The Crusader States

by Malcolm Barber

  The king was now torn between continuing the crusade just when campaigning had become feasible again, or returning to the West to sort out the deteriorating political situation in his own lands. In the end he chose the former, setting about the task with his customary energy. On 22 May, he captured Darum, south of Gaza, and the next month, on 23 June, seized a rich Muslim caravan at the Round Cistern, south of Bait Jibrin, bringing extra resources at a time when, as his letter to the abbot of Clairvaux shows, even the huge sums he had collected for the crusade were running out.181

  The key event, however, was Richard's decision to make another attempt to reach Jerusalem, and by 11 June he had led the army to Bait Nuba, only about 12 miles from the city, but once there stopped again, waiting for Henry of Champagne to gather further troops from Acre. Again, the leaders discussed the feasibility of an attack, an idea that was strongly supported by the French, but opposed by the Syrian barons and the military orders. In the event both Christians and Muslims were profoundly influenced by the mistakes of the past. Richard was particularly worried about the availability of water in high summer, and ultimately he judged there was no practical way that such a large army could be supplied, a decision that must have been taken in the context of what the local leaders had told him about Hattin.182 Saladin, on the other hand, was faced with similar divisions within his own camp, for although he wanted to defend Jerusalem, his leading mamluks and emirs feared that, according to Ibn Shaddad, ‘they will suffer what happened to those in Acre and then all the lands of Islam will be lost’. They believed they should meet the Franks in pitched battle, an idea unacceptable to Saladin since it risked the loss of Jerusalem.183

  On 3 July, as if in answer to their Friday prayers, messengers brought Saladin the news that the Christians were withdrawing from their second attempt to march on the holy city. The crusaders were now completely demoralised. ‘When, whatever efforts they might put into it,’ says Ambroise, ‘[they realised] all could come to nothing; they would not worship at the Holy Sepulchre which was four leagues away, their hearts were filled with sorrow and they turned back so disheartened and miserable that you never saw a chosen people so depressed and dismayed.’184 Richard de Templo, writing for a clerical audience, presents it as the just judgment of God, who ‘directs times and seasons for the human emotions with inscrutable dispensation’.185

  There was now talk of an attack on Egypt – a policy much favoured in the thirteenth century as well as previously by King Amalric – but it was never likely that those who had suffered so much to recapture Jerusalem would have been willing to set off in the opposite direction. It is not clear if Saladin thought that Egypt was really threatened, but at the least he did not want his communications with Cairo disrupted, which was a danger after the capture of Darum. This explains his sudden attack on Jaffa on 28 July, which would have succeeded had not Richard launched a daring rescue from the sea.186

  This was the last great engagement of the Third Crusade. For all its drama, the relief of Jaffa did not change the fundamental situation: ultimately Richard could not destroy Saladin's army, and he could not risk a direct attack on Jerusalem until he had done so. He had left Vézelay in July 1190, over two years before, and now his advisers were pressing him to return to attend to his affairs in the West. He himself was again ill and, according to Ambroise, could see his forces draining away. ‘So he would rather seek a truce than leave the land in danger, for everyone else was leaving, openly making for their boats.’ On 2 September, he reluctantly agreed to a three-year truce. The Christians would retain the lands between Tyre and Jaffa, but would be obliged to dismantle Ascalon, a condition that particularly upset the king after he had spent so much money restoring it. Antioch and Tripoli were to be included in the peace.187 The crusaders would be permitted to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem in groups, although in a last vindictive spasm Richard prevented the French from taking part. Those who visited the city did so in a state of some apprehension, believing that Saladin might use the opportunity to take revenge for the massacre outside Acre in August 1191.188 Those who remained were no more confident. In April 1193, Geoffrey of Donjon, the Hospitaller master, told William of Villaret, the order's preceptor in the West: ‘We know for certain that since the loss of the land the inheritance of Christ cannot easily be regained. The land held by the Christians during the truces remains virtually uninhabited.’189

  The great survivor was Bohemond III. He had made no contribution to the crusade, having appeared only once at the siege of Acre in the summer of 1191, apparently to consult Kings Philip and Richard.190 Yet Saladin's preoccupation with the crusade had saved Antioch from what, in October 1188, had looked like its inevitable capitulation the following year. In the autumn, after Richard's departure, Bohemond emerged to meet Saladin at Beirut where, says Ibn al-Athir, he ‘did obeisance’, in return for which ‘Saladin bestowed a robe of honour upon him’.191

