77 Chapter 14: The Holiest of Holies

Jerusalem is the navel of the world; the land is fruitful above others, like another paradise of delights. This the Redeemer of the human race has made illustrious by His advent, has beautified by residence, has consecrated by suffering, has redeemed by death, has glorified by burial. This royal city, therefore, situated at the centre of the world, is now held captive by His enemies, and is in subjection to those who do not know God, to the worship of the heathens. She seeks therefore and desires to be liberated, and does not cease to implore you to come to her aid. From you especially she asks succor, because, as we have already said, God has conferred upon you above all nations great glory in arms. Accordingly undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the kingdom of heaven. -The Speech of Urban II at the Council of Clermont, according to Robert of Rheims Under Jesus Christ, our Leader, may you struggle for your Jerusalem, in Christian battleline, most invincible line, even more successfully than did the sons of Jacob of old-struggle, that you may assail and drive out the Turks, more execrable than the Jebusites, who are in this land, and may you deem it a beautiful thing to die for Christ in that city in which He died for us. -The Speech of Urban II at the Council of Clermont, according to Baldric of Dol Only three hundred miles separated Antioch from Jerusalem. For men who had walked, rode and sailed well over two thousand, this was hardly any distance at all. However, the Levant was mountainous, and the armed pilgrims debated which route to take. As the Latins excised Islamic power from the region many native Christians came to Antioch offering advice on which path was best. There were three main routes to the holy city. The main road went inland to Damascus. The Armenian Christians warned the Westerners that there was a two-day stretch with no water along that road. Given that Damascus was well-populated and would be heavily-guarded, Count Raymond dismissed any attempt to take the great city. The second route was through the mountains. There were many lakes and streams which could replenish the large force. Furthermore, the Christian forces could easily defend against sudden attacks. Yet, the poorly-maintained, rocky trails would be hazardous to the war horses and pack animals. For the French, risking their mounts was unthinkable. This left only the third route along the sea. Given how depopulated the region was, the soldiers could expect no major resistance. However, the natives warned that, “there are so many and such narrow passes that if fifty or a hundred, Saracens want to hold them, they can do so against all mankind.” Despite this, the sea route seemed the safest of the paths to Jerusalem. Raymond, Robert of Normandy and Tancred started the southward trek in early 1099 while Godefroi and Robert of Flanders wintered in Antioch with Bohemond. A hundred miles south, the armed pilgrims besieged Arqa. As the city stubbornly held out, Raymond sent the holy war’s new spiritual leader, Arnoul de Chocques, back north to fetch the laggard lords. While Arnoul did not command the respect of his predecessor, Adhémar, he succeeded in his mission, largely because the lords’ armies were tired of stalling. In short order, Godefroi and Robert joined their fellows who were starving out Arqa. As the Christian soldiers milled around, they began to argue amongst each other over the Holy Lance. The Provençals largely followed their leader, affirming that it was the spear that the Roman soldier Longinus had used to pierce Christ’s side. Blessed by the blood of the Savior, these soldiers believed it had ensured their victory at the Battle of Antioch. On the other side of the debate were those who believed the relic was a fraud. The religious debate also had serious political overtones. Since the Provençal army held the spear, it granted a great deal of power to the Count of Toulouse. If, however, it could be proved that Raymond had been duped by a fraudster then he would look a fool and lose his credibility. As word of the division spread in the camp, the great lords decided to test the spear’s validity. They summoned its finder, Pierre Barthélemy, and forced him to submit to a trial by fire. After three days of prayer and fasting, Pierre stood before a line of burning logs. Wearing nothing but a tunic and trousers he walked through the logs, making it to the end, where he collapsed. For a day he suffered extreme pain from the burns that wracked his body, then died. Having failed the trial, most of the men now discounted the ‘Holy Lance.’ Raymond was furious and claimed that Pierre’s death meant nothing, even going so far as to claim the man was a saint. Soon after, a number of Provençals sought to capture Arnoul de Chocques, likely to force their spiritual leader and the pope’s representative to declare the Holy Lance a genuine relic. Arnoul just managed to escape and fled to Robert of Normandy’s camp, where the Duke feasted with the Count of Flanders. When the Provençals arrived, they were greeted by a Norman force. The surprised southerners then claimed that they weren’t looking for Arnoul, but something else and then dispersed. To appease both sides, Arnoul suggested that the soldiers all contribute some of their pillaged gold to make a statue of Christ to thank him for their victories. The project soothed tensions and gave the Christians something to do while they waited for Arqa to submit. Nevertheless, Raymond had suffered a serious blow to his prestige. In the meantime, envoys from the emirs of Shaizar, Homs, Jabala and Tripoli arrived at camp bearing lavish gifts. By this time word had spread of the remarkable victories the iron men had won. Alongside these were tales of massacres and the cannibalism at Maarrat. It was at that bloodied town that Westerners heard a rumor that the inhabitants had swallowed their gold coins and so the Christians had cut open the Muslims’ stomachs and searched through their entrails for the hidden wealth. Understandably, the Islamic leaders offered cash and peace terms to the French and their allies in exchange for security. At the same time another Islamic embassy arrived at camp, this one representing the Caliphate of Fatimid Egypt. The previous year, the Egyptians had taken advantage of the fight between Turks and Christians in the north and seized Jerusalem. The Caliph’s envoys offered safe passage to all Christian pilgrims making their way to the Holy Sepulcher in exchange for peace. The great lords refused the deal, vowing to take the city regardless of which heathens held it. When the Caliph heard this he expelled all Christians from Jerusalem to prevent collusion between them and the approaching army. Even as the French camp entertained the Turkish and Arab diplomats, a coterie of Greeks joined them. Alexios I’s messengers informed the great lords that the Emperor was pleased to learn that the Westerners had survived the Battle of Antioch. Yet, His Eminence was greatly dismayed that the Latins had refused to honor their oaths to the Eastern Roman Empire and establish Byzantine governors in the newly-conquered territory. To rectify this, and to finish their great mission, the Emperor himself would raise a force and meet them. From there, Alexios I would lead the holy war to their final triumph by taking Jerusalem. If the Greeks expected a warm reception and cheers at the thought of Byzantine leadership, they were horrendously disappointed. The iron men had long soured on the Eastern Romans. At Nicaea, Alexios I had cut a deal with the garrison, denying the Latins’ the ability to pillage the rich city. The holy war then went on a circuitous route through Anatolia, diverting from the path to the Holy Sepulcher to take territories important to the empire. During the Siege of Antioch, the Greek army retreated to the coast. While still provisioning the Westerners, the Greeks did not participate in the brutal struggle for the fortress. The final divide between West and East was the Battle of Antioch itself. Trapped inside the mammoth walls, the starving men of the Cross emerged and won a legendary battle even as the Emperor had abandoned them to their fate. The great lords were likely aware when they first traveled east that the Greeks viewed the holy war as a means to a political end. Truthfully, many of the lords viewed it the same way, and attempted to subsume the religious conflict into their own gamble for power. At first the lords were willing to bend the knee to Alexios I because they believed it would benefit them. After Antioch, the French and their allies firmly agreed that the Greeks were more of a hindrance than a help. Even promises of wealth and titles were not enough to sway them. In defiance of the Emperor’s orders to wait for his arrival, the Westerners abandoned the siege of Arqah and marched directly for Jerusalem. The holy war traveled 200 miles without any major resistance. The petty lords who ruled the region feared the Westerners and refused to give battle. Far from it; the emir of Tripoli gave Raymond fifteen prized horses and even offered to convert to Christianity if the French and their allies took Jerusalem. More than fear kept the local Muslims from attacking the Crusaders. The Fatimids were Shia Muslim, in contrast to the Sunnis of the Levant. Moreover, Egypt was a powerful country, one which threatened local autonomy through its northward expansion. To the petty emirs of the Levant, it was just common sense to let two potential enemies kill each other. Thus, the armed pilgrims enjoyed the most peaceful stretch of their entire campaign, deep in the heart of enemy territory. On 7 June 1099 the holy war arrived at Jerusalem. It had been 3 years since the soldiers of Christ first set out on the road from Western Europe. Between deaths and desertions, the total forces were a third of their original strength. Those survivors who had