History of the Crusades ASMR (part 1)

hello everyone the late 11th century from different parts of Western Europe tens of thousands of people Nobles and nights but also Kirks soldiers and peasants and even Sometimes women and children into the cold who called to travel to the Holy Land and Conquer it for almost two centuries the cool of Faith Adventure sometimes ambition greed Or Glory would motivate Christians to become Crusaders and embark on a journey many of them would never come back from why did this crash happen how did it unfold and what were the consequences this would be our story tonight one of power struggles and politics tragedies battles social and cultural change of rise and full of states in the near East and a religious military orders such as the knights tempura and many more things we have a lot to explore so much that this story will be in two parts and this is part one part two will be available soon so make yourself comfortable sit or lie down and as always you can follow I sweat so don't hesitate to let yourself go and fall asleep the story will await for you if you wish to return later you have timestamps to help you navigate between the chapters and as always I invite you to check my patreon page if you wish to support this channel there is a link in the description and in the pinned comment down below and also Spotify Apple music or Amazon music if you prefer to listen to my story is there now let the tension go in your shoulders take a moment to find the right position for you we have a joyful fire gently cracking in my study tonight it is over cozy and just at the right temperature and now that we are all set off we go Our Story begins in the old world more than 900 years ago that how was this part of the world like at a time several centuries earlier in the 5th Century the Western Roman Empire had collapsed and Western Europe had fallen into a long period of decline demographic decline its population had fallen for Generations economic and urban decline too cities that shrank a lot of Roman roads aqueducts and buildings had fallen into this repair and Europe had fragmented politically it took it centuries to slowly rebuild itself and this period after the four of the Roman Empire is often called the Dark Ages these were Dark Times indeed if we consider the laws of culture the end of the rule of ramen law the setbacks in standards of living the walls but also appeared when a new States appeared and a new type of society emerged a society of a feudal kind based on a strict hierarchy that gave everyone a position and allegiance to a Master the Lord all the way up from peasants to Kings this system had variations and was not always in place there were other political forms like city-states but for a loud part of the Year European population it had become the norm by the 9th and 10th centuries the Early Middle Ages was also an even full period new States appeared and attempted to recreate political Unity such as the Empire or Charlemagne in the 8th and 9th centuries that had its Center in what would become Germany and France and for a short time Charlemagne manage to unite much of Western Europe and other major phenomenon was the expansion of Christianity to most of Europe east and west this had began before within the frontiers of the Roman Empire which had become christianized in its last centuries but instead of collapsing with Rome Christianity survived and managed to convert the Invaders especially Germany peoples that raised new kingdoms on the ashes of the Roman Empire by the tents and 11th centuries Christianity had expanded far to the nose to Scandinavia and also to the West including in regions where Cathy culture had survived for a long time like Scotland or Island what would the east in the lands of the slabs Eastern Europe and the Pelicans in a western European regions like Germany the Netherlands France Great Britain or the north of Italy and the north of Spain Christianity or Roman Catholicism more precisely was now a major force to be reckoned with not just politically or because it had a large network of parishes and Bishop Briggs but even more socially it had become Central to the life of communities and individuals you could be a peasant or a lord among or a Craftsman your entire life in Western Europe happened within the Catholic phase from birth to death with rituals and coats of contacts that were determined by the Catholic Church it doesn't mean every single person was perfectly observant and it doesn't exclude the appearance of so-called heresies but to the average regular person it was Unthinkable not to be Christian and together with their social position Christianity was the single most important character of their identity well before they are belonging to the country there was very little sense of belonging to a country back then nationalism just didn't exist as a concept our perception of the Middle Ages is often based on anachronisms because much later modern categories like Nations or stereotypes about the supposed obscurantism of the period were forced unto these centuries for example the depiction of medieval times tends to associate between a very dark take with 30 people living in the nature of islands and absence of love or when it is not this another extreme a colorful and joyful Vision that looks like fantasy almost met both our cliches the dark vision may have existed punctually and it is true that based on our modern tolerance of physical violence the Early Middle Ages the Dark Ages were very harsh violent period but war was not permanent