Crusades · 1095-1099

The First Crusade

In 1095 Pope Urban II calls on western knights to march east. Students follow the First Crusade from Clermont to Constantinople and the Holy Land, look at it through the eyes of crusaders, Byzantines, Jews and Muslims, and discuss how it should be remembered.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1095 to AD 1100
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In 1095 Pope Urban II calls on western knights to march east. Students follow the First Crusade from Clermont to Constantinople and the Holy Land, look at it through the eyes of crusaders, Byzantines, Jews and Muslims, and discuss how it should be remembered.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why Pope Urban II called the crusade and why so many people answered.
  • Trace the route of the First Crusade on the map from France to Jerusalem.
  • Describe the crusade from at least two perspectives, including those of its victims.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1095

A call from Clermont

Open the map in 1095 on France. Find Clermont in the middle of the Kingdom of France. Urban II was himself a Frenchman. Why might he make his call here rather than in Rome?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1097

The long road east

Zoom out and turn on Historical Events (Sieges). Find the sieges of Nicaea, Antioch and Jerusalem. Through which empire did the crusaders have to march first?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1100

A divided Near East

Look at the Seljuk Empire, the Sultanate of Rum and the Fatimid Caliphate in 1100. How might divisions among the region's rulers have helped the crusaders?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Byzantine emperor asked for soldiers to fight the Seljuk Turks. Why did the pope turn this into a march to Jerusalem?
  2. Crusaders were promised the forgiveness of their sins. Why was that promise so powerful in 1095?
  3. Before leaving Europe, some crusaders attacked Jewish communities in the Rhineland. How does this change the way we see the crusade?
  4. For the people of the Near East the crusaders were foreign invaders. How might a Muslim or Eastern Christian writer describe 1099?
  5. Some people today use the word "crusade" for any great cause. Is that a good use of the word?
4

Game round

10 min

Play Rule History as Saladin, the sultan who took Jerusalem back in 1187, about 90 years after the First Crusade. Afterwards, discuss how leaders in the Near East answered the crusades, and compare with Pope Urban II's choices.

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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