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The first crusade

The first crusade was arguably the most spectacular – and shocking – of the waves of westerners who invaded today's Middle East in the 11th and 12th centuries. Many of the characters involved are still renowned today. Indeed, Syrians, Lebanese and Turks still refer to westerners as 'Franj' in reference to the Frenchmen who comprised most of this first crusader army.

The Pope of the time, Urban II, was chief propagandist. On pain of ex communion he banned European leaders from fighting one another – the quest for Jerusalem would, from now on, be every Christian's priority.

But even before the aristocracy could raise an army, public fervour took outpaced them. Such was the appeal of a 'quest for Jerusalem' that in 1096 a horde of French and German citizens headed east led by a saintly ascetic, Peter the Hermit. On arrival at Constantinople (today Istanbul) a commentator wrote: 'A countless people (have arrived), more numerous than the sands of the sea'.

The army had crossed Europe unscathed – but it was not to last. On leaving Constantinople they encountered a considerable Turkish army sent to intercept them. The Turks fell upon the pilgrims and massacred them, almost to a man. Out of 30-40 thousand who started the day, only two or three thousand remained by nightfall. The so-called 'People's crusade' was over.

The 'real' crusader army of the nobility arrived several months later. For the period it was enormous. Besides several thousand heavily-armoured knights there were archers, technicians for siege engines and soldiers of every kind. Various writers estimate the strength of the army to be between 200 and 500 thousand men. There had never been such a vast gathering of armed men.

At Dorylaeum in July 1097 the Turkish sultan once again threw his men onto the invaders. This time they faced a more formidable foe. Knights acted rather like tanks do today – invulnerable to arrows and sword cuts, these heavily armed men on horseback ploughed into the enemies men and must have seemed like apparitions of hell.

The Turks first attacked a column headed by a commander named Bohemond. Outnumbered, Bohemond pulled his troops into a defensive position. Having softened up the westerners with a hail of arrows, the Turks readied to attack. Just then, however, a second crusader column arrived and surrounded them on all sides. Now it was the Turks' turn to be massacred – the sultan just managed to escape on horseback - abandoning his royal treasure behind.

The Christians interpreted this victory as proof of their divine favour. The Turks, on the other hand, explained it as inhuman barbarian wrath. But a myth had been created: that of the invincible Latin Frankish army, a stereotype that was to prove of great symbolic value in later battles.

The crusading army proceeded, reaching the great city of Antioch four months later. At this point it became evident that some of the crusading knights had other agendas other than the capture of Jerusalem. Bohemond's nephew Tancred left the army with his knights, intent on creating his own fiefdom. Baldwin of Boullion set a similar course. Many suspected that Bohemond himself was interested only in Antioch itself – a major city in the Turkish empire. The crusaders were out for plunder, as well as Jerusalem.

Yet Antioch posed a great problem since it was impossible to blockade the whole city. For seven and a half months the crusaders camped outside the city walls. Then one night in June 1098 an officer in charge the principal city tower approached Bohemond: he would let the crusaders' forces in by treachery. Bohemond approached the other knights and revealed his cards. Whosoever wins possession of the city, he said, should be allowed to keep it. The other knights – distraught at the parlous state of the seige – agreed. Bohemond led a small force into the city under cover of darkness and opened the gates. Once their walls were breached, the residents of the city were no match for he heavily armed Europeans. Before the night was out the Crusaders' pendants flew from the city walls; the governors' head was delivered to them the following morning.

Yet their difficulties were not over. The sultan had sent another army to the beleaguered city, which arrived several days later. From being the besiegers, the crusaders suddenly found themselves besieged. Greatly weakened by their long campaign, many deserted. Bohemond only managed to rouse one group of his men by setting their barracks on fire.
It was not their commanders' steel, however, that defeated this second Turkish army, rather the discovery of a holy relic in the city that rejuvenated the exhausted fighters.

For months many in God's army had been having visions, falling into trances and seeing ghosts; perhaps understandable given the lack of food, water and terrible conditions they endured. One man under a commander named Raymond de Saint Gilles managed to persuade Saint Gilles that Christ had visited him in a dream and told him that the Holy Lance – the spear with which Christ was stabbed on the cross – lay buried under a church within Antioch's walls.

Desperate for any kind of motivation, Saint Gilles had the church excavated and a piece of rusty steel duly found. Word spread through the city like fire: it was another divine sign of their favour. The lance was paraded through the city and joyous with their newly validated position as God's army, the crusader forces charged from the citadel to face the horde of bewildered Turks.