Reply To: First Crusade – Dorylaeum 1097

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There may well have been other wars (such as the start of the Reconquista in 1031) but historically the ‘First Crusade’ was called for by Pope Urban II in 1095 when he called for a military expedition to aid Byzantium and led to the series of Crusades to recapture the Holy Land.

The northern crusades seem to have started with the Wendish Crusade in 1147 but the official starting point was 1195 with Pope Celestine IIIs call but the Holy Roman Empire had started earlier.