ABSTRACT
On 15 July 1099, Jerusalem was conquered and restored to Christendom, the culmination of the four-year odyssey of the First Crusade (1096-1099). As early as the twelfth century, the deliverance of Jerusalem from the yoke of the infidels became the most common theme associated with the history of the crusades.1 Yet some historians are still hesitant as to whether the conquest of Jerusalem was merely a result or the original and ultimate goal of the First Crusade.2 The difficulty in establishing the original goal of the First Crusade stems mainly from the fact, ironic in itself, that Pope Urban II’s speech at the Council of Clermont (27 November 1095), proclaiming the crusade, has survived only in various chronicle versions, most of them written a decade after the conquest of Jerusalem and thus influenced by what became the climax of the First Crusade.3
