Gone Medieval - The First Crusade

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

Today’s episode of Gone Medieval is brought to you by Paradox Interactive, the creators of the game Crusader Kings III. In it, Matt Lewis explores all of the logistics of going on a Medieval crusade and how the first crusade played out.Matt has been losing whole weekends to this game! If you want to experience the grand strategy adventure and delve into the world created by Crusader Kings III, be sure to take advantage of the free play weekend on Steam 8-12 September. Watch the trailer here.The Senior Producer on this episode was Elena Guthrie. It was edited by Anisha Deva.For more Gone Medieval content, subscribe to our Medieval Monday newsletter here.If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download, go to Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From long-loss Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life, only on history hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries

with a brand-new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world, to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. This episode is brought to you by Paradox Interactive, the creators of the game Crusader Kings 3, so that we can talk about all of the logistics

of going on a medieval crusade and look at how the first crusade played out. I've been losing weekends to this game, and if you want to experience the grand strategy adventure and delve into the world created by Crusader Kings 3, be sure to take advantage of the free play weekend on Steam that runs from the 8th of September to the 12th. That's right, if you're listening as this podcast is released, that's right now.

So give it a try and see how many weekends you lose before you rule the world. At the Council of Claremont in November 1095, Urban implored Christians to go east to save the Byzantine Empire and to take Jerusalem and the surrounding Holy Land from the Fatimid Caliphate. Urban reportedly told those listening with bated breath that God exhorts you as heralded of Christ to repeatedly urge men of all ranks whatsoever, knights as well as foot soldiers, rich and poor, to join up. He added, for all those going thither, there will be remission of sin if they come to the end of this fettered life while either marching by land or crossing the sea or infighting the pagans. This I grant to all who go through the power vested in me

by God. This golden ticket guaranteeing salvation was more than enough for many to risk the long and dangerous journey. The crowd roared enthusiastically in response, Deus vault, Deus vault, God wills it, God wills it. This was the preaching of the First Crusade, the beginning of a period that was then viewed through a prism of religious duty and glory, but it's now seen more clearly as a long series of dark moments that left deep scars across the regions it affected. Jerusalem had been in Muslim hands since 637, and they'd been generally tolerant of other faiths and of pilgrims. Muslims and Christians had already been fighting for a long time on the Iberian Peninsula,

and crusading would become a long-term project in the Holy Lands. It would also spread across Europe, from the Teutonic Knights in the Baltic to the French crackdown on Cathars in southern France. In 1095 though, the idea of launching a war half a world away was new. It required immense logistical and diplomatic efforts. So how did those in Christian Europe go about it? Who would take up this challenge was going to be key? The more powerful and influential and rich men who would accompany the expedition, the better.

Hugh of Vermandois, the King of France's brother, and Robert Curtos, Duke of Normandy and the brother of the King of England, were two of the most of the most of the King of the British. senior figures to sign up for Urban's Crusade. Amongst other high-ranking noblemen to answer the call were Raymond IV, the Count of Toulouse, Stephen, Count of Blois, Robert, Count of Flanders, and Godfrey of Buillon. The Crusade's spiritual leader was to be a man named Adamar of Le Puy. Any knights and nobles hoping to go on Crusade, and these were the people the Pope was most keen to recruit, were the ones with the most lands and money to worry about if they were going to be away for a long time. In theory, there was little cause for concern.

Along with the salvation of your soul and guaranteed entry into heaven, the Pope offered protection of all the lands of crusaders while they were away on Crusade. No one could take their property while they were doing God's work. In reality, things are rarely that simple. Aside from that, someone had to run estates, maintain incomes, keep law and order, all the things a Lord was expected to do on his lands. That meant appointing someone to take your place while you're away. Will that be your wife, your oldest son, a trusted, experienced advisor?

What if there was no one suitable? What if there's competition for the role? Picking the wrong person could lead to disaster. And that's just the first thing that a crusader had to think about. Money was the next problem. The first nobleman to take the cross was Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse. Taking the cross was the act of accepting a cloth cross that would be sewn onto a cloak or tabard, usually on the shoulder. It became so synonymous with crusader identity that going on crusade is often referred to simply as taking the cross.

