The Crusades 1095-1197 Read online

  The Crusades, 1095-1197

  Jonathan Phillips

  First published in Great Britain in 2002

  For Tom and for Julie

  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  List of illustrations

  Chronology

  Genealogy of the Rulers of Jerusalem

  1. Introduction

  Why study the crusades?

  The purpose of this book

  Historiography and definition

  Sources

  Context

  2. The First Crusade

  The appeal of the First Crusade

  Preparations for the crusade

  The crusade sets out

  The Muslim Near East

  The crusade in Asia Minor and the siege of Antioch

  The siege of Jerusalem

  3. The early decades of the Latin East c. 1097-c. 1152: Establishment and consolidation

  The 1101 crusade and the early years of conquest

  The 1108 crusade — a holy war against Christians

  Muslim-Christian relations: warfare and alliances

  The kingdom of Jerusalem and the succession of Baldwin I

  The Battle of the Field of Blood (1119)

  The 1120-24 crusade and the capture of Tyre

  The campaigns of King Baldwin II

  The reign of King Fulk (1131-43)

  Zengi and the fall of Edessa (1144)

  The regency of Melisende and the accession of Baldwin III

  Conclusion

  4. The challenges of a new land: Frankish rule and settlement

  Relations with indigenous peoples

  Frankish rural settlement

  The origins of the Frankish settlers and their way of life

  The pattern of Frankish settlement in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem

  Urban life and trade

  A Frankish identity?

  5. The military orders

  The origins and development of the Templars

  The origins and development of the Hospitallers

  The Hospital in Jerusalem and medical care

  The Hospitallers and military activity

  The military orders in the West

  Conclusion

  6. The Second Crusade

  Quantum praedecessores: the crusade appeal of Pope Eugenius III

  The preaching of the crusade

  The scale and scope of the Second Crusade

  The conquest of Lisbon

  The crusades against Almeria, Tortosa and Jaen

  The Baltic crusade

  Preparations for the march to the Holy Land

  The journey to the East: the crusade at Constantinople and in Asia Minor

  The crusade in the Latin East

  The siege of Damascus

  7. Warfare, strategy and castles in the Levant

  Raids, strategy and battles

  Castles

  Siege warfare

  Naval warfare

  Conclusion

  8. The aftermath of the Second Crusade: Recovery and expansion

  The start of closer relations with Byzantium and advances for both the Christians and the Muslims

  The rise of Nur ad-Din

  The struggle for Egypt

  Diplomatic contact with the West and Byzantium

  The capture of Alexandria

  The mission of Archbishop Frederick of Tyre

  King Amalric’s embassy to Constantinople (1171)

