Q 01/05

Which pope launched the First Crusade with a sermon in France but died before news of Jerusalem's capture reached him?

A) Gregory VII

B) Urban II

C) Innocent III

D) Leo IX

Answer · why

B) Urban II

Urban II died on 29 July 1099, fourteen days after Jerusalem fell and before word of it had reached Italy. Born Odo of Châtillon, he was a Frenchman p...

Q 02/05

What does "Deus vult", the Latin battle cry of the First Crusade, mean in English?

A) God wills it

B) God is with us

C) For God and king

D) God forgives all

Answer · why

A) God wills it

The cry God wills it is first recorded in a chronicle written about 1100 by an anonymous crusader. A later writer says soldiers first shouted it as a ...

Q 03/05

Which donkey-riding preacher from Amiens led thousands of peasants east ahead of the First Crusade's princes?

A) Bernard of Clairvaux

B) Francis of Assisi

C) Peter the Hermit

D) Anselm of Canterbury

Answer · why

C) Peter the Hermit

Peter the Hermit's followers, the so-called People's Crusade, were cut to pieces by Turkish forces near Civetot in 1096 while he was away. He later pr...

Q 04/05

The First Crusade's barefoot procession around Jerusalem's walls in July 1099 imitated the biblical fall of which city?

A) Babylon

B) Nineveh

C) Sodom

D) Jericho

Answer · why

D) Jericho

Jericho's walls fell in the Book of Joshua after the Israelites marched around them. A priest's vision told the crusaders to fast and copy the march, ...

Q 05/05

Which famous king's eldest son, Robert Curthose, mortgaged his duchy to pay for his journey on the First Crusade?

A) William the Conqueror

B) Malcolm III of Scotland

C) Harold Godwinson

D) Philip I of France

Answer · why

A) William the Conqueror

William the Conqueror's eldest son pawned Normandy to his brother William Rufus for 10,000 marks. Robert was still on his way home when another brothe...