Why did people go on Crusade?

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  • Why did people go on Crusade?
    • Primary Source
      • Ekkehard of Aura: '... easy to persuade the Western Franks to leave their farms, for Gaul had been afflicted for some years by civil war, famine, and an excessive death-rate
    • Colonisation
      • In Western society, population growth meant problems of inheritance
        • Primogeniture was adopted in Northern France
        • However, Raymond of Toulouse and Godfrey of Bouillon already had power
        • Successive bad harvest before 1096
        • Christian infighting in the West
        • Robert Guiscard was of a family of 12 sons
          • + Baldwin of Boulogne in Edessa, Bohemond of Taranto, and Tancred de Hauteville
    • Material Gain
      • Anna Comnena suggests in her text that greed of the nobles was rife, whereas the people were motivated by religion
        • Cost of crusading was enormous: knights had to raise 3-4x their annual income
          • To raise funds, they had to sell freehold land or gained help from their families
            • Was a dangerous undertaking
              • Very few crusaders actually remained in the Holy Land
          • Raised money through: Mortgaging and selling land, taxing tenants, points to families taking on burden to help individual fulfill their vows
            • Therefore disposed of assets were very unlikely due to agricultural depression of the time
    • Religious Zeal
      • Possibility of remission of sins was a main driving force, indicated by the response to Urban's preaching
        • Crusader army asked to move onto Jerusalem at the siege of Antioch Winter 1097-98
          • Barefoot penitential march around Jerusalem
            • Godfrey of Bouillon adopted the title 'Defender of the Holy Sepulchre' instead of King after capture of Jerusalem 1099

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