The First Crusade: The Call from the East

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Christ and the Virgin Mary flanked by the emperors Constantine and Justinian. Mosaic in the south vestibule of Hagia Sophia, late tenth century.

Reliquary for wood from the True Cross, c.950.

The walls of Constantinople, first built by the emperor Theodosius in the fifth century.

THE CALL FROM THE EAST

The hope of Byzantium: Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.

Coin issued by Alexios, depicting Christ giving a blessing

and the emperor himself.

THE RESPONSE FROM THE WEST

Pope Urban II arrives at the council of Clermont.

Emperor Alexios receives Peter the Hermit.

THE EXPEDITION TO THE HOLY LAND

The Crusaders at Nicaea, 1097.

The siege of Antioch, 1097–8.

Crusaders massacring the inhabitants of Antioch, 1098.

The siege of Jerusalem, 1099.

LIBERATING THE HOLY CITY

The looting of Jerusalem, 1099.

As most undergraduates find, at one point in the course of their studies, the prospect of a lecture starting at 9 a.m. can feel unfair and almost cruel. I remember wearily climbing the stairs of the History Faculty in Cambridge in 1992, having to shake myself awake to take a seat to listen to the first lecture of the term on the paper I had chosen, called ‘Byzantium and its neighbours, 800–1200’. Five minutes later, I was suddenly alert and transfixed, as though I had just been given a triple espresso. I was hearing about the ruthless Pecheneg steppe nomads and how they would do anything in return for pepper, scarlet silk and strips of Middle Eastern leather; I was wondering about why pagan Bulgar leaders would choose to become Christians in the ninth century; I was hearing about New Rome – the imperial city of Constantinople.

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