Pope Urban II (1042-29 July 1099), born Odo de Chatillon, was Pope from 1088 to 1099, succeeding Pope Victor III and preceding Pope Paschal II.
Biography[]
Odo de Chatillon was born in 1042 and was ordinated as a priest in 1068, and in 1073 he was created a cardinal under Pope Gregory VII. In 1088 he was elected as pope after the death of Pope Victor III, and he harbored a strong hatred of the Saracens. On 27 November 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Urban made his famous Deus lo Vult! ("God Wills It!") speech as he proclaimed the First Crusade against the Sultanate of Rum and the Fatimid Caliphate in the Levant. The crusade ended with the formation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Principality of Antioch, and County of Edessa by French and German nobles that conquered the cities from the Muslims. This began a series of holy wars called the "Crusades".