Hiking trip (hiking trip) - the main points in preparation. An excerpt characterizing the Tourist Trek

Guglielm Embriaco
Gottfried of Bouillon
Raymond IV of Toulouse
Etienne II de Blois
Baldwin of Boulogne
Eustachius III
Robert II of Flanders
Ademar of Monteil
Hugo the Great
Robert of Normandy
Bohemond of Tarentum
Tancred of Tarentum
Alexei I Komnenos
Tatiky
Constantine I

Background to the conflict

One of the reasons for the crusade was the call for help made by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos to the Pope. This call was due to several circumstances. In 1071, the army of Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes was defeated by the Seljuk Turk Sultan Alp Arslan at the Battle of Manzikert. This battle and the subsequent overthrow of Romanos IV Diogenes led to the beginning of a civil war in Byzantium, which did not subside until 1081, when Alexius I Comnenus ascended the throne. By this time, various leaders of the Seljuk Turks had managed to take advantage of the fruits of the civil strife in Constantinople and captured a significant part of the territory of the Anatolian plateau. In the first years of his reign, Alexei Komnenos was forced to wage a constant struggle on two fronts - against the Normans of Sicily, who were advancing in the west and against the Seljuk Turks in the east. The Balkan possessions of the Byzantine Empire were also subject to devastating raids by the Cumans.

In this situation, Alexey quite often used the help of mercenaries from Western Europe, whom the Byzantines called Franks or Celts. The empire's commanders highly valued the fighting qualities of European cavalry and used mercenaries as shock troops. Their corps needed constant reinforcements. In 1093 or 1094, Alexei apparently sent the Pope a request for help in recruiting another corps. It is possible that this request served as the basis for the call for a Crusade.

Another reason could have been rumors that reached the West about the atrocities that were happening in Palestine. At this point, the Middle East found itself on the front line between the Great Seljuk Sultanate (which occupied a large part of the territory of modern Iran and Syria) and the Fatimid state of Egypt. The Seljuks were supported mainly by Sunni Muslims, the Fatimids - mainly by Shia Muslims. There was no one to protect Christian minorities in Palestine and Syria, and during the hostilities, representatives of some of them were subjected to looting. This could have given rise to rumors about terrible atrocities committed by Muslims in Palestine.

In addition, Christianity originated in the Middle East: the first Christian communities existed in this territory and most Christian shrines were located.

November 26, 1095 French city A council was held in Clermont, at which, in front of the nobility and clergy, Pope Urban II made a passionate speech, calling on those gathered to go to the East and liberate Jerusalem from Muslim rule. This call fell on fertile ground, since the ideas of the Crusade were already popular among the people of Western European states, and the campaign could be organized at any time. The pope's speech only outlined the aspirations of a large group of Western European Catholics.

Byzantium

The Byzantine Empire had many enemies on its borders. So, in 1090-1091 it was threatened by the Pechenegs, but their onslaught was repulsed with the help of the Polovtsians and Slavs. At the same time, the Turkish pirate Chaka, dominating the Black Sea and the Bosphorus, harassed the coast near Constantinople with his raids. Considering that by this time most of Anatolia had been captured by the Seljuk Turks, and the Byzantine army suffered a serious defeat from them in 1071 at the Battle of Manzikert, then the Byzantine Empire was in a state of crisis, and there was a threat of its complete destruction. The peak of the crisis came in the winter of 1090/1091, when the pressure of the Pechenegs on the one hand and the related Seljuks on the other threatened to cut off Constantinople from the outside world.

In this situation, Emperor Alexei Comnenus conducted diplomatic correspondence with the rulers of Western European countries (the most famous correspondence with Robert of Flanders), calling on them for help and showing the plight of the empire. There have also been a number of steps to bring the Orthodox and Catholic churches closer together. These circumstances aroused interest in the West. However, by the start of the Crusade, Byzantium had already overcome a deep political and military crisis and had enjoyed a period of relative stability since about 1092. The Pecheneg horde was defeated, the Seljuks did not conduct active campaigns against the Byzantines, and on the contrary, the emperor often resorted to the help of mercenary detachments consisting of Turks and Pechenegs to pacify his enemies. But in Europe they believed that the situation of the empire was disastrous, counting on the humiliating position of the emperor. This calculation turned out to be incorrect, which subsequently led to many contradictions in Byzantine-Western European relations.

