The Children's Crusade
The popular image of the Children's Crusade is of hordes of prepubescent tykes trekking across Europe to liberate the Holy Land with love. However, make the kids teenagers and for "crusade" substitute "rave," "meetup," or what have you--suddenly it all makes sense. It wasn't the Children's Crusade, it was the 13th-century equivalent of touring with the Grateful Dead.
One Stephen supposedly claimed that Jesus had come to him disguised as a poor pilgrim and given him a letter for the king. On his way to Paris to deliver it, the lad attracted a crowd of perhaps 30,000--many of whom, moved by the spirit of the times, allegedly decided to head for the Holy Land. The pilgrims made their way to the port of Marseilles, where two merchants, Hugo Ferreus ("Iron Hugo") and William Porcus ("William the Pig"), offered to transport them by ship. Of seven vessels crammed with kids, two sank in a storm, drowning all aboard, while the other five reached North Africa, where the children were sold as slaves to the Saracens.
In Germany, it appears there really was a children's crusade of sorts--that is, the participants were actually bound for Jerusalem, at least in their minds. Bands of young people arose in several different locales and headed south along the Rhine, at some point merging under the leadership of a fellow named Nicholas.
Quite a few pilgrims perished on the journey over the Alps. Nonetheless, on August 25, 1212, about 7,000 reached the Italian port of Genoa. Nicholas had promised that the sea would part, allowing them to hike to the Holy Land. When the Mediterranean didn't cooperate, the crusade fizzled out.
Few of the kids made it home. One group went to Rome, where the pope released many of them from their crusaders' vows. Some may have been sold into slavery, others shipwrecked.
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