Children's Crusade wanders Europe
1212
Bands of peasant boys and girls, inspired by a shepherd's visions, set out from France and the Rhineland toward the Holy Land they believed the sea would part for. Most never reached the Mediterranean; others were sold to slavers in Marseille harbor. The episode haunted the medieval imagination and became a parable for innocence betrayed by a world too corrupt to protect it.
In context
Also in 1212 (3 other events on record)
- Christians crush Almohads at Las Navas de Tolosa · Europe · War
- Kamo no Chomei writes Hojoki · East Asia · Culture
- Thomas Becket's bones translated at Canterbury · Europe · Religion
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Religion
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.