Timeline The First Crusade

The First Crusade 13

• 1095 – 1099 The First Crusade (1095–1099) The First Crusade (1095-1099) is the most successful military expedition of the Middle Ages -- and one of the most consequential events in world history. Launched by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in response to Byzantine Emperor Alexios I's appeal for help against the Seljuk Turks, it results in the capture of Jerusalem and the establishment of four Crusader states in the Levant. It permanently shapes the relationship between Latin Christendom, Byzantium and Islam, creates a template for religious warfare that endures for centuries, and demonstrates the transformative power of religious motivation in military mobilisation.
• 1095 Council of Clermont -- Urban II launches the Crusade On 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II addresses a vast crowd at Clermont in southern France, calling on the knights of Christendom to march to the aid of the Eastern Christians and recover the Holy Land from the Turks. His speech -- reconstructed from several contemporary accounts -- promises remission of sins to all who participate and frames the campaign as a holy war. The crowd's response -- 'Deus lo volt!' (God wills it!) -- becomes the Crusade's battle cry. Urban's speech is the most consequential public address of the Middle Ages; his appeal launches the first of eight major Crusades over the next two centuries.
• 1096 – 1097 Alexios I and the Crusade leaders -- oaths and suspicion The main Crusade army -- perhaps 60,000-100,000 people including approximately 30,000 fighting men under Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond of Taranto, Raymond IV of Toulouse and other lords -- assembles at Constantinople in 1096-1097. Alexios I receives each leader separately, extracts oaths to return conquered territory to the empire, gives lavish gifts, and gets the army across the Bosphorus as quickly as possible. The mutual suspicion is palpable: the Crusaders suspect Byzantine treachery; Alexios fears the Crusaders will sack Constantinople as the Normans had tried to do a decade earlier. Bohemond of Taranto -- former enemy of Byzantium -- is particularly dangerous.
• 1096 The Peoples Crusade -- Peter the Hermit Before the main Crusade army assembles, a disorganised mass of poor pilgrims and minor knights -- perhaps 40,000 people -- march east under the charismatic preacher Peter the Hermit. They massacre Jewish communities in the Rhineland en route (the Rhineland massacres are among the earliest pogroms in European history). Emperor Alexios I receives them nervously, ferries them across the Bosphorus quickly, and watches them march into Anatolia where the Seljuks annihilate them at Civetot (October 1096). Only a few thousand survive to join the main Crusade army.
• 1097 Siege of Nicaea -- first success The Crusaders besiege Nicaea -- the Seljuk capital in Anatolia and formerly the Byzantine city where the great councils of 325 and 787 were held -- in May 1097. Byzantine forces cooperate in the siege. Alexios I secretly negotiates the city's surrender directly with the Turkish garrison, to prevent the Crusaders from sacking it; the Byzantine flag appears on the walls instead of the Crusader banner. The Crusade leaders are furious at being denied the looting of a major city. The episode encapsulates the entire ambiguous Byzantine-Crusader relationship: cooperation in service of incompatible goals.
• 1097 Battle of Dorylaeum -- Seljuks defeated in the field At Dorylaeum (1 July 1097) in central Anatolia, a Seljuk army under Kilij Arslan I ambushes Bohemond's vanguard. The Crusaders hold their position under enormous pressure until the rest of the army arrives and routs the Seljuks. The battle is the first major Crusader field victory and proves that the heavy armoured cavalry of western Europe can defeat the mounted archery tactics of the Turks -- when they hold their nerve under the arrow storm rather than charging prematurely. The road through Anatolia is open.
