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 CRUSADES

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CRUSADES

bythe Academiedcs Inscriptions, IV, 131)and Hugues de Fleury (in "Mon. Genn. Hist.: Script.", IX, 392), seems to imply that the crusade was insti- gated by the Byzantine emperor, but this has been proved false (Chalaudon, Essai sur le regne d'Alexis Comnene, appendix), Alexius having merely sought to enroll five hundred Flcinisli knights in the imperial army (Anna Comnena, Alexiad., VII, iv). The honour of initiating the crusade has also been attributed to Peter the Hermit, a recluse of Picardy, who, after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and a vision in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, went to Urban II and was com- missioned by him to preach the crusade. However, though eyewitnesses of the crusade mention his preaching, they do not ascribe to him the all-important role assigned him later by various chroniclers, e. g. Albert of Aix and especially William of Tyre. (See Hagenmeyer, Peter der Eremite Leipzig, 1879.) The idea of the crusade is chiefly attributed to Pope Urban II (1095), and the motives that actuated him are clearly set forth by his contemporaries: ''On behold- ing the enormous injury that all, clergy or people, brought upon the Christian Faith ... at the news that the Rumanian provinces had been taken from the Christians by the Turks, moved with compassion and impelled by the love of God, he crossed the moimtains and descended into Gaul" (Foueher de Ch.artres, I, in "Histoire des Crois.", Ill, 321). Of course it is possible that in order to swell his forces, Alexius Comnenvis solicited assistance in the West ; however, it was not he but the pope who agitated the great movement which filled the Greeks with anx- iety and terror.

II. Foundation op Christian States in the East. — After travelling through Burgundy and the south of France, Urban II convoked a council at Clermont-Ferrand, in Auvergne. It was attended by fourteen archbishops, 250 bishops, and 400 abbots; moreover a great number of knights and men of all conditions came and encamped on the plain of Chan- toin, to the east of Clermont, 18-28 November, 1095. On 27 November, the pope himself addressed the assembled multitudes, exhorting them to go forth and rescue the Holy Sepulchre. Amid wonderful enthu- siasm and cries of "God wills it!" all rushed towards the pontiff to pledge themselves by vow to depart for the Holy Land and receive the cross of red material to be worn on the shoulder. At the same time the pope sent letters to all Christian nations, and the movement made rapid headway throughout Europe. Preachers of the crusade appeared everywhere, and on all sides sprang up disorganized, undisciplined, penniless hordes, almost destitute of equipment, who, surging eastward through the valley of the Danube, plundered as they went along and murdered the Jews in the German cities. One of these bands, headed by Folkmar, .1 German cleric, was slaughtered by the Hungarians. Peter the Hermit, however, and the German knight, Walter the Pennyless (Gautier Sans Avoir), finally reached Constantinople with their dis- organized troops. To save the city from plunder Alexius Comnenus ordered them to be conveyed across the Bosporus (August, 1096); in Asia Minor they turned to pillage and were nearly all slain by the Turks. Meanwhile the regular crusade was being organized in the West and, according to a well con- ceived plan, the four principal armies were to meet at Constantinople. (1) Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, at the head of tlic ix'ople of Lorraine, the Germans, and the French from tlie north, followed the valley of the Danube, crossed Hungary, and ar- rived at Constantinojjle, 23 December, 1096. (2) Hugh of Vermandois, brother of King Philip I of France, Robert Courte-IIeuse, Duke of Normandy, and Count Stephen of Blois, led bands of French and Normans across the Ali)s and set sail from the jiorts of Apulia for Dyrrachium (Durazzo), whence they took

the "Via Egnatia" to Constantinople and assembled there in May, 1097. (3) The French from the south, under the leadership of Raymond of Sainl-Ciillcs, Count of Toulouse, and of Adhemar of Monttil, Bishop of Puy and papal legate, began to fight their way through the longitudinal valleys of the Eastern Alps and, after bloody conflicts with the Slavonians, reached Constantinople at the end of April, 1097. (4) Lastly, the Normans of Southern Italy, won over by the en- thusiasm of the bands of crusaders that passed through their country, embarked for Epirus under the command of Bohemond and Tancred, one being the eldest son, the other the nephew, of Robert Guiscard. Crossing the Byzantine Empire, they succeeded ia reaching Constantinople, 26 April, 1097. The appear- ance of the crusading armies at Constantinople raised the greatest trouble, and helped to bring about in the future irremediable misunderstandings between thi Greeks and the Latin Christians. The unsolicited inl vasion of the latter alarmed Alexius, who tried to pre! vent the concentration of all these forces at Constanl tinople by transporting to Asia Minor each Western army in the order of its arrival ; moreover, he emleav4 oured to extort from the leaders of the crusade o( promise that they would restore to the Greek Emjiirq the lands they were about to conquer. After resistinoj the imperial entreaties throughout the winter, God^ frey of Bouillon, hemmed in at Pera, at length con- sented to take the oath of fealty. Bohemond, Robert Courte-Heuse, Stephen of Blois, and the other crusad- ing chiefs unhesitatingly assumed the same obligation; Raymond of St-Gilles, however, remained obdurate. Transported into Asia Minor, the crusaders laid siege to the city of Nica>a, but Alexius negotiated with the Turks, had the city delivered to him, and pro- hibited the crusaders from entering it (1 June, 1097). After their victory over the Turks at the battle of Dorylaeum on 1 July, 1097, the Christians entered upon the high plateaux of Asia Minor. Constantly harrassed by a relentless enemy, overcome by the excessive heat, and sinking under the weight of their leathern armour covered with iron scales, their suffer- ings were wellnigh intolerable. In September, 1097, Tancred and Baldwin, brothers of Godfrey of Bouillon, left the bulk of the army and entered Armenian terri- tory. At Tarsus a feud almost broke out between them, but fortunately they became reconciled. Tan- cred took possession of the towns of Cilicia, whilst Baldwin, summoned by the Armenians, crossed the Euphrates in October, 1097, and, after marrying an Armenian princess, was proclaimed Lord of Edessa. Meanwhile the crusaders, revictualled by the Arme- nians of the Taurus region, made their way into Syria and on 20 October, 1097, reached the fortified city of Antioch, which was protected by a wall flanked with 450 towers, stocked by the Ameer Jagi-Sian with immense quantities of provisions. Thanks to the assistance of carpenters and engineers who belonged to a Genoese fleet that had arrived at the mouth of the Orontes, the crusadere were enabled to coiLstruct battering-machines and to begin the siege of the city, Eventually Bohemond negotiated with a Turkish chief who surrendered one of the towers, and on the night of 2 June, 1098, the crusaders took Antioch by storm. Tlie very next day they were in turn besieged within the city by the army of Kerbv'iga, Ameer oi Mosul. Plague and famine cruelly decimated theii ranks, and many of them, among others Stephen ol Blois, escaped under cover of night. The array wai on the verge of giving way to discouragement w'hen its spirits were suddenly revived by the discovery ol the Holy Lance, resulting from the ilream of a Prov- enQal priest named Pierre Barthelemy. On 28 June, 1098, Kerbilga's army was effectually repulsed, but, instead of marching on Jerusalem without delay, the chiefs spent several months in a quarrel due to th< rivalry of Raymond of Saint-Gilles anil Bohemond,