1st Crusade

First Crusade
Part of the Crusades
Miniature of the Siege of Jerusalem (1099) (14th century, BNF Fr. 22495 fol. 69v). Godfrey of Bouillon is using a siege tower to assault the walls.
Date 1096–1099 Location Mostly Levant and Anatolia Result Crusader victory Territorial changes The Capture of Jerusalem Creation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and other Crusader states
Belligerents
Crusaders Catholic Church Byzantine Empire People's Crusade Kingdom of France Blois Toulouse Boulogne Flanders Normandy Le Puy-en-Velay Vermandois Brittany Holy Roman Empire Duchy of Lower Lorraine Republic of Genoa Kingdom of England County of Sicily Taranto Armenian Cilicia	Muslim forces Seljuk Sultanate Danishmends Fatimid Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Imperial Contingent: Godfrey of Bouillon Baldwin of Boulogne Southern French Contingent: Raymond IV of Toulouse Adhemar of Le Puy Northern French Contingent: Hugh I of Vermandois Stephen II of Blois Robert II of Flanders Robert II of Normandy Norman-Italian Contingent Bohemond of Taranto Tancred of Hauteville Richard of Salerno Eastern Leaders: Alexios I Komnenos Tatikios Manuel Boutoumites Constantine of Armenia Others: Guglielmo Embriaco Pope Urban II	Kilij Arslan I Yaghi-Siyan Kerbogha Duqaq Fakhr al-Mulk Radwan Ghazi ibn Danishmend Iftikhar ad-Daula Al-Afdal Shahanshah
Strength
Crusaders: ~ 35,000 men · 30,000 infantry 5,000 cavalry knights Byzantines: ~ 2,000 men	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Moderate to High (estimates vary)	High

Crusaders

Muslim forces

Imperial Contingent:

Southern French Contingent:

Northern French Contingent:

Norman-Italian Contingent

Eastern Leaders:

Others:

Crusaders:
~ 35,000 men ·

Byzantines:

The First Crusade (1095–1099) was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to capture the Holy Land, called for by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095. It started as a widespread pilgrimage of western Christendom and ended as a military expedition by Roman Catholic Europe to regain the Holy Land taken in the Muslim conquests of the Levant (632–661), ultimately resulting in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099.

The Crusade was initiated by appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who requested western aid to help repel the invading Seljuk Turks from Anatolia. In response, Urban II called the Council of Clermont, and on November 25 officially declared a crusade. An additional goal became the principal objective—the Christian reconquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land and the freeing of the Eastern Christians from Muslim rule.

The official Princes' Crusade was preceded by the unofficial People's Crusade, in which a number of peasants, led by Peter the Hermit, first slaughtered populations of Jews In Europe and then attacked Muslims in Anatolia, where they were decisively defeated. In 1096, the official Crusader armies, led by a number of Catholic rulers, departed for the Middle East. During the crusade, nobility, knights, peasants and serfs from many regions of Western Europe travelled over land and by sea, first to Constantinople and then on towards Jerusalem. They captured Nicea in 1097 and took Antioch in 1098, where they massacred the occupants of the city. The Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem, launched an assault on the city, and captured it in July 1099, massacring many of the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants.

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Wikipedia