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| The first Crusade |
For thousands of years, the Holy Land of the Middle East have ruined with blood. The scars of battle fought among the three great religions of the world (Jews, Muslim, Christians) are edge into the earth. But the deepest wound was made by a war between Christians and Muslim the clash of the cross and the crescent. At stake is a tiny strip of land just a few hundred miles long but with the greatest price....Jerusalem.
Of all the cities of the world Jerusalem has the most troubled past and the most troubling future. To the Jews it is the site of the great temple of Herod and Solomon, for the Muslims the place where Mohammad ascended to heaven, to Christians the place where their Messiah was crucified. After his death the word of Jesus Christ took route in Jerusalem, slowly shed almost four century of Roman rule to embrace Christian rule. But in 7th century the Holy city was forcibly seized by a new faith...Islam
400 years later the Christian wanted Jerusalem back, across Europe 60 thousand warriors were gathered preparing themselves for battle. One leader is a veteran warlord Duke Godfrey I of Leuven. He will head up his own army of what it becomes a three years crusade across three thousand miles to reclaim Jerusalem in the name of God. Godfrey is not just a claimed fighter he is also a generous benefactor of the Catholic Church and also eminently religious man. There is good reason why men would risk everything to the journey of a distant land that they might not return. Blighted with famine and racked with pity wars their European home land was a cursed place. They prayed a better life in this world and to the next.
William of Tyre wrote about the crusade as he saw it.
(In nearly all the circles of the world belief had failed the fear of the Lord never prevail among men, justice had perished in the world. Violence held sway among the nations, all virtue had departed and seized to be useless and evil reign).
There is only one organization that potentially can make an end of the anarchy...the Catholic Church. The Catholic faith dominated on the 11th century in Western Europe. The world of the middle ages is the world of deeply concerned with matters of religion. The Church could dissolve the bad of the sin, but lack the political muscle to wash the ill of the entire society. Feuds with the secular ruler of Europe had pushed the Papacy to the sideline.
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| Pope Urban II |
Until 1088 when the new Pope arrived in Rome Pope Urban II (A man that understood the political and religious current needs of his time and someone who knew to bring things together and channel them into a productive outlets). Pope Urban II need a master plan to put back the church into the political map. The answer to his prayers will come to the form of the desperate call for help from the old rival. In 1095 from the imperial court of Constantinople the political master of the Greek Orthodox Church the Byzantine Emperor Alexios the I Komnenos. The power of Alexios Empire was slipping, the influence of his Orthodox church had once stretched as far the Holy Land of the Middle East but Islam is now the dominant force on the region.
The Turks are recently converted to Islam, they have emerged from the step of Central Asia and sweep down into the Middle East in search of land. Fearsome warriors their armies are tens of thousands, they seized control of the Muslim territory of Persia, Syria and Palestine and finally capture the Holy City of Jerusalem. Then they turned their gaze north and stormed the doorstep of the great Byzantine capital--- Constantinople. By 1095 the Emperor Alexios is desperate to strike back but he couldn't do it alone, he appealed to the Pope in the spirit of Christian brotherhood, to send and elite force of knights to help him keep the Turks at bay. The Pope had now an opportunity to enhance his political power. Pope Urban set to highjack the misfortune of the Byzantine Empire, he would lunch his own Holy war against Islam. A crusade that would strengthen his Papacy and will put Rome in the center of the world political stage. It will allow to increase his authority from the knights of Central Europe, but in the expense of other secular rulers. It will direct the violent knights away from their practices of brutalizing the church in the west, it also roles back the infidel and allow the Christian to reclaim the Holy places.
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| Pope Uban II delivered a speech at the council of Clermont |
On November 27, 1095, at the Council of Clermont(town in France) , Pope Urban II delivered a speech that would be repeated throughout Europe, and whose (probably embellished) sentiments would be voiced to the general populace by local clergy. Pope Urban called for a war that would alleviate the suffering and persecution of Eastern Christians and free the Holy Land of Muslim occupation. Urban's speech inspired the widespread preaching of bishops and priests, whose frequent references to the continued persecution of Christ and correlative Biblical passages. The feudal obligation to God spurred thousands of men and women to "take up the cross" and join the crusade. His words seemed it preceded from God and as command from the highest (The cradle of our faith the native land of our Lord and the mother of salvation is now forcefully held by a people without God).
