Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

In November 10 95, a grand meeting was held in the town of Clermont in France.

Around the room were gathered the most important figures in the Catholic church.

Bishops and archbishops, deacons, and cardinals.

They were joined by some of your leading nobles and their attention was on the man giving the sermon.

This man told them of wicked crimes being committed against Christians in the Holy land.

He reminded them of their duty to protect their faith.

And he finished with a call to arms to take back the Holy land and take their rightful place at God's side in heaven.

Around the room, a cry went up, "Deus Vult", God wills it.

The first Crusade was about to begin.

Hi everyone.

Welcome back to our work on The Crusades with me.

My name is Mr. Wallace.

If you're with us for the first lesson, then you'll be familiar with me already.

This is lesson two in the unit on why did Europeans join The Crusades? So last lesson, we began to look through some of the background.

And as you just heard today we're going to really get into the events that sparked The First Crusade.

What led to all of these thousands of soldiers leaving Europe in 10 95 to go and fight? And we'll come back to this great meeting that I just talked through towards the end of this lesson.

Now, before we move on, you'll want to make sure that you've got what you need to get started.

So make sure you've got a pen, make sure you've got something to write on such as paper or a book and try and make sure that you've got a hassle free environment.

That you put the phone away, that you're in a quiet room.

If you can, try and make sure that you won't be interrupted as we go through.

Once we're ready, we can get started.

Ready to go.

Perfect.

Hi everyone.

I'm over here now.

Before we move on, I'm just going to quickly ask you a couple of questions just to make sure you know, everything you should know before we start.

This will go over some of the information from last lesson and just make sure you're aware of some of the key details.

Now on the screen, you can see a map of Southern Europe and that includes three important cities, which came up in our first lesson.

Constantinople, Manzikert and Jerusalem.

And you can see a question at the top.

Now I want you to take a moment.

Think about this and then either say it out loud or point to it on your screen.

Which one of these Constantinople, Manzikert or Jerusalem, which one of these was Holy to both Christians and Muslims? We're going to give you five, four, three, two, and one.

And the answer is? Absolutely right.

You know, it's Jerusalem.

This isn't the only question I'm going to quickly check on though.

Let's go to the next one.

Which was the largest Christian city in the world? Now was that Constantinople, Manzikert or Jerusalem? You've got five, four, three, two, one.

The largest Christian city in the world? Constantinople.

I know you've got it right.

Well done, next one.

In what city did Christians believe Jesus was crucified? I'm sure you know this one.

We talked about it last lesson.

Got five, four, three, two, one.

It's Jerusalem, absolutely right, well done.

What city did the Seljuq's get closer and closer to during the 11th century? Something that's going to come up again in a moment.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Constantinople.

Absolutely right.

That's the city that felt threatened by the Seljuq Turks.

And the last question, where did the Seljuk Turks defeat The Byzantine empire? Was that Constantinople, Manzikert or Jerusalem? Five, four, three, two, one.

Absolutely right.

You know, it's right.

Manzikert, as you can see here, was on the edge of the Byzantine land.

But it's after the defeat here that they were able to get closer and closer to Constantinople and take this area, which we now refer to as Turkey after the Seljuq Turks.

So that's hopefully should bring a couple of the key details back to your mind.

And that's always a good way to start.

Just make sure that your brain is refreshed.

Now, the story so far.

Last lesson, we looked at the battle of Manzikert.

And as I just said, after that battle, they were able to expand into that area, keep expanding and threatened the city of Constantinople.

They began to ask for help and they're worried.

And we have the Crusades beginning at the end of this sequence.

And we'll get to that by the end of this lesson.

But then there's this, you know, question marks.

What led, what was the connecting point? What connected the Seljuq's expanding and the crusade is beginning? There is an event there's a spark.

There's something which leads to everything beginning.

That's the focus of our lesson today.

Okay, we're going to fill in that gap.

Now in front of you, I'm just going to move myself a little bit on the screen there.

Move myself over here for a moment.

You can see here the Byzantine empire before the Battle of Manzikert.

Okay, you can see how large it was early in the 11th century.

You can see that it has the Southern part of what is modern day Italy.

You can see it's got what we now call Greece.

The main capital city here and all of this area here, which back then they refer to as Anatolia.

Nowadays, we know as Turkey after the Seljuq Turks.

But look at this comparison here.

Just think what happens after the battle of Manzikert.

They're already being pushed back for a lot of the 11th century.

You can see it's not just here, you also lose land over in Southern Italy and in parts of Europe.

Just look at this comparison.

But in Europe, no one's really threatening the capital city.

But if you look at this area here, see how much land they lose.

