IN DISTANT LANDS
A Short History of the Crusades
Lars Brownworth
For Catherine
Contents
Cast of Characters
Prologue
1. The Pen and the Sword
2. The People's Crusade
3. The Prince's Crusade
4. The Long March
5. Antioch
6. Jerusalem the Golden
7. Outremer
8. The Field of Blood
9. The Gathering Storm
10. The Fire of Clairvaux
11. The King's Crusade
12. The March of Folly
13. Saladin
14. The Third Crusade
15. Coeur de Lion
16. Consumed by Fire
17. The Children's Crusade
18. The Sixth Crusade
19. The Seventh Crusade
20. Prester John
21. The Last Crusade
Epilogue: Aftermath
Also by Lars Brownworth
Also By Crux Publishing
Bibliography
Copyright
CAST OF CHARACTERS
The First Crusade: The People’s Crusade (Chapters 1-2)
Alexius I Comnenus: Byzantine emperor whose appeal for help to Urban II resulted in the First Crusade
Emicho: Count of Leiningen and leader of the anti-Semitic ‘German’ Crusade
Kilij Arslan: Turkish sultan based in Nicaea
Peter the Hermit: French priest, main leader of the People’s Crusade. Also known as Peter of Amiens
Urban II: The pope whose speech at Clermont in 1095 launched the First Crusade
Walter Sans-Avoir: Lord of Boissy-sans-Avoir, minor leader of the People’s Crusade. Also known as Walter the Penniless
The First Crusade: The Prince’s Crusade (Chapters 3-6)
Adhemar of Le Puy: Papal legate, spiritual leader of the First Crusade
Baldwin: Brother of Godfrey of Bouillon. Founded the first crusader state (Edessa), second King of Jerusalem
Bohemond: Prince of Taranto, founded the second crusader state (the Principality of Antioch)
Godfrey: Duke of Lower Lorraine, first (uncrowned) King of Jerusalem with the title ‘Defender of the Holy Sepulcher’
Hugh of Vermandois: Younger brother of the King of France, first major noble to leave on Crusade
Kerbogah: Atabeg of Mosul
Peter Bartholomew: French mystic who had a vision of the Holy Lance at Antioch
Raymond: Count of Toulouse, major rival of Bohemond
Stephen of Blois: Son-in-law of William the Conqueror
Tancred: Nephew of Bohemond, later Prince of Galilee and regent of Antioch
Taticius: Byzantine general who traveled with the crusaders to Antioch
Yaghi-Siyan: Turkish governor of Antioch
Formation of Outremer (Chapters 7-9)
Baldwin II: Cousin of Baldwin I, third King of Jerusalem. Also known as Baldwin of Le Bourg
Baldwin III: Son of Fulk and Melisende, fifth King of Jerusalem
Daimbert: Papal legate appointed to succeed Adhemar of Le Puy
Domenico Michele: Doge of Venice
Fulk of Anjou: Husband of Melisende, fourth King of Jerusalem
Hugh of Payns: French knight who founded the Knights Templar
Joscelin II: Count of Edessa whose rivalry with Raymond of Poitiers led to the fall of the County of Edessa
Melisende: Daughter of Baldwin II who ruled with her husband Fulk as regent for their son Baldwin III
Raymond of Poitiers: Prince of Antioch and uncle of Eleanor of Aquitaine
Zengi: Emir of Aleppo whose victories precipitated the Second Crusade
Second Crusade (Chapters 10-11)
Bernard of Clairvaux: Cistercian monk, responsible for the Second Crusade
Conrad III: Holy Roman Emperor
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Wife of Louis VII and niece of Raymond of Poitiers
Eugenius III: Pope who called the Second Crusade
Louis VII: King of France, first major figure to take the crusading oath
Manuel Comnenus: Byzantine Emperor, grandson of Alexius I Comnenus
Nūr al-Dīn: Emir of Aleppo, son of Zengi
Third Crusade (Chapters 12-15)
Amalric: younger brother of Baldwin III, sixth King of Jerusalem
Baldwin IV: Son of Amalric, seventh King of Jerusalem. Also known as the ‘Leper King’
Frederick Barbarossa: Holy Roman Emperor, nephew of Conrad III
