The Children's Crusade - Research Paper

1
Grant Benson
HIST 3010W – Crusades
December 12, 2011
The Children’s Crusade of 1212 – Interpretations Throughout History
The events of the Children’s Crusade is one of the most unusual and debated topics of
Medieval history. Occurring at the end of the Fourth Crusade, the Children’s Crusade is often
discussed amongst historians not because of its relevance to the Crusades as a whole (although
very much so), but because of the mystery that surrounds it. Despite many of goings on in the
year 1212, chroniclers at the time paid special attention to an event that many of them had
difficulty even defining. One historian wrote that it was “a miraculous affair, indeed more than
miraculous, for nothing of the sort had ever been heard in the world.”1 However, despite the
enthusiasm from various authors at the time, what actually happened during the Children’s
Crusade is especially difficult to identify. Several conflicting accounts of the Children’s Crusade
exist, and the facts of the events remain in question among scholars. In fact, the events
surrounding the Children’s Crusade have been questioned so much that some historians have
claimed that the Children’s Crusade didn’t even happen. “Whole narratives of what actually
happened didn’t show up until 50 years later, time enough for imaginations to get active.”2
Although it’s true the information about the Children’s Crusade that was written (a majority of
them generations after the event actually occurred) is far from 100 percent accurate, that doesn’t
mean such events never took place. Such information is highlighted in Peter Raedts’ article “The
Children’s Crusade of 1212 and in Gary Dickson’s 2008 book The Children’s Crusade:
1 Georg Waitz, “The Children’s Crusade of 1212” in Journal of Medieval History (Volume 3, Issue 4, 1977) 279.
2 “The Children’s Crusade,” History House Inc., accessed November 5, 2011,
http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/childrens_crusade/

2
Medieval History, Modern Mythistory. These works provide a more detailed version of the
Children’s Crusade, a version that proves the Children’s Crusade did indeed happen, albeit not
without variables that supported the “myth” of the Children’s Crusade. The so-called
“mythistory” lies in the interpretation (or misinterpretation) of primary sources written around
the time of the Children’s Crusade. Analyzing these sources of the Children’s Crusade is
important in understanding the interpretations of the Children’s Crusade today. Not only does
analysis of these documents explain why the Children’s Crusade could be viewed as an
interpretation of the imagination, it also sheds light on the true events of what was the “real”
Children’s Crusade.
Like mentioned previously, there are different viewpoints on the Children’s Crusade. For
years, the Children’s Crusade was thought as a movement of starry-eyed children subjecting
themselves to the harsh realities of the brutal world, giving up their home, their freedom, and
their lives for an opportunity to reclaim the holy land of Jerusalem.3 The long-standing,
traditional view of the Children’s Crusade has many variations, some with very similar themes.
The main interpretation of the Children’s Crusade, prior to the modern view, tells the story of a
young boy preaching in France or Germany. This boy claimed that he had been visited by Jesus
Christ and told to lead a crusade to peacefully convert Muslims to Christianity. Through a series
of skilled preaching and supposed miracles, this boy gained a considerable following of possibly
as many as 30,000 children. The boy led his followers south towards the Mediterranean Sea,
believing the sea would part on their arrival, allowing him and his followers an easy path to
Jerusalem. When the sea didn’t part, two merchants gave passage on boats to as many children
that were willing to go. They were then either taken to Tunisia and sold into slavery, or died in a
3 Gary Dickson, The Children’s Crusade: Medieval History, Modern Mythistory (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2008), xi

