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The father and progenitor of crusading is generally considered to be Urban II, a pope who lived between 1042 and 1099. The general narrative goes something like the following;

For some thirty-fifty years or so the emperor (Alexius Comnenus) of the Byzantine Empire (the late Roman Empire in the east) had been losing ground to the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor (on and off) and after finally regaining a certain degree of stability he wanted to strike back but was unable to due to the lack of manpower which had been lost in the previous years of fighting. He appealed to the Pope in Rome to garner additional forces from the west in the hope of restoring his territories. Urban developed a Propaganda campaign of sorts (it is unknown how much of his own declarations he actually believed) and a mass of people from all backgrounds joined together to march east.

Urban sold this as a religious conflict, for Alexius this was political.

The above is a VERY brief and VERY limited explanation of the crusades but it should be enough for the casual reader. You'll find more information available in Jonathan Phillips' The Crusades, 1095-1197. You may also find Geoffrey Hindley's book A brief history of The Crusades: Islam and Christianity in the Struggle for World Supremacy to be of interest (I find the latter to be easier reading.)

Hope that helps!

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