Quote Originally Posted by lugh
I thought the First Crusade was mainly French with a large contingent of Sicilians? The fighters anyway. The two peasants that were slaughtered in Anatolia had a lot of Germans I know.
As I discovered from further research in response to your post, it was, although largely a French dominated venture, an international effort. I was incorrect about the Germans however. I quote from an article found at www.medievalcrusades.com entitled Medieval Crusades The Church and the Crusades:

At this point, we need a list of players. Many went along, but only a few are worth remembering. It was an international group, with members from France, Italy and England. From France, we have Hugh the (not so) Great, Count of Vermandois, brother of the French King of Northern and Central France, and a man of little character with no other importance to our story. With him were Godfrey, Baldwin and Eustace of Bouillon, sons of the Duke of Lower Lorraine-descended through their mother from Charlemagne-along with their cousin, Baldwin Le Bourg. Also from France, we have Raymond IV of Saint Gilles, Count of Toulouse, who had already fought the Moors in Spain. His mother was a princess of Barcelona. He was the first to "take the Cross".

From England, we have Robert, Duke of Normandy, son of William the Conquerer. From Italy, we have Marcus Bohemond, Prince of Toranto, son of Robert Guiscard, a Norman who had not fallen too far from his barbarian tree, and also his nephew Tancred.
There was also a disorganized mob of pilgrims, preists, and peasants that rampaged through Europe under one Peter the Monk, from France. They slaughtered many jews on their way to the Holy land, stealing their wealth to help finance the "pilgrimage". They were the ones you speak of. I'm not sure about the Germans though. I'll have to do a bit more searching.

I hope you don't mind the "lecture". I thought you might be interested in any case. You should check out the website I mentioned. It's a great site to begin a study of this fascinating period of history.

Have a nice day!
Rotogun