The Siege of Jerusalem: Crusade and Conquest in 1099
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is was the period of greatest crisis for the expedition,
where it seemed to be on the verge of disintegration. Th
e capture of the city
had hardly alleviated the hunger of the Christian poor, as those inside the city had very little food to plunder. Famine conditions continued aft er the fall of Antioch, with people being compelled to devour the leather from skins of animals and even their own shoes, or else abandon the city in the hope of reaching the Christian controlled port of St Symeon.22
Th
e real danger for the poor, however, was that knights were lowering themselves by ropes from the walls of Antioch in order to escape the crisis and if this were to continue the Christian forces would melt away to the point that battle against Kerbogha was impossible. As early as 20 January 1098 William Carpenter, one of Drogo’s companions in the attacks on the Rhineland Jewish community, had attempted to abandon the crusade, only to be hauled back by Tancred. Tatikius, the envoy of the Byzantine Emperor, made his excuses and abandoned the siege shortly aft er the return of Tancred. Just before Antioch had been captured, Stephen of Blois had departed, giving rise to a great deal of acrimony at his conduct. Now, while besieged by Kerbogha, many more knights were stealing away from the Christian army. Guy Trousseau of Montlhéry was the ringleader of a party of deserters, which included William of Grandmesnil, Aubrey and Ivo his brothers, Lambert the Poor, and many others, who let
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themselves down from the wall secretly during the night and fl ed on foot towards the sea. But for the fact that the Bishop Adhémar of Le Puy and Bohemond had closed the gates to the city very few nobles would have remained to face Kerbogha. Rumours began to spread that even the most senior princes were considering fl ight. 23 Th
e phenomenon of knights slipping away by rope
was suffi
ciently widespread that within a generation, from Constantinople to England, those who fl ed were being remembered by the mocking sobriquet
‘rope-dancers’.
Under these desperate circumstances, on 11 June 1098, two humble men came forward, both with a similar story: they had been blessed with a divine communication, whose main content was to let the army know that God would aid the Christians if they sought battle with Kerbogha. Th
e fi rst of these visionaries,
Stephen of Valence, was a respectable priest. He mounted the hill in Antioch, to where there was a gathering of the princes near the citadel, and reported his vision. Stephen said that he had taken refuge in the Church of St Mary in a fear-ful state of mind. Christ had appeared to him and, although expressing anger at the lust of the Christians following the fall of Antioch, Christ had relented following the intervention of Our Lady and St Peter. Th
e Lord promised that if
they sung Congregati sunt (Psalm 47:5) in the daily Offi
ce he would return
within fi ve days with mighty help for the army. Christ ordered everyone to accept penance and with bare feet make procession through the churches and give alms to the poor. To prove the truth of this vision, Stephen off ered to throw himself from a tower but Adhémar, who instead had the priest swear on the Gospels and a crucifi x, did not consider this necessary. As a result of Stephen’s vision the princes assembled and took an oath that they would not fl ee, although they added the qualifi cation, ‘unless by the common counsel of all’, a testimony to the low morale among even the most determined of the princely leaders of the crusade. Nonetheless, as the news of the oath spread it greatly encouraged the broader body of Christians who rejoiced on the news of the oath taking by the princes.24
Th
e other visionary who came forward at this time was Peter Bartholomew, a servant of William Peyre of Cunhlat, from the Provençal region of France.
Peter was not a particularly credible candidate for divine approval, due to his lowly status. How was it, people later asked, that God deserted princes and bishops to speak to such a rustic? Poor, Peter nevertheless had tried to contribute to the military activities of the crusade and had nearly died on 10 June 1098
when the arriving forces of Kerbogha caused Christians outside of Antioch to rush back to the protection of the city. In the crush at the gates Peter had almost perished between the horses of two knights.
