Life on Crusade: Preparation, Travel and Daily Survival

Life on crusade meant more than fighting. From the First Crusade’s departure in 1096 through later medieval expeditions in the eastern Mediterranean, participants had to finance a long journey, reach a changing military theatre, secure food and water, and live with the risks of siege and disease. Campaigns took people through regions including Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt; some later expeditions also targeted North Africa.

There was no single crusading routine. A noble knight travelling overland with Frederick I in 1189 faced different conditions from a sailor arriving by sea at Acre, or a foot soldier waiting through the siege of Damietta. The composition of each host, the route it took, its relations with local rulers and the season all shaped daily experience. After the loss of the mainland Crusader strongholds in 1291, smaller expeditions predominated; the Alexandrian Crusade of 1365 briefly renewed campaigning in the region.

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Taking vows and preparing resources

Many participants began by taking the cross, a public commitment to undertake a religious expedition. Crusaders commonly sewed a cross onto their clothing, and a vow could frame the journey as a penitential pilgrimage as well as a military campaign. Pope Urban II promised spiritual rewards at Clermont in 1095, although accounts differ over whether he offered remission of penance or full remission of sins. Later crusade bulls set out benefits more explicitly. In 1145, for example, Pope Eugenius III offered remission of sins, protection of property and relief from interest charges and protection against creditors to those who took the cross.

Preparing to leave could be costly. A knight’s participation in the First Crusade was estimated to cost as much as four years’ income. Some nobles borrowed money, received donations, or sold or mortgaged property; less wealthy men might join a noble’s retinue. Financing changed over time and could involve rulers and church institutions as well as individual participants. To raise money for the Third Crusade, England and France imposed the Saladin tithe, a levy of 10 per cent on income and movable goods. At the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, a clerical tax was also approved for a planned expedition, and donors unable to travel themselves could receive a spiritual reward for funding a warrior’s journey.

Preparation also involved arranging passage and supplies. Before Frederick Barbarossa’s army crossed Byzantine territory in 1189, envoys negotiated with rulers along the route. Frederick issued rules intended to control misconduct and organised his forces into divisions. The host still depended on markets and political agreements for its passage and supplies.

Travelling by land and sea

Overland journeys depended on permission, markets and the condition of roads and countryside. The main armies of the First Crusade travelled by different routes through Hungary and the Balkans before gathering at Constantinople. Byzantine emperor Alexios I arranged for them to cross into Anatolia and sought oaths that lands recovered from the Seljuks would be returned to his empire. The relationship could be cooperative, but it was also tense: the Byzantines were wary of large armed hosts, while crusaders expected help and provisions.

Some early contingents travelled in a very different way. Bands associated with the popular movement of 1096 set out ahead of the better-organised noble armies. Some plundered as they crossed Hungary and Byzantine territory, provoking resistance; most of the group that entered Anatolia was destroyed by Turkish forces at Civetot. In western Europe, unofficial crusading bands also attacked Jewish communities. Route, leadership and timing shaped how each group reached the campaigning area.

Sea travel could move troops and supplies, but depended on ships, weather and political circumstances. During the Third Crusade, Philip II of France hired Genoese ships, while Richard I hired vessels at Marseille after his own fleet failed to arrive on time. Storms later scattered Richard’s ships near Cyprus, and the island’s ruler seized wrecks and captives. By contrast, Frederick’s 1189 army marched overland. In Hungary, King Béla III provided boats, wine, bread and barley; further on, the crusaders’ relations with the Byzantine authorities deteriorated, and supply routes became insecure. Journeys were therefore shaped not only by distance but by the agreements, conflicts and resources encountered along the way.

Living in camps, garrisons and sieges

A crusading host was a moving camp as well as an army. Leaders had to keep armed followers together, manage disputes and decide where to forage or seek provisions. Orders and discipline could matter: Frederick’s expedition issued rules for conduct during its passage through the Balkans. Yet armies did not always remain orderly. At the First Crusade’s siege of Antioch, shortages and desertion became serious during months outside the city. Foraging and supplies brought by sea and from recently reached territories helped relieve the crisis.

Siege life could intensify the hazards of an ordinary march. Around Jerusalem in 1099, the countryside offered little food or water, and the Fatimid governor had poisoned most of the wells, according to accounts of the campaign. The first assault failed. Genoese mariners then brought supplies and skilled craftsmen, and timber stripped from their ships helped build siege engines, including towers. The crusaders also undertook fasting and a barefoot procession around the city before their next assault. At Antioch, where women were expelled from the camp during a period of severe shortage, the strain fell on a host already weakened by hunger and disease.

