To what extent did the response to Urban II's call to Crusade in 1095 correspond to the pope's plans?
"The remarkable success of Urban's crusade seemed to confirm his preaching theme that God was fighting with the crusaders"
-Penny J. Cole
This view, that the First Crusade was a great success, is still generally accepted today, as it was by contemporaries. The crusaders themselves, convinced that their mission had been achieved, "entitled their chronicles Gesta Dei per Francos, God's work done by the hand of the Franks". But did the people of the First Crusade really fulfil all that Pope Urban II had been hoping for? If he had lived to hear of the capture of Jerusalem would he have agreed that the Crusade had been a "remarkable success"? This essay will examine the question of what Urban II was hoping for when he made call to Crusade at Clermont, and whether the people who responded to this call really achieved these aims.
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