Why didn’t the Pope lead the Crusade himself?
Listener John asked why Urban II didn’t lead the Crusade since he seemed to be using it to increase Papal prestige. There were many reasons for his non-participation. He could have used the valid excuse of too many other responsibilities- every crowned head of Europe begged off involvement with this one- but a far better justification was safety. The Crusading army was going to have to walk on foot from Western Europe to Jerusalem, fighting hostile forces nearly every step of the way. The probability of success was remote, the possibility of death or capture was nearly certain, and the thought of the Vicar of Christ as a prisoner of Islam was horrendous. Had the Pope been captured and then forcibly converted the symbolic damage would have been immense.
This isn’t to say, however, that it wasn’t contemplated. The idea of a Crusade had first occurred to Pope Urban’s predecessor Gregory VII. His original plan was to lead it in person and leave the German Emperor Henry IV home to take care of the Church. The irony of course is that the investiture controversy almost immediately erupted: the emperor called the Pope a few choice names, the Pope excommunicated (and deposed) the emperor and it was war from then on.