Its triumphs, troubles, tyranny, and tussles: The First Crusade.

Not necessarily a rant,  the author holds there is yet merit in this digression. Essentially, the title says it all. The balance of fortuity mal-liked the vocabulary enclosed, and it is one of my less-loquacious writings. However, hopefully it is legible & further, enjoyable. 

(Resources are Medieval Tymes.com, Boise University On-line, Lords-and-ladies.org, a primary source via Fordham.edu, and Wikipedia. I would like to add the latter source was fully cited and inspected for historical actuality.)

You may expect to see the rest of the Crusades elaborated onto here, this is an ongoing series but it may not be a particularly fleet write-up, for I have other obligations in the academic world, although this is a  prestigious research project...
N.B. I'm terribly sorry about the white-out portion of it! I have little idea of how it came to be highlighted as a spoiler, but highlight it and it shall regain its original form. Grr.

But hooray! Here's the Crusades...

This font begins with a "C" so it's probably appropriate to employ as a text for writing about the Crusades. Here goes.

The First Crusade of the First Crusade - The People's Crusade - Was a war quite as bad as when the high chief of all the Vikings ordered sixty thousand helmets with the horns on the inside - A ragged and  highly devout mass of Europeans set out for Outremer (That is, the Holy Land/Not Christendom. Come to think of it, almost every other place was known as "Not Christendom") led by a really really brilliant person called Peter the Hermit. Bad idea. They were crushed.  And so were the Christian Byzantines, curb-stomped by the Ottomans. So, it sucked for all involved, the People's Crusade did.

Interestingly, the daughter of the Byzantine king Alexius, Anna Comnena wrote "the Alexiad" about the happenstances of that time. New York Times bestseller three times in a row and is renowned for the historical pertinence of it...I suppose. Wait, lemme Google it. (Hey, you can buy it on Amazon). Anyway, it was written in Attic Greek and evidently differed in writing style of that time. Hm.

I digress. Ad interim, an actual army was being mounted in Europe comprised of chiefly French - Franks, they were called which also included Germans - and led by such personages as French lords like a Count Raymond of Toulouse, the most renowned: Godfrey of Bouillon (They all had names like that. It's sort of asking for sonorous drums to begin playing) Whose claim to fame was that he was a direct descendant of Charlemagne. Well, Charlemagne may have deposed his brother, but I suppose dynastic ties were an enormous deal.
 Anyway, other leaders were Count Emicho, Volkmar, Godfrey's brother Baldwin, and Behemond of Antioch (His moniker originates from capturing Antioch. See, his actual name was Marc but Bohemond was a giant in folklore...and he was big thus he became known as Bohemond.)
SO! Pope Urban II offered huge! heavenly! riches! to anyone who wrested the Holy Sepulchre from the Middle Easterners. Hah, he probably only wanted those really cheesy Doritos they only sell in Outremer.  Thus, these brave adventurers set out!
And went around...
....dehydrated...

....as a result of little water, extremely poor hygiene...

First up on their agenda was the conquest of Nicaea (I figure it's time to lay off the sarcasm) the capital of the Sultanate of Rum (It has little accents marks, but aside that, it really is the Sultanate of Rum) of which the surroundings had been previously plundered by the People's Crusade. Shortly after the People's Crusade had sacked the countryside, they were obliterated by the Ottomans. Consequently, the Sultan of that region, named Kilij Arslan, felt that there was little threat to Nicaea and embarked on a campaign against the so-called Danishmends that had killed his father (Citation needed. If so, he would have certainly said in whatever dialect he spoke... "My name is Kilij Arslan. You killed my father. Prepare to die.)
Instead, it was probably just: "Oh inconvenient. Nicaea is being sieged.  Bye!"
At last, I return to the Siege of Nicaea.
The king of the Byzantines, Alexius Comnenus was allied with the Crusaders (Merely paucity. It didn't last long) and sent a general Takitios, to lead a token  force with the crusaders. In the meantime, Bohemond of Antioch (Well, he was just plain old Bohemond then. Antioch is forthcoming)  oriented his troops to the north wall, Robert of Flanders (William the Conqueror's son) and Godfrey of Bouillion took the east. The south and west were  presumably for Alexius and Raymond of Toulouse.