people did not live in the miserable huts and they were actually not that dirty the typical Tavern for example in shows or movies is a dark room filled with Warriors and thieves and prostitutes but in reality taverns generally doubled as bath houses and there were places where people would go to get to clean up their clothes were not all gray and black these tires were died in different colors and people were not Toothless either their diet was based on grain vegetables and occasionally meat or fish depending on the regions nothing that would make them lose their teeth early it is just a detail that another anachronism is the music we identify as medieval in TV shows or movies typically it is not medieval but Renaissance inspired music from the 15th or 16th centuries so to better understand or correctly picture the medieval period in its diversity because it is a very long period several Centuries with major changes between the beginning and the end we need to let go of many stereotypes and anachronisms about people's mentalities the way they saw the world the way Society worked or the environment they lived in in this Society people typically lived and died in the same place even the same Village by the 11th century when the Crusades would begin cities were still small and the vast majority of the population lived in towns Villages or hamlets there was a small fraction of society Knights high no balls diplomats or high-ranking members of the church who were very mobile and traveled across Europe but to most people the rest of the world beyond the frontiers of their region was a mystery they would never see a map in their life and the far away of lands including this holy land they heard about almost existed on another plane these were not places they were supposed to even go to I am telling you all this because it is important to understand what will follow now that was for Europe but what about other regions around it in the East the eastern part of the Roman Empire had survived and even for a time it had thrived when the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th Century the eastern part had been much better preserved from invasions and overall it was in a better shape so I tried to recreate to reconquer the Empire it looked like a gigantic task but not an impossible one Roman history had been troubled several times during Civil Wars and the reunification had been achieved before so in the 6th and 7th century the eastern part of the Empire managed to get back significant parts of previously Roman lands including in Italy and North Africa we call the Eastern Roman Empire Byzantium after their Capital Byzantium or Constantinople but they just call themselves Romans Byzantium is a term that has been used later in the West to name the Eastern Roman Empire and somehow distinguish it from Rome for various reasons first it was far away from the credible of the ramen state and carefully bison term was more Greek than Latin so it made a certain sense that there were also political reasons the Holy Roman Empire had emerged centered on Germany and the north of Italy it was not a single state but to lose Confederation with elected Emperors that claimed to be successors of Charlemagne as the new Roman emperors so curling Roman Empire this surviving state in the East was not convenient even though on many counts bison gym was much more Ramen than the Holy Roman Empire and later there was a religious Schism between Rome and Constantinople separating Christianity into the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox traditions another reason to not attribute the term Ramen to byzantia in any case from now on I would call the Eastern Roman Empire Byzantium because this is the usual name now and it is convenient but let's bear in mind that this is not how the byzantines call themselves they call themselves Romans at the start Byzantium when H2 get back Paths of the Western Roman Empire that this was short-lived because Byzantine was facing too many enemies at once on its Frontiers and starting in the 7th century the most formidable the Arabs from Arabia the Muslim Conquest had begun a few years after the deaths of Prophet Muhammad in 632 tear raps and their new religion Islam expanded to the Middle East and North Africa had to start nothing seemed able to stop them and they took her out of territories from Byzantium including Egypt Palestine and Syria to the West the Muslim wave went as far as Morocco and Spain and to the East Empire conversion and Conquest it ended All the Way East to Indonesia several centuries later but after a brilliant Century in the Middle Eastern Europe this waves stalled and the new Muslim empire was hit by a political fragmentation that was the fate of all ancient empires eventually and this one was no exception rival dynasties emerged within it during the year initial phase of the conquest first caliphate called the Rashida and caliphate was ruled by a surviving followers of Muhammad who carries in Islam he's a person considered a political and religious successor to the Islamic prophets to Muhammad and therefore a leader of the Muslim world the Uma the caliphate is the institution the state the political entity ruled by your caliph this title was claimed several times a long history it is obviously the highest possible title for a Muslim ruler foreign was the one during the very fast initial expansion of the years 640 and 650. by the end of it the Frontiers had reached tenija in the west and Persia in the east and they already included most of the Middle East