Transcript The Crusader States 1100-1192 Threats and Defence

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