Children's Crusade
THE, a singular movement in 1212, preached in France by Stephen, a peasant boy, and in Germany the same year by Nicholas, also a peasant boy. Some 90,000 children left their mothers and schoolmasters in the spring "to rescue the Holy Land from the infidels," and ships were placed at their disposal. The French contingent embarked at Marseilles in August; part perished the same month by shipwreck on the island of San Pietro, and the rest were sold into slavery to Mohammedans. The German contingent reached Genoa in August, and was utterly dispersed by various disasters before the next spring.