Capturing a city did not end the need for military manpower. After the First Crusade’s victory at Ascalon in 1099, many participants considered their vows fulfilled and returned home. Godfrey of Bouillon was left with about 300 knights and 2,000 foot soldiers to defend the new settlement. Later campaigns also relied on fortified towns and garrisons. The Third Crusade’s long siege of Acre, for instance, drew reinforcements from Europe while the city’s defenders, the besieging army and Saladin’s forces operated in close proximity.

Finding food and water

Food came through several channels: provisions arranged with rulers, markets, supplies carried by ship, local gifts, foraging and, at times, plunder. Frederick’s army received food and drink from the Hungarian king, while the First Crusaders at Antioch benefited from supplies arriving from nearby ports and territories. These examples show how much an army’s survival could depend on access to local resources and the arrival of reinforcements. When access failed, hunger could become a military crisis.

The landscape could make shortages worse. During the First Crusade’s summer march across Anatolia, heat and a lack of food and water killed men and horses. As the Seljuk forces withdrew, they had burned or destroyed resources along the route. The crusaders sometimes received supplies from fellow Christians, but also looted when they could. Around Jerusalem, limited water was a particular danger during the siege.

Later expeditions could make more deliberate arrangements. Before Louis IX’s Seventh Crusade, food and wine were stockpiled in Cyprus, much of it brought from Apulia. Yet planning did not remove the risks of the theatre. In 1221, crusaders advancing through Egypt towards Cairo became trapped as the Nile flooded their route. They retreated under pressure and eventually surrendered Damietta in return for safe conduct and a truce. Garrisons with fixed kitchens and ovens could prepare food in larger batches, while moving forces depended more heavily on purchased bread and provisions obtained along the route.

Women, households and supporting participants

Crusading forces included people beyond knights and foot soldiers. Estimates for the First Crusade’s main host include about 30,000 noncombatants, though figures for the total force vary. Clergy accompanied expeditions, and households could travel with noble leaders. Eleanor of Aquitaine joined the Second Crusade with her household; regulations for its fleet also referred to wives. The widowed marchioness Ida of Austria joined the Crusade of 1101. Women’s roles depended on their resources, social position and relationship to the expedition.

Ships, supplies and siege works depended on skilled labour as well as military leadership. Genoese mariners and craftsmen helped the First Crusaders build siege engines at Jerusalem. Sailors carried armies across the Mediterranean, while merchants and rulers helped arrange vessels, markets or provisions. Clerics could preach, lead religious observances and act as senior figures within a host. At Acre during the Third Crusade, materials from ships were used to construct a field hospital. Such supporting work was part of campaign life, even when it did not appear in accounts of battles.

Illness, wounds and care

Famine, exhaustion and disease repeatedly weakened crusading armies. At Antioch in 1098, an epidemic killed many people, including the papal representative Adhemar of Le Puy. During the winter of 1190–91 at Acre, outbreaks of dysentery and fever claimed the lives of Frederick of Swabia, Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem and Theobald of Blois. An epidemic also killed many crusaders wintering in Cyprus before Louis IX’s expedition to Egypt in 1248. These episodes affected campaigns at moments when armies were already dependent on uncertain supplies and vulnerable to attack.

Some care was organised. During the Third Crusade, wood and sail from ships were used to build a field hospital. In city hospitals, physicians assessed patients and prescribed diet and medicines, while attendants supplied beds, linen and food. Surgeons also travelled with some forces; Joinville describes barber-surgeons treating severely diseased gums during Louis IX’s Egyptian campaign. Illness and injury were not separate from military events; they could reduce an army’s strength, disrupt its plans and make retreat or surrender more likely.

Prayer, pilgrimage and worship

For many participants, the religious purpose of a crusade shaped how they understood hardship. The vow connected military service with pilgrimage to sacred places, especially Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians associated with Jesus’s burial and resurrection. The cross worn on clothing marked that commitment. In 1189, Frederick Barbarossa formally accepted a pilgrim’s staff and bag before setting out, linking the preparation for his expedition with the language and practices of pilgrimage.

Worship could also take the form of public action during a campaign. At Antioch, some crusaders interpreted hunger as a consequence of sin and undertook prayer, fasting, almsgiving and processions. Before the final assault on Jerusalem in 1099, they fasted for three days and processed barefoot around the city walls. A priest preached to them on the Mount of Olives. Such acts expressed religious devotion and could help rally people under pressure, but they did not replace the practical work of finding supplies or constructing siege engines.

Religious authority and interpretation could be contested within a host. Adhemar was recognised as a spiritual leader, but after his death at Antioch, clerics disagreed over the claimed discovery of the Holy Lance. In 1192, the Treaty of Jaffa, made during the Third Crusade, allowed unarmed Christian pilgrims to visit Jerusalem while the city remained under Muslim rule. The terms reflected an important distinction: pilgrimage could continue even when crusading armies failed to take or hold the city.