Yet the first wave of crusaders to depart Europe for the east consisted of poorly trained and barely controllable zealots egged on by populist demagogues, including a shabby but charismatic ascetic called Peter the Hermit and a rich but disreputable German count called Emicho of Flonheim. The “People’s Crusade,” as this amateur vanguard was later known, swept eastward through Europe during the summer of 1096, followed the Danube through Hungary into the Balkans, and pitched up at the gates of Constantinople in early August.
