eventually took charge—provisionally—of the expedition to Jerusalem. His way was
eased by quarrels among Muslim rulers, and an alliance with one of them allowed
free passage through what would have been enemy territory. In early June 1099, a
large crusading force amassed before the walls of Jerusalem and set to work to build
siege engines. In mid-July they attacked, breaching the walls and entering the city.
“The Franks slaughtered more than 70,000 people.... [they] stripped the Dome of
the Rock of more than forty silver candelabra,” dryly noted a later Islamic historian
looking back on the event.^8
Rulers with Clout
While the papacy was turning into a monarchy, other rulers were beginning to turn
their territories into states. They discovered ideologies to justify their hegemony,
hired officials to work for them, found vassals and churchmen to support them.
Some of these rulers were women.
THE CRUSADER STATES
In the Holy Land, the leaders of the crusade set up four tiny states, European
colonies in the Levant. Two (Tripoli and Edessa) were counties, Antioch was a
principality, Jerusalem a kingdom. (See Map 5.4.) The region was habituated (as we
have seen) to multi-ethnic and multi-religious territories ruled by a military elite; apart
from the religion of that elite, the Crusader States were no exception. Yet, however
much they engaged with their neighbors, the Europeans in the Levant saw themselves
as a world apart, holding on to their western identity through their political institutions
and the old vocabulary of homage, fealty, and Christianity.
