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Siege of Jerusalem (1099)
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Siege of Jerusalem (1099)
The siege of Jerusalem marked the successful end of the First Crusade, whose objective was the recovery of the city of Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from Islamic control. The five-week siege began on 7 June 1099 and was carried out by the Christian forces of Western Europe mobilized by Pope Urban II after the Council of Clermont in 1095. The city had been out of Christian control since the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 637 and had been held for a century first by the Seljuk Turks and later by the Egyptian Fatimids. One of the root causes of the Crusades was the hindering of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land which began in the 4th century. A number of eyewitness accounts of the battle were recorded, including in the anonymous chronicle Gesta Francorum.
After Jerusalem was captured on 15 July 1099, thousands of Muslims and Jews were massacred by Crusader soldiers. As the Crusaders secured control over the Temple Mount, revered as the site of the two destroyed Jewish Temples, they also seized Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and repurposed them as Christian shrines. Godfrey of Bouillon, prominent among the Crusader leadership, was elected as the first ruler of Jerusalem.
At the Council of Piacenza in 1095, Pope Urban II received envoys from Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos asking Latin Christians for assistance in liberating large parts of the Byzantine Empire from the Muslim Seljuks, who had conquered large parts of the region since 1070. Atsiz ibn Uwaq seized Jerusalem from the Fatimid Caliphate, making Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem more difficult and suppressing a revolt in 1077 in a bloodbath. Responding to the call, Urban gave a sermon at the Council of Clermont in November 1095, which included a rousing call to arms for the religious conquest of the Holy Land and the return of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to Christian hands and influence. His appeal marked the beginning of the Crusades, a religious war for God, in which he guaranteed participants a place in heaven.
After the successful siege of Antioch in June 1098, the Crusaders remained in the area for the rest of the year. The papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy had died, and Bohemond of Taranto had claimed Antioch for himself. Baldwin of Boulogne remained in Edessa in Upper Mesopotamia, which had been captured earlier in 1098. There was dissent among the princes over what to do next; Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, frustrated, left Antioch to capture the fortress at Maarat al-Numan in the Siege of Ma'arra.
By the end of 1098, the minor knights and infantry were threatening to march to Jerusalem without them. On 13 January 1099 Raymond began the march south along the coast of the Mediterranean, followed by Robert Curthose and Bohemond's nephew Tancred, who agreed to become his vassals. On their way, the Crusaders besieged Arqa but failed to capture it, abandoning the siege on 13 May. The Fatimids had attempted to make peace on the condition that the Crusaders did not continue towards Jerusalem. This was ignored. Iftikhar al-Dawla, the Fatimid governor of Jerusalem, was aware of the Crusaders' intentions, and he expelled Jerusalem's Christian inhabitants. The further march towards Jerusalem met no resistance.
Al-Dawla prepared the city for the siege. He prepared an elite troop of 400 Egyptian cavalrymen and expelled all Eastern Christians from the city for fear of being betrayed by them (in the siege of Antioch, an Armenian man, Firouz, had helped Crusaders enter the city by opening the gates). Al-Dawla poisoned all the water wells in the surrounding area and cut down all trees outside Jerusalem. 7 June 1099, the Crusaders reached the outer fortifications of Jerusalem, which the Fatimids had recaptured from the Seljuks the prior year. The city was guarded by a defensive wall stretching four kilometers long, which was three meters thick and 15 meters high. There were five major gates each guarded by a pair of towers.
The Crusaders divided themselves into two large groups: Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert of Flanders and Tancred planned to besiege from north, while Raymond positioned his forces to the south. The Fatimids had to be prepared to fight on two fronts. After taking their positions, the Crusaders launched their first attack on 13 June; the main problem was that they had no access to wood for the construction of siege equipment, because all the trees had been cut down. However, Tancred had a vision of finding a stack of wood hidden in a cave, and they used it to make a ladder. A knight named Rainbold scaled the ladder to gain a foothold on the wall but was unsuccessful. Since that assault was a failure, the Crusaders retreated and did not make any attempt until they got their tools and equipment. The Crusaders faced many more difficulties such as the lack of water, the scorching summer heat of Palestine, and the shortage of food. By the end of June, word came that a Fatimid army was marching north from Egypt. The mounting pressure forced the Crusaders to act quickly.
On 17 June the Crusaders heard about the arrival of English and Genoese ships at the port of Jaffa. The English and Genoese sailors had brought all the necessary material with them for the construction of the siege equipment. Robert Curthose and Robert of Flanders procured timber from the nearby forests. Under the command of Guglielmo Embriaco and Gaston of Béarn, the Crusaders began the construction of their siege weapons. They constructed the siege equipment in almost three weeks. This included two massive wheel-mounted siege towers, a battering ram with an iron-clad head, and numerous scaling ladders and a series of portable wattle screens. The Fatimids kept an eye on the preparation by the Crusaders, and they set up their mangonels on the wall in the firing range once an assault began.