His sermon is cunningly crafted religious spin, spiced with exaggerated tail of Muslim atrocities against Christian pilgrims in the Holy land. It demonized the Turks, and presented the crusade as a apocalyptic war of two faiths. The emotional intensity that day was very high and when the end of the speech was reached. Urban give an appeal, and the people came forward from the crowd to take the cross. They literally striped a piece of cloth and form it as a cross and put it into their left breast over their heart that indicate that they are taking vows to go to the East to rescue their brothers.
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| Crusade route map |
Inspired by the possibility of great prestige and honor ten of thousand men and women, families and even whole villagers took vows to join Pope Urban's crusade. But for many there was another attraction the promise of great wealth. But the allure of the unimaginable wealth and the chance to seize lands which was said "the flow of milk and honey" was just the beginning. News soon spread of a greater incentives, Pope Urban took the an unprecedented step he offer to those who pledge their souls to the crusade to have a ticket directly to heaven. The Pope's sermon pushed the boundaries of Christian teaching. In his Holy war a crusade had now the blessing of God to ignore the sixth commandment "thou shall not kill" as long as he was an infidel.
Before the crusade had left Europe Christian fanatic sweep up by the Pope's words anchored to spill blood. To this fundamentalist none Christian is the infidel and the infidel is all around. The pilgrims run up in the spirit of cruelty to the Jews and inflected the most cruelty and slaughter them. They claimed that killing is for the service of Christianity. They attacked them and decapitated many and destroyed their home and synagogue and divided the lotted money among themselves. Across Europe thousands of Jews are massacred in the name of God. Murder and slaughter of the innocent became the hallmark of the first crusade.
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| Duke Godfrey I of Bouillion |
In the autumn of 1096 almost a year after the Pope's sermon, armies around France, Germany and Italy set out a three thousand miles march to aid the Christian brothers and liberate the Holy land from the Muslim rule. And the helm of the army of Northern Europe was Duke Godfrey I of Bouillon, he is a very religious man and also a great warrior and the leader. On Godfrey's side is his brother Baldwin the count of Boulogne. Ruthless to the core Baldwin was once destined to priesthood but turned instead to a love of women and war.
To take the cross must be very expensive, people sold their lands just to raise money equivalent to a six years of income just to live with the crusade. It is a whole society moving eastward towards Jerusalem. For almost six months Godfrey's crusader army clambered across thousands of miles over the rivers and mountain ranges of Eastern Europe. They finally joined forces with other Christian army from the south on their rendezvous point the spiritual heart of Eastern Christian community Constantinople (Istanbul of today) which was 900 years ago pursed on the tip of Europe, it is a Christian city.
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| constantinople |
The jewel of the city is the great Orthodox Christian cathedral of St.Sophia. Covered with mosaic of finished gold it was a vivid testament of the legendary wealth of Constantinople but crusaders scarcely had a glimpse of it. The Byzantine capital was surrounded by two concentric ring of thick stone wall more than ten miles round and 30 feet high. To the friends of his realm the emperor will throw open his triumphant gates and usher them into the heart of his city. But for the masses of crusaders they remained firmly closed. The gates had been sealed of direct order of the emperor Alexious. He was furious of the catholic army of 60 thousands is not what he had in mind when he ask Pope Urban to send an elite team of mercenaries. Because what he required is about a group of three hundred knights well trained and well armed that he could direct where he felt the threat is greatest. But what he got is something completely different. Tens of thousands of fanatical armed men that descended upon him like a series of pest or locust coming down that approached his city wave after wave.
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| orthodox cathedral of st. Sophia |
The swarm of soldiers that was sent by his rival the Pope is now camping outside the gates was large enough to attack the city. He couldn't afford to offend them but anxiously he could see a way to manipulate them towards on his advantage. The Emperor invited the principle commander of the crusade into his lair, the inner sanctum of the imperial palace. Alexious is confident that he could win Duke Godfrey and his brother Baldwin. But now they have been joined by another crusade commander Bohemund of Taranto. He is the aggressive eldest son of the family of Norman mercenaries who recently taken control of the Southern Italy. Bohemund experience in war is invaluable. He already battled the Muslim is Sicily and won, but for years he was also fighting with the Byzantine. But Bohemund like other crusaders is better soldier than a politician they are all about outwitted.
