The Children's Crusade: Thousands of Children March to Holy Land but Never Return

The Children’s Crusade is one of the more unusual events that occurred in Medieval England. In the year 1212,  tens of thousands of self-proclaimed, unarmed crusading children set out from northern France and western Germany to regain Jerusalem from the Muslims. While never actually receiving official sanction, the so-called crusade was a disaster. None of the children reached the Holy Land, many were said to have been sold into slavery, and thousands never returned at all.

Between the 11^th and 13^th centuries, seven major Crusades were launched by Christians in Europe against Muslims that were in control of the Holy Land. In addition to these major military campaigns to the East, the Latin Roman Catholic Church also sanctioned numerous minor Crusades against her enemies. These included the Albigensian Crusade (1208–1241), aimed at eradicating the Cathar heretics of southern France, and the Northern Crusades (1193–1290) against the pagans of Northern Europe. Yet, one of the most bizarre episodes in the history of the Crusades is perhaps the so-called ‘Children’s Crusade’, said to have taken place in 1212.