living on the paths of Anatolia that is to say modern turkey to Byzantium that the resident caliphate ended in 661. and power went to a new Clan the Umayyads also linked to the origins of Islam this Gran the Umayyads was powerful in Mecca in pre-islamic times and actually opposed Muhammad before converting and joining his Circle they had acquired power in Syria during the Rashid and carry fate with Damascus as their main city and when one of them could claim the title of kheriff they turned Damascus into the new capital of the Islamic world they continued the conquest taking a bit more to Byzantium but mainly to the West this is when Algeria Morocco Portugal and almost all of Spain joined their empire ruled for 90 years until 750. with the succession conflicts sometimes but the unity of the Muslim empire was preserved during this period and it was still an extremely successful Empire it seemed almost Unstoppable but in a 750 another Dynasty the other seeds overthrown the Umayyads and they established a new caliphate the third one twelve years later they moved their Capital to a new city Baghdad near the ancient site of Babylon in Mesopotamia and as a Kelly fate the other seeds lasted for several centuries but centuries during which the Muslim World fragmented suffered invasions and the far away provinces became independent so that the number of Muslim states increased and sometimes they were competing or in conflict at the court of the abbasids the Arab Heritage was also diluted over time and the other seats adopted a lot of control traits and customs of people that had been converted to Islam especially from the Persians and Military the Muslim expansion was stalling but Baghdad became a center of science culture and invention a place that and Beaton a lot of the intellectual Heritage from the Antiquity from Rome and Greece if the libraries centers of running and the city became emblematic of a control and economic golden age that lasted for decades in the 8th and 9th centuries but as I told you their empire was too loud or they were not strong enough to keep it United 150 years had now passed since the start of the Muslim expansion and the initial boost had faded there were an Audis competing dynasties for large and Wealthy territories and particle considerations or ambitions tended to erase the attachment to a Unity that had characterized the first Decades of the Muslim expansion so the other seats had to see the Spain and Portugal to the rule of the ugumayyads who had seeked Refuge to the West and more territories around the Mediterranean Sea and in Central Asia where lost to local rulers who vaguely recognized the dear authority of the Abbasid califs but in practice were independent there weakening went on and Baghdad fell to Invaders In 945 and again a second time in 1055 by the middle of the 11th century 40 years before the first crusade these Invaders of the 11th century where the cell Duke Turks a people and a dynasty from Central Asia they had converted to Islam that they were willing to establish their own Empire eventually to sell Juke Turks took Syria and Palestine almost all of Anatolia and their eruption in the Middle East was a huge blow to the political power of the abbasids at the time of the seljuk invasion another powerful state to their West this one was the fatty meter Dynasty the fatimids where of Arab origin and they are called fatimids because they traced their ancestry to Fatima Muhammad's daughter the Umayyads still had Spain with the fatty Meats had Morocco and from there they expanded Eastward taking all the coast of North Africa all the way to Egypt and the Red Sea in the 10th and 11th centuries the fatty Meats program themselves califs and they followed their sheer tradition as opposed to the abbasids who were study so they also wear a religious challenge to them as you know Shia and sunny are the two main competing Traditions denominations of Islam after a Schism that happened at the time of Muhammad's succession so in summary this is how things were in the late 11th century when the first Crusader happened the Muslim world had fragmented into multiple States from Spain to Persia competing caliphates and was weakened by walls especially in the Middle East with the rise of the central Turks the central Bush did not go unnoticed in the West because in 1071 24 years before the first crusade the Turks inflicted a big defeat to Byzantium and Eisenberg was seen as a shield between Eastern Europe and the Muslims and two years later in 1073 the Turks took control of Jerusalem this was the first root cause of the Crusade the cell took hold on Jerusalem was weak and later they lost it to the fatimids we will see that later that Christian pilgrims reported difficulties and the oppression of Christians who traveled to the region due to the chaotic situation in the Holy Land prior to that it was not easy but pilgrims could travel to Jerusalem and the Abbasid rule and Christian communities could continue to exist inside the caliphate they were pushed to convert to Islam and many did they were discriminated against with special taxis or they are banned from certain functions but other than that they were tolerated minorities are often the first victims when the state is destabilized and this was no exception with the weakening of the other seeds to sell drug invasion and the lack of order the situation of Christians in Palestine and in Syria became more precarious and this was noticed in Rome and Western Europe because a tradition of pilgrimage II Jerusalem had gained Traction in the 