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shipwreck during a storm. Some may have also given up before reaching the sea, because of
starvation and exhaustion.
Much of what was thought to be known about the Children’s Crusade was interpreted
from three different sources written at or near the time of the Children’s Crusade. Information at
the time of the Children’s Crusade was fragmentary and continuously vague. Usually only
consisting of a few lines, or at most, a paragraph.
For certain children gathered together from all the towns and villages of Germany,
and, as if by divine inspiration, they met in each place, united into a troop, and
headed for the road to Jerusalem as if they meant to recapture the Holy Land. The
leader and head of this journey was Nicholas, a boy from Cologne…When the
children arrived at Brindisi, the local bishop, sensing something underhanded, did
not permit them to cross the sea. For Nicholas’ father sold them to the heathens,
and this happened from the evil deed of demons.4
Accounts like this, written by Deeds of Trier, were consistent with the rest of the accounts on the
Children’s Crusade at the time. Vague wording, coupled with information with religious
undertones was a regular occurrence with information regarding the Children’s Crusade. The
account written by Deeds of Trier was the most detailed of these primary sources. It was the only
source that mentioned the crusaders’ trek to Brindisi. It also mentions that the crusaders’ leader,
Nicholas, was betrayed by his father which ultimately led to Nicholas’ death. Although, no
background information is given on what might have compelled Nicholas’ father to do such a
thing.
Despite being vague about the “juicy” details, the chronicle written by Trier was perhaps
the most detailed primary account of the Children’s Crusade. Nicholas isn’t even mentioned in
another chronicle that originated in Cologne.
4 J. Shinners, trans. Medieval PopularReligion,1000-1500:A Reader (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1997), 398-
399

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An absolutely marvelous thing happened that same year [1212], all the
more marvelous since such a thing was unheard of in the world. For around
Easter and Pentecost from all Germany and France with no encouragement
or preaching but driven by unknown inspiration many thousands of children
from six years old all the way to young manhood abandoned the plows and
wagons they drove…and suddenly ran one after the other and undertook a
crusade.5
The chronicler from Cologne mentions that children abandoned their way of life with “no
encouragement or preaching,” which isn’t consistent with other reports. Even one of the sources
describing the movement in France provides with a description (albeit brief) of a leader:
In the month of June of the same year [1212] a certain boy, occupation a
shepherd, of a village named Cloyes near the town of Vendome, said that
the Lord had appeared to him in the form of a poor pilgrim, had received
bread from him, and had delivered letters to him to be taken to the king of
the French. When he came, together with his fellow shepherd-boys, nearly
thirty thousand people assembled around him from all parts of France…
All acknowledged him as master and prince over them.6
Again, the account is brief, shedding no light on logistics or intricacies of this supposed crusade
undertook by children. The briefness and lack of explanation of these initial sources created a
blurred view of what the Children’s Crusade was. Certainly, it opened a window for an
abundance of open interpretation that led to a long-standing, traditional view of the Children’s
Crusade.
This long-standing view began to come under fire from scholars who analyzed the
Children’s Crusade more closely. In the years following the events of the Children’s Crusade,
many scholars refused to forget about it. 40-50 years after the Children’s Crusade, scholars like
Vincent Beauvais, Roger Bacon, Thomas of Cantipre, and Matthew Paris mentioned the events
5 Shinners, trans. Medieval PopularReligion,398-399
6 R.H. Cooke, trans. In J.F.C. Hecker, The Epidemics of the Middle Ages (London: Trubner & Co., 1895), 357

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of the Children’s Crusade in their works.7 In these works, the authors provided a more detailed
discussion of what was implied as a children’s crusade. However, new scholars that tackled the
event 40-50 years after its conclusion revised the older tales, sometimes with great candor and
imagination. They described how children throughout France and Germany joined a young
prophet and set off to the Holy Land under this prophet’s leadership. They sang songs and
prayed, but suffered great deprivation. They cross the Alps to the Mediterranean, where in their
“childlike innocence” they waited for God to divide the sea and allow them to cross; and when
the eagerly awaited miracle proved to be a cruel deception, they fell into the hands of charlatans
who loaded them into boats and sold them into the slave trade off the coast of northern Africa.8
This is our traditional view of the Children’s Crusade, one that has been accepted into
literature and even has inspired modern writers in this century to write about it. However, a
historian cannot simply stand by this information and accept it. The account are too vague, too
enamored in religious undertones and biases. In order to fully understand, a historian asks if
there really was a crusade, whether or not the participants were in fact little children, and where
myth becomes obscured with fact.9
Before we break down the mythistory of the Children’s Crusade, let’s examine the facts.
What actually happened in 1212 that caught the attention of these scholars? One must remember,
little historical investigation has been done concerning the Children’s Crusade. A total of eight
publications have been published, and four are concerned primarily with the critiques of the
primary sources and with rebuilding the narrative of the Children’s Crusade.10 The first of these
7 Peter Raedts, “The Children’s Crusade of 1212,” in The Journal of Medieval History (Vol. 3, Issue 4, 1977), 279
8 Ibid, 281
9 Ibid
10 Ibid

