Historical Background for Les Peregrines
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1099 is the year of the first crusade. It was instigated by Pope Urban and was carried out by the nobles in conjunction with ordinary citizens. In that sense, it was different from the Second and Third Crusades which were run by Monarchs. In the First Crusade the kings of Europe and the papacy were at odds. The Pope at this time was flexing his muscles against the sovereigns of Europe. Urban wanted to be top dog and as a result, it was the nobility and citizenry who responded to his call for help in opening the way for pilgrims to the shrines of Palestine. It was however, a put up job because pilgrim access was not ended until the crusaders attacked. ---Justin

Bohemond Prince de Tarante, a real historical character, plays an important part in the lives of "Les Peregrines" as you will read later on in the story. Find out more about him. ---Eloise

The Crusades were seen by the arabs as Frankish Invasions. Amin Maalouf wrote " The Crusades through Arab Eyes", a work that helps to shed balanced light on this period. It was Saladin who said, "Regard the Franj! Behold with what obstinacy they fight for their religion, while we, the Muslims, show no enthusiasm for waging holy war. The tables, today, seem to have turned. Have they not? ---Justin

My feeling is that the crusaders were following their King's orders to go and deliver Jerusalem and did not have a clue of who the Muslims were except that they did not believe in Christ. Their orders arrived directly from the King of France through the aristocracy and the clergy and Crusaders were serving both blindly and wholeheartedly. Few Crusaders could read and write and be informed other than orally from their superiors. ---Eloise

The French King opposed the First Crusade, largely because Pope Urban ll, who was French, excommunicated him for adultery. That was Phillip 1. In addition, the monarchs of Europe were hostile to the papacy at the time of the first crusade because the Pope was seeking independence from them. Urban, however, wanted more. He wanted to control their appointments. They wanted to appoint bishops, a very lucrative position at the time. So the kings of France and Europe would not support Urban in his quest to take the "Holy land". Urban relied very heavily on the nobility and on the common citizenry to man the first crusade. That's why Les Peregrines involves the family of a parchment master. If you read the principaux personages, you will discover that while there are ducs and a comte, and the brother of Phillip l, there are no kings other than the emperor of Constantinople in the story. It is the nobility and the common citizenry who fight the battles against the arab residents. It is not until the later crusades that French Kings become involved. In the first crusade, Urban is in charge of the military effort to "defend" Christendom. Bringing the crusade to fruition was the first great victory of the papacy over the emperors of Europe. This battle for supremacy of the papacy over the kings of Europe was still around when Henry ll and Thomas Becket had it out.

The common citizenry engaged in battle with an infidel. Crusaders thought the palestinians had prevented pilgrims from entering Jerusalem to visit the shrines. That was not true but it was the message the crusader carried into battle. When in the heat of killing, crusaders made very little distinction between christian and muslim defenders of Acre and Jerusalem. The "Holyland" was not peopled just by muslims. It is interesting that both sides saw the opponent as an infidel. If the other guy wasn't wearing a cross he was the enemy.

In the mid to late twelth century, there was a fire in Fulbert's Basilica in Chartres. The entire church was demolished except the west facade with its two towers and the Royal portal and a crypt that housed a tunic of the Virgin Mary. The faithful believe that the Virgin stopped the fire before it reached her crypt that contained some dozen or so survivors of the fire as well as her tunic. It was this church that the parcheminier and his family attended before starting on their dangerous plerinage and not the great cathedral we see to day.

Fires were frequent in the churches of France and England during le moyen age and the church of the parcheminier and his family burned in 1144 as well as in 1194 when the current Cathedral was built. After the earlier fire, and during reconstruction, the faithful built the church with their own hands and backs. Robert de mont Saint Michel recorded in 1144," In that year were to be seen for the first time at Chartres the faithful harnessed to carts, laden with stones, timbers, corn and what ever might be needed for the work of building the cathedral, the towers of which rose like magic into the heavens. Men and women could be seen dragging heavy loads through mire and marsh. Lords and princes, full of riches and honors, even women of noble birth, their proud heads bowed, harnassed like beasts of burden to carts bringing wine, corn, oil, lime, stones, timbers needful for the fabric of the church. On every cart candles are lit and relics are brought to sick workers. ---Justin

The leaders of the first crusade were nobles from France and Sicily. They will be featured in Les Peregrines as the story progresses. There were four leaders; Godfrey of Bouillon, his brother Baldwin, Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond of Tarentum and Robert Curthose who is Duc de Normandy. In 1090 the Pope, Urban ll, is driven out of Rome by the Emperor. In 1093 he returns to Rome after getting help from the Normans. In 1095 the eastern Roman emperor, Alexi Comnenus, appeals to Urban for help in driving out the Turks from Constantinople. Urban convened a Council at Clermont and pleaded for an armed expedition to rescue the holy places from the Saracens. All those who should march on such an expedition were promised complete remission of sins and eternal reward in heaven. Urban gets the help of Peter the Hermit in convincing the people of Germany, and France to participate in a crusade. Peter's people are wiped out near Nicea but Godfrey of Bouillon with an army reaches Constantinople. Bohemond, and Raymond reach Constantinople late in April the following year. The story opens in April 1097 on the shores of Brindisi, where les pelerins are in company with the Duc de Normandy and the Comte de Blois. ---Justin

