First Crusade in Asia Minor — Nicaea and Antioch — required large numbers of soldiers with experience in siege warfare, precisely the type of force recruited by Urban in France in his call to arms of 1095/6. First Crusade The First Crusade (1095–1099) was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to recapture the Holy Land, called for by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095. Urban called for a military expedition to aid the Byzantine Empire, which had recently lost most of Anatolia to the Seljuq Turks. The resulting military expedition of primarily Frankish nobles, known
Guilliaume de Montfort Guilliaume de Montfort Guilliaume de Montfort () (died 27 August 1101) was a French bishop, most notably the Bishop of Paris from 1095 to 1101. Montfort's date of birth is not known, but it was some time before the death of his father, Simon I de Montfort in 1087. He was Bishop of Yves some time before becoming the Bishop of Paris. In 1095, Pope Urban II held the Council of Clermont at Clermont-Ferrand, France. It excommunicated Philip I of France and Bertrade de Montfort, William's sister, for adultery. William had been noted as a great supporter of Urban II,