Gregory VIII: Pope who called the Third Crusade
Guy of Lusignan: French noble, ninth King of Jerusalem
Henry II: King of England, second husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine
Isaac Angelus: Byzantine Emperor during the Third Crusade
Philip II Augustus: King of France, son of Louis VII
Reynald of Châtillon: Prince of Antioch whose reckless behavior led to the loss of Jerusalem
Richard the Lionheart: King of England, son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. The major figure of the Third Crusade
Saladin: Son of Shirkuh, reconquered Jerusalem for Islam
Shirkuh: Kurdish general of Nūr al-Dīn who made himself vizier of Egypt
Tancred of Lecce: King of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Also known as the ‘Monkey King’
Fourth Crusade (Chapter 16)
Alexius III Angelus: Byzantine Emperor, younger brother of Isaac II
Alexius IV Angelus: Byzantine Emperor, son of Isaac II, allied with the crusaders
Alexius V: Byzantine Emperor, overthrew Alexius IV. Also known as Mourtzouphlos
Boniface: Marquess of Montferrat, leader of the Fourth Crusade
Enrico Dandolo: Doge of Venice, leader of the Fourth Crusade
Innocent III: Pope who called the Fourth and Fifth Crusades
Isaac II Angelus: Byzantine emperor, overthrown by Alexius III just before the Fourth Crusade was called
Thibaut: Count of Champagne, nephew of Richard the Lionheart
Fifth Crusade (Chapter 17)
al-Kamil: Sultan of Egypt during the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Crusades, nephew of Saladin
Andrew: King of Hungary, leader of the Fifth Crusade
Frederick II Barbarossa: Holy Roman Emperor. Also known as Stupor Mundi
John of Brienne: Regent of Jerusalem, leader of Fifth Crusade
Leopold: Duke of Austria, leader of the Fifth Crusade
Nicholas of Cologne: German shepherd boy, one of the leaders of the ‘Children’s Crusade’
Pelagius: Papal legate, leader of the Fifth Crusade
Sixth Crusade (Chapter 18)
Frederick II Barbarossa: Holy Roman Emperor, leader of the Sixth Crusade
Gregory IX: Pope who succeeded Honorius III, excommunicated Frederick II
Honorius III: Pope who called the Sixth Crusade
Yolande: Daughter of John of Brienne, heir to throne of Jerusalem
Seventh and Eighth Crusades (Chapters 19-21)
Baybars: Mamluk sultan of Egypt
Charles of Anjou: Brother of Louis IX, King of Sicily
Edward I: King of England who joined the Eighth Crusade after it had officially ended. Led what is sometimes called the Ninth Crusade. Also known as ‘Longshanks’
Hulagu: Grandson of Ghengis Khan, leader of the Mongols
Innocent IV: Pope during the Seventh Crusade
Louis IX: King of France, leader of the Seventh and Eighth Crusades. Also known as Saint Louis
Prester John: Legendary Christian king of the East
Robert of Artois: Brother of Louis IX
LIST OF MAPS
1. The Byzantine Empire
2. The Abbasid Islamic Empire c. 750
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3. The Route of the First Crusade
4. The Crusader States c. 1135
5. The Route of the Fourth Crusade
"Si vis pacem, para bellum"
– Publius Flavius Vegeitus
Prologue: Yarmouk
In the early months of the year 636, an army mounted on camels crossed the Syrian border and – in what appeared to be a suicidal attack – invaded the Eastern Roman Empire. This state, better known as Byzantium, was the glittering, cultured bulwark of Christendom, whose borders stretched from the Atlantic coast of southern Spain in the west, to the deserts of modern Saudi Arabia in the east.1 On every side, the empire seemed ascendant. After four centuries of intermittent war, Rome’s ancient enemy Persia had finally been defeated, decisively smashed by the brilliant Roman soldier-emperor Heraclius.
