(Intro Music, Birth Of the people)
Last we left off, the crusaders had just taken Antioch now. They have to hold it.
There's just a small series of problems.
One the Turkish army bearing down on them has now
surrounded Antioch to the Turkish Garrison in Antioch still holds the citadel, which is inside the City walls.
Three antioch is almost out of food after that prolonged siege the crusaders themselves put it under for the [day]
before they took antioch Stephen of blois just decided that everything was hopeless and
Abandoned the crusade for which he would be mocked for the rest of his days
5:2 compound his desertion on his way back Stephen ran into the byzantine relief army and told them all hope was lost
So the byzantines were like [lum] okay, and promptly turned around to defend their own territory
So there would be no byzantine reinforcements arriving
But for four straight days the turks assaulted the walls and for four days [the] beleaguered crusaders held
Beaumont desperately racing between containing the turks in the citadel and trying to hold the wall
Godfrey rallying the troops the turks attacked in waves to keep their forces fresh
But they were already too few crusaders to hold the great ramparts and so they fought without relief
After four days of Vicious combat the turks decided you know what let's just starve these guys out so once again
Starvation set in and crusader morale began to drop things looked bleak
But then a sign an impoverished local mystic claimed to have had a vision of [Saint] Andrew telling him where the lance of longinus
[the] Holy lance that
Supposedly pierced Christ's side was buried so the crusaders started to dig a big hole in the floor of the church of St.
Peter in Antioch the mystic jumped down into the pit and Lo and behold he pulled out a hunk of iron we found it
He said the head of the lance of Longinus
[Beaumont] and Tancrède were skeptical and [Bishop] [Audemars] was having none of it
They already had one of those holy lance things back in rome
But the ordinary soldiers were inspired [Raymond] declared it a sign [that] they would prevail
Thirteen days later with food running out the gaunt and the wild-eyed crusaders rode out of the gates to attack the turks
Carrying the lance of Longinus and with the fervor of men otherwise doomed
The crusaders let out a great yell and charged the vastly superior Turkish Force six columns of men each
Led by one of the lords of the crusade poured out of [the] city gates and slammed into the turkish line
Later Soldiers would speak of having seen the Saints writing amongst them carrying banners of white writing steeds like snow and with desperation
They fought the turks lit a great fire to drive them back
But through flame and smoke they fought on until at last
Against all odds the turkish line collapsed the crusaders fell upon the turkish camp and the stores held there the crusade had survived
Unbeknownst to the Crusaders though they'd had one advantage while the turkish host appeared to them to be one mighty
Army, it was actually like the crusading force made up of many smaller armies with their own commanders
and it turns out that many of those commanders would have rather seen the
Crusaders keep antioch than have it fall into the hands of their superior so as soon as the battle began to turn many of them
Used it as an excuse to just desert and flee but no matter the cause the crusaders had overcome the last great
Obstacle between them and Jerusalem now the crusade. It'd be complete in no time, right?
Not exactly raymond and Beaumont immediately began to dispute who would get to keep antioch
Beaumont always a little slower than raymond eventually won out after months and months of arguing while the crusade languished in antioch
During that time hugh was sent off [to] talk to the byzantine Empire about rejoining the crusade
But hugh was never alexius as favorite and his pleas seemed to have little impact
So what did you do instead of returning to the crusade as originally planned?