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| Bohemund of Taranto |
When the emperor had the Bohemund, (the most distinguished man) had arrived he ordered to welcome him with a proper ceremony. Then once he is settled in, he invited Duke Godfrey and Baldwin to a secrete conference. He planned how to trap these Christian knights in cunning. Alexious had lost most of his empire to the Turks; he wanted his lands back not to see to pass on to the rival Catholic army.
The Emperor had still one trump card to his sleeve. When the crusaders came to his land one thing that they needed...... food. They are the armies that are unprepared; the crusaders must start business with Alexios. In return to his promise to supply food each of the three crusaders leaders must swear an oath to be a legion of the Emperor. By that oath they grant Alexious of the commanding role of the whole campaigns, and vow to return to his empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church any lands that they may win back to the Turks. Soon they will be on the enemy territory for the first time and this fragile alliance would be put to the test.
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| map location of Nicea |
With Constantinople behind them the crusaders still had a thousand miles of hostile territories across before they reach Jerusalem. After only a few weeks in May 1097 they reached the enemy held city of Nicea (today Iznik) had once a Byzantine city but 20 years earlier it was been seized by a Turkish warlords. It is now the new fortress capital of the new sultan Kilidj Arslan. Breaking their way in to Nicea will not be easy a thick 3mile long wall enclosed three side of the city. For six weeks the crusaders be seized Nicea, the fighting was intense but the morale of the Christians is high, they are in the verge of their first victim.
Though the crusaders had promised to return the city to the Byzantine emperor Alexious control they expected to keep Nicea by themselves. But their Byzantine allies was about to pull the rug under their feet. Along the western flank of the city there's a great Ascanian lake, here earlier on June 18, 1097, emissary of the Byzantine emperor initiated a secret plan to take the city and its spoils for themselves.
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| Ascanian Lake |
The Byzantine had brought their ships to the lake to help the siege, but they used their ship for quite a different purpose. They secretly contacted the Turks in the city ( they much more surrender peacefully to the Byzantine than to be chopped up to a little pieces by the crusader that are obviously thirsting to their blood). And when morning breaks on the battlement of the city are the imperial flag flying...the city had surrendered. And the site of the imperial banner above the city rampart. The crusader army have been double crossed by their so called Christian brother Emperor Alexious. The crusaders are betrayed. Robbed by the spoils of Nicea. The crusaders packed up their camps and ventured deeper to the enemy territory heading towards Jerusalem but they are not alone.
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| Sultan Kilijd Arnsland |
From the hills the Turkish Sultan Kilijd Arnsland shadowed their every step. He had just lost his fortresses now he wanted revenge. The Turkish leader would unleash the full might of his fighting force. More than fifty thousand men scouting the land ahead to the Crusader Army he found the perfect site of the surprises attack (the junction of two valleys) and it is known as the battle of Dorylaeum the first major battle of the crusade. A vanguard of 20 thousand men lead by Bohemund was separated from the rest of the crusaders. They end up camping alone and vulnerable in the very valley chosen by Kilijd Arnsland for his ambush, 35 miles from Nicea . At dawn July 1, 1097 tens of thousands of Turks had mounted ahead to attack against Bohemund force who camped alone on the valley bed ( gentlemen brave soldiers of Christ you can see that we are encircled and the hard battle lies ahead therefore let all knights go out and fight like men and meet the enemy...as he shouted).
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| Archer on Horse back) |
With the Turks strumming to the camp the crusaders are pinned down no matter how many Turks they killed they were losing more men. The wave after another wave of Turkish cavalry sweeps towards them. They are now facing a kind of warfare that they never encountered before. These are not ordinary riders these are archers mounted on horseback they attack quickly and very light and shooting arrows in the back of the horse in a very fast speed. This new tactics decimating Bohemund forces of 20 thousand men. But mounted archers were not the only one the Turks installed, they can draw an arrow in a far distances (the Nowkia) this are a battalion inside the Turks army where arrow foot soldiers, (they will lay down their back to the ground and use a huge bow and used both muscles of their legs to draw and released the arrow hundred of meters away).
