The Dream And The Tomb: A History Of The Crusades

by Robert Payne

  Since Bishop Adhémar had been, until his death, theoretically the commander of the Crusaders and the ultimate authority under the pope, his ghostly words held special force. A general assembly was called to consider the new commandment. It was agreed that the bishop had indeed spoken through Peter Desiderius and his commandment must be obeyed. Had not Christ humbled himself by entering Jerusalem on an ass? Therefore, the Christians must humble themselves in a similar manner: they must walk meekly in the sight of the Lord, imitating Christ.

  Two days later an extraordinary procession, led by priests carrying crosses and holy relics, and followed by knights and infantrymen, marched around the walls of Jerusalem. All were barefoot. Some of the soldiers brandished their weapons; the trumpeters blew on their trumpets; all were moved by the solemnity of the occasion. Raymond of Aguilers, who took part in the procession and later delivered a sermon addressed to the whole army on the Mount of Olives, remembered that it was very noisy and the Saracens on the walls amused themselves by erecting crosses on which they performed obscene acts. The crosses were supported on gibbets and could, therefore, be made to swing backward and forward when they were struck. The sight of the blasphemed crosses only stirred the Christians to firmer resolution.

  The march around the walls was both a penitential procession and the celebration of a triumph. From that morning, everyone seemed to know that Jerusalem would be conquered.

  A certain Gaston, Viscount of Béarn, was now placed in charge of the towers and siege engines on the northern wall, while William Embriaco was placed in charge of the construction of the towers and siege engines at Mount Zion. Huge balks of timber carried by captured Muslims could be seen making their way toward Jerusalem. Raymond of Aguilers speaks of great logs supported on the backs of fifty or sixty Muslims.

  The princes worked out a timetable. On July 9 they were able to determine that the assault would take place on the night of July 13, for the great towers and siege engines were nearly completed and it only remained to put them in place. The attack would be launched simultaneously from Mount Zion and along the eastern sector of the northern wall.

  At the last moment Godfrey of Bouillon and the counts of Flanders and Normandy made an abrupt change of plan. During the night, the largest tower was wheeled, with enormous difficulty, to another place a half mile away, because it was known that the Saracens were concentrating their forces where the tower had been. This tower was now facing the north wall near Herod’s Gate. At Mount Zion the Count of Toulouse was offering a denarius to anyone who would carry three heavy stones to help to fill the dip in the land that prevented him from bringing his tower close to the walls. He paid the money out of his own purse and the dip was quickly filled.

  We know surprisingly little about the fighting that took place throughout July 14. The towers closed in on the walls; the sappers were at work. The Christians battered at the walls with petraries and mangonels, instruments for hurling stones, and the huge siege engines, which could throw heavy rocks over the walls. The Saracens fought rocks and stones with fire. They hurled wooden bolts wrapped in rags aflame with burning pitch, sulfur, wax, and tow at the invaders; the bolts were provided with long nails so that they stuck to whatever they touched. The Saracens fought stubbornly. It is possible that there were too many of them—Raymond of Aguilers says there were sixty thousand of them against no more than thirteen hundred Christian knights, twelve thousand infantrymen, and workmen of all kinds—and they got in each other’s way, crowding the parapets and walkways. They were less maneuverable, and perhaps less disciplined, than the Crusaders, who were attempting at many different places to claw their way up the walls with ropes and scaling ladders. The two huge towers, once they were joined to the walls, presented the greatest danger to the Muslims. It was precisely in these places, at Mount Zion and on the north wall, that the Muslims needed skilled engineers rather than soldiers. Meanwhile, they did everything they could to burn down the towers, which were covered with skins and hides to protect them from fire. The task of the Crusaders was to make a single breach in the walls through which the army could pour in.

  The Muslims were well supplied with Greek fire: burning pitch and sulfur. The Crusaders used fire only with the flaming arrows they shot into the city. Sheets of flame fell on the Crusaders. Bales of hay, liberally sprinkled with oil and wax, were tossed over the walls, the hay continuing to burn long after it had reached the ground. Huge columns of smoke arose. Buildings in Jerusalem were burning, and there were pools of flame outside the walls, especially near the wooden towers, where the Muslims concentrated their fire.

