Crusade

31. Jerusalem

The Crusader army, refreshed, replenished and reinvigorated, marched out of Antioch on the morning of the 13th of January 1099. But it was not the mighty host that had left Europe two and a half years earlier. No more than 1,000 knights and 6,000 infantry were under the command of the Latin Princes, now a handful of men, the only survivors of the cream of the aristocracy of Christian Europe.

Bohemond bade us farewell; he was too preoccupied with securing his hold on Antioch and its satellite cities to join us. But before he did so, he had offered Sweyn an extremely enticing inducement to join his contingent of Italian Normans — the lordship of Harim, a fortress city thirty miles to the east of Antioch.

‘You have a family now. It is time to settle down; there can be no better place than here in this new Christian world. Help me make it secure for our children and grandchildren.’

‘My Lord, your offer is extremely generous, but I must continue to Jerusalem and complete our mission.’

‘Are you implying that I am not completing mine?’

‘No, sire, I just want to see Jerusalem.’

‘I hear that you have been at the heart of much debate among the knights about the ethics of war.’

‘I and many others, including many Muslim knights, follow the Mos Militum, a code of chivalry that encourages us to behave with honour and discipline.’

‘I have heard of it. It is dangerous. There is only one code to follow in war: kill or be killed.’

‘I don’t think my prowess in battle has ever been questioned. But what concerns me is fair treatment for our vanquished opponents, and the protection of civilians.’

‘Do you mean Muslims?’

‘Yes, my Lord.’

‘That is dangerous talk, Sir Sweyn. There are many on this Crusade who would call that heresy.’

‘I know, my Lord, but they are misguided.’

‘Count Raymond tells me that you once eloped with a Muslim girl while still married to the brave Adela. Is she the one who seduced you with the sinister ways of the infidel?’

Sweyn bristled. Hereward put his heavy, battle-scared gauntlet on the young knight’s forearm, while Robert intervened.

‘Prince Bohemond, we have much to do; Jerusalem beckons.’

Bohemond, clearly angered that Sweyn had turned him down, sneered at us all and rode away.

Hereward reassured Sweyn. ‘You handled that well. Bohemond is not a man to pick a fight with, even when he provokes you. Come, let’s move off. I want to see Jerusalem.’

It took us five months of steady progress to reach Jerusalem. With Robert in a position of much greater influence, our progress was marked by shows of force and negotiation with the local emirs rather than naked brutality. Tripoli, Tyre, Beirut, Haifa and Caesarea all fell under our control.

But Jerusalem would be a different matter.

The Fatimids from the Caliphate of Cairo — Shia Muslims of a very different persuasion from their Sunni brothers, the Seljuk Turks — were in control of the Holy City, and its governor, Iftikar ad-Daulah, was a shrewd and resourceful leader. Much smaller than Antioch, less than half a square mile in area, the city had towering walls and a resolute garrison stiffened by 400 elite cavalrymen dispatched from Cairo.

Despite its formidable fortifications, it was nevertheless a thing of wonder. We climbed to the top of the Mount of Olives to see the holiest place in the world for the three religions of Abraham. There before us, beyond its lofty walls, were the Dome of the Rock, the Temple of Solomon, the al-Aksa Mosque, and the Holy Sepulchre — the most revered buildings in the world. They glowed in the sun, their walls bleached white, their domes, minarets and crosses gleaming symbols of man’s devotion to his maker.

Estrith was moved to tears. ‘Why would men fight over such a place?’

Sweyn was moved to anger. ‘Let’s try to make sure that they don’t.’

Iftikar ad-Daulah had prepared his ground well. Every stick of timber for miles around had either been taken inside the city or burned, all the wells had been poisoned, livestock taken, granaries emptied, and he had a strong supply base on the coast at Ascalon, fifty miles to the west.

To avoid a repeat of the disaster of Antioch, an immediate attempt to scale the walls was made, with disastrous consequences. The lack of timber meant we had far too few scaling ladders and no siege towers, so the attack was called off before any more casualties were inflicted.

At the end of June, finally abandoning their greedy marauding across Syria and Palestine, more Crusaders arrived from the north. They swelled our numbers to 1,000 knights and 12,000 infantry, but also brought their bigotry and avarice.

Robert found it hard to keep control in the camp. Raymond of Toulouse had lost all sense and reason and, with the newly arrived Peter the Hermit and other zealots, had taken to walking barefoot around the walls of the city in prayer.

Despite his overbearing manner, Bohemond would have been useful to us, but, alas, his own cupidity had got the better of him.