The Seljuk Turks have taken Jerusalem and their westward expansions threaten the lands of the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios Komnenos. Long having fought to secure control of Asia Minor, he turns this threat into opportunity, and sends tales of Christian persecution, torture, and the desecration of holy sites to Pope Urban II.

The Pope, seeing a chance to both strengthen the prestige of the papacy and regain Christian control of the Holy Lands, implores all men of faith to Take the Cross and set forth on a war-pilgrimage to free Jerusalem from enemy control.

Hundreds of knights answer this call to arms, but thousands more answer from the masses of the pious, the so-called, ‘People’s Crusade’. Led by Peter the Hermit, a preacher bent on revenge for his torture at the hands of the infidels, and Count Emicho of Leningen, their host of warriors and peasants pillage and murder their way across Europe to arrive at Constantinople in the summer of 1096.

They are met with fierce resistance, with thousands slaughtered in the early stages of the fighting, but seasoned knights and zealous masses of crusaders arrive soon after, winning victories at Nicaea and Dorylaion. The Crusaders march on the great city of Antioch, once the dwelling place of the saints Paul and Peter, and a strategic key to the Euphrates frontier.

To take such a fortress city will exact a fearsome toll in blood and lives, but this is a price the Crusaders are only too willing to pay, for only by such martyrdom is the road to the Kingdom of Heaven revealed. Recapturing Antioch will be a significant victory for the forces of Christendom, and when the city falls, the road to Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land will be wide open.

The very best and worst of Mankind’s nature is revealed in this bloody conflict, a nature that fans a thirst for war that has echoed down through the centuries, and likely always will.

Graham McNeill