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	The Crusades 1095-1125: Crusades in the East										Crusades in the East								Crusades in the East										Crusades in the East								Crusades in the East												Crusades in the East								Crusades in the East					< back
	• March: the Byzantine emperor Alexius Comenus asks Pope Urban II for help to defend his lands against the Seljuq Turks. • 27 Nov: Pope Urban II calls for western knights to liberate Jerusalem in a Crusade. He then embarks on a preaching tour of France to raise support for the idea. Significantly, he grants an indulgence to those who take part. His call to war against non-Christians sets a precedent: papal authority would be needed for such wars in future. The first to take the cross is Adhémar of Monteil, Bishop of Le Puy, who becomes the papal legate on the crusade. • 1 Dec: Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, joins the Crusade.		• Spring/summer: the first crusaders - a mass of ordinary people, not knights - set off. Many will die on the journey. Only those led by Peter the Hermit will reach Asia Minor. • May/June: there are outbreaks of anti-Jewish rioting across much of Europe; the worst occur in the Rhineland where the Jewish community in Mainz is slaughtered. • 1 Aug: The first crusaders led by Peter the Hermit reach Constantinople. They request to be transported across the Bosphorus and, on 21 Oct, are massacred at Civetot by Seljurq and Danishmend forces led by Kilij Arslan. Peter the Hermit, who had lost much of his influence with the crusaders, is in Constantinople. • Autumn/winter: the second wave of crusaders set off.		• Jan: crusaders in the second wave riot in Constantinople. • 19 June: the crusaders take Nicaea and, as promised, hand it over to Alexius Comenus, the Byzantine Emperor. • 1 July: Kilji Arslan's army attacks the crusaders at Dorylaeum and is defeated. • Aug: Kilji Arslan's capital falls to the crusaders. • 21 Oct: the crusaders' siege of Antioch begins. Antioch, the greatest city and fortress on the road to Jerusalem, is protected by massive walls and a strong Turkish garrison.		• March: Baldwin of Boulogne seizes the county of Edessa, having conspired against its Christian ruler, and establishes the first crusader state. • 3 June: the besieging crusaders take Antioch-except for the citadel-by intrigue rather than assault, slay the Turkish population and are then besieged themselves by an army led by Kerbogha, Atbeg of Mosul. • 15 June: the Holy Lance is found by two of the crusaders, supposedly the weapon which pierced the side of Christ on the cross. This helps to inspire the crusaders who are by now exhausted and on the point of starvation. • 28 June: the crusaders attack Kerbogha's forces surrounding Antioch and defeat them. • 1 Aug: Adhémar, Bishop of Le Puy and papal legate, dies from an epidemic which devastates the crusaders at Antioch. • In this year the Fatimids from Egypt seize Jerusalem from the Seljurk Turks, showing the disunity in the Islamic world.		•13 Jan: an army led by Raymond, Count of Toulouse leaves Antioch for Jerusalem. • 7 June: the crusaders reach Jerusalem, and encamp; their supplies are low. • 17 June: six supply ships reach Jaffa with provisions for the army, but the condition of the crusaders remains poor. • 8 July: Peter the Hermit preaches to the crusaders on the Mount of Olives. •15 July: Jerusalem is captured by the crusaders. Apart from the commander of the city and his bodyguard, the Muslim and Jewish population is slaughtered. • 22 July: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected as Defender of the Holy Sepulchre; so establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem. • 29 July:Pope Urban II, who had called for the crusade, dies. • 12 Aug: Battle of Ascalon; the crusaders from Jerusalem defeat a larger Egyptian army. • 13 Aug:Cardinal Rainer is elected Pope Paschal II. • In this year the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem is founded.		• 18 July: Godfrey of Bouillon, Defender of Jerusalem, dies. A power struggle ensues over who should rule Jerusalem, between the crusader knights and Daimbert, the new papal legate. The knights win and elect Godfrey's brother the Count of Edessa, who becomes Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem.		• March: Tancred becomes regent of Antioch following Bohemond's capture and imprisonment by the Danishmend Emir, Ghazi. • May: Baldwin captures Arsuf and Caesarea with help of Genoese ships. • 23 June: the third wave of crusaders, which had started to leave western Europe in 1100 and is led from Constantinople by Raymond of Toulouse, takes Ankara. It is subsequently destroyed by the Danishmends at Mersivan, in Anatolia (Aug). • Sept: another part of the third wave of crusaders is defeated at Heraclea. • 4 (or 6) Sept: Although heavily out numbered, Baldwin wins a victory over the Egyptians at Ramleh. But his small army is further reduced.		