In or around 1212, according to legend, bands of children from northern Europe led by a boy Stephen of Cloyes who claimed to have had a vision instructing him to march across the Alps into Saracen lands and convert Muslims to Christianity formed the Children’s Crusade.

The children – some accounts put them as teenagers from very poor, rural families – starting off in France, or in other accounts, under the guidance of boy from Germany named Nicholas – were tricked into embarking on ships, having been offered free passage by men who were, in fact, slave traders.