When people ask who was the pope during the crusades, the answer is not a single name but a succession of pontiffs who guided the Catholic Church across nearly two centuries of holy war. The Crusades began in 1095 and continued in various forms until the fall of Acre in 1291, meaning that more than a dozen popes occupied the throne of Saint Peter during this era. While Pope Urban II is the name most closely associated with the launch of the movement, understanding the full scope of papal involvement requires looking at how different popes called, funded, blessed, and sometimes regretted the military campaigns that reshaped medieval Europe and the Holy Land.
The Pope Who Started It All: Urban II and the First Crusade
The pope most synonymous with the Crusades is Pope Urban II. Elected in 1088, Urban II inherited a papacy struggling to assert its authority over both secular rulers and rival claimants within the Church. His defining moment came at the Council of Clermont in November 1095, where he delivered a sermon that would change the course of