11th century the numbers were smaller and that more and more Christian Peter creams did a trip to Palestine to visit Jerusalem the news also circulated because there were trade links between the Italian Peninsula with Venice in particular and the Middle East including Byzantium and the Abba seeds and fatty meat caliphates so that was the first motivation to do something about it and it was Amplified by a recent evolution in the doctrine of the church between 1050 and 1080. there was a series of reforms in Rome called the Gregorian reforms a after Pope Gregory VII these reforms touched on several areas they included enforcing compulsory celibacy among the clergy or centralizing a bit more the Roman Catholic Church and these reforms followed the Schism with the Eastern Church that had happened in 1054. the separation of Roman Catholicism and the Orthodoxy the biggest Schism in Christianity since its appearance was still fresh and so were concerned in Rome was to reassert the supremacy of the popes to Proclaim that the Roman Catholic Church was the one and only and to expand its political influence the concept of separating political and religious powers is something that was not theorized during the Middle Ages it was not even a concept and they are aware of and conflicts of influence between Kings or high Nobles and the church the clergy the Catholic faith was so important in Western Europe that secular rulers were always tempted to intervene in matters of the church and at the same time the church had the pretension to be above a secular power this overlap was not specific to the Christian world as we have seen in the same manner and religious leaders so as the 11th century advanced the pope was increasingly I said to you very hope that their own small state who ran Rome in central Italy but they also saw themselves as the ones who could make happy Treasures between secular submarines influence their policies designate common enemies and actually to assert this principle the pope tried 20 years before the first crusade to organize a military expedition in support of Byzantium against the cell troop Turks it didn't gain traction at all and nothing happened because no significance of rain responded to the call but it already showed the intent the will to be interventionist to turn the papacy into not just the religious and Spiritual Authority that a political strategic leader of the Christian world there was the fresh Schism with passenger and the two churches Catholic and orthodox had excommunicated each other that contacts had been kept with Byzantium and of two evolves the Turks were the greater so that's why Rome was waiting to help Byzantine and bison gem did ask for help its situation had become precarious at the time with almost all of its Middle Eastern possessions now aroused so you had this chaotic situation in Palestine around Jerusalem Byzantium asking for help against the Turks that had also taken control of Jerusalem and the papacy willing to play an active role there were also maybe other underlying reasons that led to the First Crusade one was that other rule the 11th century had been a period of relative prosperity compared to previous centuries it was still a time when what would become European countries and Nations where in formation Italy was fragmented Spain was mostly occupied by the Umayyads but in the north of Spain smaller Christian kingdoms had began to push back in what would later be called the Reconquista to reconquest of Spain against the Muslims in Germany also fragmented the Holy Roman emperors were trying to assert their power in France a new Dynasty the capitans had been erected to the throne and even though the Kings had a limited power this helped keep France at peace internally and in England the Norman Invasion had taken place 30 years before the Crusade the Battle of Hastings was in 1066. and the basis of a new kingdom had been made to the north Viking Reds and invasions had turned less devastating and Scandinavia was being absorbed into the Christian world so Europe was far from United and stabilized but it was in a better position to project our outside its limits than at any point since the beginning of the Middle Ages centuries earlier the climate had also turned a bit more favorable during the 11th century more arable land had been gained on forests and slowly but surely agricultural Innovations had been developed like more meals or crop rotation the practice of growing different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of seasons to spare and rejuvenate the soils resulting in better yields all this had a allowed demographic growth and another burgeoning phenomenon was the reappearance of trade routes inside Europe with a bit more stability trade between Italy and France or Italy and Germany through the Alps along their own or Rhine Rivers would reopen after centuries or between England and the continent after the dukes of Normandy conquered England or around the Baltic Sea yet another notable Evolution and Factor behind the Crusades was the installation of the feudal society model it created a kind of cast of Warriors whose social function and reason to be was to fight that matter her stock of Fighters you could tap into and it also meant they needed to be used to something when order was restored and there was no immediate threats on the Frontiers what do you do with these people when you are not at War in that case it can be tempting convenient to send them away to avoid the internal threat they could become so as you see there were a variety of