First Crusade: Siege of Jerusalem

On July 8, 1099, during the First Crusade, 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders looked on. An excerpt from the article:

"A priest, Peter Desiderius, then came forth to describe a vision that he had seen. The spirit of the late bishop Adhémar of Le Puy had appeared and given him a blueprint for victory. Those instructions included having the Crusaders turn their backs on sin, fast and make a barefoot procession around the 2 1/2-mile-long wall.

They set out on July 8, a Friday, with close to 15,000 barefoot and bedraggled pilgrims, hungry from lack of provisions and now fasting by choice, staggering in a great line to the sounds of trumpets and the chanting of priests. Priests held aloft altars and relics, including the supposed holy lance that had saved the Crusade at Antioch and the arm bone of St. George, stolen from a Byzantine monastery. All the while, a Crusader noted that the Muslims on the walls jeered and desecrated many crosses with blows and vulgar acts. After the march, there were encouraging talks by several clerics, including Peter the Hermit, who ironically had led tens of thousands to their deaths in the Crusade of the Poor People in 1096.

More practical help had already arrived in the form of six ships that anchored at Jaffa, which had been abandoned by the Arabs. Two were Genoese galleys; the other four ships were almost certainly English. In their holds were food and armaments, including rope and hardware needed to build siege engines. At the news of their arrival, Count Geldemar Carpenel, a member of Godfrey of Bouillon’s staff, set out with 50 knights and 50 infantrymen to ensure that the supplies were delivered safely. Almost immediately the wisdom of sending so small a force was questioned, and Raymond Piletus was dispatched with 50 knights to reinforce them. Still later, William of Ramleh, from the army of the Count of Toulouse, rode forth.

Iftikhar dispatched 400 of his finest Arab soldiers and 200 Turks to destroy them. They waited at Ramleh, a few miles from Jaffa on the road to Jerusalem, then attacked Geldemar on the plain of Ramleh. The Muslim force surrounded the Europeans and began firing arrows. Geldemar stationed his knights and archers in his first rank, with all others behind, and advanced. Five knights, including young Achard of Montemerle, and all the archers were killed. Some 30 Europeans were still alive when a dust cloud was seen on the horizon–the 50 additional knights led by Raymond Piletus were coming to the rescue at full charge. Broken by the shock of this onslaught by heavy cavalry, the Muslims fled. The Crusaders killed many Muslims in the chase that followed, strewing a total of 200 dead on the field of battle, and much plunder was taken.

An Egyptian fleet now appeared off Jaffa. One English ship was off on a plundering expedition and managed to escape by using oars and sail. The other ships were abandoned and their crews joined the Crusade. The men and their supplies were very welcome, but the Crusaders still needed timber, although they managed to obtain some by dismantling two of the stranded ships. Several more long-range expeditions brought back little more until Tancred, Robert of Flanders and their followers traveled as far as the forests around Samaria. According to Radulph of Caen, Tancred was suffering from dysentery, and after wandering off until he found a rocky hollow surrounded by trees where he could relieve himself in privacy, he found himself facing a cave filled with 400 pieces of prepared lumber. Sometimes the Lord does work in mysterious ways.

The expedition returned with camels and 50 or 60 Muslim laborers laden with planks and huge logs. The bishop of Albara was put in charge and made the Muslims work like slaves. The local Christians gladly acted as guides for those supply expeditions, something that they may have later regretted when the Europeans refused the Orthodox priests any rights within the city and tortured them to learn the location of the True Cross of the Crucifixion.

Using their newly acquired timber, the Franj, with the aid of Genoese engineers, began building two huge siege towers, catapults and a battering ram. Those towers, or malvoisins (bad neighbors), were huge, wheeled castles with everything needed for an attack, including catapults and bridges that could be lowered to provide access to the top of the wall. These drawbridges were hinged to the second deck of the towers and, before being lowered, shielded those inside.

The Genoese, under William Embriaco, were quite skillful, and even the old men and the women joined in the construction. Everyone except the professional craftsmen was working without pay. Count Raymond paid his craftsmen from his own purse, but those who worked on the other tower were paid from a collection taken among the people. For several days they labored in the midst of sirocco winds, something to which the Crusaders were unaccustomed. Gaston, Viscount of Béarn, was in charge of construction of Godfrey’s mobile castle to the north of the city, while William Ricou supervised at Raymond’s to the south. Fresh ox and camel hides soaked in vinegar were nailed onto the towers to protect them from Greek fire.

On July 10, the towers were completed and wheeled into position. For the first time Iftikhar became concerned, issuing strict orders that he be notified if either tower moved closer to the city.

The defenders were concentrating their forces in front of the towers, so Godfrey of Bouillon made a last-minute decision. During the night his tower was slowly wheeled a half mile down the line to face the north wall near Herod’s Gate. The other siege machinery was dismantled, moved and reassembled–even a trebuchet, the most-used throwing machine of the period, consisting of many huge pieces of timber, hundreds of stones that were used as ammunition, and heavier stones for the counterweight that propelled the missiles. To disassemble, move and reassemble such a machine in the dark must have required a nearly superhuman effort.

