Walter Sans Avoir


Walter Sans Avoir,

Fr. Gautier Sans-Avoir, d. 1096, French Crusader, known as Walter the Penniless. He joined Peter the HermitPeter the Hermit,
c.1050–1115, French religious leader. In 1095 he was a very successful preacher of the First Crusade (see Crusades), and he led one of its bands.
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 as leader of an army to the Holy Land. In what came to be known as the Popular Crusades, he and his followers left well in advance of the main army of the First Crusade (see CrusadesCrusades
, series of wars undertaken by European Christians between the 11th and 14th cent. to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. First Crusade
Origins

In the 7th cent., Jerusalem was taken by the caliph Umar.
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). They passed peacefully through Germany and Hungary, but plundered the Belgrade area and were set upon by the Bulgarians, who killed many of them. Walter and the remnants of his army were joined at Constantinople by the forces of Peter the Hermit. The Byzantine emperor Alexius I agreed to provide transportion across the Bosporus to Bithynia in Asia Minor, where they were utterly defeated (1096) by the Seljuk Turks, and Walter was killed.