• 17 May: the Egyptians defeat Baldwin, who has just 500 knights, at Ramleh. He only escapes death with the help of an Arab chieftain. He escapes to Jaffa and his army is reinforced with the arrival of 200 ships from England. • 28 May: with his new forces Baldwin is able to drive the Egyptians back to the town of Ascalon.		• Spring: Bohemond is ransomed and returns as prince to Antioch.		• May: Baldwin of Jerusalem captures Acre. • May: Bohemond of Antioch and Baldwin II of Edessa are defeated in an encounter with the Turks as they try to capture Harran. • Saewulf, an Anglo-Saxon monk from Malmesbury, writes a vivid account of his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1102–03.		• 28 Dec: Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, dies while besieging Tripoli. • 27 Aug: Baldwin of Jerusalem defeats the Egyptians at Ramleh.				• 9 Oct: Bohemond attempts to overthrow the Byzantine Empire and besieges the fortress of Durrazzo, on the Adriatic coast. He fails and is captured and brought before the emperor Alexius Comenus, to whom he submits. • Baldwin of Jerusalem beseiges the port of Sidon. He abandons the attempt to capture the city in return for a large ransom. • Kilij Arslan I, the Seljurq Sultan of Rum, is killed in a battle with other Turks. He is succeeded by his brother, Malik Shah.		• Sept: Treaty of Devol; Bohemond, submits to Alexius Comenus becoming the Emperor's vassal as Prince of Antioch. On his release he returns to his estates in Apulia and never goes back to the Holy Land.		• 12 July: Tripoli surrenders to Baldwin of Jerusalem.		• 4th Dec: Baldwin takes Sidon with help from a fleet of ships brought to the Holy Land by King Sigurd of Norway.		• Feb: Bohemond I, Prince of Antioch, dies in Apulia; his nephew, Tancred, rules in Antioch. • Guibert of Nogent, Gesta Dei per Francos; a history of the First Crusade.		• Tancred, Prince of Antioch, dies and is succeeded by his cousin, Roger of Salerno.						• 7 July: Peter the Hermit dies. • In this year Baldwin has a castle built called Montreal, 100 miles to the south of Jerusalem. Others are constructed in outlying areas, including one at Aila on the Red Sea as the crusaders seek to defend a territory stretching for over 500 miles, north to south.				• Malik Shah, the Sultan of Rum, dies and is succeeded by Ma`sud I, the son of Kilij Arslan.		•2nd April: Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem dies and is succeeded by his nephew Baldwin II, Count of Edessa. • 15 Aug: the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I Comenus dies as is succeeded by his son, John II. • Muhammad I dies and Sanjar of Khurasan becomes the supreme Seljuq Sultan.		• 27 June: ‘the Field of Blood; Roger, Prince of Antioch, marches against Aleppo and is defeated by Ilghazi, the Danishmend ruler. It is the worst defeat for the crusaders since the capture of Jerusalem; 7000 die. Baldwin II rushes from Jerusalem to Antioch to prevent the city's fall. • The Order of Knights Templars is founded in Jerusalem by Hugh of Payens.						• Joscelin, Count of Edessa, is ambushed and captured by Balak of Khanzit, the nephew of Ilghazi.		• 18 April: Baldwin II of Jerusalem is captured and his escort destroyed by Balak. He is imprisoned but Armenian help enables him and the Count of Edessa, who is being held with him, to overthrow their guards and take control of the castle they are held in. They cannot escape Balak's forces however, and Baldwin is captured again. • 29 May: an Egyptian army retreats before the crusaders at Ibelin; the Venetians destroy their fleet off Ascalon in a huge naval battle.		• 6 May: Balak, Emir of Aleppo, dies. • 7 July: Tyre, the last seaport in Muslim control north of Ascalon, is surrendered to the crusaders by the Egyptians after seige by land and sea. • Baldwin II is released after a ransom is paid. • Hasan-i Sabbah, founder of the Assassins, dies.		• May: Battle of Azaz; Baldwin II defeats il-Bursuqi of Mosu, known as the White Falcon.
	Crusades in Europe and North Africa										Europe and North Africa								Europe and North Africa										Europe and North Africa								Europe and North Africa												Europe and North Africa								Europe and North Africa					< back
			• Spain: Pedro of Aragon defeats the Moors at Alcaraz and takes Huesca. • Pope Urban II allows the war against the Moors in Spain to be called a crusade.						• Spain: Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid) dies.																		• Spain: Alfonso of Aragon is defeated by the forces of `Ali at Uclés.		• 30 June: Spain; Alfonso I of Aragon calls himself Emperor of the Spains following the death of Alfonso of Castile.										• Spain: Raymond-Berenguer, Count of Barcelona, crusades in the Balearic Islands.		• Spain: Berenguer is victorious in the Balearic Islands.						• 19 Dec: Spain; Saragossa falls to Alfonso of Aragon.				• Spain: Alfonso of Aragon defeats the Moors at Cutanda and Daroca.
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