Army of Hugh the Great on the First Crusade armies. Army of Hugh the Great on the First Crusade The Army of Hugh the Great on the First Crusade was formed after the Council of Clermont, led by Pope Urban II in November 1095. Hugh, son of Henry I, King of France, and his wife Anne of Kiev, was Count of Vermandois, "de jure uxoris", due to his marriage to Adelaide, Countess of Vermandois, daughter of Herbert IV, Count of Vermandois, and his wife Adele of Valois. In August 1096, Hugh and his small army left France "in prima profectione", the first army of the third wave to leave
Pope Urban II than to his own desire that Jerusalem be freed from Muslim rule. It was believed that originally that Urban wanted to send a relatively small force to aid the Byzantines, however after meeting with two prominent members of the crusades Adhemar of Puy and Raymond of Saint-Guilles, Urban decided to rally a much larger force to retake Jerusalem. Urban II refers to liberating the church as a whole or the eastern churches generally rather than to reconquering Jerusalem itself. The phrases used are "churches of God in the eastern region" and "the eastern churches" (to the Flemish), "liberation of the