1096 CE
The year the First Crusade began in earnest, as an initial wave of poorly organized popular crusaders was annihilated in Anatolia, while the main armies of Western European nobles assembled and marched eastward toward Constantinople.
The People's Crusade
- Peter the Hermit, a charismatic preacher, led a large but poorly armed and undisciplined popular crusade that departed ahead of the main noble armies in the spring of 1096.
- The People's Crusade committed horrific massacres of Jewish communities in the Rhineland, particularly in Speyer, Worms, Mainz, and Cologne, killing thousands in some of the worst anti-Jewish violence in medieval European history.
- Peter the Hermit's followers reached Constantinople and crossed into Anatolia, where they were ambushed and largely destroyed by Seljuk Turkish forces at the Battle of Civetot in October.
The Princes' Crusade Assembles
- The main crusading armies, led by major nobles including Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond of Taranto, and Robert of Normandy, departed Western Europe in late summer and autumn, taking different routes toward Constantinople.
- Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos negotiated with the arriving crusader lords, extracting oaths that they would return any former Byzantine territories they conquered to the empire.
Climate & Environment
- Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was approximately 275 parts per million, as later confirmed by ice core analysis.
Population & Demographics
- World population is estimated to have been approximately 318 million.