The Crusades

When I started this hub, I planned on doing it about all of the Crusades. As I wrote it and it got longer I realized I could only do the first Crusade in one hub. I plan on trying to do hubs on the other crusades in the near future.

I was going to do a Summary, but I believe the hub speaks for itself. Any comments are greatly appreciated even if they disagree with my writing.

The first crusade was started by Pope Urban II. His goal was to free Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Islamic rule. It all started as an appeal by Alexius I Comnenus for mercenaries to come and help fight Seljuk Turks, which turned into a full scale conquest of territories outside of Europe. People from different walks of life traveled to Jerusalem to fight against the Muslims and eventually captured it in 1099.

By the early 8th century, Umayyad Caliphate had captured North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Spain and Palestine from the Byzantine Empire, which was predominantly Christian at the time.

One of the main factors which helped to bring about the crusade is the fact that Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Pope Urban II gave a speech urging Christians to march to Jerusalem and make it safe for other Christians to travel there. Some crusaders then carved out small empires for themselves after this first crusade.

In the year 1095, Alexius sent word to Pope Urban II asking for assistance against the Turks. The Pope was happy to oblige the request in hope of reuniting the Church under Papal rule and called himself Chief Bishop over the world. It was here that Urban spoke to a large number of French nobles and clergy, urging them to take control of Jerusalem from the Muslims. He told them that the land of Canaan flowed with milk and honey. The crowd, stirred into a frenzy, started shouting Deus lo volt! ("It is God's will!")

Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless led the people on a crusade before Urban sent out fighters to fight. They had about 40,000 volunteers marching to Jerusalem. The problems they faced along the way was supplies to feed everyone. They expected the host towns and cities to give them what they needed or at least sell to them at a reasonable price. The locals didn't always agree with this and many times it turned into a fight.

The idea of a holy war was widely accepted not only by the powers that be in the church, but alo by ordinary citizens. The preaching of Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless spread reports of Muslims abusing Christians who traveled to Jerusalem and other "Holy" sites. Ultimately it was the speech of Pope Urban II that worked the people up into accepting the crusade against the Muslims.

The first crusade marked the first organized persecution of the Jews. Certain leaders of Germany recognized that the crusade was not only against Muslims, but also against the Jews who were in their own land. A German army of about 10,000 men marched north away from Jerusalem and started a series of pogroms, which is also called, by some historians, the first holocaust. Fortunately for some Jews the idea of the crusade wasn't universal and some were able to find sanctuary.

According to some preachers, Jews and Muslims both were enemies of Christ and must be fought or converted to Christianity. Thousands of Jews were slaughtered and were justified by the claim that Urban's speech promised reward from God for killing non Christians.

The Prince's Crusade was done in a more orderly fashion. It consisted of knights and was led by nobles from different parts of Europe. The most significant of these were Raymond IV of Toulose, the papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy; Bohemond of Taranto, the brothers Godfrey of Bouillon, Eustace and Baldwin of Boulogne, and Count Robert II of Flanders, Robert of Normandy, Stephen, Count of Blois, and Hugh of Vermandois the younger brother of King Philip I of France, who bore the papal banner.

The crusader army consisted of between 30,000 to 35,000 crusaders.

The crusaders left Europe at an appointed time in August. There were many different armies marching, and they took different routes to Constantinople. They all gathered around the city approximately two months after the People's army was defeated.

The Prince's army had little food. They expected Alexius to provide for them. After what happened with the people's army, Alexius was understandably suspicious.Alexius promised to provide them with food if the leaders swore fealty to him. The leaders of the armies had no choice but to swear loyalty to Alexius. Raymond was the only leader who avoided swearing fealty to Alexius. He did so by saying the would swear it if Alexius was to lead the armies into battle. Alexius refused but became allies with Raymond because they shared a common enemy (Bohemond).

Alexius sent a Byzantine army commanded by Taticiius to accompany the crusaders. The first city to be attacked was Nicaea, which previously was an old Byzantine city but was currently at that time the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rüm under Kilij Arslan. Arslan was fighting against the Danishmends in Anatolia and had apparently underestimated the Crusaders.

There was a lengthy siege for Nicaea. The Crusaders were unable to secure the lake on which the city sat. Arslan rushed back to the city when he got word of the siege. He attacked the Crusaders but heavy losses caused him to retreat. He then advised the city to surrender if it came to the point that they couldn't defend it.

Alexius secretly accepted the surrender for fear that the Crusaders would loot the city and destroy it. When the Crusaders awakened on June 19, 1097, they saw Byzantine banners and flags flying upon the walls of the city. They weren't allowed to enter the city except in small supervised bands.

The Crusaders continued their march toward Jerusalem with some Byzantine troops still with them. Their next target was Dorylaeum where Bohemond was pinned down by Arslan. Godfrey broke through the Turkish line with the help of a rear attack by Adhemar. Arslan then pulled back and the Crusaders marched through Asia Minor toward Antioch with little opposition.

Many men and horses were lost due to lack of water and food during the march through Asia. Some Christians in Asia and Europe sometimes would give them food and water but for the most part the Crusaders looted and pillaged when they could.

Antioch was located about halfway between Jerusalem and Cosntantinople. The seige, which began in October 1097, lasted nearly eight months. Antioch was too large a city for the Crusaders to surround which allowed the Antioch army to stay partially supplied.

In May 1098, Kerbogha of Mosul, came to Antioch to relive the siege. Bohemond bribed an Armenian guard named Fruiz to surrender his tower. In June, the Crusaders entered into the city and killed nearly all the inhabitants. Muslims arrived a few days later and battled the Crusaders once again for the city. Peter Bartholomew, a minor monk, claimed that he had found the Holy Lance in the city and this was seen as a sign of victory by many. The Crusaders were victorious over Kerbogha as he was unable to organize the different factions of his army.

Bohemond wanted Antioch for himself and argued that Alexius has abandoned the crusade and the oaths that the Crusaders had taken were now null. Many of the leaders didn't agree however, especially Raymond of Toulouse. This also started arguments between the leaders which delayed the crusade for the rest of the year.

The Crusaders encountered very little resistance on the way to Jerusalem down the coast of the Mediterranean. Local rulers made peace with them and gave them supplies instead of fighting. On June 7, 1099 they reached Jerusalem which was now in the hands of the Fatimids of Egypt.

The Crusaders then put Jerusalem through a long siege, as they did at Antioch before. Many casualties were suffered by the Crusaders due to lack of proper supplies. There were only about 12,000 men left when they reached Jerusalem. Morale was low but a priest named Peter Desiderius made the claim that God gave him a vision and instructed the Crusaders to march around the city walls while barefoot. After nine days the walls would fall.

Guglielmo Embriaco had already dismantled the ships in which the Genoese troops came in and used the timbers to build siege towers. After seven days sections of the walls were broken through allowing the Crusaders to end the siege and enter the city.

Throughout the day the Crusaders killed nearly every person in the city including Jews, Muslims and even Eastern Christians. According to Fulcher of Chartres: "Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared".