Responding to an appeal for support for a crusade to the Holy Land, the men, overwhelmingly poor, marched to join a small professional army being assembled with Papal approval.
In June and July 1309, Clement sent letters reminding those bishops charged with the preaching of the crusade north of the Alps that they were to solicit only funds and prayers and to discourage participation.
[2] The universally hostile chronicle sources, most notably the Annals of Ghent, agree that they were mostly poor: landless peasants, agricultural labourers and underemployed urban artisans (such as furriers and tailors).
According to the annalist of Ghent, "countless common people from England, Picardy, Flanders, Brabant, and Germany ... set off to conquer the Holy Land."
When the crusaders besieged the castle, Duke John II of Brabant, who owed the Jews protection, sent an army to chase them off.
[2] The "Brothers" asked Pope Clement to upgrade the planned expedition into a full crusade to legitimise their actions and permit them to fulfill their vows.
Instead, on 25 July, Clement granted a 100-year indulgence to any German who had taken the cross—and to anyone who had financed such a one—but was unable to fulfill his vow to go to the Holy Land on account of the lack of ships.
The official expedition was ready to sail from the Italian port of Brindisi in January 1310, but was delayed until spring by bad weather.
[4] Although no expedition to the Holy Land came out of the preaching of 1308–9, Rhodes was a strategically important base for future campaigns and the Hospitallers made it their headquarters in 1311.