Alexios I Appeals to the West for Mercenaries
The Byzantine emperor asks Pope Urban II for military help against the Seljuks, and gets far more than he bargained for
Quick facts
- Location
- Council of Piacenza, northern Italy
- Byzantine emperor
- Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081-1118)
- What was requested
- Western mercenary soldiers, not a mass crusade
- Pope
- Urban II (r. 1088-1099)
What happened
By 1095 Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos had spent over a decade fighting Normans in Greece and Pechenegs on the Danube while Seljuk Turks held most of Anatolia following Manzikert. Seeing an opportunity to recover lost territory, Alexios sent envoys to Pope Urban II, then holding a council at Piacenza, asking for western mercenaries to help him fight the Seljuks. He had already written directly to Count Robert of Flanders on similar terms. Alexios envisioned hired soldiers under Byzantine command, not an independent army marching to conquer Jerusalem for its own sake. The World History Encyclopedia's account of his reign is blunt about the mismatch between what he asked for and what arrived eighteen months later at Constantinople's gates.
Why it matters
This appeal is the direct trigger for Urban's call at Clermont later that same year. Alexios got his soldiers, but not the small mercenary force he wanted: he got the First Crusade, an independent western army with its own agenda that would soon clash with him over who controlled the cities it captured.
How we know
The appeal is recorded by the Byzantine princess and historian Anna Komnene in her Alexiad, and referenced by western chroniclers describing the background to the Council of Clermont.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Alexios I Komnenos · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Council of Clermont · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Rise of Islam → · The Seljuk conquests that prompted Alexios's appeal followed centuries of Islamic expansion across the Near East