  So the fighting went on, all through the day and into the night. Raymond of Aguilers speaks of the incessant noise and of siege engines that were shattered by rocks, for the Saracens also had catapults trained on the machinery of the Christian army. He speaks, too, of their defensive skill, and hints at the extraordinary accuracy of the defenders, who succeeded in burning or shattering many of the siege engines. They were also using witchcraft, a weapon the Christians could not use. Two witches, he tells us, were standing on the parapet and casting spells on one of the petraries. He observes, with some satisfaction, that immediately after they had cast their spells a rock went whistling through the air and killed them.

  On the morning of July 15, the Christians began to waver. They were exhausted by the continuous fighting, the lack of water, the sight of so many burnt-out siege engines. The princes met and debated whether to pull back and regroup. By this time, both towers were joined to the walls but it had been impossible to put the bridges in place, for these bridges, attached to the tops and swung into place by ropes and pulleys, were essential for making a pathway into the city. Up to this time, not a single Crusader had succeeded in entering the city. Every attempt to climb the walls had failed. An unknown knight standing on the Mount of Olives signaled with his shield to the Count of Toulouse to move forward. Raymond of Aguilers hints that the unknown knight was an angel. At this moment Godfrey of Bouillon, who was in the tower, ordered his men to throw fire on the bales of straw and cushions filled with cotton, which hung suspended from the walls, and the wind changing, huge columns of black smoke poured across the city, blinding the defenders who ran away. The Saracens had used balks of timber in an effort to keep the tower away from the walls. The Crusaders seized one of these timbers and nailed it to the tower, while the other end was secured to the battlements. Then the bridge was swung into position over the timber; at last, this narrow bridge provided a covered road into the city. Two Flemish knights, Litold and Gilbert of Tournai, had the honor of being the first to cross the bridge. They were closely followed by Godfrey of Bouillon, his brother Eustace, Robert Duke of Normandy, and the Count of Flanders. It was about noon on Friday, July 15, on the ninth day prophesied by Bishop Adhémar; and the Crusaders were aware that they were entering Jerusalem at the same hour that Christ died on the Cross.

  At Mount Zion, the Count of Toulouse had succeeded in bringing his tower close to the walls but had not yet succeeded in using it as a bridge into the city. Iftikhar was commanding the Saracens fighting at Mount Zion, and he put up a powerful defense with stones, rocks, Greek fire, and incessant flights of arrows. Soon messengers came to him with news that the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon had broken into Jerusalem and were already riding through the streets, killing everyone they encountered—man, woman, and child. Iftikhar shut himself up in the well-fortified Tower of David with as many of his soldiers as the tower could accommodate. He offered terms. He offered his treasure to the Count of Toulouse on condition that his life and the life of his bodyguard be spared, and that he be given safe passage to Ascalon. The count agreed. Alone among the Saracens, Iftikhar and his bodyguard survived the general massacre. They were escorted out of Jerusalem the same day.

  The tower erected by the Count of Toulouse at such a vast expenditure of time and energy, and at such depletion of his own private treasury, proved unnecessary. The Provençals entered Jerusalem through th
e city gates; but long before they reached the Haram as-Sharif, the vast sacred enclosure which enclosed the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem was being drowned in blood.

  Tancred and his knights were the first to reach the Haram as-Sharif. He pillaged the Dome of the Rock, removing its treasure, thus acquiring a vast fortune. The Saracens hoped to make a last stand at the al-Aqsa Mosque, but had no time to put it in a state of defense. They took refuge on the roof, hoping to be able to shoot down on the invaders, but Tancred’s shock troops came on them with such speed and force that they quickly surrendered, offering to pay a large ransom for their lives. Tancred agreed to spare them, and the Saracens were allowed to raise his banner over the mosque as a sign that they were under his protection. Elsewhere in the city the Crusaders ran riot. They entered houses where they found the people cowering in corners. Caught up in a rage of destruction they killed mindlessly. The slaughter continued through the long night.

