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
Geoffrey of Vendôme monastery to Popes Urban and Paschal. He took part in the councils held at Clermont in 1095, by Pope Urban; at Saintes, in 1096, by the Apostolic Legate Amatus of Bordeaux; and at Reims, in 1131, by Innocent II (1130–43). He also strenuously defended the ecclesiastical principles in the question of investitures, which he qualified in several small tracts as heresy and simony; he wrote in the same spirit to Pope Paschal II when the latter made concessions (1111) to Emperor Henry V (1106–25). Finally, he always defended firmly the prerogatives, the rights, and the property of his abbey at