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published works surfaced in the late 19th century by famous German and French historians.
These publications provide a decent summary of the sources, but neither seems interested to
mention the later sources being enamored in myth. In fact, the legendary element of the later
sources wasn’t tackled until the beginning of the 20th century when American medieval historian
Dana Carleton Munro published his work on the Children’s Crusade.11 In order to write these
publications, historians only had chronicles and primary documents to analyze. There weren’t
many, only about 50, ranging from a line to half a page in length. The sources can be divided
into three categories based on time of composition: contemporary sources written from 1212-
1220 at the time of the Children’s Crusade, accounts between 1220 and 1250 written by people
with firsthand knowledge of the crusade, and sources written after 1250 by authors who obtained
their information second or third hand.12
A culmination of study, research, and a little historical investigation has produced what is
now considered the modern view on the occurrences of the Children’s Crusade. The movement
that began in France may not have been part of the actual Children’s Crusade, which took place
in Germany (more on that later). Of course, it was not technically a crusade in the legal sense. It
wasn’t blessed and encouraged by the church; in fact, it was deplored by all responsible
authority.13
We start in France, in the summer of 1212. There, a shepherd boy, named Stephen, from
Cloyes, had a vision of Jesus Christ, who had visited him under the disguise of a poor pilgrim.
Stephen and his followers would trek to Saint Denis, where Stephen reportedly performed many
miracles. Because of this, people hastened to join Stephen and accept him as their leader. But the
11 Ibid
12 Ibid, 282
13 R.L. Wolff, “The Children’s Crusade,” in The later Crusades 1189-1311(University of Wisconsin,1969), 330

7
king, after consulting with the masters of Paris, ordered the followers to return home. Stephen
and his followers obeyed immediately. However, many people considered this event a sign of
great things which God intended for the world.14
The details of the French Children’s Crusade are meager at best. The annals of St. Peter’s
Abbey record that a movement proceeded from Vendome which invoked a strong response
throughout France, but the name Stephen of Cloyes is never mentioned. It was said that no one
was able to hold the masses in check, but they eventually gave up and returned home because of
starvation.15 No contemporary sources of the Children’s Crusade in France share any evidence
that Stephen and his followers had any intention of making a journey to the Holy Land to free
Jerusalem. All that can be drawn from the sources about the French movement is that
processions or rallies were held in French towns and that there was some sort of journey that was
made to Saint Denis or Paris under the leadership of Stephen.16 Some authors, like Steven
Runciman, claimed there was a connection between the French movement and the bigger
German movement.
Meanwhile tales of Stephen’s preaching had reached the Rhineland. The
children of Germany were not to be outdone. A few weeks after Stephen
had started on his mission, a boy called Nicholas, from a Rhineland village,
began to preach the same message before the shrine of Three Kings at
Cologne. Like Stephen, he declared that children could do better than grown
men, and that the sea would give them a path.17
Perhaps the most detailed account on the French crusade is that of Alberic of
Troisfontaines. His account of the French crusade is consistent with Runciman’s work on the
14 Ibid
15 Raedts, “The Children’s Crusade of 1212,” 293
16 Ibid
17 Steven Runciman, “The Children’s Crusade (1212),” in A History of the Crusades, Vol. III (Cambridge, 1951),
139-144.

