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
Pope Urban X Pope Urban X Pope Urban X is a fictional pope created by French writer Voltaire in his book "Candide". Voltaire did this in order to avoid any consequences that would be incurred upon him, for in "Candide" Pope Urban X has an illegitimate child. In Chapter 11 an old woman declares herself to be the daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina. (Voltaire was being particularly cautious, since at the time and now the highest numbered Pope Urban was the eighth). An 1829 edition of "Candide" was the first to add a posthumous footnote by Voltaire to