Prawer, Joshua. The World of the Crusaders. New York: Quadrangle, 1973. Print.
Reston, James. Warriors of God: Richard the Lionhearted and Saladin in the Third Crusade. New York: Doubleday, 2001. Print.
Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania, 2009. Print.
Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995. Print.
Runciman, Steven Sir. A History of the Crusades, Volume I: The First Crusade. Cambridge: U, 1954. Print.
Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East 1100-1187. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987. Print.
Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades, Volume III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987. Print.
Runciman, Steven. The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century. Baltimore: Penguin, 1960. Print.
Setton, Kenneth M. The Age of Chivalry. Washington: National Geographic Society, 1969. Print.
Stark, Rodney. God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades. New York: HarperOne, 2009. Print.
Tierney, Brian, and Sidney Painter. Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1475. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992. Print.
Tyerman, Christopher. God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2008. Print.
In Distant Lands: A Short History of the Crusades
ISBN: 978-1-909979-49-9
First published in April 2017 by Crux Publishing Ltd
Text © Lars Brownworth
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Crux Publishing Ltd.
The author and publisher will be grateful for any information that will assist them in keeping future editions up-to-date. Although all reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of this book, neither the publisher, editors nor the author can accept any liability for any consequences arising from the use thereof, or the information contained therein.
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to [email protected]
Notes
1. The capital of the Eastern Roman Empire was Constantinople. Since the original name of the city was ‘Byzantium’, modern historians refer to its empire as either the ‘Byzantine Empire’ or more simply ‘Byzantium’.
2. Muhammed claimed that Allah had revealed himself through numerous prophets – Moses and Christ being two of the more prominent ones – but their message had become garbled over time. His revelation was the final ‘pure’ version that would supplant the corrupted ones.
3. 'Islam' means 'submission' to the will of Allah.
4. A key to Muhammed's success was his pragmatism. While preaching strict obedience, he was willing to make accommodations for deeply entrenched customs such as slavery and polygamy.
5. There was no water supply between the Muslim relief force and the main army, so the creative Islamic commander watered his camels extensively before he left, and then had his men kill them en route to harvest the water.
6. The emperor's subjects agreed with this assessment. After his first wife died, Heraclius married his niece, and this incestuous union was popularly believed to have been responsible for most of the empire's troubles.
7. Matthew 24:15
8. ‘Asia Minor’ originally referred to the part of the Roman province of Asia that was evangelized by St. Paul. It consists of most of present-day Turkey, and is more or less interchangeable with the term ‘Anatolia’.
9. In 1054, emissaries of the pope excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople, who turned around and excommunicated the pope right back. This event – known as the Eastern Schism – started a chain of events that permanently split the Christian world into Catholic (western) and Orthodox (eastern) halves.
10. Ironically, Gregory's original idea was to leave the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, in charge of the West while he was away fighting. Not long after considering this, however, the two men were violently at odds over the Lay Investiture Controversy – a fight over secular control of church appointments – and Gregory ended up excommunicating Henry.
11. Robert of Rheims may have been present at Clermont, but probably only wrote down his recollections of Urban's speech two decades later.
12. They had to be launched by a legitimate authority for a legitimate cause, could only be fought to correct an injustice, and had to be fought as a last resort.
13. Islam had the concept of Holy War – jihad – from its beginnings, but Christianity had, to varying degrees, always rejected it.
14. The Latin term for those who took the oath to go to Jerusalem was cruce signati – those signed by the cross – from which we get the terms 'crusade' and 'crusader'.
15. Medieval maps of Europe usually placed the east or ‘orient’ at the top and Jerusalem in the center. This is where we get the term ‘to orient’ oneself.
16. Virtually the only Christian spot that remained intact was the Cenacle or Upper Room, the house where the last supper had taken place and where the eleven surviving disciples had gathered after the Crucifixion. Ironically, emperor Hadrian's attempt to suppress Christianity by building temples – one to Venus over the crucifixion site and one to Jupiter over the tomb – is what ultimately preserved them.
17. At least two of these can still be seen. Constantine melted one down to make a bit for his horse and this was later taken to Milan where it can still be seen in the Cathedral. He gave another as a gift to some Lombard princes in Italy who beat it into a circular shape and created the famous Iron Crown of Lombardy, now in the Cathedral of Monza. This last one is slightly dubious since it was at least the fifth nail that Constantine made use of. During the Middle Ages more than thirty churches claimed to have pieces of the 'Holy Nails'.
18. This practice of pilgrimage was itself an ancient custom. Faithful pagans in the Roman world had travelled great distances for the spiritual benefits of visiting the great temple of Diana of Ephesus, or Hector's tomb in Troy.