The sources tell us that Raymond sold everything he had to raise the funds and free himself to go on crusade. That might well be an exaggeration, but the cash required to fund an open-ended military trip thousands of miles away was staggering. Robert the Duke of Normandy, the oldest son of William the Conqueror, mortgaged his duchy to his brother, King William II of England, to raise 10,000 marks for the Crusade. Plenty of others sold or mortgaged their lands in an effort to build a war chest. Everyone was cashing in whatever they had to bet on the spiritual and the temporal success of the crusade. Men signed up in their thousands. How did they manage to convince such numbers of people to join them. Well, the Pope in Rome had laid the spiritual groundwork with his promises.

Monks were amongst the most well-educated men of their age, and some were gifted orators. Their fire and brimstone preaching whipped up hatred alongside the promise of a seat in heaven and influenced men everywhere to take the cross. That would be enough for some, but others might need more practical reasons to sway them. Boamond of Taranto, a Norman from South Italy, also joined. He was the youngest of 12 sons from a Norman family that had sought its fortune in Italy. He was attracted by the prospect of land, titles and riches in the Holy Land as well as the promise of eternal salvation.

Beaumont was just the kind of man the Pope wanted, an experienced and talented warrior with little land of his own who might be tempted to look east to a brighter future. All of these nobles brought with them men, raised from their lands, as well as soldiers they recruited, the cash they raised. There was competition to lead the biggest retinue. Raymond the 4th's army was amongst the largest, numbering in the thousands, and was composed of nobleman and knights, but also squires, servants, women, children, clergy and writers to document the expedition. If it was going to succeed, Raymond wanted to make sure he went viral. Throughout this process of raising men and money, all of the layers of society involved would have to be talking to their superiors,

their neighbours and those directly beneath them. In regions where several noblemen were to join, they might try to find a spot to meet up. Robert Duke of Normandy, Stephen Count of Blois, and Robert Count of Flanders joined together before setting off. Trying to set a meeting place though was tricky. Would anyone be keen to have thousands of testosterone-fueled, spiritually inflamed men lingering in their region?

Seems like a recipe for trouble. The idea was to converge, to pick up anyone, else not travelling in groups outside the walls of Constantinople, now Istanbul, but then the capital of the Byzantine Empire that had called to the West for help. Taking its name from Byzantium, the previous name of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire was the eastern remnant of the Roman Empire. After the collapse of Rome in the 5th century, the Byzantine Empire viewed itself as the only legitimate Roman Empire that remained. Alexios styled himself Roman Emperor and ruled over the last Roman Emperor and ruled over the same. are people who were considered Roman. Alexios's daughter, Anna Komnenna, wrote an epic history, the Alexiad, in which her father

and mother were the heroes, and it provides invaluable, if heavily biased, insights into the First Crusade. One of the trickiest things to resolve was the date that people would leave. For most, this would need to be as soon as possible, but with so many moving parts, getting everything aligned was no mean feat. Pope Urban had preached the crusade in November 1095, though it seems likely he'd tested the water with senior nobleman before this, giving them a little more notice. Raymond the 4th Army marched out of Toulouse in October 1096. It had taken almost a year to find the money, raise the men, sort out what would happen in his absence and finalised the logistics.

Frankly, I'm impressed it was all done within a year. Leaving, though, was only the beginning of more problems to confront. The first question for those draining to leave was how to travel. There were two options, really, by land or by sea. Both had advantages and risks. A sea route, preferred by Robert Duke of Normandy from Italy, avoided marching through the lands of others and might have seemed like an easier ride than being on horseback for several thousand miles.

It was unlikely to be all plain sailing, though. There were still the issues of resupplying, navigating potentially hostile waters, encounters with pirates and storms to worry about. Sea crossings would feature more during later campaigns and played only a small path in the first crusade. Over land, some of those problems went away, but there was a need to plan the route and obtain permission to travel across lands much more carefully. Then there was 3,000 miles in the saddle to consider, with those who couldn't afford horses walking the vast distance. It could be slow going and once in hostile territory the army would be wide open to attack on land.

land. Raymond IV decided on a land route, as did most of the armies, since it was the cheaper, if more gruelling option. The land route might also be compromised by those who had gone before. The main army, made up of nobles, knights and their retainers, is known as the Prince's Crusade. Alongside this was the less well-known People's Crusade. This was made up of more common folk who were unattached to nobles that were travelling, and it was enthusiastically fast to move. It was led by the enigmatic Peter the Hermit, but was poorly organised, barely trained and lacked discipline. On its way through friendly Hungary, it resorted to looting, ending in a full-scale battle with Hungarian forces that reportedly saw the deaths of 10,000 crusaders.

The People's Crusade was all but over before it even left Christian territory. When Godfrey of Puyant arrived in their wake, he found Hungary was no longer friendly. It took him days to negotiate passage across lands that People's Crusade had made nervous and hostile. Supplying the armies was always going to be an issue. There are no solid records of the numbers of people who made the journey from Western Europe to the Holy Land for the First Crusade. The best estimates we have are something like 50 to 60,000 people that might have been travelling. They were made up of around 7,000 knights, each of whom had squires and servants to tend to their needs.

Each of these knights most likely had three horses, a poultry for riding, a warhorse for battle and a pack horse. That makes around 20,000 horses. Each horse would require around 9 kilograms of food a day and 30 litres of water. That's over 500 metric tonnes of horse food and 500,000 gallons of water every day just for the horses. Each person would need at least a kilogram of food a day, pushing. the total up to more than 600 metric tonnes of food a day. This would mostly be made up of bread and other staples that wouldn't perish too fast and it's the equivalent of 14 articulated wagons of food being emptied every day by the army. If the army set out with about a fortnight's worth

of food which was probably the longest they could be certain it wouldn't perish, that would be somewhere around 8 to 10,000 tonnes to transport. Each cart could roughly carry a tonne, so that That volume would need 8 to 10,000 carts, and each of these would need two oxen to pull it, each of which had to be fed and watered. You can see how it all mounted up. Once that initial supply ran out, there were a couple of ways the leaders might feed their army as it travelled. The cheapest was foraging and looting in enemy territory, but that would only work once

you reached enemy territory, and even then there would be no guarantee of a reliable supply of food if the enemy kept it out of reach. While they were still within friendly lands, the only option that avoided chaos and the army being feared and denied safe passage was buying supplies whenever and wherever possible. That would require two things, a large chunk of that money that had been raised at home and a supply that could meet that kind of demand. This was made trickier because Europe had experienced a drought and poor harvests in recent years that meant there wasn't necessarily going to be plenty.

The army would have been akin to something like a plague of locusts, albeit ones that paid, buying up food and put in local reserves at risk. Mini-inflationary bubbles must have followed the army as demand outstripped supply almost overnight. The only real solution was for the army to travel in smaller groups by slightly different routes to avoid running out of food. Converging on Constantinople presented its own problems as the Crusaders looked to leave Europe and enter Asia and enemy territory.

Emperor Alexios had envisaged a mercenary army that would be put at his disposal to take back the lands of his empire that had been lost to Muslim forces. What he got was a motivated force with its own leaders and its own agenda. Some of them were known to Alexios too, and not in a good way.

Bohemond of Taranto, in particular, had been a thorn in the emperor's side in recent years. Now, he wanted to bring an army into the empire's capital. To ease his concerns, Alexios demanded that all the nobleman with the army swear an oath of fealty to him. They agreed with the sole exception of Raymond IV. The best he would offer was an oath of friendship and a promise to return any of the Emperor's lands that were regained

during the Crusade. That had to suffice for Alexios. The Emperor's daughter, Anna, described the Franks who arrived in her home city as well known for their uncontrollable passion, erratic character and their unpredictability. It was far from a warm welcome for those who had received. responded to the Emperor's plea for help. From this point onwards, the converging armies became one. Raymond was generally, though tacitly, accepted as their leader. Boamond led the vanguard, the forwardmost portion of the army. As they crossed the Bosporus, the water border between Europe and Asia, the flower of Western European chivalry had to shed their egos and their differences and prepare for a challenge none of them had faced before. They weren't in Europe anymore.