  For Saladin, like Richard, the truce represented a scaling down of his ambitions after the triumphs of 1187 and 1188, but he was no more confident than Richard that he could hold his army together. Ibn al-Athir says that some of the emirs argued that if the Franks were not given the opportunity to leave on the autumn sailing, they would be present in Palestine for another year, and the Muslim forces could not sustain that.192 ‘The sultan’, says Ibn Shaddad, ‘saw that this was for the best because of the weakness, scant resources and longing for home that had overwhelmed our men, and also because of their lack of zeal at Jaffa that he witnessed on the day when he ordered them to attack and they would not. He feared that he might need them and find them gone. He decided to rest them for a while so that they might recover and forget this present state they had come to, and so that he might make the land productive again, supply Jerusalem with all the weapons that he could and have an opportunity to strengthen its defences.’ Ibn Shaddad knew that this was not what Saladin had wanted, since he had told him only the previous November that making peace would give the Franks the opportunity to grow strong, but he discerned God's hand in the making of the peace, for Saladin died unexpectedly, on 4 March 1193, less than five months after Richard's departure. ‘Had that happened in the course of hostilities, Islam would have been in peril. The peace was nothing but a providential blessing for him.’193

  Richard I sailed from Acre on 9 October 1192, fully intending to return. As Ambroise presents it: ‘In the morning, in the light of day, he turned his face towards Syria and said, that his men could hear and others could listen, “Ah! Syria! I commend you to God. May the Lord God, by His command, grant me the time, if it is His will, that I may come to your help! For I still expect to save you.” Then did his ship begin to travel at speed.’194

  Conclusion

  The land of Jerusalem is situated in the centre of the world. It is for the most part mountainous, but the land is extremely fertile. To the east lies Arabia, to the south Egypt, to the west is the Great Sea, and to the north Syria. From ancient times it has been the common homeland of the nations, since they have flocked there from every part to worship at the holy places, as can be read in the Acts of the Apostles about the gift of the Holy Spirit [to] ‘the Parthians, the Medes and the Elamites’, and others.1

  THE establishment and maintenance of the crusader states in the littoral of Syria and Palestine and, more briefly, inland beyond the Euphrates was one of the most extraordinary achievements of the high middle ages. Until the battle of Hattin in July 1187, the fall of these states was not inevitable, despite the loss of Edessa in 1144 and the evident internal conflicts and external dangers. The very capable leaders of the first generation of settlers overcame the huge problems that faced them and struggled hard to put down roots in an often hostile environment, and their successors built on their efforts, leaving a lasting mark upon both the urban and rural landscapes.

  Their pragmatic approach to the challenge of providing for defence, administration and economic development produced political entities which resist the stereotyping of mod
ern historical constructs and predetermined models.2 Lacking existing traditions, they produced founding myths of their own, endowing the first crusaders with legendary qualities and solidifying their institutions by imaginative use of the distant past. At their core was the belief – as true for the Latin West as it was for the crusader East – that the holy places belonged to the Christians, even though they had been seized by the Muslims, most particularly by the Arabs, the Kurds and the Turks. Their determination to right this wrong not only took the form of military conquest, but also entailed the rebuilding and embellishment of the holy shrines, actions that, although heavily influenced by both Byzantium and the Latin West, ultimately produced their own independent and vibrant culture.

  There could therefore be no compromise with this ideological drive, which had initially been fatally misunderstood by al-Afdal, the Egyptian vizier, when, after driving the Turks out of Jerusalem in 1098, he offered the crusaders access to the holy places in small parties of 200 or 300 under the supervision of his own officials.3 There is some irony in the fact that, by September 1191, the wheel of fortune had turned full circle, when only designated groups of Christian pilgrims were allowed to make hasty and fearful obeisance at the shrines in and around Jerusalem to which Saladin had granted them entry.4 Richard I knew he had left unfinished business, but the Nazareth capitals, with their confident theme of the mission of the Apostles, remained buried until 1908, symbolising both the sophisticated achievements of the crusader states in the twelfth century and the dramatic destruction of the society that had created them.