Bohemund now lost some four thousand men and now the Turks are closing in for the kill. Desperately he ordered his men to hold behind the line of his camp. But beyond the valley help was in hand with the army of Godfrey and Baldwin pouring into the valley the crusader force swell to 55 thousand men. The sheared numbers of combined crusaders force are over whelm the Turks. The crusaders now believed that they are now invincible. One of the crusaders wrote to his wife that they are on the gates of Jerusalem in just five weeks.
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| Baldwin the count of Boulogne |
But they are wrong in just over a month they are still hundreds of miles away from the Holy City and hundreds more would be dead not from battle but the from the perils of the journey itself. The crusaders had successfully defeated the Turkish army Kilidj Arnslin on Dorylaeum. But their leaders feared another ambush instead following the direct route of the Holy Land they uptrend more secured pass across the anti-Taurus mountains. These mountains are so high and steep that no one of the soldiers could dare to over pass the other, horses fell over the ridges. Compelled to travel in single file it took them three weeks to cross the mountains. And the worse is yet to come. Already exhausted they headed down into the Arab plane of Pesidea a 90 degree heat (this land is deserted waterless and inhabitable they suffered from hunger and thirst) more of five hundred of them died and frustrated of suffering. One noble casualty was Godehilde de Toeni the wife of Baldwin a very wealthy woman. Her death means that his chances of becoming rich when he went back home had gone. Baldwin look out was changed his policy now with wealth and territory of his own.The day of her death his aimed had changed he became greedy. Baldwin took a few hundred Knights and left the main army with the solo mission. If he want to make up the loss of his wife wealth the easiest coarse is to seize a city of his own. A hundred miles to the east is the perfect target.... Edessa.
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| Ancient city of Edessa |
Edessa is a wealthy city, it generates its own income to metal works. It is a fertile region and also in a trade routes. The problem was Edessa was not in Muslim hands it was a Christian city it held out against the Turks. The people of Edessa are weary of constant attack of the Muslims. When the news spread that the great crusader prince was close by, the citizens pleaded to their governor Thorus (a Christian Armenian) to invite Baldwin to come to their aid. Thorus was useless he was unable to protect his citizen from the danger of the infidel. Baldwin help will come with a price. He would protect Edessa from the Turks in return for the keys of the city. Thorus naively promised Baldwin to be a new ruler but only after his death. The old man sealed his faith by adopting Baldwin as his son, but for Baldwin Thorus death would not come soon enough. Thorus soon realized that he was been deceived so he runs for his life. He took a rope then let it down from the tower, but immediately they sought him down in the middle of the street and cut his head and put it in the spear and rounded it in the city for every one could see.
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| Ruins of the walls and towers of Antioch |
As Baldwin celebrated his success of taking Edessa a hundred and fifty miles in the South West the main crusader army arrived to the great walled city of Antioch. Since the time of the apostle St.Peter it is a striving Christian city. But in 1095 the Turks had seized control. (This would be a price second only to Jerusalem but a price worth dying for). It was surrounded by two great tower walls each one of which are very high and amazingly broad it was build with huge stones and anather sets of 450 smaller towers and alongside the city walls runs a deep river and all above the city are beautiful. The crusaders wanted the city for many reasons. One and foremost is strategic Antioch is literally the gate way to Syria and the holy land. If they leave the city behind them their route for escape and their route of resupply and reinforcement will be cut off. Spiritually Antioch is almost equal of Jerusalem of any ways. Because in Christian tradition it was the site of the founding of the very first Christian church by St. Peter the apostle of Christ. The majority of Antioch inhabitants are Armenia and Orthodox Christians. Their Turkish ruler granted them a total freedom to worship. But this was not enough for the crusaders outside the city walls. They wanted to remove the Turks from power and return the city to the Christian rule, (but taking it back wouldn't be easy because Antioch is a very well defended city).
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| Yaghi-Siyan Governor of Antioch |
Yaghi-Siyan (the ruler of Antioch) did his outmost to keep the enemy out. But he knew any of the local Christians might be persuaded to let the enemy in. So he sent all the Muslims outside the city walls to dig trenches and the next day he sent the Christians themselves to do the same task. When they are ready to return home in the end of the day, he refused to let them in ( Antioch is yours he said but you leave it to me until we will found out what will happen between us and the enemy) Yaghi-Siyan believe he made Antioch undefeatable.