  In the morning, Crusaders who had no allegiance to Tancred—probably Provençals—came upon the Saracens taking refuge in the al-Aqsa Mosque and butchered all of them. In the Temple Area, the dead lay everywhere-headless, armless, legless. Men ran over the mutilated bodies as though they were a carpet spread for them. Raymond of Aguilers, who saw the bloodletting, quotes approvingly, “This is the day the Lord has made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it.”

  While the Count of Toulouse was merciful to Iftikhar, he had good reasons. Here, at Mount Zion, the Saracens did not panic; they did not retreat. There was no way for the Provençals to enter the city unless the Saracens themselves opened David’s Gate. The fanatical defense of the Saracens at Mount Zion threatened that, even though Jerusalem might fall, the Saracens could continue to make life intolerable for the Christians.

  The massacre at Jerusalem was carried out deliberately; it was the result of settled policy. Jerusalem was to become a Christian city. The Jews, too, must be destroyed. They had all rushed to the chief synagogue, where they hoped to receive shelter and protection. The Crusaders, hungry for simple solutions, burned down the synagogue with the Jews inside.

  The Crusaders ripped open the bellies of the dead Saracens, because it was learned that sometimes they swallowed gold bezants to prevent them from falling into the hands of their enemies. When, some days later, it was decided to heap the dead into great funeral pyres, the Crusaders kept watch for the melting gold that might trickle down to the bottom of the pyre.

  On the night of victory, the Crusaders made their way in procession to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. A mass was celebrated, and the priests chanted the Office of the Resurrection, candles glowed under the vaulted ceilings, knights in chain mail stood beside simple soldiers, and for a few moments, in the half-darkness of the cavernous church, there was the sense of exaltation in a common purpose achieved against overwhelming odds. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was in Christian hands.

  EXCERPTS FROM A LETTER FROM DAIMBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF PISA, DUKE GODFREY, DEFENDER OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, AND RAYMOND, COUNT OF ST. GILLES, FROM JERUSALEM, AUGUST 1099.

  TO LORD PASCHAL, POPE OF THE ROMAN CHURCH, to all the bishops and to the whole Christian people, the Archbishop of Pisa, Duke Godfrey, now by the grace of God Defender of the Holy Sepulchre, Raymond, Count of St. Gilles, and the whole army of God: greeting and prayer.

  Multiply your supplications and prayers in the sight of God with joy and thanksgiving, since God has manifested His mercy in fulfilling by our hands what He has promised in ancient times. . . .

  . . . the bishops and princes ordered that all with bare feet should march around the walls of the city, in order that He who entered it humbly on our behalf might be moved by our humility to open it for us and to exercise judgment upon His enemies. God was appeased by this humility and on the eighth day after we had humbled ourselves, He delivered the city and His enemies to us. It was the day indeed when the primitive church was expelled from Jerusalem, the day when the festival of the Dispersion of the Apostles is celebrated. And if you would desire to know what was done with the enemy whom we found there, know that in Solomon’s Portico and in his Temple our men rode in the blood of the Saracens up to the knees of their horses.

  Then when we were discussing who should hold the city, and there were some who wanted to return home for love of their fatherland, we learned that the King of Babylon had come to Ascalon with an innumerable multitude of soldiers. He said it was his purpose to lead all the Franks in Jerusalem into captivity and to take Antioch by storm. But God had determined otherwise on our behalf.

  Therefore when we learned that the army of the Babylonians was in Ascalon, we went down to meet them, leaving our baggage and the sick in the care of the garrison in Jerusalem. When our army came in sight of the enemy, we fell on our knees to invoke the aid of the Lord, so that He who in all our other adversities had strengthened the Christian faith might now break the strength of the Saracens and of the Devil, and extend the Kingdom of the Church of Christ from sea to sea and over the whole world. There was no delay. God answered when we cried for help, and He provided us with such boldness that if you had seen us rush upon the enemy you would have taken us for a herd of deer hastening to slake their thirst in running water. . . . Marvellous did the Lord appear unto his servants. For before we even engaged in fighting, by our onset alone, He turned this multitude in flight and scattered all their weapons, so that if they wished to attack us later they had no weapons they could rely on. There can be no question about the spoils, for the entire treasury of the King of Babylon was captured. . . .