• 1097 – 1098 Siege of Antioch -- the hardest test The siege of Antioch (October 1097 - June 1098) is the most difficult operation of the First Crusade. Antioch is one of the great cities of the ancient world, massively fortified; the Crusaders besiege it through a winter of famine (horses are eaten; cannibalism is reported). A traitor inside the walls (the Armenian officer Firouz) opens a tower to Bohemond on the night of 2-3 June 1098; the Crusaders take the city. Hours later, a massive Muslim relief army under Kerbogha arrives and besieges the besiegers inside the city. A miraculous find -- the Holy Lance (supposedly the spear that pierced Christ's side) -- revives Crusader morale; a sortie destroys Kerbogha's army.
• 1098 Bohemond keeps Antioch -- the oaths broken After the capture of Antioch, Bohemond of Taranto refuses to hand the city to Alexios I's representative, claiming that since the emperor was not present during the siege, the oath to return conquered territory does not apply. He establishes the Principality of Antioch -- the first Crusader state, and the one most resistant to Byzantine suzerainty. Alexios I's failure to march to Antioch's relief during the Kerbogha siege (he turns back on receiving false reports that the Crusade is lost) gives Bohemond his justification. The breach of the Nicaea oath marks the point at which the First Crusade decisively escapes Byzantine control.
• 1099 – 1187 The Crusader States -- an implanted civilisation The four Crusader states established after the First Crusade -- the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa -- represent an extraordinary implantation of Western European feudal culture in the Levant. At their peak they control a coastal strip stretching from Cilicia to Sinai. They are perpetually under-populated, dependent on Italian naval power (Venice, Genoa, Pisa), divided by internal rivalries and permanently on the defensive. The great Crusader castles -- Krak des Chevaliers, Belvoir, Nimrod -- are among the finest military architecture of the Middle Ages.
• 1099 The Crusades legacy -- 900 years of controversy The Crusades remain among the most contested events in Western history. For medieval Christians they were holy wars of liberation; for Muslims they are remembered as unprovoked aggression against the Islamic world; for modern historians they are a complex phenomenon reflecting religious conviction, social pressure (primogeniture sending younger sons to seek fortunes abroad), commercial interest (Italian city-states) and political calculation (popes seeking to assert authority over kings). The First Crusade's legacy includes the establishment of the Crusader states, the deepening of the Great Schism, the acceleration of Italian commercial expansion, and the creation of military-religious orders (Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights) that reshape European politics.
• 1099 Siege of Jerusalem -- 15 July 1099 The Crusaders reach Jerusalem in June 1099 and besiege it with approximately 12,000 men. After five weeks, an assault on 15 July 1099 breaches the walls. The sack of Jerusalem that follows is horrific: the Muslim and Jewish populations are massacred. Contemporary Crusader chronicles describe the killing with evident satisfaction; Arabic and Hebrew sources describe it with horror. Godfrey of Bouillon, elected defender of the Holy Sepulchre, reportedly wades through blood to pray at Christ's tomb. The capture of Jerusalem is the culmination of the First Crusade -- and the beginning of a 200-year attempt to hold it.
• 1099 Battle of Ascalon -- the Crusade completed Five days after the fall of Jerusalem (12 August 1099), a Crusader force defeats the Fatimid army of Egypt at the Battle of Ascalon -- preventing the immediate recovery of Jerusalem by a Muslim force. The victory secures the newborn Kingdom of Jerusalem's southern flank. The Crusade is effectively over: Jerusalem is in Christian hands, the main military objectives are achieved. Most of the surviving Crusaders return to Europe, leaving the Crusader states dangerously under-populated and dependent on continuous reinforcement from the West.
• 1187 Saladin retakes Jerusalem On 2 October 1187, Saladin (Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub), Sultan of Egypt and Syria, accepts the surrender of Jerusalem from Balian of Ibelin after the catastrophic Crusader defeat at the Battle of Hattin (4 July 1187). Saladin's reconquest is conducted with deliberate restraint -- no massacre, no desecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, ransoms accepted for Christian captives who can pay. The contrast with the Crusader conquest of 1099 is pointed. Saladin's chivalry impresses even his enemies. The loss of Jerusalem triggers the Third Crusade (1189-1192).