Crusading Before the Crusades - Rewriting Medieval History

For over a century, historians have pointed to Pope Urban II's dramatic call at Clermont in 1095 as the moment when crusading was born, complete with its revolutionary system of spiritual rewards for holy warfare. What if the Crusades didn't begin with the First Crusade?

Paul E. Chevedden's article "Canon 2 of the Council of Clermont (1095) and the Crusade Indulgence" (2005) fundamentally challenged traditional interpretations of crusading origins. Based on a comprehensive analysis of papal letters, canonical sources, chronicle evidence, and archaeological material, it is concluded that crusade indulgence was first introduced in 1063 by Pope Alexander II for campaigns in Sicily and Iberia, not by Pope Urban II in 1095 in Clermont for liberating Jerusalem. The watershed moment came with the Barbastro campaign of 1064, where papal endorsement and spiritual incentives were first systematically applied to a military expedition against Muslim territories.

The Barbastro expedition was a multinational effort that attracted warriors from across Europe to capture this strategic fortress in the Ebro valley. The campaign's success demonstrated the effectiveness of combining papal blessing, spiritual rewards, and military objectives. This represented the first true crusade, complete with institutional mechanisms that would later characterize the Jerusalem enterprise.

The papal indulgence offered for Barbastro included many elements later associated with the Jerusalem Crusade: remission of sins, spiritual benefits equivalent to pilgrimage, and papal blessing for military service against Muslims. This precedent established the institutional framework that Urban II would later employ for the First Crusade.

The Spanish Reconquista provided the testing ground for crusading institutions. The ongoing conflict between Christian and Muslim powers in Iberia created opportunities for the papacy to experiment with spiritual incentives for military service. The success of these early campaigns demonstrated the potential of papal-sponsored warfare and provided institutional precedents that Urban II would later adapt for the Jerusalem campaign.

Therefore, crusading began in the western Mediterranean, not in the Levant in response to Byzantine appeals for help against the Seljuk Turks. Crusading in the West was "already in full swing" when crusaders about 40 years later undertook to rescue Jerusalem. 

This blog is based on Paul E. Chevedden's article "Canon 2 of the Council of Clermont (1095) and the Crusade Indulgence" published in Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum 37, no. 2 (2005): 253-322. The illustration shows the departure of the First Cursuade, from Histoire d'Outremer by Guillaume de Tyr, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits, source, Public Domain.

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