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subject. The first part of his account agrees with the information in the early sources that the
movement began in Vendome, where groups of people went towards Paris, where their numbers
ballooned to 30,000. But Alberic’s story changes after that. Alberic describes the crusaders going
from Paris to Marseilles, where two merchants offered to take them to the Holy Land free of
charge, for the love of God. During the crossing, two of the seven ships were shipwrecked off the
island of Saint-Pierre while all the passengers were killed. Alberic claims the other five ships
went to the northern coast of Africa where all the children were sold to Muslim princes and
merchants on the slave market.18 However, many scholars objected Alberic’s stories. This will be
discussed later, when speaking on the mythistory of the Children’s Crusade.
But how does the movement in France compare with the larger movement in Germany?
If France was a hot bed for children crusading, Germany was ground zero. While Stephen and
his followers were demonstrating with processions and chants, followers in the Rhineland had
already taken it to a whole other level.19 Between Easter and Pentecost 1212,20 a mass crusading
movement sprang up in Germany. Thousands of pueri (Latin for child) suddenly abandoned their
homes and began heading south towards Jerusalem. There’s not any clear evidence that anyone
urged this action upon them, as they were certainly going against the wishes of their parents and
friends. When they were asked why they were undertaking this daring mission, as years previous
great armies sought to do the same and failed, they answered that they were obeying God’s will
and that they would do all that is required of them.21 However, several sources identify a leader
for the crusaders. That leader was Nicholas, born in Cologne. Nicholas bared a cross in form of a
18 Raedts, “The Children’s Crusade of 1212,”293-294
19 Wolff, “The Children’s Crusade,” 331
21 Waitz, “The Children’s Crusade of 1212” in Journal of Medieval History

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Greek Tau, although the chronicler states it was difficult to tell what the cross was made out of.22
The Greek Tau an immensely important Greek symbol. Christian biblical enthusiasts compare it
with the Prophet Ezekiel’s “mark upon the foreheads” of those who sighted for the sins of
Jerusalem. Only those marked with the sign of the Tau would be spared from the slaughter of the
wicked (Ezekiel 9:4, 6). So having the “mark” of the Tau was salvific. Those who bore it were
said to be part of an elect, destined to be saved.23 “Nicholas claimed that God would support
them, just as He once supported the Israelites. He would divide the sea so they could cross to the
Holy Land without wetting their feet.”24 Nicholas is mentioned in three chronicles at the time,25
which state that he came from Cologne. However, Nicholas isn’t mentioned at all in either of the
Cologne chronicles. In one of the Cologne chronicles, it mentions the crusading movement
beginning without any preaching. Raedts explains that this discrepancy can be explained if we
assume that the crusading movement began near Cologne, and that Nicholas was not the first
inspirational leader, but later became accepted as leader. He later goes on to explain that if this
were the case, it would explain why Nicholas was never mentioned in the original Cologne
chronicles, but the south German and Austrian authors would thought that he came from
Cologne, for they would have assumed the leader came from where the movement originated.26
The common theme amongst the chroniclers of the Children’s Crusade in Germany is
variety. There are various fragmented chronicles from the crusaders’ journey that make it
difficult for historians to put together a clear picture. This is seen best when trying to make clear
of the crusaders’ journey through the Alps. After moving south through Cologne, then to Trier,
23 Dickson, The Children’s Crusade, 105
25 Waitz, “The Children’s Crusade of 1212” in Journal of Medieval History

10
and then a brutally hot adventure in the summer from Speyer to Alsace (many died from heat
exhaustion, hunger and thirst before they were able to cross the Alps), the path of the crusaders if
hard to follow from Alsace into Italy.27 The easiest path for the crusaders would have been over
the Great St. Bernard Pass, however, there is no source mentioning the Children’s Crusade that
has survived from the Swiss Alpine region.28 However, there are mentions of crusade written
from Abbeys south of Munich, and from Austria. According to these authors, the crusaders did
not pass through the Alps into Italy, but followed an eastern route through Austria across the
Brenner River into Lombardy.29 From there, the crusaders made way to Genoa, a city in Italy.
According to the city annalist of Genoa, some seven thousand men, women, and children poured
into Genoa carrying crosses, pilgrim staffs, and travel bags. The next day, many of them left,
perhaps disappointed that Nicholas’ words of God transporting them to the Holy Land didn’t ring
true.30 From Genoa, there is not really any clear path to follow the crusaders.31 The crusade had
been “breaking” up since the beginning of their journey. People were dying, leaving and going
home discouraged, or just stopped at cities along the way, no longer wanting to go on.32 A late
contemporary source speaks of a boatload of crusaders sailing from Pisa; however, nothing was
ever heard of them again.33 Some of them are reported to have gone to Rome, where Pope
Innocent III relieved them of their crusading duties.34 The chronicler of Trier mentions some
crusaders being in Brindisi:
When the children arrived at Brindisi [in southern Italy], the local bishop,
sensing something underhanded, did not permit them to cross the sea. For
27Ibid, 291
28 Ibid
29 Ibid
30 Ibid
31 Wolff, The laterCrusades, 334
32 Ibid
33 Ibid
34 Ibid