cozies that led to the First Crusade from the evolution of European Christian societies to the perception of the Islamic threat the growing medieval tradition of pilgrimages to Jerusalem the internal conflicts of the Muslims or the willingness of the popes to be more interventionist and politically active after Gregorian reforms historians still debate the weight and interactions between these factors what is factual is that all these background resulted in one goal in 1095. during a council held at Clermont in the center of France cancel that is to say an assembly of Bishops so during this Council Pope Urban II called the old Christian monarchs and Nobles of Europe to mobilize to go to the Holy Land and liberate it invoice from Byzantium had to ask for ED and on top of all the reasons we already discussed before the pope may have hoped that responding positively could help heal the great schism that had happened 40 years earlier and their help reunite the church the mood at the time was to a Reconciliation and interestingly Urban's sermon had this council did not just took off liberating Jerusalem or the Holy Land it was quite comprehensive he talked about the violence of European Society and the need to Channel or hit it he talked about helping the Eastern Roman Empire the Greeks as they were called at the time who were brothers in faith and had called for help and he also said that despite its condemnation of violence and War the church would encourage and sanctify a kind of armed pilgrimage a new kind of War that would guarantee Any Man Who Would undertake it and die in the process the remission of sins and the rewards in heaven as you see this goes beyond the simply a religious or spiritual reasons the pope knew he was addressing Soul Reigns he was one himself and the considerations he gave included a strategy diplomacy and the stability of their lands the school was answered with enthusiasm especially in France where the council had taken place Urban II was also born in France which may have helped that would evolve in later Crusades but the vast majority of participants to this first crusade were actually French Knights and soldiers led by a majority of the most influential and Powerful novels of the Kingdom including the counts of Toulouse and Flinders they were joined by many other houses loud and small intruding Robert of Normandy the eldest son of William the Conqueror who was the brother of William II of England and an unsuccessful Pretender to the throne of England this mobilization went far beyond the hopes of the papacy it is hard to know exactly how many men joined that estimates indicate around 70 000 to 80 000. who left Western Europe in the year following the Council of Clem Maura joined them along the three following years after Crusade the number of nights range from seven thousand to ten thousand so a significant number that shows how Europe and especially France was drained of its night with them 35 000 to 50 000 food soldiers and including non-combatants the figure may have reached a hundred thousand for this official Crusade official because there was also a surprise also motivated by the same call another Expedition called The People's Crusade happened less organized and will soar tragically doomed to fail I'll tell you about it later the response to the pope school was so enthusiastic that not just Nobles and soldiers volunteered there were also peasants with no fighting skills monks or women who wanted to join a hundred thousand people only for the official Crusade is a huge number for the time medieval armies were small a loud battle in Europe at the time pitched a few thousand men on each side even 300 years later during the Hundred Years War the largest battles between England and France rarely involved more than 10 000 people so a hundred thousand sees a reflection of the enthusiasm around the expedition but what were these people's motivations exactly they are how to assess precisely because of the lack of Records about them it seems personal piety was a major one as I said at the beginning the secular Medieval World many aspects of each person's life where so ingrained with the Christian faith and spiritual world of the church that it was immediately attractive to join for many people joining The Crusade felt like an obvious path an opportunity to achieve one's destiny and find at the same time glory and redemption in the eye of God there could have been a social pressure too it is hard to resist the call when your peers and relatives are all answering it in at least some cases personal advancement seems to have been a goal too for powerful novels for example in the case of a Norman leader called boim of Toronto of Toronto which is in Italy because earlier there had been a conquest led by Normans from the northwest of France to the south of Italy and Normans had established fiefdoms there that they used as a base had gone to war with Byzantium before to try to carve himself out a territory in the east a kind of own personal Kingdom too cool to The Crusade gave him the opportunity to try again but this time not against the byzantines but rather against the Turks and with the approval of the Pope so he did not let the opportunity Escape the logistics were complicated with men volunteering from different regions and so it was planned that different armies would travel separately to Constantinople to the capital of Byzantium they would join forces there and continue their expedition entering a enemy territory with Jerusalem and Palestine as their final destination because