Peter the Hermit

I was curious about Peter the Hermit after I had read material on the people's crusade. I wanted to know more about Peter's role in the first crusade and his impact on the conflicts to follow. This article gave me a good summary of Peter and his contributions: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/crusades/79579/1. I had previously believed that Peter played a large part in the recruitment effort for the first crusade and had inspired many others to recruit for the crusades while leading soldiers into battle against the Turks later in the conflict. It turns out the Peter did play a large role in recruitment but did not play as important of a role as I had originally believed in the actual conquest. Peter did recruit many to join the first crusade, and his sermon style persuasion was used by recruiters not only for the first crusade, but also for several crusades to come since it was so successful in getting people to join the effort. However, after he reached Turkish territory with his recruits, Peter attempted to engage in battle before a sufficient number of military men and tacticians had joined the fight allowing the bulk of the people's crusade to be slaughtered. While Peter did escape death at this engagement, he served little good in the battles to come when the bulk of the soldiers, knights, and lords showed up in Constantinople to plan their crusade to Jerusalem. Although Peter was very successful in his recruitment effort and influenced the recruitment of soldiers for decades to come, he did not possess the military mind to lead soldiers into battle.