Muslim world

Most of Anatolia on the eve of the Crusade was in the hands of the nomadic tribes of the Seljuk Turks and the Seljuk Sultan Rum, who adhered to the Sunni movement in Islam. Some tribes in many cases did not recognize even the nominal authority of the Sultan over themselves, or enjoyed broad autonomy. By the end of the 11th century, the Seljuks pushed Byzantium within its borders, occupying almost all of Anatolia after defeating the Byzantines in the decisive battle of Manzikert in 1071. However, the Turks were more concerned with solving internal problems than with the war with Christians. The constantly renewed conflict with the Shiites and the civil war that broke out over the rights of succession to the Sultan's title attracted much more attention from the Seljuk rulers.

On the territory of Syria and Lebanon, Muslim semi-autonomous city-states pursued a policy relatively independent of the empires, guided primarily by their regional rather than general Muslim interests.

Egypt and most of Palestine were controlled by the Shiites of the Fatimid dynasty. A significant part of their empire was lost after the arrival of the Seljuks, and therefore Alexei Komnenos advised the crusaders to enter into an alliance with the Fatimids against a common enemy. In 1076, under Caliph al-Mustali, the Seljuks captured Jerusalem, but in 1098, when the Crusaders had already moved to the East, the Fatimids recaptured the city. The Fatimids hoped to see in the Crusaders a force that would influence the course of politics in the Middle East against the interests of the Seljuks, the eternal enemy of the Shiites, and from the very beginning of the campaign they played a subtle diplomatic game.

In general, Muslim countries suffered a period of deep political vacuum after the death of almost all the leading leaders around the same time. In 1092, the Seljuk wazir Nizam al-Mulk and Sultan Melik Shah I died, then in 1094 the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadi and the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir died. Both in the east and in Egypt, a fierce struggle for power began. Civil War among the Seljuks led to the complete decentralization of Syria and the formation of small, warring city-states there. The Fatimid Empire also had internal problems. .

Christians of the East

Nobility Crusade

After the defeat of the army of the poor and the massacre of Jews in August 1096, knighthood finally set out on a campaign under the leadership of powerful nobles from different regions of Europe. Count Raymond of Toulouse, together with the papal legate Adhémar of Monteillo, Bishop of Le Puy, led the Knights of Provence. The Normans of Southern Italy were led by Prince Bohemond of Tarentum and his nephew Tancred. The brothers Godfrey of Boulogne, Eustache of Boulogne and Baldwin of Boulogne were the military leaders of the Lorraineers, and the warriors of Northern France were led by Count Robert of Flanders, Robert of Normandy (eldest son of William the Conqueror and brother of William the Red, king of England), Count Stephen of Blois and Hugh of Vermandois (son of Anna Yaroslavna and younger brother of Philip I, King of France).

Road to Jerusalem

The guide of the crusaders through Asia Minor was the Armenian prince Bagrat, the brother of the ruler of the largest Armenian principality in the Euphrates region, Vasil Gokh. Mateos Urhaetsi reports that with the departure of the Crusader army from Nicaea, letters informing about this were sent to the ruler of Mountain Cilicia, Constantine Rubenides, and the ruler of Edessa, Thoros. Crossing Asia at the height of summer, the warriors suffered from heat, lack of water and provisions. Some, unable to withstand the hardships of the campaign, died, and many horses died. From time to time, the crusaders received help with money and food from brothers in faith - both from local Christians and from those remaining in Europe - but for the most part they had to get food on their own, ravaging the lands through which their path ran. The leaders of the crusade continued to challenge each other for leadership, but none of them had enough authority to take on the role of a full-fledged leader. The spiritual leader of the campaign was, of course, Adhemar of Monteil, Bishop of Le Pu.