at the time the Turks held the most of Anatolia and to those of Constantinople I told you that while this preparation was taking place another expedition was forming one that has been called The People's Crusade Pope Urban had planned the departure of the First Crusade for August 1096. but months before this in the enthusiasm of the response to his call unexpected armies of peasants and a lesser Noble had formed and decided to set off for Jerusalem on their own they were led by a priest called Pierre ramit Peter the hermit Peter was a Catholic priest from northern France who was not sanctioned by the pope as an official preacher for the Crusader but he did it nevertheless and due to his Charisma and the fertile ground he was working on press his discourse that even peasants women and children could join the Crusade he mobilized thousands possibly tens of thousands of enthusiastic followers most of them were completely engine for combat and had never left their Village but they did with him and for him and they followed him starting to March towards Eastern Europe these people's Crusade was also joined by a few Knights and small novels it was not totally an experienced but overall it was disorganized and with very little planning the participants were poor meaning they left with almost nothing and also meaning that they would need to live on the lands they would cross you immediately understand the huge original flow this Expedition had between its lack of supplies and absence of plan emerged in separate armies that found themselves in trouble while they were stealing Christian territory their food for food against the hungarians in the Pelicans who ran Belgrade even though the hungarians were feral Christians but because these people's Crusade constantly needed food and surprise they were in practice saluting the regions they crossed thousands died or abandoned on the way to Constantinople doing more harm than good in the regions they crossed but finally the various armies of this crusade reached Constantinople and there again the problem of food was pressing and the mob began to loot outside the city ER byzantines tried to control them as much as they could but the only solution to get rid of this crowd they could not feed and that didn't seem to have much military value was to let them go on and send them fighting so they helped Ferry them to the other side of the bus for us the strait between Europe and the Asia Minor where Constantinople was located the territory of Tyson gem indeed not far away on the other side at the time and so the people's Crusade began to wander into cell troop territory there was no way this crowd of people could survive a battle against well-equipped and experienced soldiers and indeed they didn't a few unequal battles against Centric soldiers took place in which most of the Crusade was massacred or scattered the people's Crusade indeed there as a tragic failure and most of the crowd never returned home Peter The Hermit the leader escaped and he returned to France there is no record of what he thought or how he was seen after sending thousands to their deaths in a feat of enthusiasm he may have funded a monastery but his Trail must be disappears after 1096. and other unfortunate Legacy of the people's Crusade is a series of exactions of abuses towards Jewish populations in the region of the Rhine River when the Expedition crossed it in the enthusiasm of the Crusade willing to fight and making no distinction between non-christians the mobs attacked Jewish communities on their way one of the numerous attacks against the Jews during the Middle Ages so that was for the people's Crusade that has these events were unfolding the official Crusade and its various armies totaling about 70 000 to 80 000 people was also approaching Constantinople and it gathered over several months outside its walls the Byzantine emperor alexios was suddenly happy to see this vast Army of her eyes join him but he was also suspicious after the bad memory of the people's Crusade and its routines Brothers the official Crusade had a bohemo of Toronto as one of its leaders you remember this Norman Lord established in the south of Italy who had already attacked before Byzantium so that it did not help with trust issues either and there were tensions between Byzantium and the Crusaders indeed to return territories they would conquer to his Empire against his help with food and transportation to Anatolia eventually most leaders accepted and swoled the oath as we will see later it wouldn't be respected and the byzantines helped but they limited their support to food surprise fairies and a couple were Generals to assist them none of the troops that they had more or less promised to contribute to the Crusade when they were pleading their case to poke Urban II but still the Army could cross to the other side of the Bus Forest after that the Crusader Army was in enemy territory and would only be able to count on itself during the first semester of 1097 18 months after the Council of Claremore when Pope Urban had called to this holy war the large army crossed to Anatolia to Asia Minor the time for fighting had now arrived Jerusalem was hundreds of miles away from Constantinople and the journey would be long several months at least the Army was several tens of thousands of men strong and it had multiple leaders without a single Authority these are leaders included Raymond IV the count of Toulouse and Adam De Monte their representative of the Pope in the Crusade they both had brewed a large number of troops from