Peter the Hermit in the context of "First Crusade"

The People's Crusade was the beginning phase of the First Crusade whose objective was to retake the Holy Land, and Jerusalem in particular, from Islamic rule. In 1095, after the head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Urban II started to urge faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the People's Crusade was conducted for roughly six months from April to October 1096. It is also known as the Peasants' Crusade, Paupers' Crusade or the Popular Crusade as it was executed by a mainly untrained peasant army prior to the main church-organized crusade. It was led primarily by Peter the Hermit with forces of Walter Sans Avoir. The peasant army of this crusade was largely destroyed by the forces of the Seljuk Turks under Kilij Arslan at the Battle of Civetot in northwestern Anatolia, though some survivors joined the armies of the Prince's Crusade in Constantinople.

The People's Crusade was the first, largest, and best documented of the popular crusades. The start of the more official and fully church-backed crusade, called the "Princes' Crusade", occurred a few months later and was better organized, better armed, and better funded; it was also successful.

The Rhineland massacres, also known as the German Crusade of 1096 or Gzerot Tatnó (Hebrew: גזרות תתנ"ו, "Edicts of 4856"), were a series of mass murders of Jews perpetrated by mobs of French and German Christians of the People's Crusade in 1096 (4856 in the Hebrew calendar). These massacres are often seen as the first in a sequence of antisemitic events in Europe which culminated in the Holocaust.

Prominent leaders of Crusaders involved in the massacres included Peter the Hermit and especially Count Emicho. As part of this persecution, the destruction of Jewish communities in Speyer, Worms and Mainz was noted as the Hurban Shum (Destruction of Shum). These were new persecutions of the Jews in which peasant Crusaders from France and Germany attacked Jewish communities. Many historians have referred to the violence as pogroms.

The popular crusades were several movements "animated by crusading enthusiasm" but unsanctioned by the Church. They contrast with the "official crusades" authorised by the Papacy. While the latter consisted of professional armies led by apostolic legates, the popular crusades were generally disorganized and consisted of peasants, artisans and only the occasional knight. The term "popular crusade" is a modern scholarly convention. The distinction between the "hierarchical" (or official) and the popular impulse in crusading was first made by historian Leopold von Ranke in the nineteenth century.

These events demonstrate the power of crusading ideas and the engagement of non-noble believers with the great events of Latin Christendom. All crusades that were not preached officially were illicit and unaccompanied by papal representation. But it was not until the 1320s that the papacy criticised a popular crusade. The objectives were traditional, such as regaining Jerusalem or liberating the captive King Louis IX of France. Victories in the Smyrniote crusade of 1344 aroused mass enthusiasm in Tuscany and Lombardy. Those who took part in popular crusades perceived themselves as authentic crusaders, evident in the use of pilgrimage and crusade emblems, including the cross.

The following is an overview of the Christian forces of the First Crusade, including the armies of the European noblemen of the "Princes' Crusade", the Byzantine army, independent Crusaders, as well as the People's Crusade and the subsequent Crusade of 1101 and other European campaigns prior to the Second Crusade beginning in 1147. The total strength of the armies of the Princes' Crusade is estimated at 40,000, including 4,500 nobles. It has been estimated that no more than 20% were non-combatants and a cavalry-to-infantry ratio of about 1:7, for rough estimates of just below 5,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry at the beginning of the expedition.

Unless otherwise noted, references are to the on-line database of Riley-Smith, et al., and the hyperlinks therein provide details including original sources. The names below are also referenced in the Riley-Smith tome.

Walter Sans Avoir (in French Gautier Sans-Avoir; died 21 October 1096) was the lord of Boissy-sans-Avoir in the Île-de-France. His name is often mistranslated as Walter the Penniless. While the words in his name do literally mean "Walter without having", the name actually derives from that of his demesne (and, ultimately, the motto of his family), Sans avoir Peur ("Fearless"). As lieutenant to Peter the Hermit, he co-led the People's Crusade at the beginning of the First Crusade.