ABSTRACT
The Council of Clermont was attended by ten prelates from the ecclesiastical province of Rheims as well as others from the neighbouring dioceses of Metz and Toul in the kingdom of Germany, so it is safe to assume that the crusade was preached and publicised in these areas. Peter had great personal charisma, but his preaching tended to attract members of the urban and rural labouring classes and marginal social groups, rather than the warriors whom Urban was counting on to fight their way to the Holy Land. Of course knights usually had weapons, hauberks, shields, saddles and other gear available; these things were their stock in trade. Contemporary narratives of the First Crusade tend to describe it as a pilgrimage. The new prince's most important commander was a Lotharingian kinsman who remained in the East, Warner of Grez, but most of his other leading followers were men who had joined his service in course of crusade from other contingents.