The further east and south the army had travelled, the warmer and more unfamiliar the climate had become. The hot, arid conditions were a far cry from the lush forests and fields of the Loire Valley. Some amongst them had been on pilgrimage to Jerusalem before, but now they'd come to start a war. The Crusaders grew concerned that their armour was unsuitable for what they were about to attempt, that they were poorly equipped for desert warfare. The quality of roads declined and the progress of horses and carts was painfully seen. slow. Now was their chance to begin pillaging for food and supplies, but they were harder to come by than the army had hoped. Food and water proved scarce. The army looked to the sea to be resupplied,

but the ships weren't always there. As they searched for military targets to attack, the lack of a reliable supply structure would prove an ongoing threat that couldn't be easily resolved. Alongside that challenge came a new one, brought about by moving more slowly. It would only get worse the deeper into the Holy Land they went. A campaigning army had to camp, making and breaking a vast, moving city in hostile territory. Sleeping under canvas might sound like a great bonding experience, like some kind of travelling festival, but it opened the door to a medieval campaigning army's greatest enemy. Disease. Thousands of people crammed together for safety, latrines within camps, poor food supplies and heat they weren't used to was a recipe for sickness.

When they came to besiege cities, often staying still for months on end, they would have one more foe to be wary of. To add to the problems, those the Crusaders had come to attack, knew this terrain like the back of their hands. It was where they were used to fighting and living. Mountain passes made the perfect spots for ambushes, and the Crusaders would face guerrilla hit-and-run tactics. The Crusaders were targeting the Muslim forces

that were generally separated into the Seljuk Turks and the Fatimid Caliphate. Islam had been a growing force in the region since its foundation four centuries earlier. One thing that did work in the Crusaders' favour was that the Muslim world they marched into was fractured, just as riven by local disputes and rivalries as Western Europe was. That made it poorly prepared for what was about to happen. It's worth mentioning military tactics at this point. During this period, pitched battles were a rare thing. Prevailing Western military wisdom was drawn from Vagetius' De Re Militari, a text compiled as the sun set on the Roman Empire, reflecting on what it had done well and where it had failed.

One of its central notions was that battles were too dangerous and unpredictable to be anything but a last resort. There was simply no way to guarantee success. Seages were much more common, they were more predictable and, in some ways at least, less dangerous. The idea was to seal off a town or fortress so that no food, water or reinforcements could get in. Then, wait. How long you might wait depended on how well stocked the target was, how well you choked their supply lines and the resolve of those within. The huge rumbling siege towers of Hollywood were a rarity, especially ones that were rolled up to walls. They were

expensive and time-consuming to build, and timber was scarce in the Holy Land. They appeared at times but usually the preferred tactic was to wait or to undermine the city's walls or towers. Tunnels would be dug beneath critical points and then the wood lining could be set alight to collapse the structure. For the most part, the plan was simply to starve the enemy into surrender, while avoiding an outbreak of disease that could decimate the attacker's camp before the city broke. Seages had set rules to govern them, at least in the Christian West. The attacker would demand the surrender of the town or castle. Those within could consent on terms that would protect their lives and perhaps their property,

or they could refuse. They'd be entitled to send to their liege lord for assistance, which was to arrive by a date agreed between the attackers and defenders. If help came, the attackers may be driven off, or there might be a pitched battle, or the town might be resupplied, making the siege unattractive to pursue. If no help came, the defenders could surrender and still expect mercy. If no help came and they chose to continue to fight, then they would be entitled to no quarter. If their defence failed, they could expect to pay with their lives. The benefit was that everyone knew where they stood and could decide how much they were willing to risk.