  Chronology

  18–28 November 1095 Council of Clermont

  March 1098 Baldwin of Boulogne takes over rule of Edessa

  3 June 1098 Fall of Antioch to the crusaders

  17 June 1099 Crusader ships occupy Jaffa

  15 July 1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem

  22 July 1099 Election of Godfrey of Bouillon as ruler of Jerusalem

  1 August 1099 Election of Arnulf of Chocques as patriarch of Jerusalem

  12 August 1099 Crusaders defeat the Egyptians at Ascalon

  25 December 1099 Daibert, archbishop of Pisa, crowned patriarch of Jerusalem

  18 July 1100 Death of Godfrey of Bouillon

  Mid-August 1100 Capture of Bohemond by the Danishmend Turk, Malik Ghazi

  20 August 1100 Capture of Haifa by the Latins

  2 October 1100 Baldwin of Boulogne departs from Edessa, which he cedes to Baldwin of Bourcq

  25 December 1100 Coronation of Baldwin of Boulogne as king of Jerusalem

  c.28 March 1101 Tancred becomes regent of Antioch

  29 April 1101 Capture of Arsuf by the Latins

  17 May 1101 Capture of Caesarea by the Latins

  August–September 1101 Defeat of crusading forces in Asia Minor by the Seljuk sultan, Kilij Arslan

  7 September 1101 Baldwin defeats the Egyptians at the battle of Ramla

  14 April 1102 Raymond of Toulouse defeats forces from Damascus and Homs near Tortosa

  17–27 May 1102 Baldwin meets the Egyptians, finally defeating them near Jaffa

  May 1103 Release of Bohemond

  7–8 May 1104 Defeat of combined Christian forces at the battle of Harran, and capture of Baldwin of Bourcq and Joscelin of Courtenay

  26 May 1104 Capture of Acre by the Latins

  Autumn 1104 Bohemond and Daibert sail for the West

  28 February 1105 Death of Raymond of Toulouse, who is succeeded by William-Jordan, count of Cerdagne, his cousin

  27 August 1105 Baldwin defeats the Egyptians at the third battle of Ramla

  Mid-August 1108 Release of Baldwin of Bourcq

  September 1108 Treaty of Devol between Bohemond and Alexius I

  June 1109 Royal assembly near Tripoli

  Late June 1109 Murder of William-Jordan

  26 June 1109 Fall of Tripoli to the Latins

  13 May 1110 Fall of Beirut to the Latins

  5 December 1110 Fall of Sidon to the Latins

  March 1111 Death of Bohemond

  Before 3 February 1112 Death of Bertrand of Toulouse and succession of his son, Pons

  12 December 1112 Death of Tancred, leaving regency of Antioch to Roger of Salerno

  15 February 1113 Grant of Pie postulatio voluntatis to the Hospitallers by Pope Paschal II

  August 1113 Marriage of Baldwin I to Adelaide of Sicily

  2 October 1113 Murder of Mawdud of Mosul

  1114 Arnulf of Chocques, patriarch of Jerusalem, imposes the Augustinian Rule on the canons of the Holy Sepulchre

  29 November 1114 Major earthquake in Syria

  14 September 1115 Victory of Roger of Antioch over Bursuq, lord of Hamadhan

  Autumn 1115 Establishment of the castle of Montreal (Shawbak)

  25 April 1117 Departure of Adelaide of Sicily from the kingdom of Jerusalem after the annulment of her marriage to Baldwin I