And then he turns his attention to the crusaders army outside the city walls he fought the crusaders vigorously and his effort payed off. After eight months the crusaders are no close of getting in and the condition in the camp is utterly desperate. Food has been always been scares and they have the expelled Christian to feed as well. As the siege drag on the crusaders has nothing else to eat day by day and the famine grew. The crusaders forced to drain blood from their horses and drink it. The suffering of the crusaders are about to get worst.
Yaghi -siyan used pegions to bring messages to other tribes in the Muslim world to ask reinforcements. Two months later Christian scouts reported that a massive Turkish army was on its way. The crusaders have no time, they need to break in the city quickly. It was Bohemund found the weak spot of the city defenses. A traitor in the Muslim ranks named Firouz (they bride him with the fortune and lands).Firouz was a commander not only of one tower but of three towers.
Yaghi -siyan used pegions to bring messages to other tribes in the Muslim world to ask reinforcements. Two months later Christian scouts reported that a massive Turkish army was on its way. The crusaders have no time, they need to break in the city quickly. It was Bohemund found the weak spot of the city defenses. A traitor in the Muslim ranks named Firouz (they bride him with the fortune and lands).Firouz was a commander not only of one tower but of three towers.
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| The seige of Antioch |
All the preparation was made towards dawn the knight and the foot soldier began to approach the towers which Firouz was warden and Bohemund said (go on strong at heart and lucky enough and scale the ladders into Antioch because for Gods will this city is ours as price). They took the ladders and amazing number of men begun to claimed but then disaster strikes the ladder broke up, but it was too late to turn back more crusaders was scramming up to the remaining ladders into Firouz tower. Within minute they are streaming down in the battlement of the city and opening the gates for the rest of the knights waiting outside the city walls.
Eight months of starvation and disease left the crusaders no mood for mercy. Guided by the local Christian of Antioch they flush the Muslim out to their homes, city streets and the mosque and killed them indiscriminately (every street and every corners are full of corpses so that no one can endures to be there because of the stench, no they can walk to the narrow path because of the dead). Everyone was massacred Jews, Christian, Muslim women children and elderly. But the only one inhabitant of Antioch that the crusader did not find was the Turkish ruler Yaghi-Siyan. He manages to escape. Yaghi-siyan panic, he open the gate and manage to escape with the escort of 30 men. When he recovered his self control, he repented having rushed to safety instead of staying there and fight to the death. He started groaning and weeping. When he was on his last gasp a shepherd pass by killed him and cut off his head and took it to the crusaders in Antioch. Yaghi-siyan's head on the stick was a small consolation for the crusaders. Bohemund have much more to worry about. Yaghi-siyan message had gotten through, the day after his execution. The Turkish reinforcement finally arrived, and the Christian besiegers are now becomed the besieged.
Eight months of starvation and disease left the crusaders no mood for mercy. Guided by the local Christian of Antioch they flush the Muslim out to their homes, city streets and the mosque and killed them indiscriminately (every street and every corners are full of corpses so that no one can endures to be there because of the stench, no they can walk to the narrow path because of the dead). Everyone was massacred Jews, Christian, Muslim women children and elderly. But the only one inhabitant of Antioch that the crusader did not find was the Turkish ruler Yaghi-Siyan. He manages to escape. Yaghi-siyan panic, he open the gate and manage to escape with the escort of 30 men. When he recovered his self control, he repented having rushed to safety instead of staying there and fight to the death. He started groaning and weeping. When he was on his last gasp a shepherd pass by killed him and cut off his head and took it to the crusaders in Antioch. Yaghi-siyan's head on the stick was a small consolation for the crusaders. Bohemund have much more to worry about. Yaghi-siyan message had gotten through, the day after his execution. The Turkish reinforcement finally arrived, and the Christian besiegers are now becomed the besieged.
In June 1098, after the eight months siege, the crusaders had finally taken the Ancient city of Antioch. Ironically they have traded places with the enemy. The Christian is now imprisoned behind the walls, and the Turks are in the outside ready to besiege.
