Recruitment for the First Crusade 1095-1103 from The First Crusaders by J. Riley-Smith
How many people went on Crusade? Who were they and who was in charge of them? Why did they go? What does all this mean for Byzantium?
Period: 1095-6
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The History of Byzantium 
I think Joe went.
🙂
The link doesn’t work for me.
Thanks for alerting me, should be fine now
Robin, now that we are at the Crusades, there is a book I wanted to mention from the 1320’s, “The Catalan Expedition to the East (from the Chronicles of Ramon Muntaner)”. You probably know of it but I wanted to make sure since it is an excellent account of what I think is the last serious attempt by the Romans to reconquer parts of Anatolia around 1300. There is a Byzantine account of the times but I think they must have wanted to paint Roger of Flor in the worst light. Flor was also at the fall of Acre in 1291, so his life story has a nice arc to it.
Thanks so much, we’ll definitely get to it
The pdf it’s available for free at the York University: http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/muntaner_goodenough.pdf
Byzantium only shows up in the second half, but the first deals with the war that led to Aragon becoming a Mediterranean power (thus becoming another faction in the struggles with Genoa, Venice and Byzantium of the time). So certainly worth checking out by the time we reach 1300
The listing of all the motives of the people that went on Crusade is probably the best way I have seen to highlight the scale of the first Crusade. The numbers seem to lose context after a while, but seeing how everyone wanted overlapping and varied things out of it really shows how big it really was.
Thanks,
One of your finest episodes! Your research into the Crusader movement is much appreciated, and shines through in this one. Very excited for a return to the narrative. Thanks!
Thank you both for the kind words. I certainly found this one of the most interesting parts of the story
One wonders what would have happened if the Byzantines had been swept along by the same fervor? Is this not how the Moslem conquest is described to begin with?
Thanks so much for the kind words 🙂
Also, I feel that after Basil II, you have dreaded the bleak centuries ahead. And clung to the days of glory. But you do such fantastic podcast, your descriptions, you empathy with yesterdays people, your ability to go there. And then share it with us. It is unparalleled.
Meaning, a big thank you for your work.
It is clear to me, that you will bring a golden pen, wherever you go.
Even if you would choose to keep it in your pocket in the future, we all know it is there. In your pocket. Same gold. Same pen.