Manzikert, which is about here on your map, all of a sudden this whole area is settled by the Seljuq Turks And the Byzantine empire, not surprisingly, are beginning to get worried that the Turks are out their doorstep.

They take cities and towns.

They're are incredibly close to Constantinople.

Places like Nicaea.

They're just a matter of a few dozen kilometres from the biggest Christian city in the world.

And constantly being pushed back on their heels.

They're constantly being forced backwards.

And they begin to get concerned enough that they ask the rest of Europe.

They're asking this part of the Christian world.

Western Europe, Catholic Europe, to come to their aid.

Now, let's move myself again.

Let's put myself back where I should be, over here.

These two figures are the two people that are most going to impact today's lesson.

And it's the relationship between the two of them, which really starts this First Crusade.

So on the left hand side of your screen, you can see a picture of Emperor Alexios the first.

That's the emperor of the Byzantine empire.

Okay, he is the person who rules over this whole empire from the capital city of Constantinople.

He is one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe at this point.

On the right you can see Pope Urban the second.

Now Urban is not a monarch, not like Alexios is, but he is the head of the Catholic church.

And Western Europe is majority Catholic Christian.

So he has a huge amount of influence over various people, over monarchs, over nobles and so on.

And when he speaks, he is a representative of God on earth.

When he speaks, people feel like he is representing the wishes of God.

So he has a huge amount of power.

And these two men, these have quite similar interests.

They have certain things in common.

So for example, Alexios, one of his goals is he wants a strong empire.

He's been Byzantine emperor for not that long.

And throughout the 11th century, the empire, as you saw from those maps, has been shrinking.

It's been getting smaller.

He wants to reverse that.

Begin to expand again, begin to push back against the Turks and others.

The Pope, he wants a strong church.

He wants to make sure that the Catholic church is able to increase its reach, that it gets more followers, that it has power over monarchs and nobles.

He wants to make the church as strong as possible.

Alexios has rivals.

the Byzantine Empire is a complicated place and there's always family members who want to compete with him and he's had to really struggle and be smart and intelligent to get his place on the throne and keep it.

So he's got rivals who threatened to undermine him.

He's got to be a smart, careful person Pope, he also has rivals.

In Europe there are certain monarchs in Europe who don't think you should be Pope and they support a different candidate.

So he has to be smart and intelligent in his dealings with European monarchs to make sure he stays in power.

And Alexios is a Christian, an Orthodox Christian.

So his Christianity is a little bit different from the Pope's, who is a Catholic Christian.

Now they're on the same side.

Ultimately they both believe in Christianity.

They both believe in the stories of Jesus and they are committed Christians, which is why they work in such a good partnership here.

But they don't follow exactly the same sort of Christianity.

But at this point, that doesn't really matter.

They are Christians.

So they see each other as, as allies.

And when Alexios feels threatened by the Byzantine Empire it's to Pope Urban that he calls.

That's an awkward name because my home help thing just went off.

When he feels threatened by the Seljuq Turks it's to Catholic Europe and to Urban the second that he asks for help.

Now Urban has a particular feeling about Europe at this time.

Europe is growing more and more confident in its place in the world.

It's fighting back against various Muslim lands.

So for example, in Spain, which was almost entirely taken over by Islamic forces, Christians are beginning to push back.

And down here in Sicily, you also had Norman soldiers taking the Island from Muslims there as well.

So there is a certain strength in Europe at this time and a confidence that they can take on some of these empires and get the better of them.

And in particular, Urban is thinking about the powerful knights of Europe.

These warriors.

Now, if you've studied William The Conqueror and the battle of Hastings, you know what I'm talking about here.

These knights on horseback, professional soldiers, but some of them are concerned that maybe they've committed some problems in their past.

They'd been involved in a lot of violent actions, conflicts, wars, and so on.

And he's going to appeal to those people thinking you're the professional soldiers, you're the ones who can most stand up for Christianity.

And he's going to be able to offer them something that might calm them and stop them worrying about the bad things that they've done in the past.

So he's got a plan in mind, you know, he wants to help Alexios.

He wants to try and make sure that Christianity is protected.

And he's also thinking beyond that.

He's thinking as well as protecting Constantinople, what else can we do to make the church stronger, to make it more powerful and to increase his own position in the church.

Now, this is where we get to the council of Clermont in France.

This was a church council, which is why it had all those bishops and archbishops, but it wasn't just church figures that were there.

There were many nobles there as well.

And it was here that he decided to respond to Alexios's call for help.

When he requested some soldiers to protect Constantinople, Urban offered his response at this meeting.