Most of the First Crusade was about sieges. The first action came at the siege of Nicaea in early 1097. Once within the Byzantine Empire, it was now held by Seljuk Turks. Nicaea is situated on a lake and the Crusaders found it hard to cut off supply routes effectively. A Seljuk army arrived but was driven away by the large Crusader force. The city only fell when Emperor Alexios sent ships overland to help, the appearance of which caused the city to surrender. The cooperation between Crusaders and the Emperor was a good sign, but it wouldn't last.

As the Crusaders split into two armies, Norman and French, Seljuk forces attacked the Norman portion but were again driven away when the French army arrived. From here, Baldwin of Boulogne broke away from the main army to assault Edessa. He took the city and region easily and Emperor Alexios allowed him to keep it, granting Baldwin the fiefdom in the Holy Land that he had craved. The rest of the Crusaders had marched on south to Antioch. This vast city sat halfway between Constantinople and Jerusalem, but was so large, the Crusaders didn't have enough men to surround it properly, allowing it to

remain reasonably well-supplied. For eight months from October 1097, the Crusaders sat and waited. By the end of May, hundreds of Crusaders had starved to death while the city held out. In early June, Bohemond of Taranto had found someone within the walls willing to betray the city to them. The majority of the population were Christian and welcomed the Crusaders in. Most of the Muslims within were killed. The tables soon turned on the Crusaders, though, and the besiegers became the besieged. A relieving army arrived late, but the Crusaders risked being trapped within a city that they'd just left without any food or supplies.

After four days of siege, the Christians marched out to face a Muslim force, probably double their number. Somehow, they won. The Muslim army's discipline crumbled and they fled. Beaumont wanted to keep Antioch for himself. Raymond the 4 disagreed, having promised to return, reclaimed. lands to the Emperor. Boamond argued that Alexios had abandoned them and therefore their oaths to him were void. It was true that Alexios had not sent the force he had promised, but the reason

he'd turned back was that one of the nobles who had left the Crusade, fearing it was going horribly wrong, had told the Emperor that all was lost. After wasting time squabbling about this and having suffered the ravages of a plague that killed Adamar, the Crusader's spiritual leader, The army didn't set out for Jerusalem until 1099, leaving Bohemond behind as the first Prince of Antioch. Adamar was buried in the hole in which they'd found the Holy Lance, the weapon that had pierced Christ's side. The danger of disease brought about by lingering in one place was driven home horrifically. Along the way, the Crusaders besieged a number of towns, some successfully, others they had to leave. At the siege of Marat, there are claims that the Crusaders turned to cannibalism in the face of a

desperate lack of food. Dibert's Archbishop of Pisa wrote that, Our army defeated the enemy but was continuing to suffer from hunger and fatigue, as well as from quarrels among our leaders. So it set out for Syria, where it captured the Saracen cities of Barra and Mara, as well as the fortresses in the region. While we were resting there, our Christian soldiers were so hungry that they ate the decomposing corpses of the Saracens. Their logistical plans were forgotten. memory now. One Islamic chronicler described the losses suffered to the Christians as a shameful calamity to the cause of Islam. By the time they reached Tripoli, which Raymond IV hoped to set up as a

principality to rival Antioch, the Muslim Emir there tripped over himself to provide them with horses and food and promised to convert to Christianity if the Crusaders would drive out the Fatimids. Muslims began to trade with the Crusaders freely to avoid having to fight them. On the 6th of June 1099, Bethlehem was taken and on the following day the army reached Jerusalem, almost three years after leaving home. Many were seen to weep at the site of the holy city they'd travelled for so long to reach. The Crusaders now lacked the resources to lay siege to Jerusalem. Food was scarce and there was no water supply within several miles. On top of that there were probably only around 12,000 men left of the 50 to 60,000 that had crossed the Bosporus and amongst them tensions were