19. The command to walk barefoot from Europe to Palestine could often prove fatal. To take just one example, in 1051, Swein Godwinsson, the misbehaving brother of the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, died of exposure crossing the mountains of Anatolia.
20. During one of the worst periods of repression – AD 1012 – all synagogues and churches were ordered to be destroyed by the half-insane caliph, al-Hakim. Furthermore, all non-Muslims had to pay a tax and wear distinctive clothes and degrading symbols – large wooden crosses for Christians and bells for Jews.
21. Charlemagne built a spacious hotel for pilgrim use and the eleventh century Byzantine emperor Constantine IX rebuilt the Holy Sepulcher and spent extravagantly for the privilege of maintaining Christian sites in Jerusalem.
22. One of the most infamous pilgrims was Robert the Devil – father of William the Conqueror – who abandoned his son in Normandy and died while on his way back from Jerusalem.
23. Al-Muqaddasi, Descriptions of Syria, trans. by Le Strange, p. 37
24. In addition to theological differences, the original dispute was over who should succeed Muhammed when he died. Shi'ites recognize Muhammed's cousin, Ali, while Sunnis recognize Muhammed's father-in-law, Abu Bakr as the rightful successor.
25. The name derives from its first ruler, Abbas, the uncle of Muhammed.
26. The Muslim invasion of Spain had occurred in the early eighth century, and the remaining Christians had been fighting the Reconquista ev
er since. It would not be finally completed until 1492.
27. Excommunication was one of the most dreaded punishments of the medieval church. An excommunicate was temporarily cut off from the church, unable to receive communion or any other sacrament until they repented. If they died under the sentence they would be damned.
28. Peter was widely believed to have in his possession a letter from heaven urging immediate action against the Turks.
29. Another group apparently followed a female goat. Neither animal survived long enough to leave German territory. Albert of Aix dryly noted that the goose would have been more service as meal than a leader.
30. The confusion stems from the fact that Walter was from the village of Boissy-sans-Avoir. In French, the words ‘sans avior mean ‘without having’.
31. Since the crusaders had actively attacked several Byzantine cities and harassed the countryside, Peter wasn't sure what kind of reception he would get. When the emperor announced that all was forgiven – since one look told him that the crusaders had been punished enough – Peter was overcome with gratitude and wept.
32. At the time of the First Crusade it was roughly twenty times the size of London or Paris.
33. The dome of the 6th century Hagia Sophia remained the largest in the world for nearly a thousand years. It was only surpassed during the Renaissance by the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi.
34. This comes from the always entertaining Russian Primary Chronicle. The experience supposedly was so overwhelming that it convinced the Russian ruler Vladimir the Great to convert to Christianity. The relevant excerpt can be found here: http://www2.stetson.edu/~psteeves/classes/russianprimarychronicle.html
35. The ancient name of the village was Helenopolis, the birthplace of Constantine the Great's mother.
36. The Nicene Creed has been recited nearly every day by believers since it was composed in AD 325.
37. Anna Comnena, writing several decades after the event with more passion than accuracy, claims that they stooped to roasting infants on sticks.
38. Comnena Anna, trans. E.R.A. Sweter, The Alexiad, (London: Penguin, 1969), Book X
39. He seems to have toyed initially with the idea of leading it himself, but quickly discovered that he had too many responsibilities at home.
40. So at least Anna Comnena – the admittedly biased daughter of the Byzantine emperor – informs us. Since Hugh had no royal status, the claim is patently ridiculous. He probably demanded an appropriate welcome for one serving the King of Kings, and Anna – offended by the tone and enjoying the historian’s gift of hindsight – conveniently modified her account.
41. The city of Bari is famous for having the relics of Nicholas of Myra – better known as St. Nick.
42. According to a Frankish source, Alexius adopted Hugh – and the rest of the Crusading princes – as his son.
43. He kept his claim to Lower Lorraine, the most important of his holdings. He was clearly planning on returning and probably intended to use the land as a base to rebuild his vast holdings.
44. One crusading account makes the fantastic claim that Godfrey demanded and received hostages from the emperor to end his attacks on the capital.
45. His given name was actually Marc, but his father – seeing his huge size – had nicknamed him 'Bohemond' after the legendary medieval giant Buamundas Gigas. Thanks to Bohemond's exploits, the name became one of the most popular ones of the Middle Ages.
46. Robert Gusicard was the sixth of his father’s twelve sons and – since he didn’t have an inheritance to look forward to – had joined a stream of Norman mercenaries into Italy in 1047 in hopes of winning a fortune for himself. Within two decades he was the master of most of southern Italy and Sicily.
47. The Norman historian Geoffrey Malaterra bluntly records that he joined the crusade to plunder Byzantine territory.
48. The Byzantines referred to all westerners as 'Franks'. The one exception was the Normans who had made their existence – and distinction – very clear.