Southern France another important group from upper and lower Lorena in what is now the east of France was led by Godfrey of bouillon another bull who had supported the Crusader early on and gathered various Noble houses with thousands of soldiers Bowie Moon of Toronto was another figure of authority and the most experienced military Chief we already talked about him he led a group of Italian Norman troops there were also various contingents from northern France and Flanders led by the counts of Brewer vermontua and Flanders and by the Duke of Normandy Robert kathros the eldest son of William the Conqueror so as you see the bulk of troops came from France and around it and their Leaders with their titles and vessels that also participated in the Expedition this reflected to complexity of the feudal system with its chains of command based on religions this was barely understandable to the byzantines let alone the Turks and the Arabs so they saw the Army as a whole quality Invaders the Franks for the duration of the Crusades several Generations this is how the Crusaders would be called on the other side regardless of where they came from France or other European countries I told you the giant army has crossed to Anatolia in the first half of 1097. and they would have to cross an Italia then Syria before reaching Palestine but marching straight to Jerusalem was not an option they would have ended up isolated and surrounded in selduk territory on the way there were cities and forts that would have to be conquered and saw their first objective their first Target was the city of nicaea the city once under Byzantine rule but that had become a main city of the centrals after a few weeks of Siege the city fell not without big grasses on the Crusader's side that that was a good start and after that the Army marched through Anatolia and faced a router said drug Army at a battle the battle of doridian that they won thanks to their members and discipline having defeated the main force of the Turks in Anatolia they could continue to the south east in the direction of Syria but they were faced with two problems first to sell drugs practiced the scorched land strategy to weaken them that is to say they destroyed all harvests and equipment that could have helped the Invaders so that as often when large armies were on the move they had to resort to routing to pilities to sustain themselves and this did not Garner support from the locals second the Army did not have a single leader the spiritual and religious authority of Alima the Pope's legate that is to say the Pope's representative was not questioned that each Noble had their troops and did not intend to seed control there was a degree of cooperation But ultimately each leader could take their followers in the direction they wanted and this is exactly what two chiefs did Baldwin of Bologna a brother of godfire of boyo and the count of bulani in northern France and tancred and Italian Roman leader nephew of bohemo of Toronto they broke away from the main Army together and they went Eastward towards the Armenian lands before marching South to the Limit between Anatolia and Syria Baldwin was well decided to carve himself a territory of his own in these lands and that's what he did in a chaotic campaign he conquered lands around the city of edesa and assumed the title of count of Edison in 1098. establishing the first of the Crusaders State there will be more as we will see the county of edesa was Inland around the modern Frontier of turkey and Syria and it lasted for a few decades we will see in the second part of this story that the fall of Elisa to the Muslims in 1144 would be the trigger to a Second Crusade as Baldwin of pulani was pursuing his personal goals with a small Force the main Army had marched through Anatolia and prepared to besiege Antioch situated midway between Constantinople and Jerusalem Antioch at the time was a major city heavily fortified and leaving it intact in their back was not an option so they LED Siege in October 1097. the seed was lengthy supplied fully missed and hundreds possibly thousands of Crusaders died of starvation it lasted eight months with the Invaders launching hassles and the sandrox sending armies and smaller contingents to try to relieve the city or Ambush the Franks around it or were defeated until finally the city fell in June 1098. only to be immediately encircled by yet another cell drug Force that the Crusaders managed to disperse by attacking it immediately in total the siege of Antioch cost thousands of lives on each side and to make things worse a plague broke out shortly after killing many among the Army including ademar the Pope segate at this point arguments between the various leaders multiplied and they spent all they lost the rest of the year in and around Antioch that they now controlled arguing over the strategy to follow in practice the friends from northern France the Normans and the provincials from Southern France did not feel like parts of a single nation at all and why would they their languages were different and more importantly they had different rules and the initial enthusiasm of going on this armed pilgrimage together as Christians had stalled a bit after almost two years of fighting but finally at the beginning of 1099 the march to Jerusalem restarted after another spirit of Toronto stayed behind with his men as the first prince of Antioch at least his ambition was satisfied he had his own land and title and the rest of the army marched South they only had to follow the coastline for a few hundred