Peter the Hermit
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Peter the Hermit. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the preacher of the first crusade. Little is known of his early life except that he was a monk born near Amiens. He is reputed to have attempted a pilgrimage to Jerusalem but to have been turned back by the infidels ere he reached the Holy City. After the great council at Clermont at which the decision was reached to attempt the liberation of Jerusalem, Peter journeyed through southern France, preaching a "Holy War" against the Saracens. He was clad in a hermit's robe and rode on the back of a mule, carrying an elevated crucifix in his hand. At the wayside, in villages, in inns, in churches, in short, everywhere opportunity offered, he inflamed the peasantry with stories of the maltreatment of pilgrims in the Holy Land and urged an immediate march upon the Saracens. He placed himself at the head of an ignorant, unorganized, unarmed horde of peasants said to number 30,000. They set out for the Holy Land almost without supplies. They swept like a desolating scourge down the valley of the Danube, perishing by the thousand from fatigue and disease and from the attacks of the native Christians who aimed to save their small belongings from pillage. A small remnant that reached the Bosphorus were massacred by the Turks. Peter appears to have preserved his own life and to have attached himself to a body of well armed crusaders who followed soon after. July 8, 1099, he had the satisfaction of preaching on the Mount of Olives. He entered the city of Jerusalem with the crusading army. He returned soon after to France and entered a monastery of which he became the prior. He died July 8, 1115.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a French gentleman of Amiens, in Picardy, who renounced a military life to embrace that of a pilgrim. At the end of the 11th century, a general alarm was spread that the last day was approaching; on which numbers of persons flocked to the Holy Land from all countries with a view of ending their days near the holy sepulcher. Peter was of the number, and on his return to Europe made so pathetic a representation of the state of the Christians in Palestine to Pope Urban II., that he gave Peter leave to preach up the necessity of a crusade throughout Christendom. The appearance, ce, zeal, and eloprodiquence of the hermit, produced a gious effect, and all ranks and ages, of both sexes, pressed eagerly into the service. With a motley army, estimated at 100,000 men, Peter passed through Hungary. In his absence, his followers attacked Solyman's army at Nicea, and all, except a few thousands, perished. Peter remained in Palestine, and was at the siege of Antioch in 1097; but on his attempting to make his escape, shortly afterward, was brought back, and compelled to take a new oath of fidelity and obedience to the holy cause. Two years later he was present at the siege of Jerusalem, where he displayed great bravery, sa and when the place was taken, was made Frar-genrunde icar-general. Peter, on his return to France, founded the abbey of Neufmoustier, at Huy, in Liège, where he died in 1115.