WEBVTT - Bonus: Shields High Ep #2: The First Crusade 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.800 The battles of the past to find the present. This 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:20.400 is shields high. Gather around, friends, for I have a 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:25.120 story to tell. A thousand years ago, a military force 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:29.320 assembled in Europe and rallied under the banner of the Cross. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:35.280 This Christian army believed no less than their eternal salvation 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:40.599 was at stake. These warriors, knights, foot soldiers and peasants 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.600 traveled three thousand miles to do battle in the heart 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:49.880 of a vast enemy empire. Despite their religious zeal and bravery, 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.559 this army of Christendom was embarking on what could have 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:58.560 been a suicide mission. From a purely military standpoint. They 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:03.440 were outmanned and outmatched. They had no idea of the 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:08.039 enemy's true strength or will to fight. But death in 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.959 battle was to be rewarded with the elimination of all 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:17.280 penance four sins. The Pope himself had promised no less. 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.640 Before they left behind the familiar castles and farms of Europe, 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:25.000 the true believers sewed the sign of the Cross onto 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:30.920 their shoulders and chests. They called this crucis ignatis for 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.440 one with the sign of the Cross, from which many 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:39.840 decades later we would get the term crusade. And in 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.520 the year of Our Lord ten ninety five, their initial 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.800 call to arms in the defense of Christendom would come 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:51.800 to be known as the First Crusade. This religious and 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.520 military quest marked the first time in centuries that the 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:59.240 forces of Christian Europe would strike back at the Muslim 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.840 conquest that had consumed so much of the known medieval world. 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:08.880 The incredible, some would say miraculous, success of the First 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:14.160 Crusade would be a harbinger of holy wars to come. 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:21.080 This assemblage of Christian warriors would conquer Jerusalem and set 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.760 in motion two hundred years of fighting between warring Muslim 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:31.040 factions and the Crusader city states that were established by 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:37.640 this counter invasion of Christendom. From a d five to 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:44.480 twelve ninety one, the Near East what is currently Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:50.440 Iraq was enmeshed in crusades and jihad's, But it was 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.959 the First Crusade, a military invasion against near impossible odds, 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.400 that shook the Islamic world to its foundations and for 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.960 the first time in history, allowed the Christian world to 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:07.960 strike at the heart of the Islamic world. Despite what 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.400 is taught in Western schools today, the Crusades were not 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.359 an act of wanton cruelty by a bunch of barbarous 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:20.480 Christian states. On the contrary, the First Crusade was a 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:27.400 response to centuries of Islamic conquest, aggression, and threats. By 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.120 the dawn of the twelfth century, the expansion of the 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:35.280 Islamic Empire seemed nearly unstoppable. At the time of the 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:42.160 First Crusade, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, North Africa, Asia, Minor, Spain, France, Italy, 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.000 the islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica were all Christian 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:54.800 territories turned into Muslim ones. In fact, about two thirds 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.600 of the formerly Christian world at the time of the 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:03.839 First Crusade was ruled by Muslims. Had it not been 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.120 for Charles Martel's heroics at the Battle of Tour in 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.920 seven thirty two, the forces of Islam would have conquered 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.160 the heart of Europe itself. The world as we know 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:19.160 it today would be an entirely different place. Western civilization 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:25.360 would have been extinguished, replaced with the totalitarianism and despotism 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:29.160 of the East. But the victory of Charles the Hammer 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:34.840 Martel was only temporary. The Crescent Moon of Islam already 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:39.680 reigned over immense domains, and its forces were often literally 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.559 at the gates of Christendom, just waiting to break through. 