49. Alexander's version was even bigger – it featured ninety beds, one hundred couches, and a massive reception hall that supposedly could house up to nine thousand.
50. The Norman account claims that Alexius was moved by Tancred's noble spirit and said this out of fear. It also adds Tancred's less than inspiring comeback: 'I deem you worthy of an enemy but not a friend.'
51. Neither of them were particularly impressive characters. Robert had auctioned off the duchy to his younger brother William Rufus. Stephen didn't want to go on crusade at all, but he had married Adela, William the Conqueror's daughter, who had inherited her father's iron will. She ordered him to go and he went.
52. This includes the People's Crusade as well as all non-combatants.
53. James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 49-51
54. Alexius was playing his own game with the siege. He was perfectly well aware that the garrison was getting supplies from the lake, and could easily have arranged a naval blockade at the start of the siege. He was most likely waiting for the crusading leaders – whose oaths of loyalty had been only reluctantly given – to come to the realization that they needed him.
55. This included Godfrey of Bouillon who was injured by a bear that he was attempting to hunt.
56. August. C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants, (Princeton: 1921), 163-68
57. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/polybius/31*.html
58. This included Yaghi-Siyan. The unfortunate governor had managed to slip out of the city but had been thrown from his horse and deserted by his guards. He was killed by the local Armenians who found him, and his head was presented to Bohemond as a gift.
59. He seems to have established very warm relations. After his surrender, he converted to Christianity and – with several of his men – joined Bohemond's army.
60. While the episode discredited Peter Bartholomew in the eyes of most of the army, he did have some supporters left. They maintained that he had emerged from the flames unscathed, but had been pushed back into the fire by the excited crowd. Raymond continued to believe in the authenticity of the Lance, and built a special chapel for its veneration.
61. The Islamic Caliphate based in Egypt was called ‘Fatimid’ after its ruling dynasty which claimed descent from ‘Fatimah,’ the daughter of Muhammed. As Shi’ites they were rivals of the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate based around Damascus.
62. In the eleventh century the native Christian population still outnumbered the Muslim one.
63. Raymond carried the Holy Lance, now apparently again accepted – or at least hoped – as genuine by most of the army.
64. The Arab writer Ibn al-Arabi estimated the number of Muslim dead at around three thousand.
65. This oft-repeated story appears in virtually all modern histories of the crusades. A contemporary Jewish account does confirm that the building was destroyed, but makes no mention of any casualties.
66. It is difficult to comprehend how brutal the times were. One Jewish eyewitness complemented the Christians because they didn't rape before they killed like the Muslims did.
67. Urban hadn't expressed any interest in governing Jerusalem, just in being recognized as head of its church. He expected them to turn over political control to the Byzantines.
68. When Emperor Henry IV quarreled with the pope in the dispute known as the Lay Investiture Controversy, Godfrey assisted his monarch in evicting the pope from Rome. Within a century of his death, however, it was being reported that Godfrey's only fault was that he had been too pious.
69. Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, vol I, no. 4 (Philadelphia: The Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania, 1902), pp. 8-12.
70. In AD 637 the Orthodox Patriarch Sophronius had turned over the city to the Caliph Umar, ending three centuries of Christian control.
71. Although t
he term Outremer originally applied to all the crusader states, over time it came to refer primarily to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
72. He was remarkably successful. With only twenty-five knights he somehow managed to secure Tiberias, Nazareth, and Mount Tabor, making him the virtual master of Galilee.
73. This was commanded by Taticius, the unappreciated Byzantine guide of the First Crusade to Antioch. His run of bad luck continued. Thanks to a sudden storm, Daimbert's fleet was able to escape Taticius and the hapless commander had to return to Constantinople empty-handed.
74. Godfrey's sword and spurs can still be seen mounted on a wall of the Holy Sepulcher.
75. His old enemy the Byzantine emperor Alexius offered to pay it – on the condition that Bohemond would be delivered to Constantinople. Bohemond sensibly declined.
76. Daimbert stubbornly refused to give up. He traveled to Rome and convinced the weak Pope Paschal II to reinstate him. Palestine was spared a second dose of Daimbert by his death on the return journey.
77. In Tripoli, the crusaders first tasted sugar cane, which was unknown in Europe at the time. They considered it a passing novelty.
78. The nearby Lake Bardawil still bears the Arabic form of his name.
79. This was the infamous site where Muslims under the protection of Tancred were slaughtered by overeager crusaders when they first entered the city.
80. The Lay Investiture Controversy – an argument over the habit of secular leaders appointing or ‘investing’ church officials – had devolved into a contest of wills between the papacy and the German empire. It was settled only in 1122 at the Concordat of Worms.
In Distant Lands Page 26