not abandoned the march arrived at their ultimate destination. Yet, taking the Holy of Holies would prove a daunting task. The city was entirely surrounded by a stone wall, three meters thick and fifteen meters tall. An Egyptian force protected Jerusalem and with no Christians remaining there was little hope of a guard betraying the city, as was the case at Antioch. Yet, the holy war’s most daunting opponent was not the Islamic garrison or the high walls, but thirst. Foucher of Chartres recorded: “All the wells outside Jerusalem had been blocked up or poisoned in anticipation of the imminent assault, with the result that a round trip of twelve miles was needed to fetch fresh water from the nearest source. Ox and buffalo hides were stitched together to try to transport it safely and in large volume. Those brave enough to go and find water ran the risk of ambush. And when they returned to camp, the returning water-bearers often met with furious argument, so acute was the thirst, so strong the heat. Some saw the chance to make money from such ventures, feeling they deserved more than the thanks and appreciation of their comrades, and insisted on payment for water. As a result, water was not shared out equally but sold at prices that were nothing short of extortionate. For those able or willing to pay, it was not always good value for money: at times the water was dark and muddy, and on occasion even contained leeches. Filthy water led to disease; eyewitnesses described how drinking unclean water caused severe swelling of the throat and stomach, and often led to an agonising death. There were few alternatives for those who could not afford to buy from their unscrupulous peers. One was the Pool of Siloam, just outside the walls of Jerusalem; fed by a natural spring and safe to drink, water could be found there at least some of the time. But getting to the pool was another matter: as it was located close to the city’s battlements, a well-judged shot from the walls could prove lethal. There was also the risk of ambush; some Crusaders who ventured there were attacked and killed, while others were captured never to be heard of again.” Aside from poisoning the wells, the Egyptians also cut down the forests around the city, depriving the iron men of wood for making siege engines. The miserable Westerners could only stare at the high walls as they baked in the sun. At some point Tancred contracted dysentery and made for a cave to relieve himself. While there he found a cache of wood, likely stored from previous attempts on the city. As the French gathered what little supplies they could, news arrived that a force from England landed on the coast. Inspired by stories of the holy war’s great battles, the English aimed to join their fellow Christians and take David’s city. The English brought with them enough wood and equipment to make two, three-story-tall siege towers, a battering ram and a handful of catapults. The Westerners hastily assembled their siege engines when dire news reached the camp. The Christians captured a Muslim messenger who was trying to sneak into Jerusalem and tortured him into revealing that the vizier of Cairo was on his way at the head of a massive army. Around the same time a hawker managed to bring down a carrier pigeon, which carried a message to the nearby emirs, urging them to attack the holy war. Much like at Antioch, the armed pilgrims were in danger of being sandwiched between a fortified city and an army twice their size. As with Antioch, the great lords agreed that they needed to take the city before they could be surrounded. Under the guidance of Arnoul, 13,000 soldiers removed their shoes and walked barefoot around Jerusalem, praying to God to deliver the city. As the pilgrims reenacted Joshua’s procession around Jericho, archers fired upon them. On 14 July the armies split into two hosts, each with their own siege tower. The Provençal army positioned themselves on the southern end of the city, at the Zion Gate, while the northern French took up a position on the city’s western side, at the Quadrangular Tower. The Egyptian defenders mirrored their enemies, stationing the bulk of their forces and catapults on the southern and western sides. This proved to be a terrible error. During the night, the Christians near the Quadrangular Tower dismantled their siege tower and rebuilt it to face Saint Stephen’s Gate in the north. When dawn broke the Islamic forces guarding the western gates suddenly realized that they were out of position. While the men could move easily enough, the catapults could not, meaning that the northern siege tower could easily approach the walls, transporting Western soldiers onto the battlements. On the morning of 15 July the holy war assaulted Jerusalem. Raymond led the attack from the south while Godefroi led the north. Raymond’s forces began by filling in the dry moat with stones. Then they fired volleys of arrows and stones at the walls to provide cover for their approach. Yet, the