Excerpt "Stephen, Count of Blois and Chartres, To His Wife Adele" (1098)
Originally written by Stephen of Blois; Reprinted in "Letters of the Crusades," from Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History; Edited by Dana Munro; Published in 1896

Excerpt from The Alexiad (c. 1148)
Originally written by Anna Comnena; Translated by Elizabeth A. Dawes; Published in 1928

The Council of Clermont was called by Pope Urban II in November of 1095. Various pieces of church business were dealt with over the several days of the conference, but on the final day the pope called for a holy war to overthrow the Muslims from power in the Holy Land and return it to Christian domination. Urban II played up the desperate situation of the Byzantine Empire and also the supposed mistreatment of...