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King of Jerusalem 1186-92 >
Richard I (The Lionheart):
King of England 1189-99 >
Saladin:
Sultan of Egypt >
The Crusades
Roman rule to Muslim conquest
Roman armies first entered Jerusalem in 63BC when Roman general Pompey conquered the region. The city would remain in Roman hands, in one form or another, for over 600 years and would witness the whims and rulings of emperors from Augustus to Constantine and beyond.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire the Byzantine emperors continued to rule the Holy Land until its eventual capture in 638AD by the Muslim Caliph Umar.
Despite Jerusalem being removed from Christian hands the city remained open to all faiths until the conquests of the Fatimid caliph Hakim, who began to persecute Jews and Christians and despoiled the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Persecution abated after his death in 1021, but relations remained strained and became more so fifty years later when Jerusalem passed from the comparatively tolerant Egyptians to the Seljuk Turks.
Urban II’s call to arms
As the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century struggled to hold back the Seljuk Turks, Emperor Alexius I appealed to the West for aid. This plea did not fall on deaf ears and in 1095 Pope Urban II delivered his great speech to the Council of Clermont in which he exhorted Christendom to go to war for the Sepulcher, promising that the journey would count as full penance.
The battle cry of the Christians, he urged, should be Deus volt [God wills it]. From the crosses that were distributed at this meeting the Crusaders took their name.
Bishop Ademar of Le Puy-en-Velay was designated as papal legate for the crusade, and Count Raymond IV of Toulouse was the first of the leaders of the expedition to take the cross.
The First Crusade
1095-1099: Proclaimed by many wandering preachers, notably Peter the Hermit, the movement spread through Europe and even reached Scandinavia. In the spring of 1096, before the military expedition could get underway, several undisciplined hordes of French and German peasants set out for the Holy Land.
‘Walter the Penniless’ and his French expedition were joined by the followers of ‘Peter the Hermit’, and upon reaching Constantinople this host was speedily transported by Alexius to Asia Minor, where they were swiftly defeated by the Turks. The survivors either joined later bands or returned to Europe.
It wasn’t until late in 1096 that the first of the princes arrived in Constantinople. Hugh of Vermandois, a brother of Philip I of France, took an oath of fealty to Alexis, as did many of his colleagues, before crossing to Asia Minor. The Christian armies quickly took Nicaea, defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum, and took Antioch in 1098.
Their campaign was completed in July 1099 with the capture of Jerusalem, where they massacred the Muslims and Jews.
The election of Godfrey of Bouillon as defender of the Holy Sepulcher marked the beginning of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The Second Crusade
1147-1149: The Second Crusade was preached by St. Bernard of Clairvaux after the fall of Edessa to the Turks three years before.
It was led by Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III, whose army set out first, and by King Louis VII of France. Both armies passed through the Balkans and pillaged the territory of the Byzantine emperor, Manuel I, who provided them with transportation to Asia Minor in order to be rid of them.
The German contingent, already decimated by the Turks, merged with the French, who had fared only slightly better, at Acre. A joint attack on Damascus failed because of jealousy and, possibly, treachery among the Latin princes of the Holy Land. Conrad returned home in 1148 and was followed a year later by Louis. The Second Crusade thus ended in dismal failure.
Kingdom of Heaven: The fall of Jerusalem
Much of the story of the Hollywood epic ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ revolves around the character of Balian of Ibelin, played by Orlando Bloom. Rather than a French peasant, Balian was in fact a Knight and noblemen from a prominent family in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, however, he did play a vital role in the events of the time.
After an uneasy truce with the Muslim leader Saladin, raids on Muslim pilgrims heading for Mecca by Reynald of Châtillon in 1181 began to heighten tensions in the region. Events began to spiral out of control once the Christian King, Baldwin IV, died of leprosy in March 1185, causing the leadership of the Kingdom to fragment. After the death of the young heir, Baldwin V, the former King’s brother-in-law Guy of Lusignan was crowned King.
Renewed raids on Muslim convoys by Reynald of Châtillon soon provoked Saladin into all out war, the final straw being the capture of Saladin’s own sister during one such attack.
As Saladin made steady progress through the Kingdom, Guy of Lusignan was under increasing pressure to attack, and finally, in July 1187, took the field against the Muslim army at Hattin.
The Christian army was woefully ill-prepared for battle and lacked even the water needed to quench their thirst. In an overwhelming victory Saladin’s forces decimated the Christian army, capturing King Guy and ransoming many Knights of wealthy families. Saladin made good his threat to seek revenge on Reynald of Châtillon and killed him with his own hand.
It is at this point that Balian of Ibelin enters proceedings. Captured by Saladin at Hattin, he was allowed to go free to return to Jerusalem to look after his wife and children. Upon reaching the city he found it in a state of chaos and disorder and took charge of the city’s defence.
