298 Crusades Lecture 15 March 26 Flashcards
We ended last time with the 3 differences between 1st and 2nd crusade
- Kings
- Women
- Corporate identity / non-feudal oaths
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Conrad was the first to march, from Germany
Very large, numerous army
Fighting men, support troops, camp followers
Substantial contingents of unarmed pilgrims taking advantage of the armed protection
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The army gained more people as it moved through Germany and into Hungary
Hungarian king Geza paid protection money
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Greek emperor Manuel negotiated a German oath not to cause trouble in his territories
In return, access to markets and supplies
Up until Thrace, things went smoothly on the march through Greece
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In Thrace, opportunities for plunder irresistable
Also, local wine
Bad combination
Drunken stragglers died, leaving rotting corpses for teh French to come across
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Conrad reached Constantinople on 10 September
The city was already on military alert
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This was bad timing for Manuel
Concern Germans were contemplating an attack on the city
In order to meet the potential German threat, Manuel had abandoned his campaign against the sultan of Rum and agreed to a treaty
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When German crusaders learned of the treaty, aroused suspicion and anger.
Didn’t help when what Manuel would/could supply in support did not match with the grandeur of Constantinople
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Relations with France didn’t promise to be better.
Byzantines had been trying to subjugate Cilicia and Antioch; Greeks ousting Latin clergy
Lay nobles with relatives in the principality complained and here hostile. Including the fact that Prince Raymond of Antioch was the uncle of Louis’s queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine
Many knights in Outremer considered the king their overlord in an ancestral sense
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In response, Louis felt a sense of ancestral responsibility to the knights in Outremer
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One faction close to Louis wanted to ally with Roger of Sicily, who had gone forward with his attack against Byzantine Greece
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Manuel can be forgiven for fearing a Franco-German-Sicilian alliance against him.
More complex: Manuel’s wife was Conrad’s sister-in-law
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Conrad accepted guides and food before setting out, refusing to wait for the French
Splits his army in two, perhaps to prevent a mutiny.
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Slow advance
Supplies run short
Easy targets for the Turks. Turks have adapted, Germans don’t.
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Germans eventually come under a hail of arrows.
Conrad hit by two, in the head.
Straggle back to Nicaea
Many abandon the crusade entirely
Sought Byz help to get back home
Others survived the arrows to die of sarvation
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Army wrecked.
Rump can do nothing but try to join up with the French when they get to Nicaea
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Germans quick to identify scapegoats
Greeks accused of misleading the army
Byz provided inadequate supplies
Conrad blamed himself, his companions, the Turks. Not the Greeks
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In reality, failed due to:
Poor intel, bad logistics, bad tactics, over-optimistic strategy
as much as lack of Greek support and skill of the Turks
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Switching over to the French
Effective march against fierce odds through Asia Minor
Faced lack of supplies and logistical support
Created disintegration
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Once in Byz territory, French faced problems of exchange rates and inadequate supplies
Foraging “with plunder and pillage.”
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Greek relations deteriorate
Byz mercenaries cutting down French pillagers
Advance guard, denied a market, attacked Constantinople itself right when Louis’ ambassadors engaging in delicate negotiations with Manuel
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French increasingly saw Greeks as hostile, heretical, with dispicable social conventions
Siege mentality developed
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While Manuel wined and dined Louis, a vocal contingent of Louis’ advisors advocated assaulting Constantinople.
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Manuel was alerted to these debates among the French.
Exerted French to cross Bosporus by squeezing the flow of supplies and spread false rumors that the Germans were winning great victories
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French cross. Very quickly learned of the defeat of the Germans.
From that moment on, march east never lost a sense of crisis
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Markets thinned out quickly.
Army forages.
Greeks exact reprisals on the Germans struggling to keep up with the French
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In response, French put the Germans in the middle of the column
French soldiers couldn’t resist taunting the Germans with cries of “Push, German”
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Reports of soldiers deserting while still on the marrch
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With the German army destroyed, Manuel seemed less nervous.
At most, Manuel probably helped only when and how it suited him.
At worst, he ensured that even if only passively, the odds were stacked against the westerners disrupting his political and diplomatic arrangements
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Manuel cared more about the threat posed by Robert of Sicily in Greece than he did about Syria.
