sites, and assertion of Church authority.

2. Interplay Between Papal Ambition & Byzantine Realpolitik

• Urban II’s Strategy

  • Pope Urban II seizes Alexios' plea as an opportunity:
    • To centralize and demonstrate papal power.
    • To position the Church as a pan-European secular and religious authority.
  • Investiture controversy and recent papal interventions in wars are critical backdrops.
  • Quote:
    "This is Urban saying, do you know what? We could be almost like a superpower state." – Matt Lewis [14:39]

• Mismatch of Aims

  • Alexios seeks limited military support to regain lost lands, but Urban’s rhetoric inflames broader ambitions of reclaiming Jerusalem—and more.

• Charismatic Preaching & Mass Zeal

  • Urban’s speeches (e.g., Council of Clermont) are undeniably effective, whether or not the famous “Deus vult” shouts literally happened.
  • Quote:
    "You must hasten to carry aid to your brethren in the East...set out on the road to the Holy Sepulchre. Deliver that land from a wicked race and obtain remission of your sins." – (reconstructed Papal speech) [04:19]

3. The Perfect Storm: Social, Economic, and Religious Forces

• Bottom-Up and Top-Down Dynamics

  • Ordinary people (even peasants, women, children) as much as nobles responded to the call—sometimes for spiritual reasons, sometimes to escape feudal restrictions or for adventure.
  • Quote:
    "Even the most ordinary farmer can pick up and move east...there is a religious mandate, right. So even the most ordinary farmer can pick up and move east. Which is again, maybe not what Alexios and Urban had in mind." – Dr. Janega [18:30]

• Economic & Demographic Factors

  • The Medieval Warm Period: population growth, primogeniture leaving “spare sons” landless, the Norman tradition of conquest.
  • Quote:
    "We have too many Normans, too Normans, too furious." – Dr. Janega [29:26]

• Church’s Gradual Embrace of Holy War

  • Shift from “war is sinful” to the concept of ‘just war’ and holy war, with papal authorization as key.

4. Popular vs. Official Crusading – The People’s Crusade

• Peter the Hermit and Early Movements
  • Charismatic lay preachers like Peter the Hermit gather huge, loosely organized “people’s” armies who leave before official timelines (summer 1096).
  • Quote:
    "Peter the Hermit...is a very influential and charismatic unofficial preacher...They leave too early for a start...not as well planned out and prepared as the Prince's Crusade." – Dr. Tom Smith [45:38]
  • The People’s Crusade’s catastrophic journey: atrocities against Jews in the Rhineland, disobedience to papal directives, and military annihilation in Asia Minor.

5. The Prince’s Crusade: Organization & Leadership

• Key Leaders

  • No kings, but high-ranking counts and dukes: Raymond of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond of Taranto, and others.
  • Papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy provides spiritual leadership.

• Coordination & Oaths

  • Variably coordinated departure from Western Europe converging at Constantinople; required to swear oaths of fealty to Alexios I (with widespread mistrust).

6. First Victories and Siege Warfare

• Early Battles

  • Siege of Nicaea (May–June 1097):
    • Collaboration with Byzantine forces essential to victory.
    • Crusaders frustrated at being denied customary plunder.
  • Battle of Dorylaeum (July 1097):
    • Frankish heavy cavalry vs. Seljuk hit-and-run tactics; the Crusaders’ discipline and luck win the day.

• The Disunity of the Muslim World

  • Major “Goldilocks conditions”: Sunni-Shia rivalries, death of major leaders, and regional fragmentation. The Crusade succeeds largely due to this power vacuum and lack of coordinated Muslim resistance.
  • Quote:
    "The Crusaders have this Goldilocks set of conditions...the Muslim world is massively disunited when the first Crusader arrives in the Near East." – Dr. Tom Smith [66:15]
  • Refutes the common idea of the Crusade as a “clash of civilizations”—alliances crossed confessional lines.

7. The Ordeal of Antioch—Famine and Faith

• Epic Nine-Month Siege
  • Suffering and starvation through a freezing Syrian winter; high rates of desertion.
  • Discovery of the Holy Lance: Mix of mystical hope and skeptical pragmatism; used to rally troops before a pivotal, desperate breakout.
  • Quote:
    "They dig and dig, and then, fortunately, they do actually find this. His vision comes true...this to be the very Lance of Longinus that pierced Christ's side from the crucifixion." – Dr. Tom Smith [73:34]
  • After capture, the Crusaders themselves are besieged inside Antioch until a desperate cavalry charge turns the tide.