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Nicholas’ father sold them to the heathens, and this happened from the evil
deed of demons. Because of this, the boy himself died, and his father met
met a bad death back in Cologne. Even more of the children died; for when
they were on their way people generously aided them, but on their journey
back home they gave them nothing.35
The chronicler of Trier notes that Nicholas died after his father sold them to the “heathens.”
However, there are conflicting accounts about what happened to Nicholas. Another account
describes Nicholas going on the Fifth Crusade and fighting in the siege of Damietta and finally
returning home safe.36 Despite the difference in claims from the authors, most of them do agree
on one thing: of the thousands who went to Italy, very few of them actually returned.37
One of the more polarizing concepts of the Children’s Crusade is the way the story has
been told throughout the course of history. Like mentioned earlier, not a lot of records exist
concerning the Children’s Crusade. This lack of information has helped form the “myth” of the
Children’s Crusade. According to Gary Dickson, man is such a producer of myths, and myths are
such a basic element of group cohesion, that historians, sharing the assumptions their audiences,
and addressing their concerns, cannot help but write “mythistory.”38 So to speak, it’s just a fancy
way of saying that events concerning the Children’s Crusade haven’t been defamed, but
outgrown, transfigured.39 Perhaps the modern mythistory of the Children’s Crusade starts in the
1960s of all places. U.S. anti-war activism in the 60’s brought up lots of comparisons to a
Children’s Crusade. So much in fact, that George Zabriskie Gray’s 1870 book The Children’s
Crusade was reprinted, unrevised in 1972 despite it being of “amateurish scholarship.”40
Journalist and political activist Thomas Powers celebrated the re-release of the book with the
36 Wolff, The laterCrusades, 335
37 Raedts, “The Children’sCrusade of 1212,” 290
39 Ibid, 6
40 Ibid, 7

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endorsement that it needed no revision, citing nothing of importance had been learned about the
Children’s Crusade since the first release of Gray’s book. Never mind the fact that eight
substantial essays had been written on the subject and had made Gray’s inadequacies
“embarrassingly clear.”41 Gray’s book may have marked the beginning of the modern “myth” of
the Children’s Crusade. But, however amateurish Gray’s work might have been, he certainly
didn’t make up his own stories and present them as fact. How did this “mythistory” of the
Children’s Crusade reach George Gray?
Mythistory isn’t a fabrication of events; it’s just a better told story. One of the biggest
debates relating to the Children’s Crusade deals with the children, or pueri (most chronicles refer
to the crusaders as this). Were they were really children? The popular image of the Children’s
Crusade is of prepubescent kids journeying across Europe to liberate the Holy Land with love.
Historians realize this is an amazing claim. Is it plausible? Not really.42 Historian Giovanni
Miccoli was one of the first to question the idea that thousands of little children went off on
crusade. He thought it was merely impossible to conclude from the contemporary sources that
the participants in the Children’s Crusade were small children, noting that various terms were
used to indicate the participants in the crusade.43 Like stated earlier, the most common term to
refer to the children was puer, which can be translated into “child,” or “boy.”44 However, Raedts
points out that even if pueri did mean only children in the modern sense, they certainly weren’t
the only ones involved in the Children’s Crusade. Doubts arise when you look at the Marbach
chronicle which states there weren’t only children but also adults and “married” children.45
41 Ibid, 9
42 Cecil Adams, “Is the Children’s Crusade fact or fable?,” (July 9, 2004),
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2503/is-the-childrens-crusade-fact-or-fable
44 Giovanni Miccoli, “The Children’s Crusade,” in Medieval Studies Journal (1961), 430
45 Cooke, The Epidemics of the Middle Ages, 354

