Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?

Subject: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 09:07 PM

I feel like an idiot for not knowing about this until now. Now, I am intensely interested and would like to know if any of you know of any ballads about it. Here is some info I found in a Medieval Sourcebook online:

Medieval Sourcebook:
Chronica Regiae Coloniensis, s.a.1213
The "Children's Crusade", 1212

[Adapted from Brundage] Never in the thirteenth century was there to be a general coalition of Western kings for a Crusade, as there had been in 1187. This was in part due, no doubt, to the internal politics of thirteenth century Europe, in part to the gradual decline of the Crusading movement itself. That the spirit of the Crusade was not dead is amply proved by the eight large expeditions from various quarters of Europe during the thirteenth century. The survival of the Crusading spirit during the century is further shown by the extraordinary movement in 1212 which is known as the Children's Crusade. This expedition which, of course, was not a Crusade at all in the strict sense of the term ­ attracted thousands of children and young adults from northern France and western Germany to its banners.

The "Crusade" was preached in France by a peasant boy named Stephen from a village near Vendome. In Germany, a boy named Nicholas from Cologne started the movement . The sorry business was summarized by a chronicler in these terms:

"In this year occurred an outstanding thing and one much to be marveled at, for it is unheard of throughout the ages. About the time of Easter and Pentecost,4 without anyone having preached or called for it and prompted by I know not what spirit, many thousands of boys, ranging in age from six years to full maturity, left the plows or carts which they were driving, the flocks which they were pasturing, and anything else which they were doing. This they did despite the wishes of their parents, relatives, and friends who sought to make them draw back. Suddenly one ran after another to take the cross. Thus, by groups of twenty, or fifty, or a hundred, they put up banners and began to journey to Jerusalem. They were asked by many people on whose advice or at whose urging they had set out upon this path. They were asked especially since only a few years ago many kings, a great many dukes, and innumerable people in powerful companies had gone there and had returned with the business unfinished. The present groups, morever, were stfll of tender years and were neither strong enough nor powerful enough to do anything. Everyone, therefore, accounted them foolish and imprudent for trying to do this. They briefly replied that they were equal to the Divine will in this matter and that, whatever God might wish to do with them, they would accept it willingly and with humble spirit. They thus made some little progress on their journey. Some were turned back at Metz, others at Piacenza, and others even at Rome. Still others got to Marseilles, but whether they crossed to the Holy Land or what their end was is uncertain. One thing is sure: that of the many thousands who rose up, only very few returned."

Source:

Chronica Regiae Coloniensis Continuatio prima, s.a.1213, MGH SS XXIV 17-18, translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 213 Copyright note: Professor Brundage informed the Medieval Sourcebook that copyright was not renewed on this work. Moreover he gave permission for use of his translations.

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: Sarah2
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 10:48 PM

Hmmm...I read somewhere about the Children's Crusade, but memory (faulty at best) seems to recall the involvement of a hermit calling them to march on the Holy Land. I'll have to look it up when I get my library back from the bookcase building frenzy out there.

Don't recall any ballads about it, unless there's something contemporary in one of the history books pertaining...If anything shows up, I'll let you know (setting tracer), but it would be a few weeks. I don't know where much of anything is out there, except the stain and the polyurethane.

Sarah

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 11:04 PM

kat, I can't find anything remotely "period" but a group called "Chiaroscuro" apparently titled a song Children's Crusade, and the rock group "Sting" did this one, but it seems more like WWI lyrics........poppies, Belgium, etc. That's all I found.

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 11:13 PM

Hmmm, well I was just wondering. It seems a tragic point in history that should have had some memory written of it. Perhaps it was just too sad for them all to bring to mind.

Thank you both,

kat

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 11:16 PM

I wonder what happened to the link? I'll try again......you might be interested even if it's not Medievalish.....

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 11:18 PM

Children's Crusade by Sting.....trying again.

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 01:03 AM

Well, if they made their own songs, it sounds like they could not bring them back.

I wonder though.... it could not have been thus, but wouldn't it be wonderful to think they just went off on a lark and faked their demise to go live in Shangri-La?

Seriously, Kat-- your fancy seems to have been caught by this one-- how about you write some ballads from the viewpoints of those concerned? The brave boys, the shocked parents, their little sisters left bereft, the people they met along the way, the vanquishers... write one from Jesus' perspective too... the older crusaders who'd gone before... can you see it?

Gosh, what a project. Can you do it?

I'll tell you why. We need a way to work through the bloody side of church history, with all the truth and power intact, but so as to allow people to handle the awfulness. I bet you can do it.

~S~

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: GUEST,Wendy
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 11:41 AM

Some people have drawn analogies (or, somewhat more tenuously, actual connections) between this event and the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. See, for example, the Encyclopedia Britannica's brief articles on Nicolas of Cologne, the Children's Crusade, and the Pied Piper.

This is a nice site dedicated to the Pied Piper tale, which mentions the Children's Crusade as one of several possible roots for the story.

If you're interested, a Google search on "Pied Piper" and "Children's Crusade" turns up lot's more.

