Middle Ages Egypt and suffering from a series of internal civil wars. The Byzantines also faced a revived Bulgaria, which in the late 12th and 13th centuries spread throughout the Balkans. The crusades were intended to seize Jerusalem from Muslim control. The First Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Urban II (pope 1088–99) at the Council of Clermont in 1095 in response to a request from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) for aid against further Muslim advances. Urban promised indulgence to anyone who took part. Tens of thousands of people from all levels of society mobilised across Europe and captured
Bertrand de Montredon Bertrand de Montredon Bertrand de Montredon was an 11th-century Catholic bishop. He was consecrated by Pope Urban II, and was bishop of Nîmes from 1095 to 1097 and then of Narbonne from 1097–1106. As Bishop of Nimes he attended the Council of Clermont in 1095, and the synod convened for the blessing of Maguelonne island and the founding of a church there, He was also at the wedding of count Raymond of Saint-Giles. After serving as Archbishop of Narbonne, he was replaced in the dispute between Psalmodi and St. Victor of Marseille by the mediator Raymond William of Montpellier, possibly