Armies of Heaven

During the Middle Ages, people across Europe dreamed of visiting Jerusalem, the site of Christ’s death and resurrection. Although the city had been under the control of Muslim factions for 400 years, Christians considered it the center of the Christian world. Most Christians were unable to make the dangerous, long and costly trip to Jerusalem. In 1096, some 100,000 defied the risks and set out for the city. The disparate group included warriors, priests, paupers, bishops, prophets, women and children. Journeying from homes in France, Germany and Italy, these intrepid pilgrims were determined to march into Jerusalem, worship at Christ’s tomb and reclaim the city for the Christian world.

Three years later, a fraction of that group broke through Jerusalem’s defenses. After killing the city’s garrison and residents, the invaders transformed the ancient Middle Eastern city into the capital of a European principality. This long campaign became known as the First Crusade and fostered a broader sense of Christian identity in an otherwise divided European homeland. The campaign also represented a new kind of warfare: holy, unrestrained and fervently apocalyptic. Christians truly believed they were living in prophetic times and that their deeds were advancing God’s plan. They were convinced that Armageddon was imminent.

In Armies of Heaven, medieval historian Jay Rubenstein tells the story of this cataclysmic event through the eyes of those who witnessed it. Drawing from firsthand accounts, he emphasizes the fundamental role that apocalyptic thought played in motivating the Crusaders. A war fought on behalf of God and in fulfillment of his plan, the First Crusade provided soldiers with a new path to salvation, a way to use martial prowess to perform good deeds. It also enabled them to fight in battles longer and bloodier than any they had ever imagined. The sieges were full of pageantry and marked by extreme gore and violence.

At Moson, the river Danube ran red with blood. At Antioch, the Crusaders—their saddles freshly decorated with the sawed-off heads of the vanquished—indiscriminately clogged the streets with the bodies of eastern Christians and Turks. By the time the Crusaders reached Jerusalem, blood literally ran through the streets of the sacred city. The battles “surpassed earthly conflict pointing soldiers toward heaven as well as giving them some experience of hell,” writes Rubenstein. “When the survivors returned to Europe, and relived their memories, cooler and more educated heads could only agree: They had witnessed the Apocalypse.”

Compelling and well researched, Armies of Heaven illuminates the grand ideas that helped create and fuel the First Crusade.