Crusaders Miss the Mark

The following is taken from Christa Pöppelmann, 1,000 Common Delusions and the real facts behind them (Firefly Books, Buffalo, NY, 2006). 

In the first Crusade in 1096, two armies of beggars set out alongside the knights, one army from southern France and the other from Germany, regions that had been suffering from famine ... 

When traveling towards Palestine, these armies plundered many cities on the Rhine and in southern Germany, killing Jews and in some cases Christians. They never reached the Holy Land; they were defeated in Turkey; many were slaughtered and the rest sold into slavery.