The family of Garin fits all these descriptions. They are Les Peregrines because they are travelers. They are les pelerins because they are pilgrims on the way to the Holyland. They are crusaders because they have taken the vow to participate in the effort to wrest the Holyland from the Seljuk Turks.They form a small part of the army of the Duc de Normandy under the direct command of the Compte de Blois. They are camped on the beach at Brindisi, Italy, in front of the Adriatic Sea. Directly across from them is Anatolia. All those crusaders from Chartres are nearby. It has been eight months since they left home. That means they left home in the fall of 1096 and have been on the road through the winter. A boat loaded with men, women, children, animals and supplies has foundered off shore at Brindisi. Many drown. Garin and Foucher, both of Chartres, have witnessed the drowned bodies being brought ashore and now, talking to their families, say that on the shoulders of the drowned one could see the marks of the cross-the symbol of the crusade. ---Justin

The crusaders are camped on the beach at Brindisi, a coastal town on the shore of the Adriatic Sea. Brindisi is in what is now Italy. It might be well to remind ourselves of the conditions of life in western Europe at this time so we can leave the twenty-first century and place ourselves on the beach at Brindisi. One has only to participate in the Civilization forum to realize that mankind remains very much the same. The things that change are the living conditions, modes of expression and the nature and degree of people's intellectual experience. Start with your own living conditions. You eat from plates using knives and forks. These pelerins ate from a common bowl with fingers and stale bread to assist them. You use a flushable toilet. They use the side of the road or the beach with sand covering their residual. Animal residual is everywhere. Hygiene is a serious problem on the beach.Pack animals serve instead of SUVs. One travels on foot. One bathes in rivers and streams and now, on the beach, they bathe in salt water. One depends on craftsmen for every thing. Shoes, weapons, baggage boxes, clothes, (those who drowned were wearing the same garments they wore eight months before when they "took the cross".). Carpenters and smiths were in great demand. The boats the crusaders used to transport them were built on the spot months before by advance parties who cut trees and shaped the spars and planks of the navire. ---Justin

One thought about les pelerins. It is the pilgrims for whom the crusade is conducted. It was said that they were prevented from reaching the holy sites in and around Jerusalem by the Saracens and the crusade was intended to open the way for them. History has shown that reason was a false cause. Freedom of access for pilgrims had never been interrupted. There are many on the beach who are only pilgrims, who will only visit the holy sites and not fight with the army. Garin and his family is not one of them. They support sieges and mix in the battles. ---Justin

The works of Bourin can be read as a simple little tales of le Moyen Age or they can be read in depth as we tend to read a book. Burin is an excellent historian and to get full benefit from her tales one must have some knowledge of the history of the Middle Ages. Much of what has happened before the encampment on the beach at Brindisi is referred to in just the first few pages. Par example: In discussing those crusaders of weak resolve Foucher mentions the battle at Rome against l'antipape Guibert. That battle at Rome is part of the investiture struggle which began in earnest in 1075. Gregory Vll, sometimes called Hildebrand, was Pope. He had declared earlier that the Roman Church had never erred, the pope is supreme, and that he alone may depose an emperor. No synod may be called unless he calls it. He may depose, transfer or reinstate bishops. He alone is entitled to the homage of all princes. That's tough stuff for an emperor to swallow and Henry lV of Germany, said "no way" and called a synod which in 1076 deposed Gregory Vll. In 1084 Henry entered Rome and had himself crowned by Gregory's replacement and Henry's appointee, Guibert, the antipape. In 1085, Robert Guiscard, a normand baron from southern Italy and friend of Gregory put an army together including saracens and attacked Henry and the antipape. Gregory fled to Salerno leaving the field to Henry and the antipape. I think this is the reference that Foucher de Chartres makes to the antipape Guibert and la lutte fratricide. ---Justin

It seems evident that this family belonged to the group of noncombatants, swayed by the pope's exhortations and convinced not only that they had a sacred mission to rescue the Holy Sepulchre but that by participating in this endeavor they would win eternal salvation, who joined the crowd of the faithful plodding painfully toward Jerusalem. The plot seems to make it evident that these worthy citizens walked a tightrope between salvation and damnation and strove constantly to tip the balance toward the former. Most of them didn't engage in battle but participated in other ways, getting supplies, nursing, cooking, tending the wounded, etc. ---Roslyn