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:48.640 On the Iberian Peninsula where modern Spain and Portugal are found, 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.080 and all the way across to the gates of Constantinople 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.160 in the east, in what is now the city of Istanbul, Turkey, 0:04:55.520 --> 0:05:00.279 there was a constant jihadist menace. Islamic raiding parties used 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:06.600 the Mediterranean to launch murderous, pillaging assaults. They would kidnap 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.920 Christians to sell into slavery along the coasts of Italy, France, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.280 and Spain all throughout the medieval period. At the end 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:18.120 of the eleventh century, the goal of every caliph, the 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:23.000 leader of the Islamic Caliphate was the same, total domination 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:28.520 of the Christian world through jihad. It was in response 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:34.240 to this threat of spiritual and temporal bondage, this possibility 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:39.120 of eternal subjugation, and the extermination of the Christian faith itself. 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:42.599 In response to all of that, that the First Crusade 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:48.280 was launched. Finally, an alliance of Christian nobles came together 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.440 to lead their men to a war unlike anything attempted 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.560 since the fall of the Roman Empire. It was in 0:05:54.600 --> 0:06:00.280 fact the inheritors of that Roman Empire, the Byzantines, guardians 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:04.560 of the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith, who said in motion 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.800 the events that would lead to the First Crusade. Their 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.800 rapid decline and the threat of Constantinople's fall, added to 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.360 the persecution of Christian pilgrims en route to the Holy 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.960 Land and the Muslim desecration of religious sites such as 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.159 the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. All of 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:30.760 that together finally woke Europe from its slumber. As described 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:36.520 by the French historian of the Crusades, Joseph Michaud quote, 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.880 the Christian faithful had much more to suffer. They were 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:44.120 driven from their houses, insulted in their churches. The tribute 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.279 which they had to pay to the new masters of 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.400 Palestine was increased, and they were forbidden to carry arms 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.440 or to mount on horseback. A leather girdle, which they 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.240 were never allowed to be without, was the badge of 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:01.560 their servitude. The conqueror would not permit the Christians to 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:05.320 speak the Arab tongue sacred to the disciples of the Koran, 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:09.040 and the people who remained faithful to Jesus Christ had 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:13.320 not liberty even to pronounce the names of the patriarchs, 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:18.240 including of Jerusalem itself, without the permission of the Saracens. 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.400 Other misfortunes awaited the Christians of Palestine. Under Muslim rule, 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.640 all religious ceremonies were interdicted. The greater part of the 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:32.160 churches were converted into stables. That of the Holy Sepulcher 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:38.960 was completely destroyed. The Christians driven from Jerusalem were scattered 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:44.640 throughout the countries of the East and quote Christendom was 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:50.720 under assault. The Byzantine Empire was under siege and threatening 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:55.480 to collapse. The forces of the Cross had to rally. 