Why did I take the cross ?
[deClari.Chronicle.01]
“Many good men of great courage left their homes, wives, and children; and took up the cross for the love of God and to save their souls. And they set out on their way, as the Church commanded.”
(Robert de Clari, La Conquête de Constantinople)
Clari doesn’t tell us his own “why” directly, but he lets it slip through the way he talks about others.
He belongs to that enormous medieval category no one ever pays attention to: the poor knights, vassals of vassals, men who lived more on duties than on glory.
When he says “good men left everything,” he is also talking about himself.
For someone of his social class, the main motivations were four:
Social pressure
If your peers went, staying behind meant being branded a coward.
Not ideal in a society where your worth was measured in courage and loyalty.
Faith, yes, but not naïve
The salvation of the soul was a serious matter.
The red cross sewn on one’s tunic was a “spiritual contract”: penance + promise of redemption.
And it worked. Very well.
Lack of alternatives
Clari had a micro-fief and zero prospects of rising in society.
A crusade was the only social elevator available, rotten as it was.
The need to follow one’s lord
He follows Pierre d’Amiens. Full stop.
In the Middle Ages, personal will was… let’s call it an optional concept.
In short, Clari doesn’t leave because he knows what he’s doing, but because this is how his world works.
And brace yourself: this confusion will be a constant theme throughout his chronicle.
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Thematic Connections
A) The “psychology of the ordinary crusader” (area: historical anthropology)
Faith alone cannot explain the phenomenon.
The mixture of honor, fear, guilt, and the need for recognition is incredibly powerful.
B) Feudal structure and obligations (area: social history)
For a lesser knight, modern freedom did not exist.
Loyalty obligations = obligation to depart.
C) The myth of Jerusalem (area: medieval imagination)
Clari imagines the crusade through legends, not concrete facts.
He leaves for a city he has never seen, and will never see.
D) The crusade as a “break from everyday life” (area: anthropology of travel)
For many men of rural Europe in the 1200s, leaving meant abandoning the known universe.
It is a leap into the void disguised as devotion.
