The Children’s Crusade of 1212

Religion has the powerful ability to determine the values, attitudes, and behavioral patterns of a society. Young children are especially vulnerable to being influenced by religious doctrines because the weak and undeveloped nature of young minds causes children to innocently believe all information they are presented, prevents them from being able to detect contradictions, and impairs their ability to form arguments and refute claims they are told and forbids the beliefs in different Gods. The Children’s Crusades of 1212 dramatically exemplified the powerful ability of religion to influence children, for the Children’s Crusade was an unfortunate episode of human history in which religion deceived and manipulated numerous young children to embark on a long and destructive journey that was inevitably destined to fail.

Many crusades were developed and implemented during the medieval ages as a response to the thriving rise and early expansion of Islam, which originated around 600 AD and then began to flourish with widespread popularity during the succeeding centuries. The successful momentum Islam acquired to spread across various territories concerned Pope Urban II and caused many Christians to perceive Islam as a competing threat that could eliminate and replace the power of Christianity. As a result, in 1095 Pope Urban the II launched the first crusade, and during the next two centuries, several Christian crusades would develop in which Christian armies were sent to fight Islamic communities for land. The several crusades inevitably facilitated brutal battles and atrocious massacres in various areas of the world, including territories in Europe, the Middle East and Spain (Crusades). However, one of the biggest missions of the crusaders was to seize the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the Muslims who had occupied the land. The struggle to obtain exclusive possession of Jerusalem generated many long and contentious battles between Christian and Muslim armies. Thus, in 1212 the Children’s Crusades involved two groups of children attempting to establish crusades, travel to Jerusalem, and seize the Holy Land.

In 1212, two potential crusades were initiated by large groups of children, with one crusade launching from France and the second from Germany. The first of the Children’s Crusades was facilitated by the leadership of Stephen of Cloyes, a 12-year-old peasant boy who was most likely unable to read or write. In May of 1212, Stephen approached the French King Philip with a letter that the boy claimed was provided to him by Jesus, who appeared while Stephen was tending sheep, to deliver a message that the boy must accumulate an army of children and fulfill a crusade in Jerusalem (Trueman). Although King Phillip naturally dismissed the boy and refused to assist the cause, Stephen utilized his eloquent oratory abilities by preaching about the Children’s Crusade mission to his community. The preaching enabled Stephen to immediately generate a sizable following, spread the message to various French villages, and recruit over 30,000 French children to join his army on the journey to Jerusalem.

The Pope generally condoned and blessed crusade missions to invigorate the troops and officially sanction the missions as being approved by God. However, the Pope did not bless the Children’s Crusade because he was aware that it was inevitably going to fail, for the children lacked the advanced intelligence, superior strength, and extensive knowledge required to overcome the difficult conditions of a long journey and to win battles against well-trained enemy combatants (Trueman). Although he refrained from blessing the mission, the Pope also did not attempt to discourage or circumvent the missions, for he perceived that the Children’s Crusades might inspire and motivate kings and armies to launch crusades with their powerful resources.

In the days prior to the mission, the vast majority of adults and parents in the various affected villages disapproved of the Children’s Crusade and tried to prevent the children from embarking on the incredibly dangerous mission. For instance, a letter from a French citizen states that “without anyone having preached or called for it and prompted by I know not what spirit, many thousands of boys, ranging in age from six years to full maturity, left the plows or carts which they were driving, the flocks which they were pasturing, and anything else which they were doing. This they did despite the wishes of their parents, relatives, and friends who sought to make them draw back” (Halsall). The children resisted these futile attempts of adults to discourage the mission because they were deluded by religion into possessing absolute certainty that God would guarantee their success. For instance, Stephen consistently preached that God would ensure victory by enabling the children to easily part the Mediterranean Sea and conveniently march right up to Jerusalem. Therefore, the false sense of certainty instilled in the minds of the children by religious fervor encouraged them to ignore the warnings of adults and embark on a hopelessly fatal mission.

The children began by marching from the city of Vendome to the city of Marseilles, which was on the Mediterranean shore. However, the walk exceeded 300 miles, the summer was exceptionally hot, and an insufficient food supply required the children to rely on getting food as charity from villages they passed. In turn, the walk was so difficult and arduous that many children dropped out or died of exhaustion before arriving at Marseilles. Furthermore, the portion of Stephen’s army that did arrive at Marseilles was then severely discouraged and disappointed when they realized that they were unable to split the Mediterranean Sea as they had planned. Despite the deflating and demoralizing inability to split the sea, eventually, the young army utilized 7 boats to sail across the Mediterranean Sea and towards Jerusalem (Kreis). However, this was the last reported sighting of the crusaders, none of the children landed in Jerusalem or returned home, and the children were never seen again.

Years later, an adult priest provided information regarding the fate of the first Children’s Crusade. The priest claimed that he was a member of the crusade during his childhood and reported that two of those boats sunk and killed all of the child passengers on board. He also asserted that pirates stole the remaining five boats and sold the rest of the children into slavery (Kreis). Although the report conveyed by the priest cannot be verified by concrete evidence, his position as a religious Christian priest enhanced the legitimacy of his claim and supported the likelihood that his account of the crusaders was accurate.

Germany also experienced a Children’s Crusade in 1212. Inspired by the crusade development of France, a boy named Nicholas from Rhineland village facilitated a similar crusade among German children. According to reports, “Nicholas, from a Rhineland village, began to preach the same message before the shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne. Like Stephen, he declared that children could do better than grown men, and that the sea would open to give them a path” (Kreiss). Thus, Nicholas exercised his excellent rhetorical skills to likewise promote a German Children’s Crusade. To effectively recruit an abundance of followers and fellow combatants, Nicholas also asserted promises of success by instilling the kids with a false sense of certainty that the mission was justified by God and that they would be able to simply split the Mediterranean Sea. However, the German crusade would suffer a similar fate. After splitting into two groups, one German group went to Genoa to split the sea from the shore, but again a large portion of the children died during the extensive and challenging walk to the city, and the few that did arrive were demoralized by being incapable of splitting the sea. Unable to endure the walk back to Germany, many children who survived chose to remain in Genoa.

The other group marched to Italy, where they failed to split the sea and were provided a meeting with the pope. Although the Pope admired their tenacity and devotion to the Christian faith, he discouraged the mission and ordered the children to go back home. With the devastation of being unable to divide the water and being condemned by the Pope, many of the children attempted to return to Germany and died during the long walk.

The Crusades exemplifies the extreme power by which religion can influence our actions and convince regular human beings to participate in atrociously destructive and harmful actions. Both the French and German Children’s Crusades featured children who were encouraged to embark on a mission that was inevitably destined to fail and end in disaster because the children were deluded by religion into believing that God desired them to attack the Muslims, supported their crusades, and would facilitate their success by enabling them to part the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, the Children’s Crusades represented a disastrous moment of human history in which thousands of young lives were entirely and unnecessarily wasted as naive religion fervor ensorcelled the children to embark on hopeless and devastating missions.

Works Cited

"Crusades." History. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.

Halsall, Paul. "The Children's Crusade, 1212." Fordham University. N.p., 15 Dec. 1997. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.

Kreis, Steven. "The Children's Crusades (1212)." The History Guide. N.p., 28 Feb. 2006. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.

Trueman, Chris. "The Children's Crusade." History Learning Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.