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.640 A crusade would be launched to free the Holy Land, 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.560 and it would take these god fearing Christian Zealots to 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:25.400 the gates of Jerusalem itself. Chapter one besieged Byzantines. Europe 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.880 through the Dark Ages period of a d. Five hundred 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:33.280 to one thousand or so was in chaos. The Dark 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.760 Ages was an accurate description. There was constant violence among 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:45.360 petty nobles, lawlessness, widespread ignorance, and deep superstition. Roads built 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.880 by ancient Rome were the most useful and well constructed 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.680 in Europe until well into the fifteen hundreds. The numerous 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.440 barbarian tribes who had sacked Rome and dismembered its empire 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:02.439 in the fifth century, Huns, Goths, frank Saxons were constantly 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:06.920 at each other's throats. The only unifier of what we 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:12.680 now call Europe was Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church. The 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.360 only structures in fact built of stone, and most of 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.760 northern and western Europe at the time were cathedrals. Many 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:25.040 of those cathedrals and churches built atop formerly pagan temples. 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.520 It was very rare in this period for anyone outside 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.439 the clergy to be able to read or write. Charlemagne himself, 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:38.319 the great leader who founded the Holy Roman Empire, was illiterate. 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:43.760 Books were incredibly valuable. Dialects of language were so different 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:47.080 that villages of the same tribe just a few miles 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:54.360 apart often had difficulty communicating. During this time, the intellectual, commercial, 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.679 and cultural pinnacle of the Christian world was found in 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:03.839 the east, a wondrous city of Constantinople. It was the 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.840 Roman emperor Constantine who, back in a d. Three thirty, 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.920 became the first Roman empire to recognize Jesus as his Savior, 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:16.800 and he made Constantinople, the Roman Empire's second capital, a 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:21.440 new Rome. In the years leading up to the First Crusade. 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:25.400 In fact, throughout the entire Dark Ages period, the inhabitants 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:31.200 of Constantinople thought of themselves as Romans and their crown jewel. 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:36.360 City was also Christianity's most important fortress against the growing 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:42.640 menace of Islamic conquest. Constantinople it is among the most 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:47.559 important strategic locations in the world. It sits astride a 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:52.160 crucial geographic choke point separating the Black Sea from the Mediterranean. 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.559 With a narrow channel called the hellspont or later the Dardanelles, 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.360 it can be easily closed off. This is also considered 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:07.040 the gateway to Asia from Europe. After the Islamic advance 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.400 from Arabia across the Near East, the only Christian city 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:14.560 that was able to withstand repeated Islamic invasions from the 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:20.280 East was Constantinople. The Islamic Caliphs were hell bent on 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.439 taking the city. In fact, there is a headith, a 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.880 saying attributed to the prophet Muhammed, specifically citing the conquest 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:33.280 of this ancient Christian city Jihads were launched against Constantinople 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.800 time and again, starting in the seventh century. The first 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:41.080 major siege of Constantinople came in a D six seventy four. 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:45.960 It lasted for four years. Muslim forces brought together various 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.200 armadas and fought a series of naval engagements. The one 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:55.480 consistent theme throughout the contemporary sources regarding these continued Muslim 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.240 military advances against the city is a unique weapon of 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:06.800 the Byzantine Greek fire that Greek fire gave the Eastern 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:10.880 Christians the ability to repel naval assault. After naval assault, 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.920 Greek fire was an incendiary weapon, generally deployed by ships 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:20.800 and defensive fortifications against enemies wooden ships, as the order 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:24.120 galleys of the medieval period were composed entirely of wood. 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:28.360 Greek fire was a devastating weapon. Chroniclers of the time 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.320 described it as sticky and able to continue burning even 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:37.559 on the surface of the sea. Another major Muslim siege 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.880 of Constantinople occurred in a D seven seventeen. This time 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.560 the Islamic armies came on land as well as sea. 