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Crusader (Anarchy Book 14)

Page 33

by Griff Hosker


  Assassins

  Assassins (Persian: حشاشين‎‎ Hashshashin) is a name used to refer to the medieval Nizari Ismailis. Often described as a secret order led by a mysterious "Old Man of the Mountain", the Nizari Ismailis were a Persian sect that formed in the late 11th century from a split within Ismailism – itself a branch of Shia Islam.

  The Nizaris posed a military threat to Sunni Seljuq authority within their territories by capturing and inhabiting many unconnected mountain fortresses throughout Persia, and later Syria, under the leadership of Hassan-i Sabbah. They were responsible for many murders and attempted murders over a three-hundred-year period.

  The combination of heavy horse and archers working together became uniquely English. The 12th century saw its genesis and it culminated in the army of Henry V which defeated a much larger army. To work properly the two arms had to work together. When the Scottish light horse managed to get at the English archers at Bannockburn the English lost the battle. Even Henry V's brother the Duke of Clarence made mistakes. When he left the safety of his archers he and his knights were easily defeated. The archers relied upon the huge number of arrows they could release. Even when fighting at Agincourt where the plate armour could deflect most of the arrows the sheer number they used still managed to find cracks in the armour. They often used a flat trajectory to try to penetrate the tiny gaps in the helmet through which the men at arms peered. Most importantly the English archer was unique in that he was a master light infantryman. He could use a sword and a buckler and he knew how to kill.

  Second Crusade

  The make-up of the Crusade:

  Crusader States

  Kingdom of Jerusalem

  County of Tripoli

  Principality of Antioch

  Military Orders

  Knights Templar

  Knights Hospitaller

  Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre

  Knights of Saint Lazarus

  Crusaders

  Kingdom of France

  County of Flanders

  County of Bar

  Duchy of Burgundy

  Duchy of Brittany

  Duke of Aquitaine

  Auvergne

  Holy Roman Empire

  Duchy of Swabia

  Duchy of Bavaria

  Duchy of Lower Lorraine

  Duchy of Upper Lorraine

  Duchy of Bohemia

  March of Austria

  March of Montferrat

  March of Styria

  County of Savoy

  County of Provence

  Byzantine Empire

  Armenian Principality

  Kingdom of England

  Duchy of Normandy

  Kingdom of Sicily

  Papal States

  As you can see it was hardly a united army!"

  Siege of Damascus

  The Siege of Damascus took place between 24 July and 29 July 1148, during the Second Crusade. It ended in a decisive crusader defeat and led to the disintegration of the crusade. The two main Christian forces that marched to the Holy Land in response to Pope Eugene III and Bernard of Clairvaux's call for the Second Crusade were led by Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of Germany. Both faced disastrous marches across Anatolia in the months that followed, with most of their armies being destroyed. The original focus of the crusade was Edessa (Urfa), but in Jerusalem, the preferred target of King Baldwin III and the Knights Templar was Damascus. At the Council of Acre, magnates from France, Germany, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem decided to divert the crusade to Damascus."

  Source: Siege of Damascus (1148) - https://en.wikipedia.org

  Squires were not always the sons of nobles. Often, they were lowly born and would never aspire to knighthood. It was not only the king who could make knights. Lords had that power too. Normally a man would become a knight at the age of 21. Young landless knights would often leave home to find a master to serve in the hope of treasure or loot. The idea of chivalry was some way away. The Norman knight wanted land, riches and power. Knights would have a palfrey or ordinary riding horse and a destrier or war horse. Squires would ride either a palfrey, if they had a thoughtful knight or a rouncy (pack horse). The squires carried all of the knight’s war gear on the pack horses. Sometimes a knight would have a number of squires serving him. One of the squire’s tasks was to have a spare horse in case the knight’s destrier fell in battle. Another way for a knight to make money was to capture an enemy and ransom him. This even happened to Richard 1st of England who was captured in Austria and held to ransom.

  At this time a penny was a valuable coin and often payment would be taken by ‘nicking’ pieces off it. Totally round copper and silver coins were not the norm in 12th Century Europe. Each local ruler would make his own small coins. The whole country was run like a pyramid with the king at the top. He took from those below him in the form of taxes and service and it cascaded down. There was a great deal of corruption as well as anarchy. The idea of a central army did not exist. King Henry had his household knights and would call upon his nobles to supply knights and men at arms when he needed to go to war. The expense for that army would be borne by the noble.

  The plague and pestilence were two terms used for contagious diseases which usually killed. The Black Death was a specific plague which could be attributed to one cause. Influenza, smallpox, chicken pox even measles could wipe out vast numbers. The survivors normally had anti-bodies within their blood stream. Medicine was of little use.

  The ram and the stone thrower were the main siege engines used at this time. Later weapons such as the trebuchet would render the stone thrower redundant. The skills of the Romans had been forgotten but Crusaders returning from the East brought back plans and ideas which were still used in the Byzantine Empire.

  The language we now call English evolved over a long period. For those interested in it then the book The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg is a superb read. The Ancient Celtic language was changed through the addition of not only Latin words but many from the languages of the auxiliaries who served on the frontier. The Jutes invaded, bringing their words with them and then the Angles and the Saxons. Although I call the language the natives of England speak as Saxon its name is now accepted as Old English. Most of the functional words in English are still Old English. When Sir Winston Churchill wrote his 'fight them on the beaches' speech the majority of the words he used are Old English in origin. The Normans added many words to the English language and Old English became Middle English. If we had the ability to travel back in time then the Middle English of Chaucer would have appeared as a foreign language to us. It took until Shakespeare's time for it to become closer to the language we use today.

