The History Book

106

THOSE WHO UNTIL NOW

HAVE BEEN MERCENARIES

FOR A FEW COINS ACHIEVE

ETERNAL REWARDS

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM (1099)

O

n July 15, 1099, some

15,000 Christian knights

surged into Jerusalem

after a month-long siege. The

victorious crusaders slaughtered

Muslim defenders and Jews alike

in a bloody act that marked the

beginning of 200 years of Muslim–

Christian warfare in the Holy Land.

Defending Christianity

Jerusalem had fallen into Muslim

hands in 639. Neither the Byzantine

emperors in Constantinople nor the

Christian kings in Western Europe

had the political willpower or the

strength to reverse the conquest,

although the city was sacred to both.

In the 11th century, however, the

advances of a new group, the Seljuk

Turks, disrupted the pilgrimage

routes to Jerusalem, and the

Turks’ defeat of the Byzantines

at Manzikert threatened to push

the frontiers of Christianity back

to the gates of Constantinople. In

1095, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos

sent emissaries to Pope Urban II

asking for help to bolster the

Byzantine retaliation.

Victorious crusaders flooded into

Jerusalem, and in a ruthless assault

seized the city from the Fatimid

caliphate, laying the foundations

for a new kingdom.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

The Crusades

BEFORE

639 A Muslim army captures

Jerusalem.

1009 Caliph al-Hakim orders

Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy

Sepulchre to be destroyed.

1071 Seljuk Turks defeat and

capture Byzantine emperor,

Romanus Diogenes.

1095 Byzantine emperor

Alexios sends to pope for help.

AFTER

1120 The Order of the Knights

Templar is founded.

1145 The Second Crusade

is launched.

1187 Muslim leader Saladin

captures Jerusalem, and the

Third Crusade is launched.

1198 Baltic Crusade begins.

1291 Muslim forces complete

the reconquest of Palestine

and Syria.

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107

See also: Muhammad receives the divine revelation 78–81 ■ The founding of Baghdad 86–93 ■

The Investiture Controversy 96–97 ■ The fall of Granada 128–29 ■ The fall of Constantinople 138–41

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

The Just War

Pope Urban readily seized a cause

that would enhance papal prestige.

In a sermon of 1095, he described

atrocities against Christians in the

Holy Land, calling for an expedition

to free them. Christian warriors

rallied to the cause, eager to gain

both salvation and plunder by joining

a so-called Just War in God’s name.

Some 100,000 crusading knights,

mostly French and Norman, set out

in 1096. Progress to Jerusalem was

slow: the crusaders suffered several

setbacks at the hands of the Seljuk

Turks, and the long siege of Antioch

severely tested their morale, yet

they pressed on and, led by the

French knight Godfrey of Bouillon,

at last captured the Holy City.

In the area they had conquered,

the crusaders established four

states, at Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli,

and the Kingdom of Jerusalem,

known collectively as Outremer.

To withstand the vigorous Muslim

counter-attacks, the crusaders built

a dense network of fortresses such

as Beaufort, Margat, and Krak

des Chevaliers, which dominated

strategic routes into the Holy Land.

As the initial crusading impulse

waned, Outremer began to suffer

from a shortage of manpower. This

was partly resolved by the founding

of crusading orders such as the

Templars and Hospitaller knights,

organizations who swore monastic

vows to defend the Holy Land.

Further Crusades

However, even this was not

enough, and when Muslim armies

captured Edessa in 1144, a Second

Crusade was called. This, and the

Emperor Alexios appeals

for help to defend the

Byzantine Empire.

Further crusades are

launched to defend the

crusader states against

Muslim counter-attacks.

Pope Urban II calls

upon Christian

knights to launch a

military expedition

to Jerusalem.

The crusading

movement spreads

to eastern Europe and

southern France.

Crusading

armies capture

Jerusalem and

establish states

in Palestine

and Syria.

Third Crusade mustered in

response to the catastrophic loss

of Jerusalem in 1187, attracted

participation at an even higher

level, as monarchs such as Louis

VIII of France, Richard I of England,

and the Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa assumed

their leadership.

By 1270 there had been eight

further crusades, and the movement

had extended to include attacks on

Muslims in North Africa; joining

the Reconquista (the Christian

reconquest of Islamic emirates

in Spain); launching expeditions

against pagan groups in eastern

Europe, and even Christian heretics,

such as the Cathars in southern

France. In the Middle East, however,

the emergence of stronger Muslim

states, such as the Mamluks in

Egypt, able to mount a strong

resistance to crusader pressure,

rendered the later expeditions

largely ineffectual.

Jerusalem fell to the Muslims

for a final time in 1244. The last

crusader stronghold in the Holy

Land, the city of Acre, was taken

by the Mamluks in 1291. ■

A race absolutely

alien to God has invaded

the land of Christians, has

reduced the people with

sword, rapine, and flame.

Pope Urban II, 1095

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