Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans, episode 38, the First Crusade.

Today we will leave Henry IV to fend for himself. Instead, we would be looking at the first

crusade, and more specifically, the rule of Germans in that First Crusade, and more specifically the role of Germans

in that First Crusade.

A word of warning.

In this episode we will have to discuss extreme violence, religiously motivated crimes,

and suicide.

I will give a specific warning when we get there.

Feel free to skip from that point onwards.

I will make sure that you can pick up seamlessly

at episode 39. Last week, we briefly talked about Pope Urban's famous speech in the field

outside the city of Clermont in France that kicks off the Crusades. I must confess that I took a bit

of artistic license there and put words into

Urban's mouth that reflect only one of the five different versions of that speech. Admittedly,

it's one that he's written himself. I felt that that was okay, given that by and large,

the gist of that speech is the same in all five versions. Urban calls upon the Christian faithful to free

the holy lands from the infidels. I will not give you a full rundown of the whole of the First

Crusade. There are a number of excellent indie podcasts on the topic, namely from my old colleague

from a different world, Nick Holmes, who has a great show called

Byzantium and the Crusades, and obviously Sharon Eastaw's epic history of the Crusades.

And if you want to read about the Crusades, check out Stephen Runciman's three books on it.

Brilliantly written, and still for me, the go-to source.

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