First Crusaders

It is interesting to read about the first crusades and to realize how important just having a market system for your troops (crusaders) was. This is not something I would have thought could make or break your town when religious crusaders were passing through. The ability for the crusaders following Walter the Penniless to get supplies while en-route to Asia Minor seemed to be a deciding factor in whether the pass through was peaceful or not. It seemed that the crusaders following Peter the Hermit were more likely to haggle over prices and battles were more prevalent than when Walters’ followers went through. I wonder if the people in the towns were more confident because they had held off or bartered with Walters’ followers more successfully? Obviously those that placed the armor of the sixteen men on the walls of the town, in Semlin, were not concerned about the next religious army that would appear.