Urban II launched his appeal for an expedition to the east at Clermont in November 1095 and in a calculated campaign aimed primarily at the nobility and knighthood undertook a great journey through western and southern France. In other areas he relied on bishops and enthusiastic preachers to spread the word. We know very little about the mechanics of this process, and only rarely do we have insight into the reasons why and how individuals took the cross. Raymond of Toulouse, the first major layman to take the cross, seems to have conferred with Urban before Clermont. Indeed, William of Malmesbury was later to write erroneously, that he persuaded Urban to launch the expedition. The general reasons which we have already noted as underlying crusading enthusiasm applied to the leaders as much as to anyone else, but we know enough about them as individuals to be able to speculate intelligently. Robert Curthose faced a difficult political situation in 1095, for his brother William Rufus wanted the whole inheritance of the Conqueror and could bring great resources to bear to this end. Robert was an able soldier – he had once captured Brionne, a castle which occupied the Conqueror for three years, ‘between the ninth hour [3pm] and sunset’, but he lacked self-discipline and liked the pleasures of life – ‘to sleep under a roof’.