Saw his chance to reform the Byz-German alliance when Conrad fell ill at Ephesus.
Whisks him back to Constantinople and wines and dines him. And medicines him
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Louis kept going
Handed over organization of the march to the Templars. All in army swore oaths to form a temporary fraternity, in which king himself joined.
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Army, bedraggled, reaches Adalia
Louis persuaded by his nobles to take ship with them and as many knights as possible to get to Syria more quickly
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Adalia
Ask Byz for ships. Not enough.
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He leaves behind the sick, the infrantry, and the rest with money for a Greek escort
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This plan for the rest to march wrecked by renewed Turkish attacks.
Greek escort not wild about a long hazardous march that would only inflame their Muslim neighbors, with whom they shared local trade and markets.
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The nobles left in charge abandoned the infantry and infirm and sailed on to Syria.
Infantry now abandoned, trapped between an unfriendly Greek city facing famine and teh Turks
Risk the field
Enormous defeat. Loss of thousands of men to Turkish service or slavery
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Remarked William of Tyre on this episode
“Here the king left the people on foot and with his nobles went on board ship.”
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Louis probably saved his own skin unwittingly
Preserved a nucleus of the fighting force
However, his escape lacked nobility
Marks the final disintegration of the force he’d struggled (with success up until now) to hold together in the face of terrible odds
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The destruction of the Christian armies in Asia Minor rang throughout the Muslim world.
Muslims confident that the infidel invasion would fail.
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Louis, women, clergy, most of the nobles in Antioch
Raymond of Antioch Eleanor’s uncle
Argues for assault on Aleppo. Lynchpin of Zengi’s/Nur ad-Din’s power
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Louis doesn’t like Raymond
Eleanor take’s R’s side
Rumors of affair. Reach Louis’ ears
Eleanor’s ultimatum: Aleppo or anullment
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Rumor that Eleanor had had an affair with her uncle, Raymond of Antioch
No evidence
Hindsight colored by the divorce of 1152
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Eleanor placed under house arrest
Louis goes to Jerusalem
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French moved on to Jerusalem as for everyone there was an overwhelming desire to fulfill their vows at the Holy Sepulchre
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Some assumed this was why Louis was so quick to abandon the idea of heading north for Edessa and instead went to Jerusalem.
Others note Louis had fallen out with Prince of Antioch
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French fighting potential had not been extinguished.
Other contingents from the west reached the holy land in the following few weeks
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Conrad rejoined the French and the second half of the split German army joined
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Yet though the leadership largely in tact, there was no obvious plan of campaign
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Debate over what to do next
Edessa too far away
Aleppo?
Damascus
Ally of Jerusalem
How long could it hold out against Nur ad-Din
Treaty with Muslims problematic to western crusaders
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Decision ultimately was to attack Damascus.
Damascus had been a close ally of Jerusalem until 1146/47 when it began an uneasy alliance with Nur al-Din
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Political context for Damascus attack
Queen Melisende exercised power on her own behalf. increasingly jealous of Baldwin III’s growing autonomy
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Damascus suited the moment
fertile land
no current treaty
major trading centre
provide a natural frontier and tilt the balance of power in Jerusalem’s favor against Nur al-Din
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Plan was to terrify the defenders into rapid submission or take the city with rapid assault. Crusaders not equipped for a prolonged siege.
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After 2 days skirmishing, no imminent surrenders, Chrisitans moved to the eastern suburbs, supposedly to find a less well-fortified area to attack
Unclear to fathom why they made this move
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New position: no cover, no water
No time to prepare even simple siege engines
Defenders reclaimed the fortified orchards and previous crusader camp
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Defender morale revived
news of large Muslim relief armies led by Nur al-Din
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Crusaders run away with tail between tehir legs
Utter humiliation
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Immediate rumors of betrayal
Templar rumor
Second Crusade destroyed
immediately picked apart by commentators in the west
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Led some to doubt the concept of holy war and the justice of fighting and killing Muslims
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Louis blames Byz
Wants a new crusade against the true enemies of Christ: the Byzantine empire
Goes nowhere. No papal support.
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- EleNor receives her anullment
Marries Henry Plantagenet
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Nur ad-Din gets Damascus
Calls for unifying jihad against Chrisitian kingdoms in the area
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