When the crusaders passed the Cilician Gate, Baldwin of Boulogne left the army. With a small detachment of warriors, he set out on his own route through Cilicia and arrived in Edessa in early 1098, where he won the trust of the local ruler Thoros and was appointed his successor. That same year, Thoros of Edessa was killed as a result of Baldwin's conspiracy. Thus, the first victim of the crusaders was the ruler of a Christian state, although its participants proclaimed the goal of the crusade to be the fight against the “infidels” and the liberation of the “Holy Sepulcher.” After the murder of Thoros, the County of Edessa was created - the first crusader state in the Middle East.

Siege of Nicaea

In 1097, detachments of crusaders, defeating the army of the Turkish Sultan [ ], began the siege of Nicaea. The Byzantine emperor, Alexius I Komnenos, suspected that the crusaders, having taken the city, would not give it to him (according to the vassal oath of the crusaders (1097), the crusaders were supposed to give the captured cities and territories to him, Alexius). And, after it became clear that Nicaea would fall sooner or later, Emperor Alexius sent envoys to the city demanding that it surrender to him. The townspeople were forced to agree, and on June 19, when the crusaders prepared to storm the city, they were distressed to discover that they had been greatly “helped” by the Byzantine army. After this, the crusaders moved further along the Anatolian plateau to the main goal of the campaign - Jerusalem.

Siege of Antioch

In the autumn, the Crusader army reached Antioch, which stood halfway between Constantinople and Jerusalem, and besieged the city on October 21, 1097. After eight months of siege, in the early morning of June 3, 1098, the crusaders broke into the city. The betrayal of the gunsmith Firuz helped them open the gate. In the city, the crusaders carried out a bloody massacre: “all the squares of the city were filled with the bodies of the dead, so that no one could be there due to the strong stench.” Emir Yaghi-Sian, accompanied by 30 soldiers, fled the city, leaving his family and children, but then the accompanying people abandoned him and he was killed and beheaded local residents. By evening, the crusaders captured the entire city with the exception of the citadel in the south of the city. Four days later, on June 7, Kerboga's army approached and, after an unsuccessful assault, besieged it.

The battle continued all day, but the city held out. As night fell, both sides remained awake - the Muslims feared that another attack would follow, and the Christians feared that the besieged would somehow manage to set fire to the siege engines. On the morning of July 15, when the ditch was filled in, the crusaders were finally able to freely bring the towers closer to the fortress walls and set fire to the bags protecting them. This became a turning point in the attack - the crusaders threw wooden bridges over the walls and rushed into the city. The knight Letold was the first to break through, followed by Godfrey of Bouillon and Tancred of Tarentum. Raymond of Toulouse, whose army was storming the city from the other side, learned about the breakthrough and also rushed to Jerusalem through the southern gate. Seeing that the city had fallen, the emir of the Tower of David garrison surrendered and opened the Jaffa Gate.

Consequences

Crusader states in 1102 (in red)

States founded by the Crusaders after the First Crusade:

Crusader states in the East in 1140

At the end of the 1st Crusade, four Christian states were founded in the Levant.

Edessa County- the first state founded by the crusaders in the East. It was founded in 1098 by Baldwin I of Boulogne. It existed until 1146. Its capital was the city of Edessa.

Principality of Antioch- was founded by Bohemond I of Tarentum in 1098 after the capture of Antioch. The principality existed until 1268.

Kingdom of Jerusalem, lasted until the fall of Acre in 1291. The kingdom was subordinate to several vassal lordships, including the four largest:

• Lordship (Principality) of Transjordan- Seigneury of Krak, Montreal and Saint-Abraham

County of Tripoli- the last of the states founded during the First Crusade. It was founded in 1105 by the Count of Toulouse, Raymond IV. The county existed until 1289.