Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Why did Knights and Nobles
Participate in the First Crusade
- Religious
reasons
- The lure of Jerusalem and the Holy
Places especially the Holy Sepulchre
- The Crusade seen as a Prilgrimage
- The importance of taking the Crusader Vow
- Robert of Normandy a good example og a pious noble, as an elder son he stood to loose his
inheritance by going on the Crusade
- They were entiled to
privelleged and
pilgrims; they did not
have to pay debts until
they returned
- Indulgence (granted as a favour/ privilege) and the
promise of remission of sins
- The Crusade as a penitential act (Riley Smith's view)
- The fear of apocalypse inspired by the fear
of judgement day and the desire for
salvation
- Social feudal & familial obligation
- They followed their overlord on the Crusade
(feudal Obligation)
- Often followed family
- (Eustace and Baldwin of Bouylion followed their
brother Godfrey
- Or values of Status, knightly ethos and
duty expressed in the Chasons De Geste (poems, stories of bravery)
- A resolution to their knightly dilemma
- Economic reasons
- The East was painted as a 'land of milk and honey'
- Scott suggests some knights like Bohemond and
Baldwin had the chance to carve out new lands (as
younger landless sons)
- This reason is largely dispelled since most knights
and nobles have secure wealth e.g Stephen of Blois
had secure kingship
- Some people knew that if they killed a Musilm
they would be allowed to take all his belongings
- Conclusion
- "It would be foolish to think they went for religious
purposes alone." (Phillips)
- However religious/ spiritual motivation is common to all who participated in the First Crusade