Term
Children's Crusade
A 1212 expedition of children intended for the Holy Land that resulted in shipwreck and many being sold into slavery in Algiers.
Filed underChurch History
Definition
(1212) An expedition formed by the preaching of twelve-year-old French shepherd boy, Stephen of Cloyes. At Vendome thirty thousand children gathered to begin a march to the Holy Land. Two merchants provided seven ships for them without charge; two of the ships wrecked, but others reached Algiers where the merchants had arranged to sell the children into slavery.
Sources
- 1.Jerald C. Brauer and B. A. Gerrish, ed. The Westminster Dictionary of Church History. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1971). 183Original citation: Brauer, Jerald C., and B. A. Gerrish, eds. The Westminster Dictionary of Church History. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1971, 183.
Last revised August 14, 2026