The Jews of the Rhineland greatly feared that the crusading movement would lead to their demise, so they sought protection against persecution. They wrote to the German Emperor, Henry IV, imploring him to forbid all his Christian subjects to pillage their colonies, murder their people and destroy their homes and synagogues. The Jews of Mainz and Cologne offered Godfrey of Bouillon a handsome sum of five hundred pieces of silver just so he could ensure their protection.
Both Godfrey and Henry IV did their best to uphold their promise to the Jews, but they were unable to stop Peter the Hermit’s brutal and unruly followers from hurting them. Peter’s German followers, under the leadership of the petty lords, Emich of Lusingen and Gottschalk, gathered an army of well equipped knights and pilgrims. Their first target was Cologne, the very city where Peter preached. “They suddenly attacked a small band of Jews; they decapitated many and inflicted serious wounds; they destroyed their homes and synagogues and divided a very great sum of looted money amongst themselves,” the twelfth century chronicler, Albert of Aechen wrote sometime after 1100.
Emich and his army then marched onto Worms; they slaughtered several hundred Jews despite the bishop’s attempts to stop them. After completing his dirty deed in Worms, Emich decided to march onto Mainz.
Upon hearing about the plight of their brethren, the Jews of Mainz fled to the Archbishop Rothard’s palace and sought protection. Tried as the archbishop did, he could not stop Emich. The Jews even knew of their impending fate, but they attempted to fight the crusaders. However, they were quickly overwhelmed. To make matters worse, the bishop and his men abandoned them in favor of their own safety.
Emich and his men set fire to the bishop’s palace and slaughtered Jews mercilessly, sparing no man, woman and child, except perhaps those who decided to renounce their faith. Those who were spared killed themselves to avoid any potential suffering. “The women slaughtered their sons and daughters, then themselves. Many of the men too, slaughtered their wives, their sons and children,” the Jewish chronicler, Saloman bar Simson wrote. “One man burnt down the synagogue to keep it from further desecration, then killed himself and his family.”
About 1,000 Jews were slaughtered in the Mainz massacre, enough for the merciless Emich to consider his work in the Rhineland done. He set out east for the Holy Land, but a large part of his army broke off and headed into the Moselle Valley where they ravaged more Jewish colonies.
Only a small contingent of Emich’s army made it to the Holy Land; they joined forces with Godfrey of Bouillon’s army. Many others returned home or met their fate in a pitched battle against the Hungarian army that failed miserably.
Sources Used:
Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades: The First Crusade. Vol.1. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1951.
Various contributors. Chronicles of the Crusades: Eye-Witness Accounts of The Wars Between Christianity and Islam. Bramley Books; Portugal, 1997.
Crusades and Crusaders 