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:48.439 They tried to blockade the city, but the massive Theodosian 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:53.839 walls three miles of three layered defensive fortifications, with the 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:58.960 innermost wall sixteen feet thick and thirty six ft tall 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:04.640 intersper with sixty foot tall guard towers holding back all 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.960 of the Islamic cord. These fortifications were among the most 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:13.520 impressive ever built in the pre modern world, and the 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.959 use of Greek fire proved too much for the defenders. 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:22.480 Once again, Constantinople would stay in Christian hands at least 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:27.600 for a time, but by the constant warfare in the 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:33.120 Anatolian Peninsula also called Asia Minor between Byzantines and various 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:38.200 Muslim factions was picking off more and more Christian territory. 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.800 With the arrival of the Seljuk Turks, a massive horde 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.600 of warriors on horseback from the interior Asian step, and 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:50.480 their conversion to Sunni Islam, the future of Constantinople appeared dire. 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.840 Constantinople's defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks at 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.480 the Battle of Man's occurred in ten seventy one, was 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.280 for many the death knell of the once great Byzantines. 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:08.000 Time was running out for the Eastern Christian Empire, and 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.319 if Constantinople felt it would become the forward operating base 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:15.480 for Jihad into all of Europe. No less than the 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.440 future of the Christian world hung in the balance. In 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:25.440 to avert this catastrophe, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius the First 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:29.040 wrote a desperate plea for help against the Seljouk menace. 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.480 The Western Christian world needed to come to Constantinople's aid, 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.560 retake the Holy Land of Jerusalem and push back the 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:42.040 Saracen menace once and for all. The Pope received the 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:48.480 plea of help from Constantinople. Hope Urban gathered Christians together 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:55.600 at the Council of Claremont in France on November. He 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.720 called for a holy war and stated that whoever was 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.720 going to liberate Jerusalem could substitute that journey for any 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:11.320 and all penance in the afterlife. The assembled Christians shouted, 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:16.600 deis volts, deis volts God wills it. Word from this 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:21.080 gathering in Claremont would spread across Europe. In time, an 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.480 army of some sixty thousand Christians would take up the call. 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:30.400 The First Crusade was under way. It's goal the conquest 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:49.200 of Jerusalem. Chapter two, The Road to Zion in the 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.840 Year of our Lord ten five, the urgent call to 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:57.440 Holy war in the East spread like wildfire across Europe. 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.480 While the Pope coordinated with some of the most powerful 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.960 nobles and knights to prepare what would be a major 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:10.840 military expedition, there was an unexpected gathering of commoners dedicated 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:16.400 to the same purpose. A firebrand preacher, a priest known 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.680 to history as Peter the Hermit, went from village to village, 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.240 promising a remission of sins for any who joined him 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:29.160 on his quest to free the Holy Land. By April 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:33.720 of t Peter had gathered around forty thousand men, women 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.480 and children in the German city of Cologne and began 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:42.720 with them overland and on foot to Jerusalem. This so 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:48.360 called people's crusade turned into a debacle. They were an 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:53.920 undisciplined rabble without arms or horses. Peter had convinced them 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:57.560 that with God on their side, they simply could not 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:03.240 be defeated. Many fouls of these pauper crusaders never even 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:07.600 made it outside of Catholic Europe's realm. They turned back 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.280 on their own accord, or were captured and enslaved by 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:16.120 opportunistic lords along the way. The peasant crusaders even ran 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.119 out of food in Hungary and ended up pillaging Orthodox 