History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 81, the Children's Crusade.

Hello again.

Last week we caught up with events in the Middle East. This week we return to Europe to examine one of the most bizarre

events in the history of the Crusades, the Children's Crusade. Now, this episode comes with a huge disclaimer.

The events surrounding the Children's Crusade are far from clear.

Unsurprisingly, a great deal of mythology and exaggeration surrounds

this crusade and even today historians disagree about what exactly happened, or indeed whether it occurred at all.

Having said that, I will be relying on the trusty group of historians whom I've depended on for most of this podcast series up until now,

and I reckon they'll steer us in the right direction.

Right, well, before we set off on the Children's Crusade, there's a couple of things to keep in mind.

Firstly, the Children's Crusade is very much a product of medieval Europe.

It's difficult to imagine any other period in history

when thousands of children could be so carried away by a religious seal that they would embark on a campaign

which common sense would dictate was utterly doomed from the start.

To make more sense of it we need to take a quick look at the role of children in society back in the 13th century. Now as we've discussed previously life expectancy in medieval Europe

was much shorter than it is today. Health care was minimal, disease was often seen as a sign of divine displeasure, and there

are a dizzying amount of ways you could die back in the Middle Ages, which due to advances in health care, science, sanitation and so on, you just don't find today.

Because life was often brutal and short, children were expected to take on responsibility

at an early age.

In fact, the age of seven seems to be the year when it all starts happening for the medieval child.

Once they reached the tender age of seven, a child was expected to start earning a living and making his or her own way

...