The final assault was launched on the night of July 13. According to Raymond of Aguilers, a reliable source, the effective strength of the army was now 12,000 fighting men, including the workmen, the sailors and other nonprofessionals, and 1,200 to 1,300 knights. He did not try to assess the number of old men, women and children. Raymond of Toulouse, in position along the southern wall, struggled to fill in the moat and maneuver one siege tower against the wall, but the defenders kept him at bay. Heralds announced that any man who brought three large stones to hurl into the ditch would receive one denarius. Thus was the job completed.

Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert of Normandy and Tancred chose to attack the northern wall just east of Herod’s Gate. Their huge battering ram pounded a hole in the outer wall, and the rubble was used to fill in the moat. In mail and helmets, with an overhead ceiling constructed of shields, the attackers stormed the walls through a hail of arrows and stones. The straw reinforcing the walls was set afire with flaming arrows.

As the huge siege tower inched ever closer to the wall, the Egyptians responded with catapult loads of Greek fire. The sulfur-and-pitch-based compound (the exact composition of which was a closely guarded secret and still a mystery today) was the napalm of the Middle Ages. Flaming pottery full of Greek fire shattered upon impact to splatter clinging flames over everything and everyone nearby. Rags soaked in the substance were wrapped around wooden bolts, imbedded with nails so they would adhere to whatever they hit, and hurled against the huge towers. Again and again the towers were set on fire, and each time the flames were extinguished with water and vinegar or by beating out the fire.

Bales of hay, soaked in oil and wax so they would burn long after they reached the ground, were hurled over the walls, especially around the two towers. Buildings were burning, there were pools of fire outside the walls and smoke permeated the air. Two Muslim women were observed casting a spell over the nearest catapult, but a stone from the hexed machine killed them and, according to the Crusaders’ account, broke the spell.

The Crusaders fought all night and day of the 14th without establishing a foothold. By evening, Raymond had succeeded in wheeling his tower against the wall. The defense was fierce, with the governor in personal charge of this area. Raymond could not secure a foothold, and the tower was eventually burned to the ground on July 15. Few who were inside escaped.

Crusaders’ accounts grudgingly praised the accuracy of the Muslim catapults, which destroyed many of their machines. The Crusaders’ ram became stuck and blocked the path of the northern tower. But the next morning Godfrey’s tower, with its three fighting levels surmounted by a large gilded figure of Christ, was against the north wall, close to Herod’s Gate. Godfrey and his brother, Eustace of Boulogne, commanded from the top story. The defenders lassoed the tower and tried to topple it, but knights cut the ropes with their swords.

Later that same morning, the Crusaders began to feel exhausted from the continuous fighting, and they met to debate whether the battle should be ended. Before a decision was reached, a knight atop the Mount of Olives signaled for the Count of Toulouse to advance. Godfrey of Bouillon ordered his men to renew their fire attack against the bales of hay and cotton shielding the walls. The wind changed; huge clouds of smoke choked and blinded the defenders, causing some to flee.

Immense timbers had been attached to the walls to keep the towers from closing with them. The Crusaders seized one of these and nailed it to the tower, then swung the bridge into place. The Franj now had a way into the city. Two Flemish knights, Litold and Gilbert of Tournai, led the pick of the Lotharingian contingent across. Godfrey himself soon followed. With him were his brother, Eustace, the Count of Flanders and Robert of Normandy. It was about noon on Friday, July 15, and many were acutely aware that they were entering Jerusalem at the hour of Christ’s death.

According to Professor Joshua Prawer of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, this most crucial part of the fighting took place along a portion of the wall 65 meters (71 yards) between the second tower east of Herod’s Gate and the first salient square in the wall beyond it, across the road between the present-day Rockefeller Museum and the wall. Control of a section of the wall allowed the invaders to use scaling ladders to pour more and more men into the city. Godfrey remained on the wall, encouraging the newcomers and directing men to open the Gate of the Column to allow the masses of the Crusaders inside. It was said that the ghost of Adhémar of Le Puy was seen among those rushing to open the gate.

Tancred and his men, who had been close behind the Lorrainers, penetrated deep into the city. The Muslims fled toward the temple area and took refuge in the al-Aqsa Mosque, but Tancred was upon them before they could establish their defenses. They quickly surrendered, offered a large ransom, and Tancred gave them his banner to display over the mosque. Tancred’s forces had already pillaged the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest places of Islam, earning them a great fortune.

The people of the Jerusalem reeled back in confusion, trying desperately to escape the invaders. When the Crusaders overran the southern walls, Iftikhar realized that all was lost. Withdrawing into the Tower of David, he prepared to make his last stand."