ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of Pope Urban II’s appeal for the First Crusade at Clermont in November 1095. It considers the nature of Urban’s message, and his efforts to promote the appeal in the months that followed. The chapter then examines how the appeal for the First Crusade reached Godfrey of Bouillon, and considers why he responded positively to it. It establishes that Godfrey had access to several communication networks along which Urban’s message regarding the crusade could have reached him. While existing historiography has tended to cast Godfrey’s decision to participate in the First Crusade as a somewhat surprising development, it is suggested here that dynastic influences and his own experiences served to condition his response to the appeal. In this regard, the chapter highlights potential motivating factors including the house of Ardennes-Bouillon’s historic ties to the papacy, Godfrey’s dynastic ties to the nobility of northern France (where there was a significant response to the crusade appeal), and his involvement in the bishop of Liège’s Peace assembly in c.1082. It suggests that Godfrey’s relationship with Henry IV was not so close that it posed a potential barrier to the former’s participation in the papal enterprise. The chapter lastly discusses how Godfrey prepared for the First Crusade, and explores the composition of the army at whose head he departed Lotharingia in August 1096.
