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The major lords were the only ones who mattered :p Without them you have nothing, the purely religious motivated force was worse than useless. Without those second sons and minor nobility looking for kingdoms of their own there is no Crusade.

Maybe, they did get a bit carried away and the First Crusade at least morphed into some form of popular religious movement. It is notable however that the bulk of those motivated by religion got slaughtered in the first few battles and it ended up being the professional armies the Pope had...

Popes can be forced out, the last one was. Also regarding Crusades there was also a very strong element of taking the violent tendencies of the various feudal lords and kingdoms that were ripping through Europe and focusing that energy on an external force. It would bring peace to Europe and...