Now, before we get into that, I just want you to answer a couple of questions.

Let's just take my camera away from this.

So, first of all, just to make sure we really know who we're talking about here.

Who was the Pope and the leader of the Catholic church? There's only two options here.

The two people we've just been talking about.

Is that Urban the second, or is that Alexios the first? Okay, I'm going to give you five seconds.

Who was the Pope and the leader of the church? Five, four, three, two, one.

Say it out loud or point at the screen.

Absolutely right.

It's Urban the second, you know it.

Now Alexios the first, who wasn't the Pope.

He was an emperor.

But the emperor of who? Was he the emperor of Catholics? The emperor of the Byzantines? Or the emperor of Seljuqs? Five, four, three, two, one.

There we go.

You know it's right.

The Byzantine empire.

The one that's the big Christian empire.

Now what city was under threat by the Seljuq, which is causing him to ask for help? Was that Rome? Was that Jerusalem? Or was that Constantinople? Going to give you five seconds again? Five, four, three, two, one.

There we go, Constantinople.

You're absolutely right.

The biggest Christian city around.

Now, you've got the background in your head now.

You should know who the two people are, a Pope and an emperor and an emperor is asking the Pope for help.

Now, at this point, I want you to pause the video in a moment, move forward in the lesson and read through what was happening at the council of Clermont.

What did the Pope say? What did he ask for? What was the response of the people there? And I want you to answer these five questions.

Okay, once you've done that, I want you to, and come back to the video and we'll go through the answers.

And we're going to add in a little bit more.

We're going to look at the exact words that the Pope spoke.

And look at how was he able to be so persuasive.

So at this point, pause the video, pause the video.

Move forward in the lesson, complete that task.

And when you're done, come back and we'll quickly check through the answers okay? Off you go.

Okay, perfect.

If you're back, then I'm going to assume that means you've paused and you've done the work.

So let's go and have a look through some of these answers then.

So what did Pope Urban the second see himself as? Now the straightforward, acceptable answer, and this is the same as you know, our last video, our last lesson, where we do an acceptable answer and a good answer.

So the acceptable answer is right.

It's just it's not that detailed.

It's maybe not in a full sentence.

So he saw himself as the leader of Christians.

But a good answer, one that is properly written out, would say something along the lines of, Pope Urban the second saw himself as the leader of all Christians though he was the head of the Catholic church and not all Christians followed this form of Christianity.

So whilst we know that not all Christians are the same.

We know that Alexios is not a Catholic, he's Orthodox Christian.

The Pope saw himself as the leader of all Christians.

So that means he feels like he needs to protect all Christians.

Who attended the council of Clermont? Now a straightforward acceptable answer would say important church figures they attended, but a better answer would have something along the lines of the council of Clermont was attended by important figures in the church.

It was also attended by many important knights and nobles from across Europe.

So it wasn't just church figures, but the nobility, those powerful landowners who controlled and had access to many knights, they were also there.

Because it's those people that the Pope was trying to persuade to do something about the situation in the Holy land.

Right, question three, apart from Constantinople, where else did Urban the second urge Christians to fight and take back? Now the acceptable answer here is your Jerusalem.

Straightforward and accurate.

But a good answer would include a bit more detail along the lines of, Urban the second urged the knights and nobles to also take back Jerusalem and the Holy land.

This has been under Muslim control for hundreds of years and was a sacred place for Christians because it is where they believe Jesus was crucified.

So what the Pope is doing here is giving the emperor even more than he really asked for.

The Byzantines ask for soldiers to protect Constantinople.

But the Pope wants to go beyond that.

He wants to increase his power and increase the reach of the Catholic church.

So as well as going and protecting Constantinople, he's encouraging them to take back lands such as Jerusalem and making the Christian world even bigger.

Now, question four.

What most worried the knights and nobles of Europe? The acceptable answer here, is going to hell.

But there's, we need a bit more detailed, really.

So many knights and nobles we're worried that the sins they had committed would send them to hell once they died.

This is because many of them have fought in wars across Europe, which have been, which would have been violent and bloody events.

So because of the deep things that they've been through, the things that they've done, the battle that they fought.

Many knights and nobles know that they've committed sins.

So these bad actions that would have them punished by God and hell, eternal damnation in hell terrified them.

And that was something the Pope could use to, to his advantage.

That was something that he could pick out and say, well, actually we can do something about that.

So what did Urban, the second promise to those who went on Crusade? He promised, and an acceptable answer here, is that their sins would be forgiven.

Let's add some more detail though.

A good answer would say something like, Urban the second promised that anyone who went on the crusade would have their sins forgiven.

