Crusades In 1095, Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade in a sermon at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, AlexiosI, who needed reinforcements for his conflict with westward migrating Turks colonizing Anatolia. One of Urban's aims was to guarantee pilgrims access to the Eastern Mediterranean holy sites that were under Muslim control but scholars disagree as to whether this was the primary motive for Urban or those who heeded his call. Urban's strategy may have been to unite the Eastern and Western branches of Christendom, which had been divided since
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