Shepherds' Crusade (1251)

In 1249, Saint Louis IX of France went away on crusade, leaving his mother, Blanche of Castile, as regent during his absence. Louis was defeated and captured in Egypt at the Battle of Fariskur. When news of this reached France the next year, both nobles and peasants were deeply distressed; the king was well-loved and it was inconceivable to them that such a pious man could be defeated by heathens. Louis sent his brothers to France to get relief, where despite the efforts of Blanche of Castile, it was seen that neither the nobility nor the clergy were helping the king.

A man, apparently an old Hungarian monk living in northern France, claimed he saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in which she told him to raise a peasant army to rescue King Louis. From about Easter 1251, a group of perhaps as many as 60,000 followed him, causing disruption, especially conflict with the clergy in several cities, and later began to attack the Jewish population. They never went beyond northern France as a large group, and were eventually dispersed by order of Blanche.

The violent attacks against Jews are described as medieval pogroms. Many of the victims were prominent and wealthy members of the community.

Formation

One of the outpourings of support took the form of a peasant movement in northern France, led by a man known as "the Master of Hungary" (Le Maître de Hongrie). He was apparently a very old Hungarian monk living in France, called Jacob.

The Master claimed to have been visited by the Virgin Mary, who instructed him to lead the shepherds (pastoreaux, hence the common name Crusade of the Pastoreaux) of France to the Holy Land to rescue Louis. His followers, said to number 60,000, were mostly young peasants, men, women, and children, from Brabant, Hainaut, Flanders, and Picardy. They followed him to Paris in May, where the Master met with Blanche of Castile. Chronicler Matthew Paris thought he was an impostor, and that he was actually one of the leaders of the Children's Crusade from earlier in the century. Their movement in the city was restricted; they were not allowed to cross to the Left Bank, where the University of Paris was located, as Blanche perhaps feared another disturbance on the scale of the 1229 University of Paris strike.