The History of the Church through 100 Masterpieces

Pseudo Crusades

The History of the Church 120 Pseudo Crusades There were cases of spontaneous mobilization of the populace in the Middle Ages that have been referred to as crusades. Sparked by popular fervor for the retaking of the Holy Land, they were, more properly speaking, anarchical phenomena that were doomed to fail from the outset. Already in the First Crusade, the impatience of the populace, which prompted them to depart without waiting for the leadership of the knights, resulted in a massacre. In 1212, in another popular movement —dubbed the Children’s Crusade because of the youthfulness of many of the participants—thousands of French and German peasants launched upon the roads. The mass of people dispersed along the way, but hundreds of so-called crusaders still reached the ports of Provence, where they were taken aboard ship by unscrupulous merchants . . . to be sold as slaves on the opposite side of the Mediterranean. In 1250, news of the captivity of Saint Louis triggered another mobilization of the people. This was the Shepherds’ Crusade, its participants responding to the appeals of a mysterious Master of Hungary. Queen Blanche of Castile, who was regent during the absence of her son, had to suppress this uncontrollable movement, which mostly went about pillaging wherever it passed. In 1320, there was again mention of “shepherd crusaders,” but this was less a religious movement than a rampaging mob that left numerous pogroms in its wake. French Illumination, (Chronicles of France, ca. 1375–1380) The Shepherds Burn the Tower of Verdun-surGaronne where Five Hundred Jews Had Found Refuge British Library, London ...