He basically said well
I'm out peace and wandered off back to Europe for which he would be mocked for the rest of his days
And that's not all during the months spent sitting around antioch a sickness passed through the Camp and Bishop [Adama] took ill and died
Leaving the crusade as a whole
Functionally leaderless at this point raymond deciding that [he] possessed the holy lance and thus should be leader
Started the crusade south again this decision was in some ways
Precipitated [by] one of the grimmest moments in the crusade the siege of the nearby city of Murat
after massacring the local
population While Beaumont
And Raymond disputed who owned the place [the] crusaders were reduced to such a state of hunger that even the western
Chroniclers talking to Paul tones about them roasting and boiling the dead turks to eat
So with only one major incident of cannibalism behind him Raymond came to the conclusion that he had been ordained by God
To lead the crusade South Toward Jerusalem and started trekking through the country, but only Tancred and Robert of Normandy agreed to follow
Jerusalem was in Shia hands at this point in time
So the crusade actually passed through most of the countryside without incident the local sunni population
Even helped supply them in the hopes that the crusaders would both leave them alone and give the shia a good kicking
But then [Raymond's] decided that he needed to attack the town of Arca
Which is pretty random as it had no bearing on them getting to Jerusalem of course it would have some bearing if you were secretly
Planning to Subvert the crusade in order to take over tripoli and set up a kingdom of your own there
but we'll never know if that was Raymond's true intention because he utterly failed in fact he failed so
Spectacularly that [tancred] and Robert left him to go join godfrey whom Raymond promptly asked for help
the combined Robert [Tancredi] Godfrey Army showed up
But it still wasn't enough to prosecute the siege so the crusade just kind of stalled out again until a clergyman and Godfrey's army
Basically challenged the mystic who'd found the holy [lance] [-] a monk duel and the mystic agreed to undergo an ordeal by fire
Tragically said mystic was not protected [by] God during the ordeal and burned to death and the lance was discredited
most of Raymond's
Credibility had come from possessing that lance and now since the lance was no longer a sacred object
Thanks to the clergy beat down Godfrey took over and said let's get back to going South Toward Jerusalem, huh?
So without further incident [other] than one moment where tankard popped over to conquer Bethlehem. Just real quick the crusaders finally
Finally made it to Jerusalem
But by this point the crusade was in tatters Baldwin was up in odessa doing his own thing hugh had abandoned the crusade
[beaumond] was holding down antioch the byzantines were just done with the whole affair
Stephen had run off and autumn our was dead there weren't really a lot of crusaders left to do the besieging to add to this
The Fata meade Forces holding the City had poisoned all the nearby wells
So the crusaders were also rapidly succumbing to thirst the remaining princes decided
They'd have to take Jerusalem by assault or not at all
There's no way they could maintain a siege
But there was still one other problem the surrounding countryside had been stripped bare there was no lumber to build Siege Towers or scaling ladders
things looked pretty hopeless
But just then a group of genoese ships arrived at a nearby port and saved the day [the] genoese agreed to dismount
Their ships and bring the timber as quickly as possible to Jerusalem the crusade wasn't over yet
the Siege Towers Began to rise on July 13
1099 Seee the assault on Jerusalem, Began
The Crusaders split into two forces one Led by Raymond the other on the opposite side of the city
Led by Godfrey and [Tancrède] as Raymond's tower began to roll forward it was battered and nearly destroyed
Raymond's assault had failed but godfrey and tancred had been far more
crafty like Raymond they too had been erecting a siege tower on their side and
Seeing this the defenders had prepared their defenses all along the wall facing it
But unlike Raymond the night before the assault godfrey and [Tankard] had
disassembled and rebuilt their siege equipment in front of a totally different part of the wall
When the assault began the section of the wall they attacked was completely unprepared
Still the fighting swayed back and forth for two days the crusaders assaulted the walls and for two days
They were held back Raymond's tower was burnt to the ground and many of the siege engines were smashed
But at last Godfrey's tower reached the wall
Godfrey and Tankard were among the first across the battle along the wall was hard fought
No, grand strategy or clever maneuvers just a desperate melee that resolved down to a few hundred instances of men locked in single Combat
But in the end the crusaders won out and opened the city gates
Now with forces pouring in from all sides the muslim defenders broke and fled into the city
victorious the Crusader Army began the biggest massacre the holy land had ever seen
Men women and children were slain as they ran through the streets the chroniclers described crusaders waiting [ankle-deep] in blood through Jerusalem as they butchered
All those they could find only
The youngest of the crusading prince's tankard tried to stop the slaughter
Going so far as to give a group of Muslims his banner and telling them to show it to anybody who came for them to
Let them [know] that they were under his protection
but even this was futile
Tankard was called off to attend to some other part of the fighting and when he returned those he'd offered protection [to] were dead upon
The mosque floor there would be one more battle outside of Jerusalem, but this was pretty much it
That's how the crusaders retook the holy land [and] thus the first crusade ended
you