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Transcript
The Crusader States 1100-1192 Threats and Defence The foundation of Outremer • The First Crusade had resulted in the capture of the bulk of the Holy Land, but isolated Muslim fortress cities remained. With the departure of the bulk of the army of the First Crusade after the Battle of Ascalon, new Crusaders were needed to complete this process. • Accordingly under the prompting of Pope Paschal II, Italian, Scandinavian, Burgundian, French and German troops were mobilised in 1100. In that year Godfrey of Bouillon died, and his brother Baldwin of Edessa was crowned first King of Jerusalem. • Under Baldwin I remaining Saracen fortresses fell, including Tripoli leaving just the Fatimid city of Ascalon, isolated with the Sinai desert at its back. When it too fell in 1153 the geographical Crusader land of ‘Outremer’ was complete. • • • • • • In a land that was at most 35% European, the kings of Outremer were constantly short of reliable soldiers. A solution emerged in the early 12th century with the foundation of the two knightly orders – the Templars and Hospitallars. These orders became hugely wealthy and were the source of constant transfusions very well trained troops from Europe. They therefore formed an essential part of the defence fo Outremer – the vanguard of the Crusader army was usually Templar whilst the equally vulnerable rear-guard was Hospitallar. They also garrisoned many of the essential border castles, the Templars in the south and the Hospitallars in the north. Politically, however they were a mixed blessing. Essentially ‘states within states’, the Orders took instruction directly from the Pope, not the Outremer kings and could pursue their own, sometimes contradictory foreign policy. Moreover although many knights did successfully adapt to the multicultural world of the Middle East successfully, many newcomers from Europe inflamed Muslim opinion with their zealotry. Accordingly in battle, Templars and Hospitallars neither asked for nor gave quarter and any taken prisoner were liable to be executed immediately, as at Hattin in 1187. Thanks to their European ‘lodges’ however, even catastrophic losses could be quickly made up. The Military Orders • Although the Crusaders excelled in open battle, the armies of Outremer were always going to be hugely outnumbered by their Muslim opponents. Accordingly immediately after the First Crusade the Crusaders established garrisons in Saracen fortresses they had captured such as Qal’at al-Hisn in Syria which became the Hospitallar fortress of Krak de Chevaliers. • A energetic castle building programme was mounted in all four kingdoms to complement these existing structures, using the natural defences of Outremer – rivers, mountain ranges and outcrops. They also blended the best of eastern and western design to produce some of the finest fortresses ever created – ‘Concentric’ castles with double tiered walls and curtain wall towers built in the Byzantine style. • These castles seldom fell to bombardment or direct assault despite possessing tiny garrisons – usually they needed to be starved out, a process which could take years. Crusader Castles KERAK BELVOIR KERAK DES CHEVALIERS Edessa – the first setback • The isolated County of Edessa proved shortlived. A resurgent Seljuk army under Zengi captured it in 1144 less than 50 years after its creation. The botched Second Crusade guaranteed its permanent loss to Outremer. • This theoretically exposed the northern flank of Outremer to attack. However the Seljuks did not wish to antagonise the neighbouring Byzantines who were titular overlords of the next state of Outremer, Antioch, and accordingly future incursions would largely be from the eastern border with Syria. • • • • Emir Nur ed-Din and his nephew Saladin succeeded in unifying the Muslim neighbours of Outremer to north and east in an anti-Crusader coalition which had by 1149 captured most of the Principality of Antioch save the city itself. In an attempt to relieve pressure on the northern frontier of Outremer, Amalric of Jerusalem invaded the delta of Fatimid Egypt with Byzantine support in 1164 and 1167. These incursions were initially successful owing to the weak leadership provided by a succession of youthful Fatimid Caliphs, with Cairo being captured in 1169. Longer term, Amalric’s invasion had the opposite effect