miles to reach Jerusalem it is hard to know how many men remained at this point maybe a quarter or a third of the initial Force they had received a few more Crusaders who continued to join their effort but they had lost many more in the fights CGS and previous splits of the main Falls but at least thousands of men remained still a considerable false and this time they encountered Little Resistance on their way to Jerusalem as they proceeded down to Mediterranean Coast two main remaining leaders at this point where the count of Toulouse Raymond IV and Godfrey of boyan the others were less than awards that had less troops wealth or authority in the meantime the situation had evolved in the Holy Land the cell drugs were now in retreat in the 11th century there had been formidable force that had erupted in the Middle East and taken it by storm that their good fortunes were turning they were surrounded by enemies they had a internal dissensions and on top of that they had been surprised by the eruption of this large Crusader Army that had taken their cities and carved new States on their lands as the Crusaders were proceeding a Antioch the fatty Meats had noticed this and advanced to the east taking Jerusalem you remember the fatty Meats where this dynasty this caliphate that controlled North Africa from Morocco to Egypt and to this they had now just Hadid the Holy Land Palestine and Jerusalem the fatty Meats were not willing to go to war with the Crusaders so they offer the deal if the Crusaders did not Advance into their domains they would recognize the frontier with them and guarantee freedom of Passage to Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land but this was completely unacceptable to the Crusaders for several reasons several of them had their own ambitions there was the fact that launching a crusade from so far to indeed negotiating with Muslims and letting them have Jerusalem would have been absurd and they were still at nights in the army who wanted to fight at any cost so the offer was rejected even though realistically Crusaders forces at this point now looks relatively small they have been estimated at around 12 000 including 1500 cavalry but they still began The Siege of Jerusalem with what they had with what remained even though they didn't have enough troops to encircle the city meaning they only hoped to take it was to launch households at this time their cooperation had reached a low point and forces attacked separately which made the first household in June 1099 failed they regrouped understood that a concerted attack was the only option and after a few weeks the city finally fell on the 15th of July 1099 three years after the beginning of the Crusade Jerusalem had finally fell to Christian hands again for the first time since the 7th century between the exhaustion the excitement of victory and the burst of religious enthusiasm that followed the fall of the city massacres took place and it seems they were particularly ugly many civilian inhabitants were robbed and slaughtered the scale of these massacres is uncertain but there are multiple eyewitness accounts from Crusaders that indicate these were probably the worst exceptions of the entire Crusade Christian inhabitants had been expelled by the Fatimid governor before the arrival of the Crusader Army but Muslim and Jewish populations were decimated this could have indeed a crusade but not yet except for the capture of Jerusalem force of twenty thousand fatty Meats Lindy that askaren on the Mediterranean Coast 50 miles from Jerusalem the crusaders had only half that number at this point nine thousand foot soldiers and 1200 nights they were also exhausted despite the excitement of their recent victory in Jerusalem but what they had was experience and troops extremely toughened by two years of combat since they had left Constantinople the Muslim force was relatively unprepared and inexperienced and that would be its Doom led by a good friend of puyon and Raymond of Toulouse what remained of the Crusader Army attacked the Fatimid Army outside haskellen by surprise and a completely ratted it with this this is a victory the Crusader ended Jerusalem now being out of danger for now yet another state had been established the kingdom of Jerusalem and the Godfrey of puyon was erected its first king a false Crusader State the county of Tripoli was created two years later by a Raymond of Toulouse in what corresponds to Modern Lebanon Just Between the principality of Antioch and the kingdom of Jerusalem in the following months most of the surviving Crusaders left the Holy Land considering that their pilgrimage had been achieved and hundreds of them returned to their region of origin living on the a handful to defend the new Latin states in the Middle East including the new kingdom of Jerusalem was it over far from that the First Crusade was over but our story is just beginning and in the second part we will relieve how things unfolded crossing paths with major historical figures like Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire Richard Lionheart of England of France or Saladin the Sultan of Egypt and Syria this second part will be available soon but for now we are at the end of tonight's story so you can now let go and fall asleep or pick another story from my library if you want sleep well sweet dreams over foreign

Channel: The French Whisperer ASMR

Views: 207,174

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Id: 3wHMoFHVZmI

Length: 146min 19sec (8779 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 04 2022