8. Side Quests and Political States

• Capture of Edessa
  • Baldwin’s opportunistic founding of the first Crusader state signals ambitions beyond purely spiritual aims.
  • Quote:
    "They're side questing hard, some of these guys, and they want. Some of them really want territory." – Dr. Tom Smith [80:03]

9. Siege and Sack of Jerusalem (July 1099)

• Final Push

  • Army shrunk to about 20,000 battle-hardened survivors.
  • Critical shortage of wood for siege engines; manage to improvise just enough for the final assault.

• Massacre and Aftermath

  • Slaughter of defenders and civilians upon breaching the city; contemporary norms called for killing if a city resisted a siege.

  • Modern scholarship debates the true scale of slaughter but agrees it was horrific.

  • Quote:
    "The Crusaders begin to massacre the population...what's really interesting is...they don't kill absolutely everybody within the city...no denying, though, that the slaughter is on a large scale and is absolutely horrific." – Dr. Tom Smith [86:38]

  • The sight of blood-drenched Crusaders praying in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: “violence and religious devotion...two sides of the same coin.”

10. Consequences and Legacy

• Birth of the Crusader States

  • Creation of “crusader states” or “Outremer” (Jerusalem, Antioch, Edessa, Tripoli) in the Levant, initially unstable and susceptible to renewed Muslim resistance.
  • Leadership disputes, with Godfrey of Bouillon declining the title of “king” but acting as de facto ruler until succeeded by Baldwin.

• Longer-Term Outcomes

  • The First Crusade becomes the archetype for future crusading and shapes relations between East and West, Christian and Muslim, for centuries.
  • Quote:
    "They're really viable political units in the region...and as the Muslim powers of the region begin to realize what is going on, they start to rally behind the idea of jihad and...pushing them back into the sea. But that's a very long process." – Dr. Tom Smith [88:22]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the “sequel syndrome” of later crusades:
  "We're so close to getting like film cycles of sequels here, aren't we? The first is always the best..." – Matt Lewis [09:21]

• On personal motivations:
  "Nobody is writing my diary of the Crusades and why I did it. But I think we have to allow that there is this whole sliding scale of individual motivations..." – Matt Lewis [34:58]

• On the First Crusade’s unlikely success:
  "The First Crusade is such a ridiculous thing. It should never have succeeded. This is crazy." – Dr. Tom Smith [66:15]

• On the People’s Crusade and its legacy:
  "This is strictly forbidden by the Church...the People's Crusade is quite a big force, and really the church hierarchy struggles to control it at all." – Dr. Tom Smith [45:38]

• On Anna Komnena’s reaction to the Crusaders:
  "She thinks that this is a—the great unwashed basically have turned up on their doorstep and they don't have any manners and they don't understand the Byzantine civilization." – Dr. Tom Smith [49:11]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Council of Clermont & Papal Call: [04:19–05:50]
• What Is a Crusade? / Series Scope: [07:54–09:53]
• Investiture Crisis, Papal Power: [14:39–15:09]
• The People’s Crusade, Rhineland Atrocities: [45:38–48:50]
• Arrival in Constantinople & Anna Komnena: [49:11–51:40]
• Organisation & Leaders of Prince’s Crusade: [51:57–54:51]
• Siege of Nicaea & Dorylaeum: [58:06–62:00]
• Demographics & Motivations (Norman “side quest”): [29:26–31:21, 80:03–82:44]
• Siege of Antioch & the Holy Lance: [69:40–77:45]
• Siege of Jerusalem and Aftermath: [84:09–88:03]
• Consequences, Crusader States, and Legacy: [88:22–90:51]

In Summary

The First Crusade was the result of decades of religious, political, social, and climatic developments. Intended as an answer to Byzantine calls for help, it became a mass movement that the Pope could not fully control. The Crusade’s astonishing military success was as much about lucky timing in the Muslim world as it was about faith and martial zeal. The brutal conquest and settlement of Jerusalem marked both a spiritual and violent climax—and set the precedent for centuries of crusading, bloodshed, and contest in the Middle East.

Next Episode Preview:
Matt Lewis continues the story with Dr. Natasha Hodgson, looking at the aftermath, consolidation, and the continuing story of crusader-Muslim relations.

Guest Book Mention:
Dr. Tom Smith’s book: “Rewriting the First: Epistolatory Culture in the Middle Ages.”

Host Sign-off:
"If you loved what Tom had to say...check out his previous appearance on Gone Medieval about rewriting the history of the First Crusade or his book..." – Dr. Janega [91:04]