First Crusade - Page 7 of 21

Xerigordon

The crusaders behaved badly in Byzantine territory, had little money, and were embarassing and unwelcome guests. Alexius got rid of them as quickly as he could, having them ferried across the Bosporus in August 1096.

There the army was delayed while Peter the Hermit tried to gain Byzantine backing for a march on Jerusalem, but that hope was vain. In October 1096 a French force won booty on a raid. A German contingent tried to imitate their success and became trapped in a stronghold at Xerigordon without water. When the main army tried to help them, it marched into a well-prepared Turkish ambush.

Most were killed. Many more were enslaved, and only a handful (about 3,000 out of a force of 20,000) managed to escape. Peter, still in Constantinople, learned that his great armed pilgrimage of God's poor was over and that he was without an army.

That was the end of the so-called People's Crusade. The real crusader army had not yet arrived.

History of Western Civilization

Boise State University
Last Revised 1 August 1996