running high amid the stress of lack of resources and arguing over the spoils of the campaign. They were left with only one unappealing option, to take the city by assault. In a first attack on the 13th of June 1099, the Crusaders made it over the city's outer walls, but were stopped at the inner defences. News that a Fatimid army was leaving Egypt to defend Jerusalem meant that time was pressing. They began construction of siege engines with timber bought by English and Genoese ships. Italian city states like, Genoa and Venice would get rich acquiring trade monopolies in the newly conquered territories in return for their help. One eyewitness recorded that during the siege we were unable to find

any bread to buy for about the space of 10 days until a messenger came from our ships. Also, we were afflicted by great thirst, so much so that in fear and terror we had to water our horses and other animals six miles away. We sewed up skins of oxen and buffaloes in which we brought the water six miles. The water we drank from such receptacles was fetid and what with foul water and barley bread we daily suffered great affliction and distress. A vision reported by a priest caused the crusaders to fast for three days, then process around the city walls barefoot with an assurance that this homage to the Battle of Jericho would cause the city to fall. On the 13th of July they attacked with all their might. It took until the 15th of July for the inner portion of the northern wall to

breached, but it caused a panicked chain reaction across the city's defences. Jerusalem was taken. What followed was an unforgivable slaughter, faith being used to justify the most extreme violence and cruelty. Muslims and Jews were killed mercilessly. Some of the city's Muslim defenders retreated to the Temple Mount, but they were pursued and cut down. Others took refuge in the Alaksa mosque. An Italian Norman named Tancred was leading those outside. He called a halt to the the attack and offered those within his protection if they surrendered. They agreed, only to be butchered the following day. One chronicler noted that piles of heads, hands and feet lay in the houses and streets. Others spoke in apocalyptic, biblical terms of soldiers wading through streets

running with blood. Almost three years after leaving home, and almost four since the crusade had been preached, the Christians had taken Jerusalem. Their planning had been long and detailed and much of it had fallen apart on contact with the harsh realities of the Holy Land. Fears determination, a divided enemy, and it must have seemed to them the favour of God had got them there in the end. The Crusaders had achieved their aim. Now they set about trying to work out how the Holy Land should be ruled. For many of the leaders of the Christian forces, this was what had been on their minds almost from the beginning. Fortunes and dynasties might be made in the newly Christian territories. Baldwin of Boulogne of Boulogne of Boulogne.

had Edessa and was its count. Beaumond of Taranto held Antioch as a prince. It was decided that Jerusalem would be a kingdom, the seat of power that would oversee the Christian Holy Land. The throne was initially offered to Raymond IV, the man many had considered the leader of the Crusader army. He refused it, shuddering at the thought of ruling the city in which Christ had suffered.

Raymond would take part in another crusade in 1101, when he would take Tripoli and rule there as a count. The position was settled on Godfrey of Buillon. He refused to style himself King of Jerusalem, preferring the title Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. This, he insisted, was because he believed God was the only true king of Jerusalem. Most of the Crusaders now considered their pilgrimage and their duty done. They set out for home, leaving behind a few thousand of their number who decided to stay.

The logistics of getting home after several years of grueling travel and warfare were every bit as hard to manage as the journey there. They'd achieved spiritual victory to buoy them on the way, but began the trip exhausted. There were less mouths to feed, but the distance remained the same. Those who wanted to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land, now that it was in Christian hands, found themselves frequently in need of support and protection.

The First Crusade wouldn't be the last one. The movement would spawn organisations like the Knights Templar, who began life as warrior monks, defending pilgrim routes and keeping the most. for the faithful. People were grateful. The Templars were showered with lands and money and their influence grew exponentially. They became something like a giant multinational corporation with a head office in Jerusalem and branches throughout Europe. Their power would eventually be their downfall. But that's another story, just one in the complex history of the Crusader movement that had only

just begun in 1099. For those who remained in the Holy Land, the Crusader states became home. Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch and the counties of Tripoli and Edessa. This was far from the end of the story though. As anyone who's played Crusader Kings 3 will testify, winning land is only the beginning. Then you have to rule it, always looking over your shoulder for the person who wants to take it next.