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:26.040 Christian monasteries. By the time Peter reached Constantinople, his numbers 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:31.440 were already greatly depleted. The Byzantine Emperor Alexius wanted rid 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:35.520 of this mob as soon as possible. He gladly ferried 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:39.239 them across the Bosphorus. The People's Crusade did make it 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.800 to Anatolia and found a Turkish force to fight. The 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:50.959 Christian peasants, armed almost entirely with zeal and farm implements, 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:56.000 were annihilated. The crusade led by princes, however, was a 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:01.359 very different story and a very different force. Many of 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:06.280 the most vaunted royal houses of Europe were represented Godfrey 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:11.119 of Bouillon, Count Robert of Flanders, Duke Robert of Normandy, 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:16.960 son of William the Conqueror, Raymond of Toulouse, Adamar of Lepuis, 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:23.919 Beaumond of Toronto, and Tankard of vi. They assembled a 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:30.720 sixty thousand man army, an enormous force for this medieval time, 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:36.320 including approximately ten thousand heavy cavalry. The armored knights that 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:41.080 were to become the most enduring emblem of the European 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:49.040 period of Crusader warfare. This massive expeditionary force set off 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:55.719 for Constantinople and arrived in October of ten It was 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.400 the relief force the Byzantine Emperor Alexius had requested so 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.800 desperately from the Pope. But Alexius felt something of a 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.879 panic when he saw the mass of men at arms 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.919 and horsemen. He quickly gave them money and supplies, and 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:15.920 in exchange asked that all Byzantine territory that they conquered 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:21.200 had to be returned to the Emperor. The timing of 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:26.640 this expedition for the Christians was fortuitous. Unbeknownst to them, 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.560 there was much infighting among Muslims in the Turkish realm, 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:36.119 with the Shia Fatimid Muslims of Egypt, the Abbasids of Baghdad, 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:42.119 and the Seldiuk Turks all jockeying for power. In early tenn, 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:47.080 the Crusader army crossed into Asia Minor. Their first target 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:50.720 was the formerly Christian city of Nicia. It had been 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:54.480 seized by the Turkish war lord killags Lan and was 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:58.160 now part of the Sultanate of Rum. The Turkish leader 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:02.440 happened to be away on a campaign when the Crusader 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:06.560 army arrived ours land did return to lift the siege, 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:11.280 but had greatly underestimated the strength and ferocity of the 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:16.440 Crusaders and was quickly driven back by their fearsome charge. 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.240 The Byzantines sent additional forces to help with the siege 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:24.720 of Nicia. They even brought ships overland by using logs 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.320 to roll them, and they deployed on the lake near 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.880 Nicia that up until that point had allowed the defenders 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:36.560 to stay provisioned. After a six week siege, the mixed 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:41.240 Byzantine Frankish force brought about the capitulation of Nicia in 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:44.960 June of ten A note here that to the Eastern 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.720 Christians and Muslims, all the Crusaders from the West were 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:53.520 referred to as Frange or Francs. But Nicia was just 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:59.240 the beginning of the planned conquest. The ultimate prize for 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:04.600 the Franks was still Jerusalem. There was at least one 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:11.520 major stronghold that blocked their path, the fortress of Antioch, 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.840 but to get there it was likely they would have 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.919 a major engagement with a Turkish field army along the way. 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:25.840 With that in mind, the two crusailer columns marched deeper 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:32.160 into Anatolia modern day Turkey. Bowman was in the vanguard column, 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:37.240 Godfrey in the rear guard. Killeg Arslan, the Turkish emir 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.160 and warlord who had unsuccessfully tried to lift the siege 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:46.720 of Nicia, planned a trap for them. On July one, seven, 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:52.119 the first major field engagement of the First Crusade began, 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:56.680 the Battle of dory Lam. The ambush at the hands 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.199 of the Turkish army was well planned and executed. The 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.800 Christians had pitched a camp for the night, and at 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:07.919 first light the trap was sprung from the surrounding wooded hills. 