I can't believe this really happened - "The Children's Crusade"

[Aunt Sponge]

It's not modern-news ... but it's horrific news to me. Two 'armies' of Children were led in the Crusades to 'reclaim the holyland'

The Children's Crusades (1212) (I've cut it down with excerpts to sum it up):

[In 1212 a young boy, Stephen, brought a letter to the King, the Stephen said it was given to him by Christ. King Phillip wasn't impressed and sent him away. Stephen felt compelled to preach for the Crusade] Undismayed by the King's indifference, he began to preach at the very entrance to the abbey of Saint-Denis and to announce that he would lead a band of children to the rescue of Christendom Older folk were impressed, and children came flocking to his call. After his first success he set out to journey round France summoning the children; and many of his converts went further afield to work on his behalf. Awed contemporaries spoke of thirty thousand, not one over twelve years of age. There were certainly several thousand of them, collected from all parts of the country, some of them simple peasants, whose parents in many cases had willingly let them go on their great mission Nearly all of them went on foot It was a painful journey. The summer was unusually hot. They depended on charity for their food, and the drought left little to spare in the country, and water was scarce. Many of the children died by the wayside. Others dropped out and tried to wander home. But at last the little Crusade reached Marseilles. The citizens of Marseilles greeted the children kindly. Many found houses in which to lodge. Others encamped in the streets. Next morning the whole expedition rushed down to the harbour to see the sea divide before them. When the miracle did not take place, there was bitter disappointment. Some of the children turned against Stephen, crying that he had betrayed them, and began to retrace their steps. But most of them stayed on by the sea-side, expecting each morning that God would relent. After a few days two merchants of Marseilles, called, according to tradition, Hugh the Iron and William the Pig, offered to put ships at their disposal and to carry them . . . to Palestine. Stephen eagerly accepted the kindly offer. Seven vessels were hired by the merchants, and the children were taken aboard and set out to sea. Eighteen years passed before there was any further news of them. Stephen's preaching had reached the Rhineland. The children of Germany were not to be outdone. A few weeks after Stephen had started on his mission, a boy called Nicholas, from a Rhineland village, began to preach the same message before the shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne. . . . he declared that children could do better than grown men, and that the sea would open to give them a path. . . French children were to conquer the Holy Land by force, the Germans were to achieve their aim by the conversion of the infidel. Nicholas, like Peter, had a natural eloquence and was able to find eloquent disciples to carry his preaching further, up and down the Rhineland. Within a few weeks an army of children had gathered at Cologne, ready to start out for Italy and the sea. The first, numbering according to the chroniclers, twenty thousand, was led by Nicholas himself. It set out up the Rhine to Basle and through western Switzerland, past Geneva, to cross the Alps by Mont Cenis pass. It was an arduous journey for the children, and their losses were heavy The Genoese authorities were ready at first to welcome the pilgrims, but on second thoughts they suspected a German plot. They would allow them to stay for one night only; but any who wished to settle permanently in Genoa were invited to do so. . . . In their disillusion many of the children at once accepted the Genoese offer and became Genoese citizens, forgetting their pilgrimage. Nicholas, however, still awaited a miracle, and trudged on with his faithful followers in Rome. At Rome Pope Innocent received them. He was moved by their piety but embarrassed by their folly. With kindly firmness he told them that they must now go home. When they grew up they should then fulfil their vows and go to fight for the Cross. Many of the children, especially the girls, could not face again the ardours of the road and stayed behind in some Italian town or village. Only a few stragglers found their way back next spring to the Rhineland. Nicholas was probably not amongst them. But the angry parents whose children had perished insisted on the arrest of his father, who had, it seems, encouraged the boy out of vainglory. He was taken and hanged. The second company of German pilgrims was no more fortunate. It had travelled to Italy through central Switzerland and over the Saint Gotthard and after great hardships reached the sea at Ancona. When the sea failed to divide for them they moved slowly down the east coast as far as Brindisi. There a few of them found ships sailing to Palestine and were given passages; but the others returned and began to wander slowly back again. Only a tiny number returned at last to their homes. Despite their miseries, they were perhaps luckier than the French. In the year 1230 a priest arrived in France from the East with a curious tale to tell.. . . one of the young priests who had accompanied Stephen to Marseilles and had embarked with them on the ships provided by the merchants. A few days out they had run into bad weather, and two of the ships were wrecked on the island of San Pietro, off the south-west corner of Sardinia, and all the passengers were drowned. The five ships that survived the storm found themselves soon afterwards surrounded by a Saracen squadron from Africa; and the passengers learned that they had been brought there by arrangement, to be sold into captivity. many of them were bought on their arrival and spent the rest of their lives in captivity there. Others, the young priest among them, were shipped on to Egypt, where Frankish slaves fetched a better price. When they arrived at Alexandria the greater part of the consignment was bought by the governor, to work on his estates. According to the priest there were still about seven hundred of them living. A small company was taken to the slave-markets of Baghdad; and there eighteen of them were martyred for refusing to accept Islam. It was not the little children that would rescue Jerusalem. . . .

[OliveJuice]

That's really interesting and creepy all at the same time. I have such a hard time with the crusades. Men speaking of God talking to them and telling them to kill others for a piece of land. Never sat well with me in my stomach, even for the old testiment.

[danyell]

When I was reading this I thought of The Pied Piper for some reason....

How horrible.

[Aunt Sponge]

Yeah, I wonder if the Pied Pipper wsa inspired by this. . . or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, even.

Completely disturbing.

[casey12105]

yea we learned about this in school

highschool, and I think we covered it again in college. In highschool we went pretty in depth into it, but I don't think it was part of the curriculum. I think it was one of those things he just told us about as an interesting part of history.

[Aunt Sponge]

Originally Posted by casey12105 yea we learned about this in school

Really? Highschool or college?

My teacher mentioned it briefly in our readings of the Crusades, but nothing in detail. She actually presented the brief facts as if all children were armed and slaughtered by armies. Obviously they were poorly treated and most died in horrific conditions, but none of it seemed to be on a battlefield at the hands of soldiers.

[danyell]

I can safely say I have NEVER heard of this!

[Songtan Sally]

To be fair, back in that time period, age 12 wasn't really a child. They were married at 14, had children by 16 and were dead before 30.

[Aunt Sponge]

Originally Posted by Songtan Sally To be fair, back in that time period, age 12 wasn't really a child. They were married at 14, had children by 16 and were dead before 30.

Good point.
They were mostly younger than that ... their equivalent of what we consider pre-teens and teens (our equivalent age bracket of 13-18). They, obviously, considered it enough of a difference to think that the enemy would convert or submit to unarmed children who spread the Gospel.

You know - I can't get out of my mind, now, the similarities between the Crusades and our current efforts to bring other countries around to being Democracies.

You all remember - I use to be a strong advocate for it - but the more I learn about history the more I feel like we're repeating it.
Do we really need to have Democracy-Crusades such as this in massive mislead failure repeat over and over before we finally give up? Just how far can things go before they cross the line?

[Sophie♥Hatter]

If it reminds people of Pied Piper of Hamilin well that is because it was what created the folklore. Much of what we consider folklore IS in some way rooted to historical events.