  Sieges at this time relied on starving to death the occupants. Wooden castles, the early motte and bailey, could be fired but a stone one with a good ditch could defeat most enemies. The ditches they used were copied from the Roman ones. Once an enemy was in a ditch it was almost impossible to retreat. The trebuchet was in its early stages of development and the onagers and other stone throwers had to be used close enough for them to be subject to archers. Rams were useful but they were not particularly robust and could be set on fire. They also needed a smooth surface. That was not common in the twelfth century. Wooden towers were used at the siege of Ascalon and they were burned. The resulting inferno caused a breach and the Templars disobeyed the king to attack immediately. Their heads were displayed on Cairo’s walls. Sometimes the onager was called a mangonel. I have used the Roman name here.

  Source: File:Roman Onager.jpg - https://en.wikipedia.org

  Books used in the research:

  The Varangian Guard- 988-1453 Raffael D’Amato

  Saxon Viking and Norman- Terence Wise

  The Walls of Constantinople AD 324-1453-Stephen Turnbull

  Byzantine Armies- 886-1118- Ian Heath

  The Age of Charlemagne-David Nicolle

  The Normans- David Nicolle

  Norman Knight AD 950-1204- Christ
opher Gravett

  The Norman Conquest of the North- William A Kappelle

  The Knight in History- Francis Gies

  The Norman Achievement- Richard F Cassady

  Knights- Constance Brittain Bouchard

  Knight Templar 1120-1312 -Helen Nicholson

  Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries- J. H. Round

  Armies of the Crusades- Helen Nicholson

  Knight of Outremer 1187- 1344 - David Nicholle

  Crusader Castles in the Holy Land- David Nicholle

  The Crusades- David Nicholle

  The Times Atlas of World History

  Griff Hosker

  April 2017

  Other books

  by

  Griff Hosker

  If you enjoyed reading this book, then why not read another one by the author?

  Ancient History

  The Sword of Cartimandua Series (Germania and Britannia 50A.D. – 128 A.D.)

  Ulpius Felix- Roman Warrior (prequel)

  Book 1 The Sword of Cartimandua

  Book 2 The Horse Warriors

  Book 3 Invasion Caledonia

  Book 4 Roman Retreat

  Book 5 Revolt of the Red Witch

  Book 6 Druid’s Gold

  Book 7 Trajan’s Hunters

  Book 8 The Last Frontier

  Book 9 Hero of Rome

  Book 10 Roman Hawk

  Book 11 Roman Treachery

  Book 12 Roman Wall

  The Aelfraed Series (Britain and Byzantium 1050 A.D. - 1085 A.D.

  Book 1 Housecarl

  Book 2 Outlaw

  Book 3 Varangian

  The Wolf Warrior series (Britain in the late 6th Century)

  Book 1 Saxon Dawn

  Book 2 Saxon Revenge

  Book 3 Saxon England

  Book 4 Saxon Blood

  Book 5 Saxon Slayer

  Book 6 Saxon Slaughter

  Book 7 Saxon Bane

  Book 8 Saxon Fall: Rise of the Warlord

  Book 9 Saxon Throne

  The Dragon Heart Series

  Book 1 Viking Slave

  Book 2 Viking Warrior

  Book 3 Viking Jarl

  Book 4 Viking Kingdom

  Book 5 Viking Wolf

  Book 6 Viking War

  Book 7 Viking Sword

  Book 8 Viking Wrath

  Book 9 Viking Raid

  Book 10 Viking Legend

  Book 11 Viking Vengeance

  Book 12 Viking Dragon

  Book 13 Viking Treasure

  Book 14 Viking Enemy

  Book 15 Viking Witch

  Bool 16 Viking Blood

  The Norman Genesis Series

  Rolf

  Horseman

  The Battle for a Home

  Revenge of the Franks

  The Land of the Northmen

  The Anarchy Series England 1120-1180

  English Knight

  Knight of the Empress

  Northern Knight

  Baron of the North

  Earl

  King Henry’s Champion

  The King is Dead

  Warlord of the North

  Enemy at the Gate

  Warlord's War

  Kingmaker

  Henry II

  Crusader (Out April 2017)

  Modern History

  The Napoleonic Horseman Series

  Book 1 Chasseur a Cheval

  Book 2 Napoleon’s Guard

  Book 3 British Light Dragoon

  Book 4 Soldier Spy

  Book 5 1808: The Road to Corunna

  Waterloo

  The Lucky Jack American Civil War series

  Rebel Raiders

  Confederate Rangers

  The Road to Gettysburg

  The British Ace Series

  1914

  1915 Fokker Scourge

  1916 Angels over the Somme

  1917 Eagles Fall

  1918 We will remember them

  From Arctic Snow to Desert Sand

  Combined Operations series 1940-1945

  Commando

  Raider

  Behind Enemy Lines

  Dieppe

  Toehold in Europe

  Sword Beach

  Breakout

  The Battle for Antwerp

  King Tiger

  Other Books

  Carnage at Cannes (a thriller)

  Great Granny’s Ghost (Aimed at 9-14-year-old young people)

  Adventure at 63-Backpacking to Istanbul

  For more information on all of the books then please visit the author’s web site at http://www.griffhosker.com where there is a link to contact him.

 

 

 


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