Q 01/05

Which pope proclaimed the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095?

A) Urban II

B) Innocent III

C) Gregory VII

D) Eugene III

Answer · why

A) Urban II

Urban II promised remission of sins to all who marched east, yet never learned how it ended: he died two weeks after Jerusalem fell, before the news c...

Q 02/05

Which Seljuk capital, site of a famous church council in 325, surrendered in 1097 during the First Crusade's opening siege?

A) Chalcedon

B) Ephesus

C) Nicaea

D) Iconium

Answer · why

C) Nicaea

Nicaea gave up in June 1097, but to the Byzantine emperor's envoys, who had bargained in secret with its Turkish garrison; the crusaders camped outsid...

Q 03/05

Which Byzantine emperor's appeal for help against the Seljuk Turks sparked the First Crusade?

A) Basil II

B) Manuel I Komnenos

C) Romanos IV Diogenes

D) Alexios I Komnenos

Answer · why

D) Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos had asked the West for mercenaries to help him win back Anatolia; what arrived instead were vast armies with a goal of their own, J...

Q 04/05

Where was the 1071 battle in which the Seljuks captured a Byzantine emperor and opened Anatolia?

A) Manzikert

B) Dorylaeum

C) Myriokephalon

D) Adrianople

Answer · why

A) Manzikert

Manzikert left Emperor Romanos IV a prisoner of the sultan Alp Arslan, who freed him on terms; his rivals at home then overthrew and blinded him, and ...

Q 05/05

The Latin battle cry of the First Crusade, 'Deus vult', means what?

A) God with us

B) For God and king

C) God wills it

D) God is great

Answer · why

C) God wills it

God wills it: one eyewitness chronicle has cross-wearing crusaders chanting it three times with one voice in 1096, and shouting it again with glad voi...