The first people to feel the wrath of Urban II’s crusaders were not Turks at the gates of Constantinople, nor Seljuks in Syria, nor Fatimids in Jerusalem. Rather, they were ordinary Jewish men, women, and children in the cities of the Rhineland, who in the late spring of 1096 fell victim to the murderous instincts of Christian mobs worked up into a frenzy by preachers promising a quick path to heaven. In cities such as Worms, Mainz, Speyer, and Cologne, roving bands stalked the streets, burning
