11/19/2023 0 Comments Easy illuminated manuscript letters![]() ![]() But as a means of funnelling troops out to defend these new frontiers of Christendom, further crusades were a far less effective mechanism. The First Crusade had been able to recover large parts of the Christian Middle East, albeit as much by luck as by judgement. It was a military disaster just waiting to happen.Ī 19th-century map shows the four Catholic crusader states (also known as Outremer) set up in the Levant after the First Crusade, including the County of Edessa (1098-1150), the Principality of Antioch (1098-1287), the County of Tripoli (1102-1289), and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291). The city was sited inland and desperately underpopulated. But it was immediately obvious that it could not be held indefinitely. On 15 July 1099, Jerusalem, the Holy City and spiritual birthplace of Christianity, was liberated. It was an astounding, some would say miraculous, success. The squabbling crusader armies, with only the most primitive logistical support, had marched across Europe and on through the Byzantine empire. A new model armyĪlmost a century before the events described above, the First Crusade (1096-1099) was always an unlikely expedition. ![]() The prisoners were executed on the battlefield. The reason? Because they were the ‘fiercest fighters of all the Franks’. Saladin – the great leader of the Muslim military effort against the four Catholic crusader states set up in the Levant after the First Crusade – decided that the British Templars and their comrades from the other European provinces must die. There was one final and unwelcome backhanded compliment. The courage of the Templars had made a huge impact on their enemies. The dazed survivors were bound and taken into captivity. The crusader army was forced to surrender. They carried on fighting on foot for as long as they could.īut there was only one realistic outcome. The brother knights set up tent ropes and overturned wagons as obstacles. Eventually too few horses remained for the men to be able to fight mounted. As the Templars and their comrades charged, they took more and more casualties. But bravery was not enough against such odds. The tiny crusader squadrons lurched forwards, heads down as they careered into a storm of arrows.Īgainst all the odds, even this forlorn charge, and another which followed it, were enough to cause concern among their enemies. Then the standards signalled the order to charge. This was the bravery of despair.Ĭomplete silence fell in the ranks for the last few seconds. And, more to the point, they were out of options. But the Templars were arguably the best heavy cavalry in the world. Preparing to charge an army of perhaps some 30,000 men, they knew that they were going to lose. There were fewer than 200 men in these dusty, ragged ranks. According to Saladin, they were ‘fiercest fighters of all the Franks’. Templar knights at the time of the crusades.
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