This is a very difficult situation the morale is rock bottom everybody is frightened. And in this desperate situation the basic motivation and belief of the crusaders came out. The belief of the leading members that somehow God was on their side. The crusaders prayed for a miracle and they got one. News spreads that God sent a message to one of the crusaders in a vision. The crusader is only a lonely priest from France but his vision inspired the entire army. He was a pilgrim by the name Peter Bartholomew. One night so he said, St. Andrew the apostle appeared unto him and said, no my son but if you go to the church of the Blessed Peter on the city of Antioch then you shall find the holy lance, the spear that Jesus Christ was pierced when he was hanging in the cross.
To find the holy lance in the time of deep crisis can lead to a deepest connection between the crusaders and Christ. A signal from God that everybody can focus on, with this unarguable and undisputable evedence. It is a solid metal token from God's will. On June 1098 Peter Bartholomew handpicked his band of 12 disciples and dash to the small church to dig the floor where he claimed the holy lance was buried. After a day and night of digging, their hope had gone to fail. But Peter himself went into the pit inside the church and pulled out a piece of rusty metal. He claimed he found the elusive holy lance. The people in the army recovered their morale, this is a moment of violent religious exaltation. The mood of the army changes, aggression replaced the defeatism, this is the army ready to fight.
The crusaders had only 200 horses left but they still rolled out to face the
Turks head on the holy land held high. One eye witnessed yet spoke another vision, army of spirits sent by God (a countless men with white horses whose banners are all white. When the men saw this they did not understand what was happening on. Until they realized this is the blessed help sent by God). The Turks fled in terror and with God's help they defeated them. Whether the vision was real or just elaborate hopes to boost morale, the city of Antioch was now again in Christian hands. But it will never be returned in the control of the hands of the Byzantine Emperor. Bohemund amend his promise to the Byzantine emperor and make himself the Prince of Antioch. He completely broken his promise to Alexious. His territory is now in crusaders hand, Baldwin controlled all the lands around Edessa and Bohemund the territory around Antioch both are now very rich men.
But in the end of 1098 as the leaders completely consumed of their new principalities they began to argue on whether to continue their march to Jerusalem. There are huge arguments right across the range among the leader all the way through different levels of the army about where the crusade should go next. Whether they should continue directly march to Jerusalem or should they recover their strength and how long they should wait. What route should they take. And the potential is for the army to literally just be fall apart into different direction, for people to start returning home or to lose their interest entirely. As the crusaders squabbled the troops demanded that the army march Southward to Jerusalem to them the true goal of the crusade had been forgotten. Their anger and frustration finally boiled over in a small town two days ride from Antioch called Maarrat Al Numan, (north west corner of Syria). It would be here that the Christian would commit the most evil atrocity of the crusade. The crusaders are really indiscriminate about killing both inhabitant regardless of their faith or religion. As the crusaders consolidate their hold on the land around Antioch a small contingent arrived here.
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| The holy Lance |
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| St. Andrew diciple of St, John |
The crusaders had only 200 horses left but they still rolled out to face the
Turks head on the holy land held high. One eye witnessed yet spoke another vision, army of spirits sent by God (a countless men with white horses whose banners are all white. When the men saw this they did not understand what was happening on. Until they realized this is the blessed help sent by God). The Turks fled in terror and with God's help they defeated them. Whether the vision was real or just elaborate hopes to boost morale, the city of Antioch was now again in Christian hands. But it will never be returned in the control of the hands of the Byzantine Emperor. Bohemund amend his promise to the Byzantine emperor and make himself the Prince of Antioch. He completely broken his promise to Alexious. His territory is now in crusaders hand, Baldwin controlled all the lands around Edessa and Bohemund the territory around Antioch both are now very rich men.
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| Alexios the I Komnenos Byzantine Emperor |
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| Maarrat Al numan |
In November 1098, under the leadership of Bohemund. His men enter the gates and each of them seize their own share of whatever good they could find and all the houses and cellar are ransacked and towards dawn everybody of the inhabitants are killed whether Muslim, Christian, soldier, women, children, elderly. Treachery followed by massacre had become the calling card at the crusader army. But as Christian witnesses revealed it was what happened after the killing finally stopped that has set the story of Maarat Al Numan, apart. The crusaders stayed in the city for one month and four days and while they are there some of their men could not satisfy their needs either because they are there for too long or because they are so hungry for there was no food to be found outside the city walls. So they ripped up the bodies of the dead and others cut the flesh of the dead and sliced it and cook it to eat. (A terrible famine racked the army in Ma`arra, and placed it in the cruel necessity of feeding itself on the bodies of the Saracens).