This meant they would not have to worry about any sins from their past stopping them from going to heaven.

And instead they could do what they were trained to do, which was a fight.

And instead they would fight for God and be rewarded for this.

So they're not just fighting for themselves or their own law.

They're not just doing something for their own self-interest.

They would fight for God.

They would do what they were trained to do what they were good at, but there'll be rewarded with, for doing this, with a place in heaven.

So all of those European warriors, those knights, suddenly had a real reason to take part in this Crusade, beyond the normal reason of wanting to protect Christians.

This would, this would help them in a really meaningful way.

Now, you can see a picture here of Urban the second preaching, this Crusade.

It wasn't just at this meeting that you had it.

You can only speak to a certain number of people in one place.

He went all around parts of Europe, around Italy, around France.

Making sure people were aware of what it was that was expected of them.

Trying to make sure that they were aware of what rewards could be had of the potential of going to heaven of pleasing God and what was really happening or what he believed was happening in the Holy land to Christians and why they needed to be protected.

So he went all over Europe doing this.

So what did urban actually say? We've got the gist of it.

We know that he offered them a, say a route to heaven and a way to atone, to work back some of their sins.

But what were the words he actually used? We're quite lucky here okay.

There are various people who claim to have been present at the time.

Who wrote down what Urban said.

And we can see what he, the ways that he actually persuaded many European knights and nobles to go on this crusade.

So what did he say? Well, he said this, and as you can see that that's quite a lot.

So we're not going to read the whole thing.

Let's go to this short section, which really does sum it up.

And this is from someone called Robert the Monk, who claimed to be there, though he wrote this many years afterwards.

Now I'm just going to quickly read through this.

Some bits of it are a little bit tricky.

So I'll explain them as we go along.

And as you go through, you should be able to get a sense of how he was able to convince people.

So, "Let the deeds of your ancestors move you and inspire your minds to manly achievements.

Let the Holy Sepulchre of the Lord our Saviour especially inspire you, and the Holy places, which are polluted with their filthiness." Now, when he says this, the Holy Sepulchre of the Lord our Saviour, what he's getting at is the place where Jesus was crucified.

So let that place inspire you.

And the Holy places are polluted with their filthiness.

So these places, which are so important in the Christian world, he's saying are polluted because it's not Christians who are there, but it's people that they would consider going against God because they have a different religion.

"Therefore, let hatred among you end.

Enter among the, enter upon the road to Jerusalem, take that land from the wicked race.

That land, which as the scripture says," and by scripture, they mean the Bible, "that land, which as the scripture says flows with milk and honey was given by God, that land is fruitful above all others like another paradise of delights." So when he uses this phrase, that's a biblical phrase, it's from the Bible.

And what it really means is it's a place that's rich in crops and food and comfort.

It's a very comfortable place to live.

Somewhere that flows with milk and honey is, you would imagine something luxurious.

And then he talks about being fruitful and a paradise of delights.

So it appeals to people who want, you know, if they're coming from a place in Europe where life is tough.

Where they might not have much, that they can go to this place, which is a land that flows with milk and honey.

Another way that they can persuade people, this is worth your while.

But then the big one comes at the end, "Undertake this journey for the forgiveness of your sins and the assurance of the everlasting glory of the kingdom of heaven." You can see this bit here.

A promise to go to heaven.

That their sins would be forgiven, okay.

It's not just this, but this is one of the key reasons that so many went on to this Crusade.

So how does this actually work then? Let's try and break this down a little bit.

And I've given you an answer here.

How did Urban the second persuade Europeans to crusade? This is a model paragraph.

I've used the ones that are in this kind of like green colour.

So the bit about milk and honey here, and the place is rich with crops and food and comforts.

So my answer is based on that one there, okay? Just listen to me as I read it through.

Urban the second persuaded European knights and nobles to go on a Crusade by reminding them that the land was valuable and wealthy.

According to Robert the Monk, Urban the second said that the land flows with milk and honey, which is a quote from the Bible.

This meant that it was land where lots of crops and food could be obtained.

It also suggested to them that Jerusalem was rich and wealthy.

This persuaded some Europeans to go on the Crusade because they were motivated by being able to take this land and by becoming wealthy and comfortable.

So this quick paragraph gets into one of the reasons that some Europeans would have gone and fought in the Holy land.

That they want to go to a land that flows milk and honey.

There's a specific quote from what Urban said.

That's then explained and how that would motivate the soldiers follows on, okay? To finish this lesson, I want you to do one of these.

But I want you to do it based on the purple bar.

So if we go back, you can see the purple bar part is about the sins, the forgiveness of sins.