  . . . After we had gained the victory, the army returned to Jerusalem. Leaving Duke Godfrey behind, Raymond, Count of St. Gilles, Robert, Count of Normandy, and Robert, Count of Flanders, made their way to Laodicea, where they found the fleet of the Pisans and Bohemond. After the Archbishop of Pisa had established peace between Bohemond and our leaders, Count Raymond prepared to return to Jerusalem for the sake of God and our brethren.

  Therefore we call upon all you who belong to the Catholic Church of Christ and all the Latin people to exult in the wonderful courage and devotion of your brethren, in the glorious and most desirable retribution of Omnipotent God, and in the devoutly hoped for remission of all our sins through the grace of God. . . .

  III

  THE KINGS WHO CAME FROM ABROAD

  The Quarrels

  of the Princes

  TWO days after the conquest of Jerusalem, the princes and their chief lieutenants met in council to discuss the future administration of the city. There were urgent matters that had to be decided quickly. The city was strewn with corpses—no fewer than fifty thousand Saracens—and orders were given to dispose of the corpses by burial or by burning. The next matter of business was the apportionment of the available residences. Where would the soldiers live? Where would the priests live? Where would the princes live? Knights and ordinary soldiers had been permitted to put their names on houses they entered, thus, in theory, taking ownership of them. In fact, there were endless complications that would be sorted out in the courts. A more pressing matter was the approach of the Egyptian army. Within a few days or weeks the Crusaders could expect to have to defend Jerusalem against a powerful and well-armed army.

  Other problems were hotly discussed. Was Tancred to be allowed to keep the treasure, including eight hanging lamps of solid silver, taken from the Dome of the Rock? Finally there was perhaps the most important question of all: Who would be King of Jerusalem?

  There was not the least doubt that the Count of Toulouse, as the richest and most powerful of the princes who accompanied the expedition, had a claim on the title. He had not played the most heroic role in the conquest of Jerusalem, but he had fought worthily against Iftikhar at Mount Zion. Raymond of Aguilers says that the princes encouraged the Count of Toulouse to accept the title, but that he refused it, saying that he shuddered at the prospect of being addressed as King of Jerusalem. Raymond is claiming for the count more humility than he probably pos
sessed. He was growing old, he had been very ill, he was not a good administrator, and he had reached a time in his life when he was thinking about retirement. On the other hand he had been closely associated with Bishop Adhémar, who had been vested by the pope with the leadership of the Crusade, and there were long periods when he had in fact acted as the leader in Adhémar’s name. He was a master of diplomacy, as he showed in his dealings with the Byzantine emperor. Now, with Jerusalem in his grasp, he seems to have been delighted by the offer of a crown and to have been equally delighted in refusing it. Only a very proud, stubborn, and private man could have rejected so great a gift.

  There remained Robert of Normandy, Robert of Flanders, and Godfrey of Bouillon, all of them able men, practical, down-to-earth, skillful in war but without much intelligence in other matters. None of them had any reputation in diplomacy; none had that elementary training in law that would permit him to be a lawgiver. Robert of Normandy was an English prince and a Norman duke, with a violent temper and a thirst for power, but his interests in England and Normandy outweighed his interest in Jerusalem. Robert of Flanders, who was a capable soldier and perhaps the bravest of the Crusader princes, had interests in Flanders and had already told the other princes that he intended to return home as soon as Jerusalem was conquered.

  The debate was conducted with proper bureaucratic decorum. The clerks drew up lists of the attributes, virtues, and vices of the contenders for the crown. Their private and public lives were examined. The only fault they could find in Godfrey was an excessive piety and an excessive fondness for religious exercises. Tall, narrow-hipped, broad-shouldered, he appears to have been chosen over the others because he looked more kingly and was descended from Charlemagne. Because he was so deeply religious, he refused the crown while accepting the kingship. The title he chose for himself was “Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre.” Advocatus means “friend” or “witness,” and had the force of “protector.”