  9. The Frankish rulers of the Levant: Power and succession, c. 1100-74

  Succession and civil war: the problem of newcomers

  The maintenance of authority over the Frankish nobility

  10. Religious life and pilgrimage in the Levant

  The establishment of the Frankish Church in the Levant

  Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

  The True Cross

  The ecclesiastical hierarchy

  11. The reign of Baldwin IV, the Leper-King, the rise of Saladin and the Battle of Hattin (1187)

  The first regency of Count Raymond III of Tripoli

  The rise of Saladin

  The invasion of Egypt and the castle at Jacob’s Ford

  The marriage of Guy and Sibylla

  The 1181 crusade appeal of Pope Alexander III

  Prince Reynald’s attack on the Arabian peninsula

  The mission of Patriarch Heraclius

  The death of King Baldwin IV and the coronation of King Guy

  The descent into war

  The Battle of Hattin

  The fall of Jerusalem

  Conclusion

  12. The Third Crusade and beyond

  Audita tremendi: the Crusade appeal of Pope Gregory VIII

  Conrad of Montferrat and the defence of Tyre

  The crusade of Frederick Barbarossa

  The crusade preparations of Richard the Lionheart

  The aims of the Third Crusade and the siege of Acre

  The conclusion of the siege of Acre

  The Battle of Arsuf

  The march on Jerusalem

  The second march on Jerusalem and the Battle of Jaffa

  Truce

  Conclusion to the Third Crusade

  The German Crusade of 1197

  13. Conclusion: The impact of the Crusades

  The impact of crusading in the West

  The development of the scope of crusading

  The impact of the crusades in the Eastern Mediterranean

  Postscript

  Documents

  Who’s Who

  Acknowledgements

  In writing this book I have been the beneficiary of kindness and advice from many different quarters. The majority of the approaches and arguments have been tested on my ‘Crusades and Eastern Mediterranean’ classes at Royal Holloway, University of London, and I am thankful to those students for their lively and challenging response to the subject and the material. I am also grateful to Professor Tony Stockwell for his good humoured and unstinting encouragement in all aspects of my career at Royal Holloway. Louise and Jonathan Riley-Smith, Carole Hillenbrand, Mike Routledge, Marcus Bull, Susan Edgington and Peter Edbury very kindly allowed me to use their translations in the documents section, and Vikki Askew, Edward Hatton, Veronique Watt, Natasha Hodgson, Tom Asbridge and Linda Ross offered cogent and helpful criticism of early versions of the text. Paul Loxton generously provided essential medical input where appropriate. I would also like to thank Alistair Duncan and the Bibliotheque Municipale, Boulogne-sur-Mer for allowing the use of their illustrations. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the essential support of my parents, John and Sophie Wallace, Lisa and John Barry, Austen and Janice Rose, Andy and Jackie Griffiths, Ian Jenkins and Tom Asbridge. My thanks to Hilary Shaw and Clive Emsley for inviting me to write this book, to Heather MacCallum for persisting with a slower than anticipated manuscript and to Casey Mein, Emily Pillars, Magda Robson and Sarah Bury for skilfully steering me through the production process. My heartfelt appreciation to Julie for her warmth, her incisive observations and her love. I am happy to dedicate this book to her and to my son, Thomas, my pride and joy.

  List of illustrations

  1. Map of Jerusalem from c. 1170

  2. Knights Templar riding out to battle

  3. The Crusader Window from Saint Denis

  4. The castle of Montreal, Transjordan

  5. The castle of Belvoir in the kingdom of Jerusalem

  6. Nur ad-Din’s pulpit in the al-Aqsa Mosque

  7. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

  8. The marriage of Guy of Lusignan and Sibylla

  Map 1 The Eastern Mediterranean

  Map 2 Europe at the Time of the First Crusade

  Chronology

  103
5 Pilgrimage to Jerusalem by Duke Robert of Normandy

  1064-65 German pilgrimage to the Holy Land

  1071 Seljuk Turks defeat Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert

  1095 March Council of Piacenza: envoys from Alexius Comnenus ask Pope Urban II for military help

  1095 27 November Council of Clermont — Pope Urban II launches the First Crusade

  1095 December-September 1096 Pope Urban tours France preaching the crusade

  1095 December-July 1096 Pogroms against Jewish communities of the Rhineland, Bavaria and Rouen

  1096 March Departure of the People’s Crusade

  1096 August-October Armies of northern French, Toulousains, and Normans of southern Italy set out

  1096 September People’s Crusade is defeated in Asia Minor

  1096 November-May 1097 Crusader armies start to arrive at Constantinople (northern French in November, Godfrey of Bouillon in December, Normans of southern Italy and Toulousains in April)

  1097 19 June Capture of Nicaea in Asia Minor

  1097 1 July Battle of Dorylaeum, Asia Minor

  1097 20 October Start of the siege of Antioch

  1098 3 June Capture of the city of Antioch

  1098 28 June Battle of Antioch

  1098 29 June Surrender of the citadel of Antioch

  1098 1 August Death of Adhemar of Le Puy

  1098 November-May 1099 March down to Jerusalem

  1099 7 June Crusaders arrive at Jerusalem

  1099 15 July Capture of Jerusalem

  1099 22 July Godfrey of Bouillon is chosen to rule Jerusalem as Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre

  1099 12 August Battle of Ascalon

  1099 August-September Many First Crusaders return home to the West

  1100 18 July Death of Godfrey of Bouillon

  1100 25 December Coronation of King Baldwin I

  1101 17 May Capture of Caesarea

  1101 August-September Crusaders are defeated in Asia Minor

  1104 7 May Battle of Hauran — Franks heavily defeated

  1104 26 May Capture of Acre

  1106 Bohemond of Antioch tours France seeking support for a crusade against the Greeks

  1107 October-September 1108 Bohemond invades the Byzantine Empire, but is defeated. Treaty of Devol

  1109 12 July Capture of Tripoli

  1110 13 May Capture of Beirut

  1110 4 December Capture of Sidon by a force including Norwegian crusaders led by King Sigurd

  1113 Papal bull Pie postulatio voluntatis recognises Hospital of St John in Jerusalem

  1118 2 April Death of King Baldwin I on campaign in Egypt

  1118 14 April Consecration of King Baldwin II as ruler of Jerusalem

  1119 Foundation of the Knights Templar

  1119 28 June Battle of the Field of Blood, northern Antioch

  1120 January Council of Nablus

  1122 April-August 1123 Captivity of King Baldwin II

  1124 7 July Capture of Tyre

  1127-29 Mission of Hugh of Payns to the West to recruit men for the Damascus crusade and to secure ecclesiastical authorisation for the order of the Temple

  1129 May Arrival of Count Fulk V of Anjou to marry Melisende, heiress to Jerusalem

  1129 November Failed Frankish attack on Damascus

  1130 February Death of Prince Bohemond II of Antioch — rule taken over by Princess Alice

  1131 21 August Death of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. Coronation of Fulk and Melisende

  1134 Revolt of Count Hugh of Jaffa

  1136 April Arrival of Raymond of Poitiers and his succession to the principality of Antioch

  1137 Birth of Saladin

  1137-38 Emperor John Comnenus of Byzantium threatens Antioch

  1142-43 Second expedition of John Comnenus to Antioch. Death of John (March 1143)

  1143 10 November Death of King Fulk

  1144-45 Byzantine army forces Raymond of Antioch to travel to Constantinople and acknowledge Byzantine overlordship

  1144 24 December Fall of Edessa to Zengi of Aleppo and Mosul

  1145 1 December First issue of Quantum praedecessores, crusade appeal of Pope Eugenius III

  1146 31 March Bernard of Clairvaux preaches the Second Crusade at Vezelay to King Louis VII and the French nobility

  1146 14 September Death of Zengi, succeeded by Nur ad-Din

  1146 September-January 1147 Bernard tours Flanders and the Rhineland recruiting men for the crusade

  1146 24 December King Conrad III of Germany takes the cross

  1147 May Fleet of Anglo-Norman, Flemish and Rhinelanders set out for the Holy Land via Lisbon

  1147 June Armies of Conrad III and Louis VII set out for the Levant

  1147 28 June Start of the siege of Lisbon

  1147 July-September Wendish Crusade

  1147 17 October Genoese and Catalan fleet capture Almeria in southern Spain

  1147 21 October Capture of Lisbon

  1147 September-October Armies of the Second Crusade at Constantinople

  1147 25 October German army defeated in Asia Minor

  1148 7 January Defeat of the French army at Mount Cadmus in Asia Minor

  1148 March-May Louis VII at Antioch

  1148 24 June Council of Palmarea decides to attack Damascus

  1148 23-28 July Siege of Damascus fails

  1148 July-30 December Siege and capture of Tortosa in northern Spain by crusaders from Genoa, Barcelona and southern France

  1149 29 June Death of Prince Raymond of Antioch at the Battle of Inab

  1149 15 July Inauguration of the new Church of the Holy Sepulchre

  1150 March-May Failed attempts to launch a new crusade in France

  1151-52 Struggle between Baldwin III and Melisende for control over Jerusalem

  1153 22 August Capture of Ascalon

  1154 April Nur ad-Din takes control of Damascus

  1157-58 Crusade of Count Thierry of Flanders and the attack on Shaizar (December 1157)