to that intended. Nur ed-Din launched a fresh attack in the north in response, killing over 10,000 Crusaders and capturing the castles of Harim and Banias leaving Antioch isolated. In Egypt Nur-ed-Din sent his talented generals and kinsmen Ayub and Shirkuh to reinforce the Fatimids. After driving Amalric was driven out of Cairo in 1169, Ayub and Shirkuh deposed the Fatimids and Saladin, the nephew of Ayub seized power. As the first of the Ayubbids, Saladin would unite all of Outremer’s Muslim neighbours against her from 1170 onwards. The rise of the Ayubbids Border wars in the 1170 and 80s • • • • • • Saladin concentrated his offensives on the strongest of the Crusader kingdoms, Jerusalem, partially for religious reasons but also because if it fell the others would be hopelessly vulnerable. Massively outnumbered by the Ayubbid armies, the kingdom of Jerusalem’s defensive strategy was to trust in its ring of defensive castles to slow Ayubbid incursions whilst using a small, heavily armoured field army to intercept them in broken ground where their advantage in frontal warfare would apply. The talented young king Baldwin IV used this tactic to spectacular effect at the Battle of Montgisard in 1177 when he destroyed 90% of Saladin’s army for little loss. However Baldwin's attempts to acquire a defensive zone beyond his frontiers was likewise defeated at Marj Ayyunn enabling Saladin to capture the half completed fortress of Jacob’s Ford. Thereafter stalemate descended on the battlefield with two more incursions by Saladin being blocked but undamaged. This ended when Baldwin was incapacitated by leprosy and his successor Guy of Lusignan stung by accusations of cowardice for continuing this passive policy. This would lead to his disastrous offensive of 1187 which would lead to Hattin. Hattin 1187: Calamity • • • • • The premature deaths of the leper king Baldwin IV in 1183 and his nephew Baldwin V in 1186 led to the coronation of his sister Sybilla as Queen of Jerusalem. Her husband and consort Guy de Lusignan was given command of the field army of Jerusalem. After a relatively competent three years in command, Lusignan was persuaded by the controversial Lord of Outrejordain, Reynald de Chatillon to launch an offensive against Saladin. Accordingly when Saladin tried to provoke the Crusaders into attacking him on open ground by besieging Tiberias in the north of the kingdom, Lusignan obliged, advancing with the entire army. Saladin concealed his army behind the twin mountains of the Horns of Hattin south of Tiberias and encircled the crusaders in a waterless desert. Tortured by heat, thirst and arrows the army was destroyed and the accompanying fragment of the True Cross was lost. The Hospitallars, Templars and much of the rank and file of the army was slaughtered whilst Reynauld de Chatillion was personally executed by Saladin. Guy survived as a prisoner whilst Balian of Ibelin managed to escape, but Jerusalem was essentially defenceless before the Ayubbids. The siege of Jerusalem 1187 • Saladin launched a siege of Jerusalem on 20th September 1187, 88 years since its fall to the Crusaders. • The loss of virtually the entire army of Jerusalem meant that its defence was largely in the hands of the city militia under Balian of Ibelin. In spite of the huge odds the defence was desperate and at first successful, memories of the Crusaders’ massacre of the Muslim inhabitants in 1099 lending a fanaticism to proceedings. • Following a breach made in the city wall ten days into the siege Ibelin and Saladin opened surrender negotiations. Saladin wanted unconditional surrender, but Balian’s resolute defence plus his threat to massacre the 5000 Muslim inhabitants and desolate Muslim holy places forced the Ayubbids to be accommodating. • Accordingly most of the Christian inhabitants were ransomed and allowed to leave the city unmolested. Saladin’s occupation was a model of humanity and tolerance, encouraging surviving strongholds in the kingdom of Jerusalem to surrender too. 1187: Standing on the precipice • After Jerusalem 50 Crusader castles and towns fell into Saladin’s hands in two years. A rump state survived as a coastal strip incorporating Tripoli, Antioch and Tyre, clearly unsustainable and vulnerable to attack by Saladin at any time. • Accordingly Pope Gregory VII issued a call for the Third Crusade, the largest and best organised to date.