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Siege of Jerusalem (1099)
The siege of Jerusalem marked the successful end of the First Crusade, whose objective was the recovery of the city of Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from Islamic control. The five-week siege began on 7 June 1099 and was carried out by the Christian forces of Western Europe mobilized by Pope Urban II after the Council of Clermont in 1095. The city had been out of Christian control since the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 637 and had been held for a century first by the Seljuk Turks and later by the Egyptian Fatimids. One of the root causes of the Crusades was the hindering of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land which began in the 4th century. A number of eyewitness accounts of the battle were recorded, including in the anonymous chronicle Gesta Francorum.
After Jerusalem was captured on 15 July 1099, thousands of Muslims and Jews were massacred by Crusader soldiers. As the Crusaders secured control over the Temple Mount, revered as the site of the two destroyed Jewish Temples, they also seized Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and repurposed them as Christian shrines. Godfrey of Bouillon, prominent among the Crusader leadership, was elected as the first ruler of Jerusalem.
At the Council of Piacenza in 1095, Pope Urban II received envoys from Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos asking Latin Christians for assistance in liberating large parts of the Byzantine Empire from the Muslim Seljuks, who had conquered large parts of the region since 1070. Atsiz ibn Uwaq seized Jerusalem from the Fatimid Caliphate, making Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem more difficult and suppressing a revolt in 1077 in a bloodbath. Responding to the call, Urban gave a sermon at the Council of Clermont in November 1095, which included a rousing call to arms for the religious conquest of the Holy Land and the return of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to Christian hands and influence. His appeal marked the beginning of the Crusades, a religious war for God, in which he guaranteed participants a place in heaven.
After the successful siege of Antioch in June 1098, the Crusaders remained in the area for the rest of the year. The papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy had died, and Bohemond of Taranto had claimed Antioch for himself. Baldwin of Boulogne remained in Edessa in Upper Mesopotamia, which had been captured earlier in 1098. There was dissent among the princes over what to do next; Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, frustrated, left Antioch to capture the fortress at Maarat al-Numan in the Siege of Ma'arra.
By the end of 1098, the minor knights and infantry were threatening to march to Jerusalem without them. On 13 January 1099 Raymond began the march south along the coast of the Mediterranean, followed by Robert Curthose and Bohemond's nephew Tancred, who agreed to become his vassals. On their way, the Crusaders besieged Arqa but failed to capture it, abandoning the siege on 13 May. The Fatimids had attempted to make peace on the condition that the Crusaders did not continue towards Jerusalem. This was ignored. Iftikhar al-Dawla, the Fatimid governor of Jerusalem, was aware of the Crusaders' intentions, and he expelled Jerusalem's Christian inhabitants. The further march towards Jerusalem met no resistance.
Al-Dawla prepared the city for the siege. He prepared an elite troop of 400 Egyptian cavalrymen and expelled all Eastern Christians from the city for fear of being betrayed by them (in the siege of Antioch, an Armenian man, Firouz, had helped Crusaders enter the city by opening the gates). Al-Dawla poisoned all the water wells in the surrounding area and cut down all trees outside Jerusalem. 7 June 1099, the Crusaders reached the outer fortifications of Jerusalem, which the Fatimids had recaptured from the Seljuks the prior year. The city was guarded by a defensive wall stretching four kilometers long, which was three meters thick and 15 meters high. There were five major gates each guarded by a pair of towers.
The Crusaders divided themselves into two large groups: Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert of Flanders and Tancred planned to besiege from north, while Raymond positioned his forces to the south. The Fatimids had to be prepared to fight on two fronts. After taking their positions, the Crusaders launched their first attack on 13 June; the main problem was that they had no access to wood for the construction of siege equipment, because all the trees had been cut down. However, Tancred had a vision of finding a stack of wood hidden in a cave, and they used it to make a ladder. A knight named Rainbold scaled the ladder to gain a foothold on the wall but was unsuccessful. Since that assault was a failure, the Crusaders retreated and did not make any attempt until they got their tools and equipment. The Crusaders faced many more difficulties such as the lack of water, the scorching summer heat of Palestine, and the shortage of food. By the end of June, word came that a Fatimid army was marching north from Egypt. The mounting pressure forced the Crusaders to act quickly.
On 17 June the Crusaders heard about the arrival of English and Genoese ships at the port of Jaffa. The English and Genoese sailors had brought all the necessary material with them for the construction of the siege equipment. Robert Curthose and Robert of Flanders procured timber from the nearby forests. Under the command of Guglielmo Embriaco and Gaston of Béarn, the Crusaders began the construction of their siege weapons. They constructed the siege equipment in almost three weeks. This included two massive wheel-mounted siege towers, a battering ram with an iron-clad head, and numerous scaling ladders and a series of portable wattle screens. The Fatimids kept an eye on the preparation by the Crusaders, and they set up their mangonels on the wall in the firing range once an assault began.
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