§ 50. FIRST CRUSADE AND CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM. 233
ferred to rove, marauding and plundering, through the rich provinces. Finally, a false rumor that the vanguard had captured Niceea, the capital of the Turks in Asia Minor, allured the main body into the plain of Nicsea, where large numbers were surrounded and massacred by the Turkish cavalry. Their bones were piled into a ghastly pyramid, the first monument of the Crusade. Walter fell in the battle ; Peter the Hermit had fled back to Constantinople before the battle began, unable to control his followers. The defeat of Nicaea no doubt largely destroyed Peter's reputation.1
A third swarm, comprising fifteen thousand, mostly Ger mans under the lead of the monk Gottschalk, was massacred by the Hungarians.
Another band, under count Emich of Leiningen, began its career, May, 1096, by massacring and robbing the Jews in Mainz and other cities along the Rhine. Albert of Aachen,2 who describes these scenes, does not sympathize with this lawlessness, but saw a divine judgment in its almost com plete annihilation in Hungary. This band was probably a part of the swarm, estimated at the incredible number of two hundred thousand,3 led by banners bearing the likeness of a goose and a goat, which were considered as bearers of the divine Spirit.4 Three thousand horsemen, headed by some noblemen, attended them, and shared the spoils taken
1 See Hagenmeyer, 204 sq. Peter apologized to the emperor for the defeat on the ground of his inability to control his followers, who, he declared, were unworthy to see Jerusalem. Anna Comnena calls Peter the " inflated Latin."
2 I. 26.
3 Anna Comnena says the Crusaders flowed together from all directions like rivers. She gives the number of Peter's army as eighty thousand foot and one hundred thousand horse. Fulcher speaks of the numbers set ting out from the West as "an immense assemblage. The islands of the sea and the whole earth were moved by God to make contribution to the host. The sadness was for those who remained behind, the joy for those who de parted."
4 This is upon the testimony of Albert of Aachen and Guibert. See Rohricht, Erster Kreuzzug, 240 sq. , and references there given.
234 THE MIDDLE ACES. A.I). 1049-l2!(j4.
from the Jews.1 When they arrived at the Hungarian frontier they had to encounter a regular army. A panic seized them, and a frightful carnage took place.
These preliminary expeditions of the first Crusade may have cost three hundred thousand lives.
The regular army consisted, according to the lowest state ments, of more than three hundred thousand. It proceeded through Europe in sections which met at Constantinople and Nictea. Godfrey, starting from lower Lorraine, had under him thirty thousand men on foot and ten thousand horse. He proceeded along the Danube and by way of Sofia and Philipoppolis. Hugh of Vermandois went by way of Rome, where he received the golden banner, and then, taking ship from Bari to Durazzo, made a junction with Godfrey in November, 1096, under the walls of Constantinople. Bohemund, with a splendid following of one hundred thousand horse and thirty thousand on foot,2 took the same route from Bari across the Adriatic. Raymund of Toulouse, accompanied by his count ess, Elvira, and the papal legate, bishop Adhemar,3 traversed Northern Italy on his way eastward. The last of the main armies to start was led by Robert, duke of Normandy, and Stephen of Blois, who crossed the Alps, received the pope's blessing at Lucca, and, passing through Rome, transported their men across the Adriatic from Bari and Brindisi.
Godfrey of Bouillon4 was accompanied by his brothers,
1 Mannheimer, Die Judenverfolgungen in Sprier, Worms und Mainz im Jahre 1096, wdhrend des ersten Kreuzzuges, Darmstadt, 1877. Hagenmeyer, p. 139, clears Peter of Amiens of the shameful glory of initiating this racial massacre, and properly claims it for count Emich and his mob. See also Rohricht, Gesch. d. ersten Kreuzzuges, 41-46.
2 Albert of Aachen, II. 18.
3 Gibbon calls him " a respectable prelate alike qualified for this world and the next."
4 Bouillon, not to be confounded with Boulogne-sur-mer, on the English Channel, is a town in Belgian Luxemburg, and was formerly the capital of the lordship of Bouillon, which Godfrey mortgaged to the bishop of Liege in 1095. It has belonged to Belgium since 1831.