In 1095 Pope Urvanos proclaimed the crusade to expel the Muslims from the Holy Land. For the following years the crusades continued.
In 1212 a 12-year-old, Stephen of Cloyes-sur-le-Loir, was received by the French king in Paris. Stephanos was followed by 30,000 children who started with the vision of becoming warriors of faith.
At the same time in Germany Nicholas from Cologne convinced thousands of children as well as poor adults to follow him. Nicholas and his followers crossed the Alps and arrived in Italy decimated by hunger and hardship.
Nicholas, a shepherd from the Rhineland, had promised that the Mediterranean would be opened, as the Red Sea was opened for Moses and the Hebrews, so that he and the followers could reach the Holy Land. However, the "miracle" did not happen and the disappointed children began to return home under the same hardships and dying by the thousands.
A few children managed to be transported, in two ships, to the Holy Land where they were all killed. Finally, Nikolaos was also arrested and hanged by relatives of children who had disappeared.
Stefanos' attempt had a similar fate. He and the children he was driving arrived in Marseilles. A few children set out for the Holy Land in seven ships. Two of them were wrecked. The other five headed to North Africa where their masters sold the child slaves to the Muslims.
The Dutch historian Peter Raents, studying the sources, came to the conclusion that the children's crusade involved many adults from the lowest social strata, while the children who participated also came from these strata.
Both the church and the ruling class did not support the Children's Crusade. It was a spontaneous movement coming from "below", which could not be accepted... It is questionable that this movement was allowed to happen by the rulers.
Consequently perhaps the Children's Crusade should perhaps be renamed the Poor's Crusade. It is rumored that the myth of the "enchanted one" that was widespread in Germany, originates from the crusade of Nicholas.
