crusaders

LOLA MILLER TRAVELS WITH CRUSADERS
France - It is late November, 1095,
Pope Urban II, in response to a plea for
help from the Byzantine Emperor, is
giving his famous speech at the
Council of Clermont. Thousands
have gathered to hear the Pope
call for a Holy War to take
back Jerusalem from the
Mohammedan Turks (aka,
the Saracens).
The Pope raises his
hands in prayer...the
crowd goes wild!!

We can't really hear what the Pope is saying from back here...so I'll just paraphrase a little. Essentially he is saying...

O bravest of knights, descendants of unconquered ancestors etc, etc...take up thy weapons and go forth and rape, pillage and kill...wrest that Holy Land from the wicked infidel and make it your own! You shall be rewarded with much land and wealth. Do not worry if you die in the process, because all of your sins shall be absolved...etc, etc...this I grant you through the powers invested in me by God, etc, etc, and so forth.

The crowd cheers and chants: God wills it! The Pope must have thought he had died and gone to Heaven - at last he had a way of ridding Europe of all the criminals, vagabonds, beggars, unemployed soldiers, and warring knights.

In the year 1000 a.d., when the world didn't end, Christians decided to take matters
into their own hands. A religious fervor had swept across the land, and Christians, united
for a brief period in history, were only too eager to answer the call for a crusade to take
back Jerusalem, where they expected to get front-row seats for the Second Coming.
Thousands and thousands of ill-equiped, ill-fed and ill-prepared peasants from all over Europe
immediately set out for Jerusalem, following ill-qualified leaders with names like
Walter the Penniless and Peter the Hermit.

This Peasants' Crusade, churned to a froth of mass hysteria by their fanatical leaders, cut a swath of destruction through southern Europe and the Balkans, terrorizing the populace, looting for food and supplies, and massacring Jews (or anyone else who looked or dressed differently). The peasants who survived the long journey to Constantinople, ragged, hungry and barefoot, found the shining gates of that magnificent, opulent city securely locked. They were told to go home and join the main body of knights.

Locked gates.

But the unruly and impatient peasants proceeded to cross over the Bosphorus and marched on towards Jerusalem. Emperor Alexius was only too happy to see this huge mass of impassioned and armed peasants move on. None were to reach the Holy City. They either perished from famine or disease, or were killed at the hands of the waiting Turks. The ones who managed to survive were sold into slavery.

Goodbye and goodluck.

Meanwhile back in Europe, the main army of knights, mostly French, were still busy sharpening their pikes, polishing their armor and parading through the streets. It took another nine months for this mass body of soldiers, knights, nobles, and princes (estimated at about 30,000) to embark on their journey. For the landless soldiers, the younger sons of noblemen, and the penniless knights this was a chance in a life-time for adventure, riches, and even eternal salvation. It didn't matter if they had to rape, pillage and kill for it - these Holy Warriors had a GET OUT
OF HELL FREE card.

By August, 1096, the
army of knights,
sporting a large red
cross on their breast,
slowly began to move
southeast. Following
the same road as the
Peasant Crusaders,
they found only
death, destruction
and desolation. This
time the wary towns-
people were ready.
They locked their
doors, barred their
windows, and hid
their livestock and
virgin daughters
in the woods. God's
army found no food,
no supplies, and no
fair maidens.

Town closed

At last on June 22, 1099, after three years of bloody warfare, the crusading army (whittled down to about half) finally reached the sacrad walls of Jerusalem. They fell to their knees, bowed their heads, and wept with joy. Then they got up and proceeded to lay siege on the Holy City.

After five weeks of baking in the hot summer sun in full metal armor, thirsty, hungry and sick, the Crusaders broke through the walls of Jerusalem with a vengeance.
What happened next must go down in the annals of history as one the most brutal assaults on a city - ever.

The knights in their shining armor didn't just rape, plunder, and kill. They beheaded, mutilated, dismembered, disemboweled, castrated, hanged or crucified every man, woman and child in the entire city - Muslims, Jews, and likely some Christians as well. Only a handful were allowed to escape to tell their woeful tale. The Turks, in their worst behavior never came close to such carnage.

When the massacre was over, the Crusaders walked barefoot through ankle-deep blood of the infidel and knelt at the Holy Sepulchre to give thanks. A priest quoted Psalm 118: This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad of it!

After the conquest of Jerusalem, most of the Crusaders went home. The ones who remained had only a tenuous grasp on a small strip of land, and they continued to behave badly. Some fifty years later, the Christian states in the Holy Land began to crumble and another crusade was launched. There were at least eight official crusades, and some unofficial ones, including a Children's Crusade. All but the first failed in securing Jerusalem for the Christians. In 1204, a fourth crusading army decided to sack Orthodox Christian Constantinople instead of marching on to Muslim held Jerusalem. And then there were several crusades when Christians in Europe fought each other.

By 1291, the West lost its last foot-hold in the Holy Land when they surrendered Acre to the Saracens. The only lasting legacy of the Crusades, besides creating a lot of residual hostility, were the castles they left behind, and the apricots they brought back.

This is Lola Miller reporting from Planet Earth.

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