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:12.920 Mounted Turkish archers swarmed around the column of Christian knights 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:16.720 and infantry, with the camp followers and supply trains in 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:21.440 the rear. Before the massive Turkish cavalry force could surround 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:25.320 and cut the Christians off, Bowman immediately sent a courier 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:28.640 to the rear guard led by Godfrey, and called for 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:33.880 immediate assistance with all possible haste. Bowman knew he would 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:38.040 have to stand and fight against this Turkish onslaught or 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:42.080 all would be lost. He formed a defensive circle of 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:46.359 nights around the infantry and in the center brought camp 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:50.640 followers into the middle they were swarmed on all sides 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:58.160 by Turkish horse archers. Waves of Turkish cavalry would ride up, 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:02.919 fire volley of lethal arrows, throw javelins, and pulled back 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:07.000 out of the reach of Christian ranks. The Crusader knights 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:10.200 were weighed down by their armor on top of their horses, 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:15.040 and were in general much less nimble than their Turkish opponents. 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:18.399 But when brought into close quarters, the Christians were able 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:22.920 to withstand many more arrows and blows from edged weapons, 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:26.880 and when the Crusaders were able to wield their broadswords, 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:33.240 maces and battle axes, it was with devastating effect. But 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.919 killing Arslan and his Turks took their toll on the 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:41.639 densely packed Crusader foot soldiers. The heat and exhaustion that 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:44.879 came with it also began to overcome some of the 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:49.159 front line. Then, just as a situation could have turned 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:53.840 into a catastrophe, Godfrey and his column arrived. His knights 0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:58.560 smashed into the Turkish left flank. Bowmaned, seeing this turn 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:01.600 of events, chart with his knights. At the same time, 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:06.800 a wave of Christian Crusaders smashed into the Turkish light cavalry, 0:24:07.240 --> 0:24:11.520 who turned and fled the Turks left behind riches and 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:15.080 supplies in their camp, much to the delight of the 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:21.320 victorious Crusaders. But more importantly, the pathway to Jerusalem now 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:25.520 lay open to them. There was only one major obstacle 0:24:25.600 --> 0:24:31.400 in their path, the almost impregnable fortress city of Antioch. 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:50.320 Chapter three, The Siege of Antioch. The Crusader army in 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:53.720 October of ten ninety seven was full of confidence after 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:58.440 taking Nicia in a mere six weeks and routing Killage 0:24:58.440 --> 0:25:03.240 are Salans. Turkish war ears on an open battlefield. As 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:07.360 the Crusader army arrived outside the gates of Antioch, they 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:10.639 could not have imagined the hardships and losses they would 0:25:10.640 --> 0:25:16.280 soon endure. Antioch was once considered arrival to Constantinople by 0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:20.399 the Roman emperors of the third and fourth centuries. It 0:25:20.560 --> 0:25:22.960 was set in a valley next to the Orontes River 0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:28.199 in what is today's Antakia in southernmost Turkey. In the 0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:33.199 eleventh century, Antioch was on a crucial trading route. It 0:25:33.280 --> 0:25:35.840 was also believed to be the first place in the 0:25:35.880 --> 0:25:39.840 world where the term Christian was used for the followers 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:47.159 of Christ. As a fortified position, Antioch was formidable. It 0:25:47.240 --> 0:25:50.920 had large thick walls topped with hundreds of towers. Its 0:25:50.920 --> 0:25:54.679 citadel was on a mountain, Mount Silpius, that rose a 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:59.639 thousand feet up. The garrison consisted of around five thousand 0:25:59.760 --> 0:26:05.959 ter The Christian besiegers had approximately forty thousand at the start. 