Buoyed by a resurgence in pilgrimage across Europe, the Catholic Church wanted to expand. The Knights Templar got their start—and lots of money—during the Crusades. Over the next two centuries, seven crusades followed in an attempt to retain control in the Holy Land. Muslim retaliation would prove too strong, however, and the last European crusader stronghold would fall to the Mamluks in The most well known Crusades were these large expeditions to the Holy Land, but there were other military missions in Europe that roused the faithful.
But a new group of people willing to fight for God started to emerge, volunteers who were neither mercenaries or warriors. Thirteenth-century chroniclers called them pueri. Meet the mysterious enemies of the crusaders: the Alamut, or "Assassins. Pueri is a Latin term that can mean children generally or boys specifically. Existing sources have scant details, so it is not possible to establish the exact ages of all the pueri. Several sources specifically mention that adult men and women, as well as the elderly, did take part in the events of The term pueri could have been used to re- fer to male adolescents under 15 years old, which was then the legal age to marry.
This definition adds teenagers to the mix. However, the word infantes also appears in the sources describing participants in the crusade: This term does refer unequivocally to children.
A shepherd, Stephen was perhaps as young as 12 in when he rose to lead a popular religious movement. Two centuries later Joan of Arc would also guide France as a teenager. Since Cloyes is in the diocese of Chartres, Stephen may have been to that cathedral city when Pope Innocent III visited to build support for the larger crusading efforts.
Stephen began attracting followers to his self-proclaimed crusade. The king lived in the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Denis, just to the north of the city. The arrival of the shepherd boy and his followers in Paris coincided with the annual Lendit fair, attended by merchants from all over Europe. At this time of year, Paris saw a great influx of pilgrims to the abbey of Saint Denis. Later that year, forces of the Ayyubid sultan, Saladin, took Jerusalem.
Philip II did not lend his support to Stephen or his followers. However, the chronicler of Laon records that the king took the movement seriously enough to consult a learned group of churchmen known as the Paris Masters. His actions suggest the king was fearful of the likelihood that the presence of large numbers of poor, young people might lead to civil unrest.
This queen helped lead a royal crusade to the Holy Land. Interest in Stephen and his followers later aroused more speculative accounts. These include authors such as Matthew Paris, an English Benedictine monk writing more than 20 years after the event. There they are tricked by two merchants, who give them free passage aboard their seven ships. The merchants sell the children to Muslim slavers, who then try to force them to renounce their Christianity.
They had walked over miles in a month. From Piacenza several thousand travelled almost miles more to the port city of Genoa in Italy. Despite their prayers, the sea did not part, and the multitude disbanded. Tales abound that some pueri went by ship to Marseille, while others ended up in Rome. The ones who stayed in Genoa probably found work as a source of cheap labour. More than 50 chroniclers recorded it; some penned a few terse lines, while others devoted pages.
Whether the pueri were children, or peasants, or a mixture of the two, the hostility of some chronicles toward them reflects the fear that piety carried too far by the young or by the poor would lead to a breakdown in authority. As recruitment began in for a new crusade—the fifth, which eventually set out for the Holy Land in —people were urged to follow the example of the children the year before, and offer their lives for Christ.
National Geographic National Geographic. Published 2 Jun , BST. The age of crusades Official papal crusades began in the 11th century. Construction of the Cathedral of Chartres, southwest of Paris, began in the 12th century. Many Europeans were inspired to join the Crusades after hearing sermons in the shadow of this magnificent edifice. Stephen of Cloyes led his followers to Paris in to seek an audience with King Philip II of France, depicted crowned and enthroned on a royal seal.
The great basilica is where for hundreds of years French sovereigns, including Philip II, were laid to rest. Saladin's capture of the True Cross in inspired the Children's Crusade. Engraving from 13th-century Chronicle of Matthew Paris. Nicholas of Cologne believed the Mediterranean would open before him as the Red Sea did for Moses as depicted in a 13th-century miniature from the Bible of St. Not everyone was enthusiastic about these self-proclaimed crusades. Procession of children during their Crusade started by Stephen, a shepherd boy who was persuaded by a priest that he was appointed by heaven to recover the Holy Sepulchre, But though Nicholas and Stephen were labeled fanatics, their mystical mission to the Holy Land intrigued their followers.
They held believers spellbound with sermons, songs and promises of miracles. As Nicholas and his flock headed over the chilly Alps, singing hymns and eagerly awaiting the conversion of the Muslims, they became exhausted and hungry. When they arrived in Genoa, Italy, they faced language barriers and annoyed townspeople who were not eager to play host to a ragged group of religious children.
Things disintegrated from there. While waiting for ships to take them to Jerusalem, some took local jobs. Some returned to their towns.
Others were sold into slavery or drowned at sea. It is historically unprecedented: In , thousands of children in Central Europe joined a crusade. What religious fervour drove them to undertake a journey which for many ended in death? An historical investigation. The "Children's Crusade" is one of the big myths of the Middle Ages. In the year , thousands of children in Central Europe set off for Jerusalem.
Their aim was to "liberate the Holy City from the Saracens", without weapons, "merely with the power of their faith". The undertaking ended in chaos, and those who did not starve to death or die of exhaustion while crossing the Alps were sold to slave ships on arrival in the Mediterranean or died of fever and disease. Very few returned to their home country, let alone arrive in Jerusalem.
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