Kilij Arslan, who incidentally was only sixteen, marshaled his forces to Nicaea  and as Raymond of Toulouse prepared to make camp with his Franks,  mounted an attack against him from forested hills in the south. The surprised crusaders fought to the best of their measure, and although outnumbered they fought long enough for Godfrey to come.
Later, siege engines were built and collapsed a few towers in Nicaea. Determining there was no way to capture the city unless it was fully circumvented - including by sea, Alexius positioned his naval forces on the Ascanion Lake - Now Lake Iznik - After disassembling them and shipping them inland. In a complicated conversation between heralds, he persuaded the Nicenes to surrender before the Crusaders pillaged the city. They conceded and the next morning, the Crusaders stepped from their tents to see Byzantine banners flying from the towers of Nicaea. Alexius was magnanimous in reimbursing the different coalitions of Crusaders after going through a month of siege warfare(May 6th-June), but they were not amused.-

So, the Crusaders bid farewell to Nicaea, as Baldwin did to them becoming the governor of Edessa and went on to Antioch for more pillaging, doing the holy work of the Pope...

So. Antioch was a city ruled by Governor Yagni-Siyan, who obstinately had withstood civil unrest years prior. It also was surrounded by a wall. A big wall, I should specify. Also, may I add that can be construed as bad news for the Crusaders. In the late summer of 1097 they entered Syria and set up shop by Antioch. It did not bode well for them, half their forces were decimated by that time and harsh geographical conditions near Antioch were not really jolly for them. They spent the two months of November and December securing outlying fortresses. 

Soon, Yagni-Siyan saw his chance when Robert of Flanders and Bohemond left to gather supplies, and attacked. Raymond's forces were surprised and armageddon ensued as it does in most all battles, before they chased Yagni-Siyan's forces into Antioch. While on the drawbridge a horse reared and the rider fell, causing the forces advancing on the city to fall back in a jumble of people. 

After more disputes, reinforcements for the Arabs were heard to be arriving from Damascus, but they were headed off by Robert. Again, this time when the Europeans were in the city there was word of the forces of Kerbogha of Mosul who were reputedly coming. However, spies were crossing back and forth in Antioch, and Bohemond devised a plan. He talked with one Firuz-the captain of the guard-""to receive him within the city in a most friendly fashion"  Also, including "that he would make him rich with much honor."   It was an offer he could not refuse. Coinciding with the agreement that whomever entered Antioch first would be the governor. Summarily, sixty men entered a very suspiciously unguarded portion of the wall. They opened the gates and the Crusaders, along with the very Christian inhabitants of the city flooded in, massacring every Ottoman they could find. Except Firuz, presumably, but I couldn't be sure. Unfortunately....there was the matter of Kerbogha who had his  own turn to siege the city.

(Then there was a short progression of holy miracles, in brisk succession the Holy Lance - which was reputed to have stabbed Christ - was alledged to be buried underneath the Antioch cathedral. A  Meteor of Holy Intervention+5 fell outside the walls, and the Crusaders marshaled to fight the Ottomans, the advent of their allies shortly forthcoming. A battle ensued, Kerbogha was forced to retreat. Everyone's ordeal had not reached its terminus, however, and there were quarrels over the  ruling of Antioch. Raymond wanted Alexius to have the crown, Bohemond liked it for himself, they were at odds and ever worse, Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy, an important moderating force, passed away in a plague epidemic.) Eventually, Raymond left for Jerusalem after six months of respite.

Aside from Nicaea, the Crusaders' luck sucked when it came to geographical convenience. For a titch of variation, Jerusalem was in the center of a desert and on the top of the Judaean Mountains to boot. Accounts vary as to the amount of soldiers the Crusaders had by this time, but moderately it was twenty-one thousand of both horseman and footsoldiers. In Western terms the rather unprintable Iftikhar ad-Daula ("Pride of a nation") poisoned the wells around the city and the Crusaders were bereft of water, bereft of siege engines, not in such good shape. They attacked on a Saturday. They were rebuffed. (Incidentally, I am presenting this in a highly climactic manner, but hopefully needless to say, I hate war and Jerusalem was barbarous).
 It was resolved siege engines were requisite. One does not simply walk into the Judaean Desert, so the closest forest was twenty miles away but nevertheless, logs had to be felled; siege engines had to be built; Jerusalem would be taken (Listening to climactic music for the Spanish Armada assists dramatic writing.) Once the perquisite wood had been fashioned into siege engines, they were set to the eastern edge of the city. Meanwhile, Egyptian armies were approaching. They were set to arrive soon and so the siege engines were moved to the edges of the walls for just the two nights of June eighth and ninth. Then, two knights crossed the walls: Lethold and Gilbert of Tournai, and were followed by Godfrey.
They had a little parade outside, captured the city and mercilessly murdered all the Muslim inhabitants. And the Jews. Did I mention, perchance, those murders were mainly committed in the mosques and synagogues of the city. As one source notes, the Muslims were of the general opinion the Westerners (or Crusaders)"were savage barbarians with no faith at all save in blood and wealth." You cannot indiscriminately discriminate  against any creed (...For that is the path to the Dark Side) but that is sickening.

There closes the First Crusade.

Thanks for reading,

Anacostia.