Byzantine chroniclers were quick to anoint his reign as the new golden age. The ageing emperor was hailed as a new Moses leading his people out of the bondage of fear, a new Alexander the Great destroying the Persian threat, and a new Scipio Africanus vanquishing a modern Hannibal and restoring the glory of Rome. Once again, the Pax Romana had spread out over the war-torn lands of the Mediterranean.
The invaders, on the other hand, were from the desert wastes of Arabia, a region outside the borders of the civilized world populated by squabbling, insignificant tribes. Aside from a few raids into imperial territory, the people of this arid land had played no important part in human history and gave no sign that they ever would. In 622, however, a charismatic camel-driver's son named Muhammed declared that he was God's final prophet, come to purify the corrupted message of Judaism and Christianity.2
Muhammed was no simple crackpot or fleeting strongman. He preached absolute obedience and submission (Islam) to God's will, and combined it with a political and military system that made Islam more than just a religion.3 He inspired the quarreling tribes of Arabia with the vision of a world divided between those who had submitted to Islam – Dar al-Islam, the 'House of Islam' – and those who had yet to be conquered – Dar al-Harb, the 'House of War'. The vast energies of the Arabs, instead of dissipating in internecine feuds, were focused on expanding the House of Islam at the point of the sword.
The success of this first great wave of jihad, or holy war, was breathtaking. Within a decade Muslim armies had conquered most of Arabia, and although Muhammed died of a fever in Mecca in 632, a series of equally aggressive successors continued the advance.4 As early as 634 raiding parties entered imperial territory before arriving in strength two years later. Their timing couldn't have been better.
Despite its glittering appearance, Byzantine power was a mirage. The last two decades of its most recent war had cost the empire more than two hundred thousand casualties, and had left it vulnerable and exhausted. Religious divisions wracked the southeastern provinces, and the emperor’s attempt to root out heretical opinions by force only exacerbated them. The empire desperately needed leadership, but by 636, the conquering hero, Heraclius, was a shell of himself, with stooped shoulders and trembling hands. Worn out by a quarter of a century on the throne, he was showing signs of mental instability and had begun to suffer from the violent spasms that were soon to kill him.
The emperor may not have understood the enemy he was facing – like most Byzantines he assumed they were a new Christian heresy or a Jewish sect – but he at least recognized a threat and raised an army eighty thousand strong to defend the empire. Too ill to personally lead it, he set up a command center in Antioch, the second greatest metropolis in the empire, and sent the army under the command of a collection of generals into neighboring Syria where the Islamic force waited.
The two armies met on a sandy plain near the Yarmouk, one of the tributaries of the Jordan River. It was an inhospitable spot, an upland region on the frontier between the modern nations of Israel, Jordan, and Syria, just southeast of the contested Golan Heights. In the seventh century it was an even more remote place, flanked by impassable deserts, and scorched hills, hardly the place for one of history's most decisive battles to be fought.
The Byzantine force was easily superior – at least numerically – but now within sight of their enemy, they sat paralyzed. For five days they sent out tentative scouting raids, keeping careful watch, but refusing to engage. While they dithered, Muslim reinforcements poured in, strengthening the Islamic force and demoralizing the Christian one.5
It was the Muslim army that acted first. On the morning of August 20, 636, under cover of a blinding sandstorm that was blowing in the faces of their enemies, the Arabs charged. At first the Imperial army stood their ground, but in the thick of the fighting twelve thousand of their Christian Arab allies – whose pay was seriously in arrears – switched sides, and the imperial army broke. Panicked, surrounded, and confused, they stood little chance. Most were butchered as they attempted to scramble to safety.
In Antioch, news of the disaster shattered what was left of Heraclius' deteriorating mind. He had risked everything on this battle and lost. Believing that he had been abandoned by God, he made no further attempt to check the Islamic advance.6 The only interruption he made in his retreat to Constantinople was a brief stop in the Holy City of Jerusalem.