Saladin quickly captured Acre, Jaffa, Sidon, Beirut and Gaza before moving on Jerusalem itself. Over the next four days the city was subjected to a battering that breached the walls and witnessed several assaults on the defences. Eventually it became clear that the city would fall and Balian negotiated surrender terms with the Muslim leader which allowed the Crusaders to peacefully leave the city.
The Third Crusade
1189-1192: The Third Crusade followed the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin and was preached by Pope Gregory VIII. It was led by Richard I (The Lionheart) of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I.
Frederick set out first, but was hindered by the Byzantine emperor, Isaac II, who had formed an alliance with Saladin. Frederick forced his way to the Bosporus, sacked Adrianople, and compelled the Greeks to furnish transportation to Asia Minor. However, he died (1190) in Cilicia, and only part of his forces went on to the Holy Land.
Richard and Philip, uneasy allies, arrived at Acre in 1191. The city had been besieged since 1189, but the siege had been prolonged by dissensions between the two chief Christian leaders, Guy of Lusignan and Conrad, marquis of Montferrat, both of whom claimed the kingship of Jerusalem.
The city was nevertheless starved out by July, 1191; shortly afterward Philip went home. Richard removed his base to Jaffa, which he fortified, and rebuilt Ascalon, which the Muslims destroyed.
In 1192 he made a three-year truce with Saladin; the Christians retained Jaffa with a narrow strip of coast (all that remained of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem) and the right of free access to the Holy Sepulcher. Antioch and Tripoli were still in Christian hands; Cyprus, which Richard I had wrested from the Byzantines while on his way to the Holy Land, was given to Guy of Lusignan. In October 1192, Richard left the Holy Land, thus ending the third crusade.
Latter Crusades
Pope Innocent III launched the Fourth Crusade, 1202-1204, which was totally diverted from its original course. The Crusaders, led mostly by French and Flemish assembled in 1202 near Venice.
To pay some of their passage to Palestine they aided Venetian forces in recovering Zara on the Dalmatian coast from the Hungarians. The sack of Zara in 1202 led to Pope Innocent III excommunicating the crusaders and prefaced more serious political schemes.
Alexius (later Alexius IV), son of the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II and brother-in-law of Philip of Swabia, a sponsor of the crusade, joined the army at Zara and persuaded the leaders to help him depose his uncle, Alexius III. In exchange, he promised large sums of money, aid to the Crusaders in conquering Egypt, and the union of the Roman and the Eastern churches. The actual decision to turn on Constantinople was largely brought about by Venetian pressure. The fleet arrived at the Bosporus in 1203; Alexius III fled, and Isaac II and Alexius IV were installed as joint emperors while the fleet remained outside the harbour.
In 1204, Alexius V overthrew the emperors. As a result the Crusaders stormed the city, sacked it, divided the rich spoils with the Venetians according to a prearranged plan, and set up the Latin Empire of Constantinople.
There followed the pathetic interlude of the Children's Crusade in 1212. Led by a visionary French peasant boy, Stephen of Cloyes, children embarked at Marseilles, hoping that they would succeed in the cause that their elders had betrayed.
According to later sources, they were sold into slavery by unscrupulous skippers. Another group, made up of German children, went to Italy; most of them perished of hunger and disease.
Soon afterward Innocent III and his successor, Honorius III, began to preach the Fifth Crusade (1217-21). King Andrew II of Hungary, Duke Leopold VI of Austria, John of Brienne, and the papal legate Pelasius were among the leaders of the expedition, which was aimed at Egypt, the centre of Muslim strength. Damietta was taken in 1219 but had to be evacuated again after the defeat (1221) of an expedition against Cairo.
The Sixth Crusade, 1228-29, undertaken by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, was simply a peaceful visit, in the course of which the emperor made a truce with the Muslims, securing the partial surrender of Jerusalem and other holy places. Frederick crowned himself king of Jerusalem, but, occupied with Western affairs, he did nothing when the Muslims later reoccupied the city.
A treaty with Damascus in 1244 restored Palestine to the Christians, but in the same year the Egyptian Muslims and their Turkish allies took Jerusalem and utterly routed the Christians at Gaza.
This event led to the Seventh Crusade, 1248-54, due solely to the idealistic enterprise of Louis IX of France. Egypt again was the object of attack. Damietta fell again and an expedition to Cairo miscarried in 1250 when Louis himself was captured. After his release from captivity, he spent four years improving the fortifications left to the Christians in the Holy Land.
The fall of Jaffa and Antioch to the Muslims in 1268 caused Louis IX to undertake the Eighth Crusade in 1270, which was cut short by his death in Tunisia.
The Ninth Crusade, 1271-72, was led by Prince Edward (later Edward I of England). He landed at Acre but retired after concluding a truce. In 1289 Tripoli fell to the Muslims, and in 1291 Acre, the last Christian stronghold, followed.