ollowing Pope Urban's speech at Clermont, Peter the Hermit, a simple man with a powerful ability to move people by his words, started his own Crusade. His army of followers were eager to go to Jerusalem with promises of absolution and freedom from a life of hunger and deprivation.The army's journey across land was not without its problems, due to the huge number of people travelling at the same time. Nearing Byzantine, the army was attacked by professional soldiers after a dispute and almost a quarter of Peter's men were killed. At Constantinople, the Emperor Alexius welcomed the army, but soon ordered them to move on due to their lack of discipline and repeated attacks and thefts from surrounding villages. Alexius warned Peter to wait for better trained troops to arrive before attacking the Turks, but was ignored.
The army camped at Cibotos where it was decided to wait for the Turks to attack. But a group led by Geoffrey Burel, tired of waiting spurred the army into action and went in search of the Turks instead. The undisciplined army soon fell into an ambush and turned an ran. The Turks had the advantage and chased the Crusaders back to their camp killing many of them. A couple of thousand managed to escape back to a castle near the sea-shore, where after a brief siege were rescued by Alexius' warships once he had received news of their disaster. Peter's Crusade was over.
Peter (The Hermit)