  22 March 1118 Latin forces under Baldwin I take Farama in the Nile Delta

  2 April 1118 Death of Baldwin I

  14 April 1118 Consecration of Baldwin of Bourcq as king of Jerusalem

  15 August 1118 Death of Alexius Comnenus, Byzantine emperor

  25 December 1119 Coronation of Baldwin II and Morphia

  28 June 1119 Defeat and death of Roger of Antioch at Balat, the ‘Field of Blood’, by Il-Ghazi, ruler of Mardin

  August–September 1119 Joscelin of Courtenay becomes count of Edessa

  c.1119 Beginnings of the Templars

  16 January 1120 Council of Nablus

  5 December 1121 Death of al-Afdal, Egyptian vizier

  1122–4 Venetian Crusade

  13 September 1122 Capture of Joscelin of Courtenay by Nur al-Daulak Balak

  8 November 1122 Death of Il-Ghazi

  18 April 1123 Capture of Baldwin II by Balak

  1123 Pactum Warmundi

  8 August 1123 Escape of Joscelin of Courtenay from captivity

  February–July 1124 Siege and capture of Tyre by the Latins

  6 May 1124 Death of Balak

  24 August 1124 Release of Baldwin II

  October 1124–January 1125 Failed siege of Aleppo by Baldwin II

  2 May 1125 Privilegium Balduini

  Autumn 1126 Arrival of Bohemond II in Antioch

  1127 Death of Fulcher of Chartres

  Autumn 1127 Embassy from the kingdom of Jerusalem to Fulk of Anjou

  September 1127 'Imad al-Din Zengi appointed governor of Mosul

  11 February 1128 Death of Tughtigin of Damascus

  31 May 1128 Fulk of Anjou takes the Cross

  June 1128 Zengi granted Aleppo

  13 January 1129 Council of Troyes

  2 June 1129 Marriage of Fulk of Anjou and Melisende of Jerusalem

  Early November 1129 Assassins hand over Banyas to the Latins

  Mid-November–6 December 1129 1130 Failed attack on Damascus by Baldwin II and Fulk of Anjou

  Revolt of Alice of Antioch

  February 1130 Death of Bohemond II

  21 August 1131 Death of Baldwin II

  1 October 1131 Death of Joscelin of Courtenay, who is succeeded by his son, Joscelin II

  Autumn 1131 Revolt of Pons of Tripoli

  December 1132 Latins lose Banyas

  Late 1134 Revolt of Hugh of Le Puiset and Romanus of Le Puy

  c.1135 Commissioning of the Melisende Psalter

  Autumn 1135 Death of Bernard of Valence, first Latin patriarch of Antioch

  Late 1135/early 1136 Revolt of Alice of Antioch

  Spring 1136 Raymond of Poitiers marries Constance of Antioch

  25 March 1137 Death of Pons of Tripoli

  Summer 1137 Campaign of John Comnenus, Byzantine emperor, in Cilicia and Antioch

  August 1137 Defeat of Fulk at Montferrand by Zengi and loss of the town

  Before 1138 Marriage of Raymond II of Tripoli to Hodierna of Jerusalem

  5 February 1138 Establishment of the convent of Bethany

  April–May 1138 Failed attempt to take Sh
aizar by the Byzantines and the Latins

  June 1138 Zengi takes Homs

  Summer 1139 Pilgrimage of Thierry of Flanders

  Spring 1140 Aimery of Limoges chosen as patriarch of Antioch

  12 June 1140 Latins regain Banyas

  December 1140 Council of Antioch

  1142 Building of the castle of Kerak by Pagan the Butler

  1142 Raymond II of Tripoli cedes Le Crat (Hisn al-Akrad) to the Hospitallers

  Autumn 1142 John Comnenus campaigns in Antioch and Edessa

  8 April 1143 Death of John Comnenus

  10 November 1143 Death of King Fulk

  25 December 1143 Coronation of Melisende and Baldwin III

  23–24 December 1144 Capture of Edessa by Zengi

  1 December 1145 Bull Quantum praedecessores

  14 September 1146 Death of Zengi

  November/December 1146 Joscelin II and Baldwin of Marash retake Edessa

  December 1146 Nur al-Din, Zengi's second son, regains Edessa

  May 1147 Unsuccessful invasion of the Hauran by Baldwin III

  Early April 1148 Arrival of Conrad III of Germany at Acre

  24 June 1148 Assembly of the leaders of the Second Crusade at Palmarea

  24–28 July 1148 Unsuccessful attack on Damascus by the forces of the Second Crusade

  29 June 1149 Defeat and death of Raymond of Poitiers by Nur al-Din at the battle of Inab

  15 July 1149 Consecration of the church of the Holy Sepulchre

  May 1150 Capture of Joscelin II of Edessa

  August 1150 Evacuation of the Latins from the county of Edessa

  31 March 1152 Baldwin III's crowning with a laurel in Jerusalem, resulting in the partition of the kingdom

  April 1152 Baldwin III seizes power and Melisende retires to Nablus

  April/May 1152 Baldwin III holds a High Court at Tripoli. Murder of Raymond II of Tripoli by Assassins