Holy Wars

Alright, when we finished last time, I had told you about how big of a disaster the Crusade of the Poor was-- but now we get to the official Crusade, what will become known as the First Crusade.

The army that had been assembled for this first Crusade was quite a gathering. Over 100,000 soldiers who spoke many different languages, had many different customs and had many different leaders. Truth be known, they were as suspicious of each other as they were of the Turks.

On top of the 100,000 soldiers, you also had their families-- because many of these people weren’t planning on coming back, they were just going to stay in the Holy Lands after they had been conquered.

Not only families, but their were also servants, merchants, priests, nuns and even prostitutes who are all going to make this trip to the Holy Lands-- the whole group is about 300,000 people. Their first goal: seize the city of Nicea, home of the evil Turk King, Arslan, who had butchered all of those peasants.

When they reach Nicea, they were amazed at the huge wall that was built around the city. To attack the city, they constructed a siege tower-- this is a wooden tower that you use kind of like a ramp to get to the top of the wall.

Well, it didn’t work too well. The Turks just stood on the wall-- and then when the Knights reached the top of the tower, there were hacked to pieces. For the next two weeks, they tried to get into the city. They tried digging under the wall. That didn’t work either, because the Turks just poured boiling oil on them.

Every day, there was this one enormous Turk who would just stand up on the wall and kill everyone in sight with his bow and arrows. The giant was finally killed when someone shot him with a crossbow (which had just been invented).

When the Christian soldiers were killed at the base of the wall, the Turks would lower a hook down and drag the body up. They would strip the body of all of its armor and weapons and then toss the naked body back down into the mud.

Well, it just so happened that King Arslan isn’t even in Nicea. He hears about the Christian siege of his city and he returns with his army-- thinking it’s just another group of peasants and he’ll get rid of them pretty easily. As the Turkish Army makes its way back to Nicea, they come into a clearing and are attacked by the Crusaders.

Now, the Turks and Crusaders fight very differently. The Crusaders stay in strict formations and hack away from their horses. The Turks don’t wear any armor and they don’t stand around and let you wail away at them-- they get out of the way if you’re trying to take a whack at them.

So, the two sides learn a lot about each other, but in the end, it’s a disaster for the Turks and King Arslan is forced to disappear into the hills with his army. The Crusaders have won their first battle of the Crusades.

But, they still haven’t taken Nicea. They rounded up all of the wounded Turks and bashed their skulls in. They cut the heads off and collect them in a cart. Then, they catapult the heads into Nicea, just for kicks. And, for a little added fun, they also catapult bee hives into the city.

The siege is not very effective though, because Nicea is a port city, and they keep getting fresh supplies by way of water.

Well, this goes on for six weeks, and finally, Emperor Alexis, the Byzantine Emperor, shows up with re-enforcements and a whole bunch of boats that they use to cut off Nicea’s water route. (Alexis’ army actually dragged the boats to Nicea by land). Realizing they are beaten, the Niceans surrender and the Crusaders claim their second victory.

At this point, the Crusade Army breaks into two parts, so they can travel more quickly. And, they think it’s going to be smooth sailing from here on-- all the way to Jerusalem.

But, old King Arslan is still out there somewhere. He and his Turks have found a perfect place to ambush the Christians. They camp out at a narrow pass on the way to a town called Dorylaeum.

When the Crusade Army arrived, the Turks came screaming out of the mountains, swords and axes in hand. They were shouting “Allahu Akbar!” as they charged, which means “Allah be praised!” The Crusaders suffered enormous losses in the first waves of the attack, but they held their ground. This savage beating continued for over eight hours and just about when it looked hopeless-- the other half of the army showed up. The Turks panicked at the sight of so many fresh troops, and ran away.

The Battle at Dorylaeum is significant because the Christians held their ground and proved to the Turks that they were a force to be reckoned with. They estimate that over 360,000 Turks attacked a Christian force of about 30,000 and yet the Turks were not able to drive them away. Thousands of Crusaders died, but now they are even more convinced that God is with them.

Now the long march towards the Holy Lands begins-- and it’s a nightmare. A 500 mile stretch of waterless, barren wasteland, and it’s the middle of July-- and it’s 110 degrees. There’s nothing to drink and nothing to eat.

When a horse falls down from exhaustion, they eat the horse. Even the hunting dogs were eventually added to the cooking pot. When they finally reached a river, many of them died from drinking too much.

By Autumn, the Crusaders had reached the city of Antioch. Antioch is the city where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians-- and now it was completely over run by Islamic Turks.

Well, if the walls of Nicea had looked intimidating, then the walls around Antioch must have looked impossible-- so they just decided to sit back and wait.

While they were waiting, the Turks infiltrated the Christian Army with large numbers of spies. When the Crusaders discovered this, they took them out in front of the city, where the Turks could watch. They slit their throats and then skinned them-- and then roasted their bodies.

The Crusaders had a spy of their own too-- sort of. His name was Firouz. He was a guard in one of the watch towers and he was mad at his commanding officer for stealing his wife. So, as a measure of revenge, in the middle of the night, Firouz lowered a rope ladder and allowed a group of Christians to enter the city of Antioch.

Once inside, they lowered the gates to the city. The Crusade Army stormed into the city and killed every Turk in sight. By the end of the day, everyone in the city had been killed-- and if you wanted to walk down the street, you had to walk on the bodies.

