ABSTRACT
In the lead-up to his famous speech urging help for the Holy Land made at Clermont on 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II may have been encouraged by an itinerant preacher known as Peter the Hermit. Beginning in Berry after Clermont,2 Peter preached the Crusade and his efforts attracted many followers including Walter Sans-Avoir, a knight of the family of Poissy.3 Peter came together with his followers at Cologne on 12 April 1096 and shortly after left for Constantinople, the staging place for the war against the infidel. Walter and a small group had departed a few days earlier. The distance was around 2,400 kilometres and, according to Nesbitt, Peter’s forces covered it in 104 days.4 This paper considers how Peter was able to feed his followers on that journey.
