Sigurd the Crusader

The Middle Ages in Europe were defined by the Crusades to the Holy Land. The First Crusade was initiated by Pope Urban II in 1095, and the Second Crusade, 1147-1149, was led by King Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of Germany. However, these kings were not the first reigning monarchs to crusade in the Holy Land.The first was in 1107, when King Sigurd of Norway, who was just seventeen, organised the highly successful Norwegian Crusade. The first and subsequent crusades to the Holy Land took the overland route, but Sigurd and his five thousand men sailed in sixty ships through the Mediterranean Sea. En route, Sigurd and his men fought numerous battles and defeated many Saracen pirates. In the Holy Land, Sigurd helped King Baldwin capture the strategically located city of Sidon from the Egyptian Fatimids. He returned home after four years, overland through Constantinople, where he presented the Byzantine Emperor with his fleet of ships.