Understanding important historical events is much easier when you know the motivations of those involved. In his book, People of the First Crusade: The Truth About the Christian-Muslim War Revealed, Michael Foss offers a concise history of the First “holy war” and gives an engaging overview of the reasoning behind the First Crusade, and the motivations of the Crusaders who participated. Foss cleverly turns history into an accessible narrative as he explains Christendom’s First Crusade to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim rule. He begins in France, in the year 1095, when Pope Urban II gives a rousing speech, calling to unify Christians and defuse the threat of potential Muslim invasion from the East.
In his speech, Urban II urged military leaders to rise up and form an army to free the Holy Land from Muslim control. The Pope successfully roused pious Christians everywhere and, with the promise of spiritual reward, knights and peasants alike marched towards an uncertain future. Foss describes how the First Crusaders indulged in a series of brutal atrocities, before eventually being scattered by Turkish forces, and how this was likely due to the intense religious fervor driving them.
These Christians conducted total war against Muslims and Jews, showing absolutely no mercy, not even to women and children. Foss ultimately interprets the Crusade as a successful popular uprising and the book concludes with the Crusaders’ eventual capture of the cities of Antioch and Nicaea, and their successful assault on the Holy City of Jerusalem. Michael Foss is an independent historian who has studied and taught history in both England and the United States. He’s the author of more than a dozen historical texts, including The Founding of the Jesuits, The Borgias, and Out of India, which won the J. R. Ackerley prize in 2002.
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Foss was born in India in 1937 and had traveled widely for his education and career, lecturing at several universities, and is currently settled in London to write full-time. In his introduction, Foss states that “the history of [the First] Crusade is as much a study in character as a story of warfare,” which he attempts to prove by focusing on several major figures; including Pope Urban II, Peter the Hermit, and various other Crusaders. Unsurprisingly, some of the most effective passages are those that contain contemporary accounts from both Christians and Muslims who survived the three-year Crusade. These accounts include some very vivid imagery that serves to illustrate how religious ideals were soon overcome by greed and the desire for money and power.
These accounts also suggest that the nobility was responsible for some of the worst savagery, contrary to the common depiction of knights at the time. Foss cleverly uses these accounts to highlight the irony of Crusading, in which religion is used as a primary motivation for warfare, and concludes that “God–Allah–is not best served, if at all, by fighting.” Since common peasants provided most of the army’s strength, the ultimate conquest of the Jerusalem seemed to prove Foss’s idea that “God had given a stamp of approval to the aspirations and achievements of the poor.”
These eyewitness accounts replace the fabrications of history with facts and serve to blur the distinction between good and evil. Foss does well to reveal how the prejudices expressed by Christians and Muslims in the First Crusade influenced religious tolerance and exchanges all the way to 21st-century conflicts around the world. Though it’s not an overly lengthy history, Foss does take the time to discuss several important figures throughout the First Crusade. One of which was Pope Urban II, perhaps the most important figure of the First Crusade, as it was his call the Crusaders were answering. In 1095, Western Europe was struggling; concerned with invasions from both north and south, and by the breakdown of law and order, it’s easy to understand why Urban II used his authority the way he did.
Urban II would have been looking for a way to unify the warring factions of Christian Europe and sending an army of knights and peasants to fight the Turks killed two birds with one stone, as it were. Foss also talks in depth about Peter the Hermit, who led the People’s Crusade, which Foss bundles together with the official Crusade, as they both took place after Pope Urban II’s speech. While Urban II probably envisioned an army of Christian warriors and templars, Peter the Hermit inspired and led non-military mobs of peasants on what became known as the People’s Crusade. These overzealous Christians were ill-prepared for the journey and infamously indulged in a series of brutal atrocities, including the pillaging of many towns and villages as well as violent altercations with the Jewish community.
Another notable figure was Peter Bartholomew, a peasant who claimed to have uncovered the lance that had pierced Jesus’ side. This lance would have been considered a holy relic, an item believed to ensure the ultimate victory of the Crusader; and after three years of intense struggle, faith was the only thing sustaining these Christian soldiers. It’s important to note that People of the First Crusade cannot be considered a scholarly work, as there are no footnotes and no bibliography or works cited included; instead, Foss attempts to provide a succinct popular history for the general reader to digest.
In lieu of footnotes, however, there are several primary sources cited within the text, typically in the form of quoted excerpts taken directly from the primary source document. These excerpts are taken from four contemporary sources and the rest are all unnamed. While People is certainly an accessible historical read, the lack of footnotes is disappointing as there is no way to research individual sources, making cross-referencing a much more difficult task. With so few documented sources, it’s clear that this text was not intended to be used for serious academic study.
It should also be noted that People of the First Crusade was originally published in 1997 and was revised and re-published in 2011. This review is of the 2011 edition, which contains all of the same content from the 1997 edition, not including spelling and grammatical errors which were revised. Upon finishing the book, this reviewer is left with mixed feelings. Foss’s writing style works well and he does a nice job of describing the First Crusade in an accessible way. However, Foss relies a bit too heavily on material from only a few contemporary sources.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but People of the First Crusade can sometimes begin to feel like a compendium of excerpts from various primary sources, rather than its own narrative. When it comes to including primary sources in narrative works, a little goes a long way, and the text would have flowed more smoothly if Foss had presented the first-hand accounts more selectively. Another negative aspect of this particular account would be that Foss does not shy away from making his own opinions and biases apparent. It’s clear that he feels the Crusaders were wrong to march to Jerusalem, even if they were horribly misguided. This may not be an issue for some readers, but scholars and academics may take issue with these biases.
As for his description of the First Crusade itself, Foss gets the brutality of those years across, using first-hand accounts to make the reader really identify with the common Crusader and the everyday hardships that they went through. The great thing about Foss is that he never gets so caught up in the turmoil that he forgets to describe the excitement surrounding the Crusade as well. During the People’s Crusade, in particular, there was great excitement and fanaticism surrounding the prospect of Crusading and Foss includes recollections of how many Germans had ended up joining the People’s Crusade, despite their initial distaste, purely due to the “extraordinary pageantry of an army that marched, under the sign of the cross, in the name of Christ.” Despite the grueling marches and enduring hardships, it’s clear that there was some religious idealism surrounding the Crusades and inspiring zealous Christians to join.
Though somewhat shorter than other Crusade accounts, Foss manages to be thorough in his work, yet highly readable. As a short history of the First Crusade, Foss does an excellent job detailing the political, religious, and economic factors leading to the Crusade and explaining how the First Crusade introduced conflict between Christianity and Islam that still exists today. Though as the title suggests, People of the First Crusade is not so much a history of the First Crusade itself, but more a history of those involved with the Crusade.
