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On a late November morning
in the year 1095, this man,


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Pope Urban II,


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delivered a sermon that would
transform the history of Europe.


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His rousing words transfixed
the crowd gathered here
in the French town of Clermont.


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And in the months that followed,


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his message
reverberated across the West.


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The age of the Crusades had begun.


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The Pope proclaimed
a new holy war against Islam...


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..for control of the most hallowed
site in the Christian cosmos -


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the sacred city of Jerusalem.


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Urban's call to arms
initiated a struggle


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that would rage for two centuries -


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one that fires the imagination


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and fuels debate even today.


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The story of the Crusades
is remembered as a tale
of religious fanaticism


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and unspeakable violence,


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of medieval knights
and jihadi warriors,


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of castles and kings,
heroism, betrayal, and sacrifice.


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This feels like you're touching
the past. It's an amazing feeling.


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But now fresh research,
eyewitness testimony,


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and contemporary evidence


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from both the Christian
and Islamic worlds sheds new light


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on how it was
that these two great religions


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waged war in the name of God...


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..why hundreds of thousands
of Christians and Muslims


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answered the call
to Crusade and Jihad...


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..and who, ultimately,
won the war for the Holy Land.


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From the summer of 1096,


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between
60,000 and 100,000 Christians -


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men, women and children -
set out to walk some 2,500 miles


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across the face of the known world.
Their goal? Jerusalem.


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Not since the distant glories
of ancient Rome had
a force of this size been assembled.


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Rich, and poor,
peasants and knights,
these were the First Crusaders...


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..Christian soldiers who endured
unimaginable suffering and privation


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during an armed pilgrimage
that lasted for three years.


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So who were they?
And why did they fight?


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When Urban II became Pope,
Christianity was in turmoil,


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split between the Greek Church
of the East and the Latin West.


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The papacy itself
stood on the brink of overthrow,


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embroiled in a long-standing feud
with the German Empire.


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But Urban had a plan.


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Determined to reassert
papal authority,


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in the autumn of 1095 he came to
France, where he would launch


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a titanic armed pilgrimage, known to
history as the First Crusade.


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By November 1095, the Pope
was ready to unveil his plan.


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Here in Clermont in Central France,
he gathered 12 archbishops,


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80 bishops and 90 abbots


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for the largest clerical
assembly of his career.


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After nine days of general
ecclesiastical debate,


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Urban announced his intention
to deliver a special sermon,


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and on the 27th of November,


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hundreds of people crowded
into a field outside the town
to hear him speak.


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"We want you to know what grievous
cause leads us to your territory.


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"A grave report has come
from the lands of Jerusalem


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"that a foreign race,
a race absolutely alien to God,


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"has invaded
the land of those Christians


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"and has reduced the people
with sword, rapine and fire."


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Urban's speech was the moment of
genesis for the concept of a crusade.


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It was primarily designed
to meet the needs of the papacy.


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And it contained
a brilliantly conceived hook.


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The coming expedition would target


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the greatest pilgrim destination
in the Christian world -


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the Holy City of Jerusalem,


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which lay in the hands of Islam.


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But the Pope had a problem.


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Jerusalem had fallen to
Islam more than 400 years earlier,


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so he could hardly claim
this as a fresh crime.


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To lend urgency to his call,


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Urban therefore turned to one
of the most powerful and dangerous
forces in human history -


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the idea of otherness,


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of an alien enemy guilty of
ghastly crimes who must be repelled.


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"These men have destroyed the altars


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"polluted by their foul practices.


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"They have
circumcised the Christians,


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"either spreading the blood
from the circumcisions on the altars


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"or pouring it
into the baptismal fonts.


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"And they cut open
the navels of those


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"who they choose to torment
with loathsome death,


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"drag them around
and flog them before killing them


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"as they lie prone on the ground
with all their entrails out."


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The Pope created an anti-Islamic
onslaught peppered with propaganda.


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His graphic imagery bore little
relation to the reality of Muslim
rule in the Holy Land.


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Nor was Urban's call to arms


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directly inspired
by any recent atrocity in the East.


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Nevertheless, his attack
ignited a fire of vengeful passion,


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as news of the Crusade resounded
across Western Christendom.


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The idea of the Crusade was
unleashed in a spiritual age -


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an era that in many ways
is wholly alien to our own.


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Today we might be acculturated
to notions of tolerance,


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scepticism and religious difference,
but a singular truth


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bound together almost every human
being alive in 11th-century Europe,


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and that was unconditional
and total belief in Christianity.


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At the core of medieval Christianity
were the twinned opposing emotions


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of hope and fear,


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the promise of salvation
and the threat of damnation.


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The Church taught that every human
would face a moment of judgment,


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a weighing of souls.