Sorry - can't help with the ballads, but I'll be checking back to see if any more turns up along those lines.

Wendy

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 12:04 PM

Thanks, Wendy. I hadn't thought about that conenction with the Pied Piper. I had seen a lot of sites on the Chidlren's Crusade on google, just didn't have much time to look through them, last night. I appreciate the links.

kat

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 12:52 PM

Any surviving music from this period of time would probably be in Latin and not Secular. A couple of the earlier songs that springs to mind are "Summer is I Cummin In" written in a Middle English style from about 1330 and "Deo Gracias Anglia" a song which espouces the English victory at Agincourt, 1425 ish I think, this is in both Latin and English. JohnB

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 12:54 PM

Thanks, JohnB. Good point.

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: nutty
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 12:59 PM

Again , this is from the depths of my memory but I seem to recollect Billy Bragg singing something regarding the Children's Crusade

Does that figure with anyone else??

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: GUEST,wavestar
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 01:04 PM

The saddest part of the Children's Crusade, to my mind, was that many of them were betrayed, not vanquished. As they marched to Jerusalem, they found people who offered them passage by ship or caravan - and upon reaching the middle East, sold them as slaves. And these weren't their muslim enemies, either. The others who reached the Holy Land were either slaughtered wholesale or again captured and sold.

I don't know of any ballads, but there ought to be one.

-J

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 01:11 PM

I did find some more information. I'll go look for the Billy Bragg, thanks, nutty. I agree, Wavestar, but it'll have to be someone else who does so. I am just interested.:-)

The Children's Crusade

Although it preceded the First Crusade, the "Crusade of the Poor People" is generally dismissed or amalgamated within the First Crusade in Western history books. Another crusade that went unnumbered was the pathetic "Children's Crusade," which occurred largely in reaction to the shame and humiliation felt throughout Europe over the Fourth Crusade, initiated in 1202 by Pope Innocent III.

The leaders of the Fourth Crusade contracted with the city of Venice for their transportation, for which they could not pay. When the bills were called in, the Crusaders agreed to pay in service--namely the sacking of the Christian city of Zara, a leading rival of Venice in maritime trade. Later, in 1204, the Byzantine capital of Constantinople was sacked and looted, and Baldwin of Flanders was installed as the first ruler of the Latin Empire. These atrocities, committed by Crusaders who never came near the Holy Land itself, horrified all Christendom and lowered the prestige of the outraged papacy, whose threats of excommunication were ignored by the Venetians. That Western soldiers could ravage a city that was both venerable and Christian outraged the East, exacerbating the rift between the Eastern and Western churches.

In 1212, a new crusade developed in France around Stephen, a shepherd boy from Cloyes (near Vendôme), who claimed to have received a message from Jesus ordering him to crush the infidels. Stephen's preaching, with its eloquent appeal to the pure of heart, seemed the perfect antidote to the shame still felt about the Fourth Crusade. Encouraged by their elders, an alleged 30,000 unarmed children joined Stephen to attempt to recover the Holy Sepulcher from the Muslims (the number of children, however, was almost certainly inflated).

At about that same time, a peasant boy in Germany named Nicholas is said to have attracted 20,000 children for his crusade, but the number was more likely 7,000 at the most. Nicholas claimed to have received his instructions from a cross of light in the sky.

Hordes of French children died of hunger and disease during their march, while thousands of German youngsters froze in the Alps or plummeted down the mountainsides. Finally, the French contingent reached Marseille and marched boldly up to the shore. But the Mediterranean Sea never parted as Stephen had promised. In the end, seven ships supplied by Hugh Ferreus and William Porcus, each with about 700 chanting children, set sail. Two ships broke apart in a storm, and all 1,400 children aboard them drowned. The rest reached shore--only to find themselves in Egypt, rather than Palestine, where they were sold into slavery by the treacherous mariners with whom they had sailed. Several were killed when they refused to accept the faith of the Muslims.

When the Germans arrived at Genoa, they had no transportation at all, and many ended up being killed or raped before their long journey ended in failure. If the fourth had been the most cynical of the crusades, the Children's Crusade, which had aimed to redeem the purity of the Crusades' original principals, was the most tragic. "

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: Hollowfox
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 03:32 PM

For an interesting take on the Hamelin angle, you might try "What Happened in Hamelin" by Gloria Skurzynski. (Four Winds Press, 1979, reprinted a year or two ago in paperback, I think). Nominally juvenile fiction, the author did her homework, although I question hte motivation she gave the piper. And you might want to take a look at Terry Jones' miniseries "The Crusades". The Children's Crusade gets mentioned in the first part. (If your library doesn't have it, it's for sale in the Discovery Store in your local USA-type mall.)
Sorry I can't help on the music.

Subject: RE: Medieval Children's Crusade-Any Ballads?
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 01 Mar 01 - 07:17 PM

Bertolt Brecht wrote a modern ballad about a contemporary children's crusade (not sure it had any basis in fact, but it certainly was influenced by the medieval children's crusade). If anyone is interested I could dig out the German text and maybe do a rough translation.