The First Crusade: Clermont to Jerusalem

On 27 November 1095, at the end of a ten-day council at Clermont in Auvergne, Pope Urban II gave an impassioned sermon to a large audience of French nobles and clergy. It started the First Crusade. Nobody recorded the exact words: the five surviving versions were written after Jerusalem fell and differ widely. One of them has the crowd answering with cries of Deus lo volt, "God wills it". The pin marks Clermont-Ferrand, since the sources do not say where the sermon was given.

Location precision: The sources name the town of Clermont, not the exact spot of the sermon; the pin marks Clermont-Ferrand.

The crusader armies gathered outside the Roman-era walls between November 1096 and April 1097. Emperor Alexios asked the leaders to swear fealty and promise to return any land recovered from the Turks. Godfrey of Bouillon was the first to take the oath, and almost all the others followed.

Location precision: The sources place the camps outside the city walls without naming a spot; the pin marks the Theodosian land walls.

The first target was Nicaea, capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm under Kilij Arslan. The siege began on 14 May 1097 and the crusaders could not blockade Lake İznik, which kept the city supplied. Alexios solved it by having ships rolled overland on logs; the Turkish garrison surrendered at the sight of them. Today the city is İznik in Turkey.

Location precision: The siege ringed the whole city; the pin marks the modern town of İznik.

Marching on through Anatolia, the crusaders split into two columns. On 1 July 1097 Kilij Arslan attacked the Normans, who had gone ahead, and surrounded them with fast mounted archers. The French came up, Godfrey broke through the Turkish lines and the legate Adhemar outflanked the Turks from the rear. Arslan's army fled. The pin marks Eskişehir, the modern city near ancient Dorylaeum.

Location precision: The exact battlefield is not pinned in the sources; the pin marks the modern city of Eskişehir.

The crusaders began besieging Antioch on 20 October 1097 and it lasted months. On 2 June 1098 the Armenian Firouz helped Bohemond and a small party into the city and open a gate. Kerbogha's army then besieged the crusaders in turn. A peasant visionary, Peter Bartholomew, claimed the apostle St. Andrew had shown him the Holy Lance. On 28 June the Franks marched out in four battle groups, and Kerbogha's army broke and fled. The city is now Antakya in Turkey.

Location precision: The siege covered the whole city and its surroundings; the pin marks modern Antakya.

The crusaders reached Jerusalem on 7 June 1099 and a barefoot procession ended on the Mount of Olives, where Peter the Hermit preached. After the final push on 15 July the defenders fled to the Temple Mount, pursued by Tancred and his men. Tancred then called a halt to the slaughter in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and offered those inside his protection. Accounts of the massacre that followed in the city are from the crusaders themselves.