To the leader of the crusade the barbarity that took place at Maarat Al Numan proved that their troops would not tolerated any more delays. The time it comes to fulfill their vows and seize the city that inspired them to risk everything in the name of God. It made no difference that Jerusalem had recently fallen into the control of a far more conciliatory Muslim power,
In June 1099, 13 thousand crusaders less of the quarter of a number of them had originally set up from Europe arrived at the gates of the city where Jesus Christ had died. When the crusaders reached the walls of Jerusalem they finally arrived to their goal. After three years, and three thousand miles marching and the most incredible suffering and with more terrible losses finally they arrived at the Holy city. Some was overwhelmed with emotion they wet themselves. Others frustrated themselves on the ground. But now of course the hardest task would face them, they have to break in.
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| The seige of Jerusalem |
After three years of fighting the crusader army prepared to attack Jerusalem, the walls were 50 feet high and ten feet thick. To scale them they will need ladder and siege towers. But the Muslim defenders had raised the entire surrounding area of trees. The Christian sent out foraging parties to scavenge for wood. Hidden in a hole in the ground they found four hundred pieces of ready prepared timber it seemed once again God was giving them a helping hand. It was enough timber to build two fifty foot siege towers with which to attack the walls of Jerusalem. Everything was in place for the final showdown.
On the fourteenth of July 1099, the crusaders launched a two pronged assault. Two siege towers was rolled into place one to the North West and the other to the South of the city. The Muslim defenders knew if just one tower breach the wall Jerusalem would fall. Stone, arrow, bone raining upon the crusaders, the fighting is barbaric and intense. In one point the crusaders gave a live ammunition a literal meaning, they captured a Muslim strapped him in the catapult and fired it back into the walls. To the south, the Muslim repelled the first siege tower with pot of oil and flaming bolts until finally it went up in flames. With only one siege tower was left through the northwest of the city under to the command of the crusader General Duke Godfrey. He decided to change of his plan, Godfrey moved into a position between the Church of the Blessed Steven and the valley of Jastefat.
This Godfrey's plan was inspiring, he had found the weak spot of the Muslim fortification, but it was a mile round to the north east of the city. In the course of just a few hours and under the cover of darkness he had his men wheeled the siege tower to the least defended post. The Muslim mounted one last attempt to destroy Godfrey's siege tower, they used grafting metal with hook to catch the wood and remarkably to pull everything over. To counter these, the crusaders they make a slide blade to cut to the ropes. In brief moment Godfrey saw a pile up in the wall to make a bridge into his tower and to the battlement. And finally the wall is breached and the Muslim defender ran for their lives. The Christian at last could siege the Holy city of Jerusalem. They killed both men and women they cut their heads without drawing the swords. The survivors drive out the dead outside the city gates and pile them up high as houses no one has ever seen such slaughter of pagans.
This Godfrey's plan was inspiring, he had found the weak spot of the Muslim fortification, but it was a mile round to the north east of the city. In the course of just a few hours and under the cover of darkness he had his men wheeled the siege tower to the least defended post. The Muslim mounted one last attempt to destroy Godfrey's siege tower, they used grafting metal with hook to catch the wood and remarkably to pull everything over. To counter these, the crusaders they make a slide blade to cut to the ropes. In brief moment Godfrey saw a pile up in the wall to make a bridge into his tower and to the battlement. And finally the wall is breached and the Muslim defender ran for their lives. The Christian at last could siege the Holy city of Jerusalem. They killed both men and women they cut their heads without drawing the swords. The survivors drive out the dead outside the city gates and pile them up high as houses no one has ever seen such slaughter of pagans.
The fact that among all odds, seemingly in a miracle this crusade took Jerusalem they achieved what they wanted to do that seemed that in that very occasion God’s hand worked. All the participant of all Western Europe suddenly thought this is true. God really wanted the crusade will happen, God really behind this venture. After almost he left his homeland Europe Duke Godfrey would become the new Christian ruler of Jerusalem. but Humbly he refused to be crowned king in the city which Jesus Christ had drain his blood, a year later he died in the holy city. Baldwin the treacherous lord of the desert rushed to fill his shoes. Baldwin readily took the title King of Jerusalem......end