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Raedts concludes that the term pueri could have included people as old as 28 years, and thus
impossible to determine the age of the pueri exactly.46 Also, the term pueri could also have been
referring to a social class. It’s possible that when referring to pueri, the chroniclers were
speaking of members of the lower class.47
Another example of the “mythistorization” of the Children’s Crusade comes from the pen
of the chronicler Salimbene de Adam who was born nine years after the conclusion of the
Children’s Crusade. In the 1280s while writing his chronicle, he lifted all of his passage on the
pueri from the Codex Estensis:48
In that same year of 1212, three boys of about twelve years of age…took
the cross as crusaders in the region of Cologne. Persuaded by them, an
innumerable multitude of paupers of both sexes and children took the cross
journeyed from Germany into Italy. With one voice and one heart, they said
that they would cross the sea dryshod and restore the Holy Land of Jerusalem
to God’s kingdom. But the entire multitude simply disappeared. In that same
year there was a famine so severe…that mothers even ate their own children49
A contemporary Peterborough chronicler especially makes note of the line which states “three
boys of about twelve years of age.” The chronicler likewise states that of the estimated 15,000
pueri, “none was older than twelve.”5051 This claim directly goes against the chroniclers of
Cologne, who stated that “many thousands of Children from six years old all the way to young
manhood…”52 Also, mentioning a famine so severe that “mothers even ate their own children”
47 Ibid
49 Salimbene de Adam, Vol. 1, pg. 44, in The Chronicle,trans. Joseph L. Baird,
51 Ibid
52 Shinners, Medieval PopularReligion,398-399

14
most likely didn’t happen. Instead it refers to the crusaders who never returned. Figuratively
speaking, they were eaten, consumed, devoured.53
However, the ‘children’ involved in the Children’s Crusade continues to be the most
embellished part of the entire ordeal. In his chronicle of Genoa written between 1295 and 1297,
Archbishop James of Varagine embellished the story of the pueri with mythistorical details.54
James mentions that the pueri were mostly sons of nobles whom their “fathers had provided with
wet-nurses.”55 The aristocratic status of these pueri in question seems to be a mythistorical
flourish. His comment towards their noble birth seems to be highly improbable because no other
chronicler can confirm the claim in their works. However, Varagine’s claims were taken to heart
by Genoese historians that wanted to believe some of their fellow citizens came from noble
backgrounds. This only adds to the “myth” of the Children’s Crusade.56
More controversy arises from the pueri, and their supposed innocence. Some medieval
chroniclers referred to the pueri as “infants” or “little ones.”57 Of course, throughout centuries,
one of the more appealing qualities of the young was their purity.58 In fact, that’s where the word
puer comes from. It was said that a child is called a puer because he/she is pura, or pure.59
Chroniclers playing up pueri innocence was not a rare occurrence. Lots of comparisons were
made between the pueri and the Holy Innocents,60 children who were two years or younger that
were slaughtered on the order of King Herod,61 and were considered the first Christian martyrs.
54 Ibid, 137
55 Ibid
56Dickson, The Children’s Crusade, 137
57 Ibid
58 Ibid
61 Matthew 2:16-18

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In Alberic of Trois-Fontaine’s account of the Children’s Crusade, Alberic claims that Pope
Gregory IX had a church built to house the uncorrupted bodies of the pueri who were lost at sea.
This church was dedicated in memory of the “New Innocents.”62 Figuratively speaking, the pueri
were the “New Innocents,” and in the eyes of Alberic, an equal to the Holy Innocents (despite
not being infants).63 Another chronicler also compared the starving pueri begging for bread to
the Holy Innocents who were killed for Christ.64 According to Dickson, the mere mentioning of
the pueri in relation to the Holy Innocents at that time is startling. It only more evidence of the
mythistorization of the pueri, as these chroniclers quickly rushed these youthful crusaders into
exalted company.65
“Imagination always exerts a gravitational pull on historical events, bending them into
confabulations, fictions, myths.”66 The history of the Children’s Crusade is awash with
mythistory. So much indeed, that the mythistory of the Children’s Crusade has become part of its
history. The fragmentary texts of the chroniclers intrigue us with what they say, and frustrate us
with their silence.67 So much so, that the social memory of the social memory of the Children’s
Crusade is largely grounded in its mythistory, not its history.
64 Ibid
65 Ibid
66 Ibid, xiii
67 Ibid, 15

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