Just six years earlier he had entered the city in triumph, carrying the empire's holiest relic – the True Cross – on his back. Dressed as a simple penitent, he had walked barefoot up the Via Dolorosa, the 'Way of Sorrow' that Christ had taken to his crucifixion. The path ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the magnificent basilica that Constantine the Great had built, and there Heraclius had hung his prize above the high altar. It had been the highlight of his reign, unassailable evidence of God's favor.
Now, a broken and pathetic figure, Heraclius once again entered the church. Few watching would have missed the symbolism as the stricken monarch carefully pulled down the True Cross and loaded it on a ship along with most of the city's other relics. Weeping openly, he departed, leaving the Christian east to its fate.
Deprived of leadership and unable to comprehend this new aggressor, the empire crumbled with astonishing speed. The Roman Middle East – which had been Christian for more than three centuries – had effectively received its deathblow. Less than a year after the battle, the Caliph entered Jerusalem in person, wresting the city from Christian hands. Within twelve months, Damascus had fallen along with the rest of Syria and present-day Israel, and Jordan. Within a decade both Egypt and Armenia had fallen; within two, Iraq and most of Iran were gone. Less than a century after Yarmouk, Islamic armies had taken North Africa and Spain, and were within a hundred and fifty miles of Paris. Three quarters of the Christian world was gone, and most devastatingly of all, Christianity had been evicted from the land of its birth.
The mood was summed up by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who had turned over the city to its new masters to avoid further bloodshed. As he watched the Caliph, mounted on a snow white camel, moving to take possession of the Temple Mount, he whispered, "Behold, the abomination of desolation..." It was a sign – as Christ himself had warned – that the end of the world was at hand.7
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Chapter 1: The Pen and the Sword
"An accursed race, a race wholly alienated from God, . . . has violently invaded the lands of (the) Christians..."
– Urban II at Clermont
1093 was the year that the Eastern Roman emperor Alexius I Comnenus had been waiting his entire reign for. The great Muslim enemy was disunited and weak; one sustained push and prosperity and peace – two things that had been lacking for generations – would be within reach.
At his coronation, more than a decade before in 1081, Alexius had promised to restore imperial fortunes, but it seemed far more likely that he would merely preside over its final collapse. For more than four hundred years, Byzantium, the eastern half of the old Roman Empire, had been under siege. By the time of Alexius' birth in the mid-eleventh century, the relentle
ss hammer blows of the Islamic advance had reduced the Mediterranean-spanning state to a battered remnant in modern-day Turkey and Greece. The nadir had come in 1071, a decade before Alexius gained the throne, when the Turks, a group of new invaders from central Asia, cut apart the Byzantine army in the remote Armenian town of Manzikert, and captured the emperor with his retinue. The victorious sultan placed his slippered foot on the imperial neck as if the humiliated sovereign were a ceremonial footstool, and the Turks – in the words of the contemporary Byzantine chronicler Michael Psellus – poured into Asia Minor like 'a mighty deluge.'8
As the eastern frontier collapsed into ruin, the western borders were under siege as well. Norman adventurers, the descendants of Vikings who had settled in France, entered the Italian peninsula, drawn by the promise of soft lands ripe for the picking. Led by the formidable Robert Guiscard and his gigantic son, Bohemond, the Normans conquered southern Italy almost without resistance. In 1081 they crossed over into Greece, and in a matter of months were within striking distance of Constantinople itself. The only question seemed to be whether the empire would fall to the Normans or the Turks.
This litany of disasters is exactly what brought Alexius to the throne. His elderly predecessor, nearing eighty and too exhausted to offer any resistance, had been easily dispatched to a monastery. Facing two determined enemies without the benefit of a reliable army was a much harder proposition, but – with a mixture of diplomacy, pluck, and a few well-timed bribes – Alexius managed to stop the immediate collapse.
For the next 14 years he labored tirelessly, attempting to stabilize the frontiers and restore at least a semblance of prosperity to his people. Slowly but surely the tide began to turn. A succession of weak Turkish sultans in Asia Minor failed to keep their client emirs in line, and by 1095, the sultanate had largely disintegrated into feuding emirates.
In Distant Lands Page 1