Egyptians were ready and valiantly repulsed the attacks with their own archers and catapults. The Provençals suffered grievous losses while inflicting few of their own. By contrast, the northern garrisons could not move the catapults in time and so the iron men approached the city largely unimpeded. The armed pilgrims brought their gigantic battering ram and managed to bring down a section of the wall. Instead of spending time pulling the ram back, its operators set it on fire, hoping to use it as a ramp. The Christians used their precious, and often filthy, water to douse the ram, so that it collapsed just enough to form a ramp without falling apart entirely. Unfortunately for them, the fire could not be properly controlled and the makeshift ramp became a heap of debris. Now the Westerners set it on fire again, hoping to completely clear the area. In a supreme twist of irony, now it was the Muslims who were throwing water on the blaze, hoping to keep it a mottled heap that would slow down attackers. Meanwhile the massive siege tower approached Saint Stephen’s Gate. Duke Godefroi rode alongside his men and personally operated a crossbow to clear the walls as the tower approached. As the moving behemoth neared the Egyptians used their secret weapon: Greek fire. A Byzantine chemical substance, it sparked a fire which could not be put out by water. Yet, the Christians were prepared. When the Muslim garrison expelled the Christians from the city, one of them had warned the Westerners about Greek fire and told them that vinegar could put it out. Godefroi’s men uncorked waterskins filled with vinegar and put out the blaze. Then the tower’s ramp dropped onto the battlements and the Christian soldiers streamed out. It was midday and the armed pilgrims had seized the northern gate and raised their flags. When they did, the Egyptian morale completely collapsed. Every man abandoned his post. When the southern defenders learned that the north had fallen they abandoned the Zion Gate, allowing Raymond’s army to enter as well. The elite cavalry unit fell back to the Tower of David and negotiated a surrender, opening yet another avenue of entry. The city had fallen. Once inside, the armed pilgrims began a wholesale slaughter of the population. With no Christian civilians remaining, the Latins could massacre anyone they found, knowing they were Muslims or Jews. As at Antioch, an entire city screamed and was snuffed out. Corpses lined the streets and the Christian soldiers trudged through streams of blood. Nearly every man, woman and child were killed, often brutally. The French and their allies still believed that Muslims hid their gold coins by swallowing them, only this time, instead of cutting open stomachs and combing through the organs, the Christians piled the dead in heaps and set them on fire. Later they would return and scavenge for gold amongst the bones and ashes. The carnage was stunning, even for those who had accompanied the holy war from its start. One chronicler recounts, “If you had been there, your feet would have been stained to the ankles in the blood of the slain.” Devout Muslims, scholars and imams hid in the city’s mosques and were slaughtered there too. Jews holed up in synagogues and were killed as Christians took revenge on them for Christ’s crucifixion. While the chronicles detail the brutality of the attack they also depict it in such horrific terms as a means of justification. At least a few chroniclers likely saw parallels between the events described in the Book of Revelation and what occurred during the holy war. As abominable as the Christian soldiers’ actions may have been, to theologians they had become more than men. They were a topos; a fulfillment of the Biblical prophecies that heralded the end of the world. After all, how else could one forgive their actions unless they were the instrument of God’s divine wrath? After two days of pillaging the iron men had their fill. They began moving bloating bodies outside the city walls to prevent disease. Then they took account of what few survivors remained. The living Jewish inhabitants were either left as they were or ransomed to Jewish communities in nearby towns. Priests began rededicating mosques as churches. Everywhere the Westerners sang praises to God for the miracle of their victory. Their success truly had been unprecedented. They had traveled halfway across the known world, defeated nations great and small, overcome thirst, hunger, disease, scorching heat and blistering cold. They had defied the elements, a Caliphate and an empire. So, they gathered and worshipped at the Holy Sepulcher, where Christ was crucified and his body entombed. Even though the pilgrims had reached their penultimate destination, there was still one chapter left in their story. With the holy city in their possession, they now had to hold it. This would not prove an easy task, as the Caliph’s army marched from the south and the Emperor still demanded their submission.