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It is understandable then that Peter Bartholomew initially approached the senior princes in a very deferential and cautious manner. He returned from several wide-ranging foraging expeditions to seek a meeting with the papal legate, Bishop Adhémar of Le Puy, Count Raymond of Toulouse and Peter Raymond of Hautpoul, one of the Count’s leading vassals. Th
e servant claimed
that St Andrew had appeared to him during the night and that this was the fi ft h such visitation. Aft er a lengthy recounting of the circumstances that obliged such a lowly person as himself to approach the princes, Peter came to the point.
He declared that he had a tangible proof of divine aid, the Lord’s Lance, whose hiding place had been revealed to him by St Andrew. Adhémar was extremely sceptical of the news brought by Peter Bartholomew, not least because, the legate was well aware of Constantinople’s much more convincing claims to house the same lance. But Adhémar also wanted to encourage the nobles to stay and fi ght, so he was not going to press his doubts too hard. Furthermore, one of the themes of the visions of Peter Bartholomew was that God had allocated a special role in the expedition to Count Raymond of Toulouse. Raymond himself believed that God had chosen him to play a special role on the journey and welcomed the new visionary’s confi rmation of this. Peter’s bid for the support of the elderly count was therefore entirely successful and Peter Bartholomew was taken into the care of his chaplaincy. 25
On 13 June 1098 a meteorite fell in the direction of the camp of Kerbogha, giving material for the clergy to off er further encouragement to the Christian forces. Th
e following day digging began in the Church of St Peter in order to unearth the Holy Lance. Initially Count Raymond of Toulouse himself, along with his more powerful vassals, undertook the work. But by evening they were overcome by tiredness. Fresh workers dug furiously until they too became tired.
At this point Peter Bartholomew dropped into the deep hole and urged everyone to pray at length. While everyone else present was above the pit, praying, Peter alone discovered the Lance. Not all the crusaders were credulous believ-ers in miracles and later, especially among the Normans, they would express their scepticism. But at the time all the crusading princes united behind the discovery of the Lance. Cries of immense joy and impromptu parades rallied the Christian knights and made them more willing to do battle. Th e commoners were revitalized by the oath of the senior princes and these apparent signs of divine favour. Th
ey now began to agitate that the princes should stop being
so passive and initiate battle without delay.26
Th
e princes responded by sending an envoy to negotiate with Kerbogha. Th e
commoners, however, showed their mistrust of this embassy by insisting that the envoy be their guardian, Peter the Hermit. Th
e resulting scene was almost
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as strange as that when the lowly hermit met the Greek emperor: the mighty Kerbogha, surrounded by powerful emirs and atabegs wearing the fi nest clothing in the Mediterranean world, meeting with a scrawny, emaciated man in bare threads. Peter had two off ers to make to the leader of the united Muslim army. One was that the city would be given to Kerbogha and the Christian princes would be willing to serve under him, providing that he become a Christian; failing this, the Christians off ered to settle the ownership of the city through a trial by combat of 20 champions on each side. Kerbogha, of course, refused, although he did make a counter-off er: to provide lands and castles in return for the city, so that those knights impoverished by famine and year
s of travel could regain their former status. 27
On 28 June 1098 the small and weakened Christian army rode out of Antioch to give battle with the huge and well supplied army of Kerbogha.
Th
e Christians were in such desperate a condition before the battle that even Duke Godfrey of Lotharingia had to borrow a horse from Count Raymond of Toulouse, while a bowl was carried from inn to inn on behalf of Robert of Flanders whose constant fi ghting during the siege had seen him lose all his own horses. As the various divisions of the Christian army emerged one aft er the other from the city gates, Kerbogha played chess, publicly demonstrating his composure. Should he attack swift ly, while the Christians were not fully formed?
No, let them come out and have his enormous army surround them and wipe them out with arrows. But Kerbogha failed to appreciate that half of his army were more than willing to abandon the battlefi eld as soon as decently possible. 28
For decades the rulers of Damascus had adopted a fi ercely independent policy from those of Mosul and the young emir Duqaq felt he had more to fear from a victorious ruler of Mosul, capable of taking Antioch under tight bonds of control, than the threat posed by a Christian advance towards Jerusalem.