0:26:07.080 --> 0:26:10.800 The only way that Antioch had fallen to an enemy 0:26:10.880 --> 0:26:14.240 in over five hundred years stretching back to the reign 0:26:14.440 --> 0:26:20.240 of the Emperor Justinian, was through treachery. Antioch had never 0:26:20.320 --> 0:26:24.680 been successfully stormed during that period. It had only been 0:26:24.760 --> 0:26:29.280 handed over to the enemy from the inside. The Turk 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:32.240 in charge of the defense of the city, Yagi Sion, 0:26:32.840 --> 0:26:36.399 was well aware of this. He was crafty and competent, 0:26:36.960 --> 0:26:41.040 and knew that the city's majority Christian population was a risk. 0:26:41.920 --> 0:26:45.840 In the days before the arrival of the Crusaders, Yagiicion 0:26:45.960 --> 0:26:50.200 took action to mitigate this possible fifth column. He directed 0:26:50.240 --> 0:26:53.679 the able bodied Muslim men of the city to build 0:26:53.720 --> 0:26:58.119 a trench outside the city walls. The following day, Yagi 0:26:58.160 --> 0:27:01.320 Sion directed all the Christian men of the city to 0:27:01.440 --> 0:27:05.880 do the same. Having seen their fellow antioch Nes come 0:27:06.000 --> 0:27:09.760 back without incident from the day before, they calmly left 0:27:09.800 --> 0:27:15.480 the protection of the massive fortified walls. Once outside the gates, 0:27:15.960 --> 0:27:19.919 Yagion informed the Christians that for the duration of the 0:27:20.000 --> 0:27:24.080 upcoming siege, they would have to stay outside with their 0:27:24.080 --> 0:27:29.480 fellow Christians the Crusaders. Not only did this ploy limit 0:27:29.560 --> 0:27:33.720 the likelihood of Christians siding with their co religionists during 0:27:33.760 --> 0:27:39.360 the siege, it created an additional burden on supplies outside 0:27:39.400 --> 0:27:44.000 the city walls. Of all the stratagems for Antioch's defense, 0:27:44.600 --> 0:27:48.600 hunger would become the most potent. A full on assault 0:27:48.800 --> 0:27:53.400 was not possible, so the Crusaders set up upon arrival 0:27:53.960 --> 0:27:57.600 camps around the city walls and plan to wait out 0:27:57.640 --> 0:28:02.840 the defenders. It quickly became apparent, however, that Antioch was 0:28:02.880 --> 0:28:08.560 a far more difficult prize than Nicea. Yagion had made 0:28:08.600 --> 0:28:13.720 all the necessary preparations for a long siege. The Crusaders, 0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:17.160 on the other hand, were running low on supplies from 0:28:17.160 --> 0:28:21.560 the beginning. As the winter set in, disease spread throughout 0:28:21.600 --> 0:28:26.200 the Christian camp. The weeks of siege quickly turned into months. 0:28:26.400 --> 0:28:30.720 Foraging parties came back empty handed time and again. Hunger 0:28:31.320 --> 0:28:36.959 turned to starvation. Nights slaughtered their own horses for food. 0:28:37.680 --> 0:28:43.800 Morale plummeted and desertions. Rose yagy Sion managed to harass 0:28:43.920 --> 0:28:48.040 the besiegers with sorties outside the city walls. He also 0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:52.680 had sent word out to every Muslim war lord of 0:28:52.720 --> 0:28:57.040 the Arab world to come to his aid. As the 0:28:57.120 --> 0:29:05.240 spring season arrived, starvation faded, but Islamic reinforcements arrived. Ridwan 0:29:05.480 --> 0:29:09.160 of Aleppo led the first Muslim army that attempted to 0:29:09.200 --> 0:29:14.360 break the siege. Bowman met Ridwan's cavalry with a large 0:29:14.440 --> 0:29:18.680 cavalry charge of his own, seven hundred knights that rode 0:29:18.800 --> 0:29:22.760 right into the heart of Ridwan's forces and shattered the 0:29:22.800 --> 0:29:28.680 Syrian relief effort. The siege continued on, but time was 0:29:28.760 --> 0:29:33.200 not on the Christian side. A massive Muslim army was 0:29:33.320 --> 0:29:38.040 being raised by Carboga of Mosul, who planned to join 0:29:38.400 --> 0:29:42.479 Rudwan of Aleppo. This second attempt to lift the siege 0:29:42.520 --> 0:29:49.040 would consist of nearly fifty thousand Muslim warriors. The Crusaders 0:29:49.400 --> 0:29:53.040 had already lost thousands of their own. If they failed 0:29:53.080 --> 0:29:58.000 to take this city before Carboga arrived outside the city walls, 0:29:58.120 --> 0:30:04.360 they would be slaughtered. It was treachery that's save the day. 0:30:04.360 --> 0:30:08.520 Bowman had managed secret contact with an Armenian inside the 0:30:08.560 --> 0:30:13.800 city walls. He offered money and a title in exchange 0:30:14.560 --> 0:30:18.680 for allowing a contingent of Christians to scale the walls 0:30:18.800 --> 0:30:23.640 in one sector under the cover of darkness. Boehmand himself 0:30:24.320 --> 0:30:29.240 was among them. The plot worked. The Crusaders got inside 0:30:29.280 --> 0:30:32.360 the city walls, opened a gate, and thousands of their 0:30:32.360 --> 0:30:36.600 brothers in arms flooded in. Frenzied Crusaders hacked thousands of 0:30:36.640 --> 0:30:40.760 defenders and civilians to death. Some of the Turks managed 0:30:40.800 --> 0:30:43.640 to take refuge in the citadel up on the mountain. 0:30:44.120 --> 0:30:48.000 Their only hope was to hold out until the relief 0:30:48.040 --> 0:30:55.280 force from Mosl Carboga's massive army arrived. On June five. 0:30:56.920 --> 0:31:01.480 Carboga did arrive, the Christian fenders were short on food 0:31:01.520 --> 0:31:07.160 once again, and desertions rapidly escalated. The Crusaders were now 0:31:07.280 --> 0:31:12.920 stuck inside the city. The besiegers had become the besieged. 0:31:13.800 --> 0:31:18.800 They needed a miracle, and they found one. A priest 0:31:18.880 --> 0:31:22.880 named Peter Bartholomewle from France said he had discovered a 0:31:23.000 --> 0:31:27.360 relic inside the walls of Antioch. The Holy Lance, the 0:31:27.560 --> 0:31:30.680 spear that was thrust into the side of Christ when 0:31:30.720 --> 0:31:35.640 he was on the cross, had miraculously appeared. The Crusaders 0:31:36.160 --> 0:31:40.720 starved into hallucinations and despair. Believed that this was a 0:31:40.840 --> 0:31:45.080 sign from God. They gathered together for a final sortie 0:31:45.080 --> 0:31:48.120 outside the city walls. It would come to be known 0:31:48.600 --> 0:31:54.000 as the Battle of Antioch. The outnumbered and starving Crusaders 0:31:54.400 --> 0:31:57.960 gathered behind night Raymond, who held the relic of the 0:31:58.000 --> 0:32:03.440 Holy Lance, and they charged. The Turks were no match 0:32:03.560 --> 0:32:08.600 for the ferocity of the Franks. Cariboga and his lieutenants 0:32:08.920 --> 0:32:13.200