So how did that persuade them to go and fight? So I've given you a structure here.

And again, in a moment, I'm going to ask you to pause, go back to the worksheet.

There is these slides and this structure will all be there for you.

Go back to that structure.

You've got these sentence starters and fill them in, but your answer will be along the lines of the forgiveness of sins, the purple section of that quote.

Okay, that quote will be there for you as well.

So you don't need to go back in the video here.

that there'll be there waiting for you okay? So use these three sentence starters.

What's the reason they're going? What's the evidence for that? You know, what did Robert the Monks say? And why is that persuading soldiers to go and fight? Okay? You can use this one as a model? If you want to quickly rewind the video, you can see what I've written as a model, but I want you to write your own based on the purple part.

Okay? At this point, pause the video, go and write your own paragraph.

Use those sentence starters, if you want.

You don't have to.

You can, by all means, if you want to go on your own and do your own paragraph that's fine.

But those sentence starters will really help you.

When you're done, come back and we'll compare it to one that I've got here okay? Let's go.

Alright, perfect.

Welcome back.

I'm assuming you've gone and done your paragraph.

So let's check how your one compares to the one that I've got here.

So this one, as you can see, is purple and is based around the purple section on that quote.

Urban the second persuaded European knights and nobles to go on a Crusade by promising to forgive their sins, if they went and fought for God.

So there's our reason, there's the first bit.

But what's our evidence? According to the monk, sorry, according to Robert the Monk, Urban the second said there would be the forgiveness of sins and that the knights would go to heaven if they went on the Crusade.

So here's our evidence.

Okay? How did that persuade people? The last bit, this persuaded some Europeans to go on the Crusade because many were worried about the sins they had committed in the past.

Many had fought and bloody battles and committed many crimes, but now they could fight for God and be rewarded with it by a place in heaven.

This was a huge comfort to many knights.

Now yours might look a little bit different to this.

Yours might have your own phrasing and your own explanation.

That's great, that's fine.

But as long as you're making roughly the same points.

That they wanted to have their sins forgiven.

They were worried about what happened to them in the past.

We are on exactly the right track.

Okay? Now you can see here then, this flow chart, this little diagram.

It's not a flow chart, it's a diagram helps explain how the first big Crusade began.

Now, I've already given you one reason there.

How did the first Crusade begin? Well, it began because the Byzantine emperor asked for help.

Alexios the first asked for help.

Can you come up with two more reasons.

Okay, I want you to pause here.

Very briefly.

Let's get all of what we've gone through today, out of our heads into this diagram.

If you can come up with more than two reasons, that's fantastic.

But can you come up with two more reasons, apart from the emperor asking for help for why the crusade began? Okay? Pause the video, just for a moment.

And then we'll come back and see what you've got.

Pause.

Okay.

So you should have a, another couple of reasons.

And you've written this diagram down in your own books or on your own sheet of paper.

So what other reasons could you have? Well, I've gone for these two.

The Pope promises the forgiveness of sins okay? That led to the first Crusade beginning because that encouraged so many to go and fight.

But the first Crusade also began because the plans got bigger.

It wasn't just about protecting Jerusalem, but it was in fact about taking a, sorry, protecting Constantinople.

But in fact, it became about taking Jerusalem.

Now he may, might not have persuaded as many to go if it was only about protecting one city that was already in their hands, but taking back the holiest city in the Christian world, the place where Jesus was crucified.

That encouraged many more people to go as well.

So it's a key factor in how this began.

And then you end up with Deus Vult, God wills it.

And all of these soldiers, these knights, these nobles.

God wants us to do this.

Deus Vult.

And the Crusade begins.

Next lesson, we'll look into that.

Now, lets bring myself back here.

So I can finish this lesson.

Now at this point, I think you've done again, an absolutely fantastic job.

We've done loads in this first two lessons.

Really gone through all the causes and the background to the Crusades.

And at this point you have a really good, detailed knowledge about some of the reasons why Christians went to fight in the Holy land, but not all the way there yet.

Next lesson we're going to look at what happened when they went okay? And it's difficult, it's almost disastrous.

Just the journey getting there, turned into a story in itself and that's before we even arrive.

Now, I would be really, really happy if I could see some of your work, especially that paragraph at the end about Urban's speech.

So if you want to, if you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging Oak National and the hashtag LearnwithOak, okay? Make sure your parent or carer does that.

I would love to see some of the work that you're doing on this because, you know, we've gone through quite a lot and I'm sure it's really great.

I thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much for your attention and your focus and your hard work.

And I look forward to seeing you in our next lesson, okay? Have a great day.