Moreover, Kerbogha had displayed his ambitions already, sending a messenger to those in the citadel of Antioch announcing the deposition of their commander and ruler, Shams, the son of Yaghī Siyān. Th
e former lord of the city had met a
miserable end, clubbed to death by a peasant, who had recognized Yaghī Siyān on his own, hiding in a bush, having lost his nerve and run from Antioch on the morning of 3 June 1098 when the Christians broke in to his city. Shams and Duqaq were former allies and the arrogance of Kerbogha towards them was deeply alienating. Worse again, Kerbogha was known to be conducting friendly negotiations with Duqaq’s murderous elder brother, Ridwan, emir of Aleppo.
Unlike the battle of Dorylaeum, where the fi ghting lasted for a great part of the day on 1 July 1097, the serious fi ghting at Antioch was a relatively brief aff air and no major losses occurred among the Christian knights. Under the
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command of Bohemond, who was given two weeks of absolute authority over the crusaders, the Christian knights engaged with only the minority of Kerbogha’s army that was directly ahead of them, while monitoring the enveloping movements of the Turkish riders, turning their reserves to face them.
Given the failure of Kerbogha’s allies on the wings to commit themselves, his centre soon disintegrated and began to fl ee, except for a few devout adherents of Holy War who fought to the last. Kerbogha had suff ered a shameful defeat; the Seljuk Turks had lost Antioch and would no longer be in a position to prevent the Christians marching on to Jerusalem. Th
at task would now fall to the
Arab princes of the costal cities, rulers who short-sightedly relished the humili-ation of their hated schismatic rivals.
Not only was the result of the battle an indication for contemporary eyes of God’s judgement, but also during the course of the battle, Stephen of Valence’s predicted divine aid was said to have materialized in the appearance of three fi ghting saints with white banners leading a detachment of troops on white horses. Meanwhile, those marching in the vicinity of Adhémar and the Holy Lance thought that the relic was protecting all near it. With almost no losses, the Christians had routed and slaughtered an immense multitude. Surely God had strengthened their arm? Th
e authority of the two visionaries, Peter
Bartholomew and Stephen of Valence, was greatly enhanced by the victory and the surprisingly light number of casualties. What the crusaders didn’t appreciate, therefore viewing the result as miraculous, were the deep divisions that existed among their enemies.
United as one under Bohemond for the victory on 28 June 1098, the Christian forces quickly dissolved into their respective regional factions in its aft ermath.
Of the major princes, Stephen of Blois had already abandoned the undertaking, returning to Europe in the belief that the Christians would be destroyed at Antioch, only to be greeted with such ignominy that he set out for Palestine once again, where he earned what was considered a martyr’s death in 1101.
Hugh the Great was sent to Alexius Comnenus in order to convey the news of the fall of the key city of the region. He never returned, having struggled to reach Constantinople by the autumn aft er facing ambushes and an arduous journey through Anatolia. Th
e abandonment of the crusade by Hugh was a
big blow to those knights who had aspirations to make him king. Without the resources to remain independent, this faction – including Drogo of Nesle, Rainald of Toul, Fulcher of Chartres and Gaston of Béarn – now made their way to Edessa to take service with Baldwin. Th
is left as the leaders of the expedition:
Bohemond, and Tancred, his second in command; Godfrey of Lotharingia,
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with his brother Eustace; Raymond of Toulouse; Robert of Normandy; Count Raymond of Toulouse, Bishop Adhémar of Le Puy and Robert of Flanders.
Bohemond’s perspective was clear enough. On 14 July 1098, even though no one Latin prince had been made ruler of Antioch, Bohemond signed a treaty with the Consuls of Genoa, granting them a market, a church and thirty houses.
As far as the Genoese were concerned, he was the rightful prince of the city.