  1158-59 Manuel Comnenus in northern Syria

  1158 September Marriage of Baldwin III and Theodora, a niece of Manuel Comnenus

  1163 10 February Death of King Baldwin III

  1163 18 February Coronation of King Amalric

  1163 September Amalric’s first expedition to Egypt

  1164 August-October Amalric’s second expedition to Egypt

  1167 January-August Amalric attacks Egypt with a Pisan fleet; he captures but then concedes Alexandria

  1167 29 August Marriage of Amalric and Maria, grand-niece of Manuel Comnenus

  1168 Construction of the concentric castle at Belvoir by the Hospitallers

  1168 October-January 1169 Amalric’s fourth expedition to Egypt; Nur ad-Din takes control of Egypt

  1169 October-December Amalric’s fifth expedition to Egypt

  1169-71 Mission of Archbishop Frederick of Tyre to the West; he visits King Louis VII and King Henry II of England

  1169 29 July Papal appeal Inter omnia of Pope Alexander III

  1170-c. 1184 Composition of Historia of William of Tyre

  1171 Amalric visits Constantinople and swears homage to Manuel Comnenus

  1174 15 May Death of Nur ad-Din

  1174 11 July Death of Amalric; succession of Baldwin IV

  1174 November Saladin takes control of Damascus

  1176 17 September Manuel Comnenus is defeated by Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Myriocephalum

  1177 25 November Battle of Mont Gisard — Saladin is defeated

  1177-78 Crusade of Count Philip of Flanders

  1178-79 Construction of the castle of Jacob’s Ford; it is taken by Saladin in August 1179

  1180 April Marriage of Guy of Lusignan and Sibylla

  1180 24 September Death of Manuel Comnenus

  1181 January Papal appeal of Cum orientalis terrae of Pope Alexander III

  1182 December-February 1183 Reynald of Chatillon’s expedition to the Red Sea and attack on Medina

  1183 February General tax enacted in th
e kingdom of Jerusalem

  1183 12 June Saladin takes control of Aleppo

  1183 September-October Saladin invades — the Franks shadow him and the Muslims retreat

  1183 October Removal of Guy of Lusignan from the regency

  1184-85 Mission of Patriarch Heraclius and the masters of the Templars and Hospitallers to the West

  1185 May Death of King Baldwin IV; regency of Count Raymond III of Tripoli

  1186 May-September Death of King Baldwin V (precise date unknown)

  1186 September Coronation of Guy and Sibylla

  1187 January Reynald of Chatillon attacks a Muslim caravan in Transjordan

  1187 1 May Battle of Cresson

  1187 1 July Saladin invades the kingdom of Jerusalem

  1187 2 July Saladin lays siege to Tiberias; King Guy decides to march to Tiberias

  1187 4 July Battle of Hattin

  1187 August Arrival of Conrad of Montferrat at Tyre

  1187 July-November Saladin moves through the kingdom of Jerusalem taking towns and castles

  1187 October Fall of Jerusalem

  1187 October-November Audita tremendi issued by Pope Gregory VIII — a call for the Third Crusade

  1188-90 Crusade preparations in western Europe

  1189 King Guy lays siege to Acre

  1189 May Emperor Frederick Barbarossa sets out on crusade

  1189 July-May 1190 Frederick moves successfully through the Byzantine Empire and also defeats Seljuk Turks of Iconium (May 1190)

  1190 10 June Death of Frederick at Silifke in Asia Minor

  1190 July Richard the Lionheart and Philip II Augustus of France set out for the East

  1190 September-April 1191 Richard and Philip winter in Sicily

  1191 May Richard captures Cyprus

  1191 12 July Capture of Acre by crusaders and settlers

  1191 3 August Philip returns to France

  1191 7 September Battle of Arsuf

  1191 October-January 1192 March to Jerusalem — crusaders turn back

  1192 April King Guy steps down from throne of Jerusalem, but is given Cyprus by King Richard

  1192 28 April Murder of Conrad of Montferrat

  1192 May Henry of Champagne is crowned king of Jerusalem

  1192 June Second march on Jerusalem fails

  1192 5 August Battle of Jaffa — Richard defeats Saladin

  1192 2 September Truce is arranged between Richard and Saladin

  1192 9 October Richard leaves for home

  1193 4 March Death of Saladin

  1194 December Death of Guy of Lusignan, ruler of Cyprus