The first crusade: Peter the Hermit God wants it !

Peter the Hermit (also known as Cucupeter, Little Peter or Peter of Amiens; c. 1050 8 July 1115) was a priest of Amiens and a key figure during the First Crusade.

Peter of Amiens, born around 1050, was a French itinerant preacher at the time of the First Crusade(1096 - 1099).
His contemporaries knew him as 'Little Peter', but later the hermit's habit he usually wore gave him the name 'Peter the Hermit'.
After the call of Pope Urban II, Peter became the initiator and leader of the so-called People's Crusade, in which thousands of enthusiastic but militarily inexperienced adventurers took part. In his wake were an estimated 15,000 followers. Ugly and staring at the dirt, he rode barefoot in his cowl on a donkey. "Deus lo vult - God wills it" was the crusaders' watchword.
On 3 August 1096, they crossed the Bosporus and entered Seljuk territory. Here the military incompetence of all involved was avenged when, on 21 October 1096, there was a confrontation with the Seljuks and the train was completely wiped out.
Peter, who had previously travelled back to Constantinople to arrange for food supplies and thus escaped the massacre, now joined the following Norman and French knights of the First Crusade. With them he also reached Jerusalem.
After the end of the Crusade, he returned to France and founded the monastery of Neufmoutier near Huy, where he died on 8 July 1115.