Count Raymond of Toulouse, however, could not disagree more. Not only was the Provençal commander holding on to a major gate and section of the city, but also he reminded all the other princes of their oaths to Alexius. Th ey should assign
the city to the Byzantines, who would appoint a ruler of their own choosing. Th e
Christian commoners watched the manoeuvres of the princes with growing bitterness as their poverty increased.
Plague broke out in the city at the end of July, thriving on the weak conditions of the human beings within the walls. Th
e princes, wanting to avoid the
plague and to consolidate their local gains, scattered throughout the region, securing the income of nearby towns and villages. Th
e disintegration of princely
leadership of the crusade was an opportunity for some and a Provençal knight, Raymond Pilet, rallied the poor to lead an expedition against Ma’arra in July 1098. Th
e lack of knights among the participants of this adventure resulted in Raymond Pilet’s forces being thrown back by Ridwan of Aleppo.
On 1 August 1098 Bishop Adhémar of Le Puy died of the plague. Th
e papal
legate had been a key fi gure in maintaining harmony between the princes and the poor. No sooner was Adhémar dead, than Peter Bartholomew stepped forward try to off er leadership to the poor and shape the direction of the crusade. He reported a vision in which the dead bishop appeared accompanied by St Andrew and promised that he would continue to assist the crusade by off ering advice from the aft erlife, that is, through the policies expressed by Peter Bartholomew. Th
e ghostly Adhémar and the saint were particularly anxious
that Bohemond and Count Raymond of Toulouse not come to blows over the ownership of Antioch. Already by the time of the vision Bohemond had violently ousted Raymond’s troops from the citadel of Antioch and was tightening his grip over towers and gates. St Andrew’s message in response was that peace was essential as disunity could lead to disaster. Peter’s visions had a consistent message, the crusade should continue on to Jerusalem and Count Raymond had a special role assigned to him by God. Th
is message straddled two political
positions. On the one hand it was a vital demand of the poor, who had nothing to live on but booty, that the crusade continues. On the other hand, Peter was consolidating his position in the entourage of the Count. So long as the two
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positions were not in opposition,
the visionary was a popular fi gure. But before long he would have to decide whether he was with the Count or the poor, and the confl ict of interest between the two would cost him his life.29
On 5 November 1098 the senior princes and their immediate followers met in the Cathedral of St Peter in Antioch. It soon became clear that a deep division remained between Count Raymond, who reminded Bohemond of the oath they had taken to the Byzantine emperor, and the Norman prince who was determined to hold the city. Such frustration grew among the poor that they threatened to choose their own leader to lead them onward and even to tear down the walls of the city if no resolution was come to. A compromise was resolved, which in practice favoured Bohemond. Oaths were taken and the expedition resumed by the princes with agreement that their fi rst goal should be the reduction of Ma’arra. It was Count Raymond and Robert, count of Flanders, who led the fi rst army out of Antioch on 23 November 1098, accompanied by a great number of poor Christians, delighted that the expedition was moving onwards again .
On 11 December 1098 the defences Ma’arra were breached, with the Provençal knight, William of Montpellier, playing a famous role in hurling stones down from a siege tower onto the walls of the city. But just as the Christians gained a foothold on the defences, sunset halted the fi ghting. Th
e poor took advantage
of the ‘fi rst come, fi rst served’ looting policy to steal into the city at night to secure all the plunder and houses. When the knights entered the next morning they were dismayed to fi nd little they could take away with them. Th e situation
for the Muslim population was extremely grim as they were tortured for information about their wealth. Some pretended to lead their captors towards treasure, only to leap down wells and die of the fall rather than at the cruel practices of the Christian conquerors. Bohemond did well out of the sacking of the city though. Th
e Normans had arrived late to the siege and having promised the
citizens he would spare them, he robbed those who surrendered to him of all their belongings, killed some, and brought hundreds back to Antioch in chains for the slave market of his new city.30