Peter the Hermit

Peter the Hermit (also: Peter of Amiens or Peter of Amiens, French Pierre l' Ermite, * in 1050 at Amiens, † July 8th, 1115 in Huy Neufmoutier ) was a French preacher at the time of the First Crusade. He had already before 1095, ie before Pope Urban II called on November 27, 1095 for the liberation of Jerusalem, began a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but was intercepted in Asia Minor by the Seljuks, abused and sent back.

" His contemporaries knew him as the" little Peter " - chtou or kiokio in the dialect of Picardy - but later gave him the hermit 's cowl, which he usually wore, the name " Peter the Hermit "by which he in the story better is known. " Anna Comnena calls him" Koukoupetros " William of Tyre says " he was known as a recluse, both from the facts and from her name, " Guibert of Nogent calls him" a man named Peter the Hermit, "the" as a hermit lived, dressed like a monk, " and Albert of Aachen wrote:" Peter by name, used to be a hermit. "

After the Pope's call Peter became the initiator and leader of the so-called People's Crusade, against which involved thousands of enthusiastic but inexperienced military adventurers. He preached in Berry, in the area around Orléans, in the Champagne and Lorraine, and then moved via Aachen to Cologne, where he died on April 12, 1096, Holy Saturday, arrived. In his entourage were soon thousands of followers and an estimated 15,000 when he reached Cologne.

Already on Easter Tuesday is a part of the train put under the leadership of Walter Sans - Avoir in motion, Peter, and a further portion was followed at the end of Easter week to 20 April (for details see: People's Crusade ), the rest remained under the direction of Peter Gottschalk and followers Volkmar and Count Emich of Leiningen once back (for details see: German Crusade ).

There is a widespread misconception that Peter and his group were responsible for the anti-Jewish pogroms, which hundreds of people fell in May 1096 Speyer and especially in Worms and Mainz ( Gezerot Tatnu ) victim; Walter and Peter traveled the Rhine and Main without incident up, then down the Danube to the Balkans. For the pogroms rather Count Emich of Leiningen is responsible, the group of Cologne from the Rhine went up a little later.

Peter reached in early July Niš, Sofia in mid-July and early August Konstantin Opel. On 3 August he crossed the Bosporus and invaded into Seljuk territory. Here avenged the military incompetence of everyone involved, as it came with the Seljuks on 21 October to confrontation and the train was completely wiped out.

Peter, who had previously traveled back to Konstantin Opel to ensure food supplies, and was thus escaped the massacre, now joined the later ones Norman and French knights of the First Crusade. With these he also reached Jerusalem, but no longer played a leadership role.

After the end of the Crusade, he returned to France and founded the monastery at Huy Neufmoutier, where he died on July 8, 1115.