No one could stand to stay in the city, because the bodies were beginning to rot and the smell was horrible. But, before they could leave, another army of Turks shows up-- and suddenly, the Crusader Army is trapped in Antioch. Not only are they trapped there-- but they’re trapped there with thousands of rotting corpses.

Their only hope was that Emperor Alexis would show up again and save their butts, just like he had at Nicea. And, believe it or not, Emperor Alexis was on his way. But, before he made it to Antioch, he happened to meet a guy who had deserted the Christian Army.

He told the Emperor that the Christian Army had been decimated and that there was really no need for him to go any further. So, the Emperor turned around and went back to Constantinople.

Now, this is where it gets weird. A dirty, drunk peasant named Peter Bartholomew, tells a couple of the nobles that St. Andrew had appeared to him in a vision and told him that the Holy Lance was buried under the Cathedral of Antioch (the Holy Lance is the spear that pierced Jesus’ side at the crucifixion). St. Andrew had told him that if they found the spear, it would help lead them to victory.

Well, by this point they were pretty desperate-- so they decided to give it a shot. They dug up the floor of the church-- every square inch of it-- and found nothing. Just when there were about to give up their search, Peter Bartholomew jumped down into the pit and pulls out a length of iron-- they had found the Holy Lance (at least, that’s what they assumed it was).

Several days later, the Crusaders open the gates of Antioch and come marching out. You would think they had no chance. They were weak, hungry, tired, they didn’t have any horses left, they were grossly outnumbered and they were being led into battle by this dirty little man who’s carrying a short spear. Somehow, against these incredible odds, the Crusader Army prevails and the Turks leave the battlefield in confusion. Many of the Crusaders claim that an army of men on white horses came from heaven to assist them.

But, the victory probably had more to do with the fact that a whole bunch of Turks deserted because they didn’t like the man who was commanding their army.

But, regardless of how it happened, the Crusaders win the day, take all of the Turks abandoned supplies (which they desperately needed), and now they turn their eyes towards Jerusalem.

By this time, the vast Crusader Army that had once numbered 150,000 is down to about 20,000. And before they reach Jerusalem, word comes that the Seljuk Turks have been defeated by a group of Muslims who are friendly to Christians. The Byzantine Emperor, Alexis, asks the Holy Army to stop, but it’s too late.

“But wait!” The friendly Muslims say, “We’re on your side. We’ll let you visit the Holy Lands, we owned Jerusalem for 400 years before the Turks took it away from us-- and we always got along just fine.”

But, the Crusaders had come too far. They had endured too much, and suffered too much to just say “OK, we’ll go back home now.” They had come all this way to capture Jerusalem, and they were going to capture Jerusalem whether it needed to be captured or not. This is the point where the Crusades becomes not just a war against Muslim Turks, but a war against all Muslims-- a Holy War.

After arriving on the outskirts of Jerusalem, another strange hermit finds the leaders of the army and tells them that if they attack on the ninth hour of the next day, they will be victorious. Well, it sounded kind of crazy, but they had so much luck with their last strange hermit, they decided to give it a shot.

So, the next day, they attacked. Keep in mind, by this point, most of the Christian Army is naked and filthy. They are covered with sores and scars, their hair is long and ragged and they all have full scraggly beards. Not to mention, they are attacking a city of friendly “enemies”. So, who looks like the barbarians now?

Meanwhile, the Muslims are just kind of scratching their heads. They don’t really want to fight back, they have no choice, they have too. Then ,the assault just kind of stops as suddenly as it had begun. The Christians felt that it was hopeless, and just fall back.

So, now the Muslims are really confused. Well, to properly attack the city, the Crusaders needed wood-- and lots of it. They needed it so they could build battering rams, catapults and ladders.

That brings us to Tancred. Tancred was a young nobleman who found himself with a horrible case of diarrhea. Well, Tancred slipped into a secluded spot to relieve himself when he happened to discover a cave full of wood. This was an astonishing discovery. Everyone went to work right away constructing the catapults and battering rams they would need.

A few days later, someone else had a vision that tells the army to march around the city barefoot to help bring them victory. So, the next day, 20,000 people go out in their underwear (or naked) and barefeet and march around Jerusalem. Now the Muslims were even more confused. Their only response was to shout insults at the Christians and moon them.

Finally, on July 14, 1099, the Crusaders smash through the outer wall of the city using a massive battering ram that took 60 people to carry. After breaching the outer wall, a major battle ensues and a huge fire breaks out, causing lots of black, billowing smoke-- it was hard to breath or see anything.

Once the Christians were inside the main city, there was little hope for the Muslims. Many of them tried to seek shelter in the Dome of the Rock (the most sacred Muslim holy place), but they were eventually cut to pieces.

The carnage continued throughout the next day and before all was said and done, about 70,000 Muslims had been killed. Many of the dead had their stomachs sliced open in a search for gold coins that might have been swallowed. Those Muslims who were left alive, were forced to drag the bodies of the dead into piles and burn them.

Then, after this gruesome battle, all of the Crusading Knights attended a Church service. They listened to a nice sermon, and celebrated the victory that they were sure that God had granted them. One writer who witnessed the battle remarked “This is the day the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Extra Facts:

--One of the leaders was a guy named Godfrey of Buillon. He was said to possess great strength. He once wrestled with a huge bear and won. And he once killed a camel by cutting it’s head off with a sword, in one stroke. But, he was also a religious man who loved to pray. Before a meal he would pray so long that the food would be cold before they got to eat. He was the one that killed the giant at Nicea with the cross-bow.