How important was religious zeal in the motives of those who went on the First Crusade?
There were 3 key factors which motivated people to go on the First Crusade: Religion, Socio-economic and
Politics. Religion and religious zeal, which refers to religious enthusiasm, was arguably the most important
factor of motivation as religion impacted everyone during the 11 th century. However, socio-economic
factors and political factors both played an important part as well but not as important as religion.
There are a number of religious factors which motivated people to go on the First Crusade including the
importance of the Holy Land and the indulgence. Everyone in Western Europe during the 11 th century was
a Catholic Christian so Jerusalem was very important to them. Jerusalem was believed to be the city where
Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. In his speech, Pope Urban referred to Jerusalem as “the naval
of the world” meaning that it was the centre of a lot of people’s lives and passion. For Christians,
Jerusalem, also known as the Holy Land, was seen as literal heaven on Earth. However, the Seljuk Turks,
who were Muslims, captured Jerusalem and made pilgrimages there very difficult and dangerous. For
example, in 1064, a group of 7000 Christian pilgrims were attacked when they tried to visit Jerusalem. Due
to the fact that Jerusalem was so important to Christians, the prospect of claiming it back for Christendom
appealed to many. Also, the crusade was initially posed as an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the
promise of an indulgence as a reward. People during this time were highly religious and religion controlled
almost all aspects of a person’s life. The prospect of heaven was very important to everyone and there
were many paintings displayed in church called doom paintings which portrayed people’s fears of hell. One
of the guaranteed ways to get into heaven was to receive an indulgence which was forgiveness for all of
your sins and often given in return for a penance, which was an act to show sorrow and that you were
sorry. A common form of penance was pilgrimage, which was what the first crusade was initially posed as.
Pope Urban promised all the crusaders an indulgence and a guarantee to get into heaven, which motivated
a lot of people due to their fears of going to hell. Therefore, religion and religious zeal was the most
important factor influencing motivation as it applied to everyone regardless of their class and, as
previously mentioned, religion controlled nearly all aspects of life. It is also significant that the pope, the
key religious leader, called the crusade as it made it seem that God willed the crusade and people were
more likely to embark on the crusade.
Another important factor motivating people was socio-economic. Whilst compared to religion, socio-
economic factors may not be that important, they still held a lot of importance regarding motivation
despite having some limitations. One of these socio-economic factors was poor living conditions. Western
Europe during the 11th century was a very violent, barbaric society with a lot of poverty and famine. For
example, in 1094, there was a poor harvest and this led to famine, hunger, increased poverty and rising
food prices. The crusade offered people a chance to escape these conditions and Pope Urban promised the
possibility of land and money for the crusaders. This gave people the opportunity of a new life and
motivated a lot of people, becoming a big push factor. However, this only applied to peasants and, whilst
the majority of crusaders were peasants, some were knights and this does not explain why the upper
classes went on the first crusade. Also, this relates to religious factors as one of the reasons people wanted
to go to heaven was due to the horrible conditions they had on Earth which meant they longed for
paradise. Moreover, another key socio-economic factor was the fact that Jerusalem was an economically
prosperous region, which was a big pull factor. In the Bible, Jerusalem was referred to as “a land
overflowing with milk and honey” which created a big appeal. Jerusalem was also the centre for the
world’s trade and contained many goods such as silk and spices. This encouraged people to go to
Jerusalem in hopes of living there. The rules of war stated that the victorious side was able to take as many
goods and land as they wanted so this offered the chance of gaining enormous wealth in Jerusalem.
However, this factor is again limited as it only applied to the rich as the poor were unlikely to be able to
gain any goods from Jerusalem. Therefore, whilst still important, socio-economic factors were more of a
background factor and were definitely less important than religion because, unlike religion, these factors
