The FIRST CRUSADE - The Prince's Crusade and the Siege of Antioch

The Prince's Crusade set out in 1096. Soldiers of Christ numbered at least 30,000 and came from Provence, Boulogne, Northern France, Southern Italian Normans and Lorraine with the largest contigent led by Raymond IV of Toulouse. In Constantinople, Alexius I was wary and demanded that oaths be taken to him, that all land captured be returned to Byzantium. Almost all crusaders took that oath because Constantinople controlled supplies of food and water. Raymond of Normandy avoided the oath and but he and Alexius I became allies, due in part because an old enemy of both was present - Bohemond who led the Normans of southern Italy. The Crusaders defeated the Turks at Battle of Dorylaeum and then had to work their way through Asia Minor in the summer, looting everywhere. Adopted as heir by a local king of Armenian lands along the Eurphrates, Baldwin of Boulogne became king of the first crusader state, the County of Edessa, when after adoption by King Thoros, the hated king was assassinated. On October 20, 1097, the Crusaders laid siege to Antioch, a city so large they could not completely surround it and so it always was able to receive supplies. They defeated two Turkish armies sent from Aleppo and Damascus. Jews fought alongside Muslims and the siege lasted eight months. The Crusaders entered Antioch in May 1098 and killed almost all the inhabitants, the nobles then settled down to squabble over leadership and primacy. Bohemond finally became the first Prince of Antioch and soon four Crusader states were created. A plague, possibley typhus, broke out and killed the Papal Legate Adhemar. Early in 1099, the march to Jerusalem resumed with the Franks and Normans, who viewed themselves as separate nation states, forever squabbling and threatening each other.

The FIRST CRUSADE - The Siege of Jerusalem

On October 20, 1097, the Crusaders laid siege to Antioch, a city so large they could not completely surround it and so it always was able to receive supplies. They defeated two Turkish armies sent from Aleppo and Damascus. Jews fought alongside Muslims and the siege lasted eight months. The Crusaders entered Antioch in May 1098 and killed almost all the inhabitants, the nobles then settled down to squabble over leadership and primacy. Bohemond finally became the first Prince of Antioch and soon four Crusader states were created. A plague, possibley typhus, broke out and killed the Papal Legate Adhemar. Early in 1099, the march to Jerusalem resumed with the Franks and Normans, who viewed themselves as separate nation states, forever squabbling and threatening each other. Jerusalem had been captured from the Seljuk Turks by the Fatimids of Egypt in 1098, the Crusaders arrived in June 1099 with only 12,000 men including 1500 infantry. The task of reacapturing Jerusalem seem hopeless. A heretofore unkown priest Peter Desiderius, told the crusaders that a vision instructed that the crusaders they march barefoot around the city walls, after which Jerusalem would fall in nine days (cf Joshua's capture of Jericho). The crusaders did so on July 8, 1099, we can assume those within the city watched in astonishment. Using wood from dismantled ships, the Genoese made siege towers. The crusaders attacked the flat terrain at the North Wall, the only weak point in Jerusalem's walls, and the city surrendered in 8 days. Everyone within was massacred, perhaps as many as 20,000 Muslims, men, women and children, and their Jewish friends and soldiers who had helped defend the city, and eastern Christians. The killing was barbarous and piles of Saracen corpses were burnt outside the city walls. Godfrey of Bouillon refused the title 'King' but accepted that of Prince. Baldwin of Edessa became King of Jerusalem when Godfrey died in July 1100. During his reign, the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar would be created. High casualties and soldiers and knight heroes returning to Europe, having fulfilled their crusader vow, had reduced the garrison in the Kingdom of Jerusalem to a few hundred knights. However, Italian merchants established themselves in the ports of Syria and new knights arrived. The Kingdom of Jerusalem under Christian kings would last 200 years, ending with the second Siege of Acre in 1291. The Crusaders built churches, often upon the sites of Muslim mosques; and city fortresses. Crusader fortresses had walls 15' thick, with state of the art defensive architecture: arrow slits, loopholes, trap doors, mazes to cisterns etc. Fortresses were situated on high ground and 60' altitude would provide for 50 mile visibility. For a brief period, there were four strong Crusader states in the Holy Land, each protected by great fortresses: The Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli. The County of Edessa fell to the Muslims in 1144 and became the first crusader state to be recaptured by Islam. An analagous situation may be seen today in Iraq where behind the walls that enclose the square mile Green Zone in Baghdad are the massive USA Embassy and Iraqi government buldings. Beyond the Green Zone are dozens of large American military bases, each the size of a fortified medieval town and analagous to the crusader castles that were built at strategic points, both in the Holy Land and along busy pilgramage routes from Europe.