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Those found to be pure


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would be rewarded with
everlasting paradise in Heaven.


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But if you were a sinner,


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then you faced certain punishment -


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an eternity
of gruesome torment in Hell.


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This magnificent sculpture cycle
depicts the Last Judgment


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and it's the perfect evocation
of the whole idea


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of agony and ecstasy
in medieval Christianity.


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It was sculpted, we think, by one
of the masters of medieval art -


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a man called Gislebertus.


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And we know this
because he's left in his inscription


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"Gislebertus hocfecit" -
"Gislebertus made this".


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Let's start with the good,
let's start with salvation.


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What we see amongst the saved


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are three children
being lifted to Heaven by an angle.


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And if we look above


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we can see beautiful, elongated
angels lifting the saved up
to paradise.


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On the other side, on Christ's left
hand, we see those less fortunate,


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those who have sinned and will
face an eternity of torment in Hell.


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We can see a man bearing a bag,
probably a bag of money,


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meaning he's a miser
or a moneylender.


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He's amongst the damned.


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And there we can see a woman
with a pair of snakes


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gnawing on her bare breasts,
showing that she was lusty or lewd.


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And perhaps most evocatively of all,


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a man with a look
of fear and agony on his face


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as a pair of giant demonic hands
reach down to strangle him


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and pull him through
the gates of Hell.


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This is the tableau
of horror laid out before you.


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This is what Gislebertus
wanted his audience to understand -


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the consequences of sin
in the medieval world.


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Primed to seek redemption,


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Western Christians
were thus enthralled when Urban II


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announced his expedition
to the Holy Land.


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The price would be huge.


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The faithful would
have to give up everything


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to participate in a terrifying, near
suicidal journey into the unknown,


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but in return,
the Pope seemed to be promising


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a guarantee of eternal salvation.


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Tens of thousands
of ordinary Christians


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responded to the Pope's
brilliantly-conceived campaign.


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But Urban's target audience was
the aristocracy of Western Europe -


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a violent warrior class


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fighting for survival in a world
of bloodthirsty lawlessness.


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These warlords would
become the Crusades' leaders -


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Christian knights
for whom the Pope's call to arms
solved a very particular dilemma.


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The Pope knew only too well
the anxiety of Christian warriors


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trapped in a worldly profession
imbued with violence,


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yet taught by the Church
that bloodshed was sinful.


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The real genius
of Urban's crusading ideal
was that it solved this dilemma,


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reconciling faith and violence.


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Urban spoke of a new sacred struggle,


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in which fighting
would not simply be permitted,


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but actively encouraged
and even rewarded.


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The day after Pope Urban's sermon
at Clermont,


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Count Raymond of Toulouse,


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the most powerful secular Lord
in Southern France,


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became the first nobleman
to commit to the Crusade.


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Determined to prepare his soul
for the gruelling expedition ahead,


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Raymond then came here,
to this cathedral in Le Puy.


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The Count made a large donation


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to secure the favourable
intercession of the Virgin Mary,


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and according
to one chronicle requested...


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"So long as I live a candle
should burn for me incessantly,


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"day and night upon the altar


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"before the revered image
of the Mother of God."


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Some Christian knights may have
embarked upon the holy war believing
they would reap rich rewards


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from conquest and plunder
in the East.


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But the vast majority
were primarily driven by faith


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and the promise of redemption.


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It's often argued that Raymond,
and many like him,


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joined the Crusade
in search of material gain.


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00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:41,840
But I think this theory
is simply unsustainable,


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given the vast weight
of contemporary evidence
that shows us the exact opposite.


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Raymond actually walked away from one
of the richest lordships in Europe
to join this expedition.


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And like many
of his fellow Crusaders,


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he probably expected to die
in the East.


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I think most people
joined this Crusade


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because they earnestly believed
that the coming campaign would
cleanse their souls of sin.


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00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:08,640
They were, I think, looking for
redemption in the fire of holy war.


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For noblemen like Raymond,


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and the retinues of knights
and infantry that came with them,


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the Crusade offered
the promise of eternal salvation,


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and, in return, their personal
fortunes would bankroll the sacred
expedition.


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Raymond of Toulouse became
the Crusade's elder statesman,


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00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:39,600
but he was just one of scores
of rich and powerful noblemen


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for whom the combined allure
of military conquest and religious
redemption proved irresistible.


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There was Godfrey of Bouillon,


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a pious duke whose lands
extended from North-Eastern France
into the low countries of Germany.


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00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:57,360
Despite a long-standing feud
with the papacy,


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Godfrey was so enthralled by
the crusading message that he joined
the expedition to Jerusalem.


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00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:10,040
There was the Southern-Italian
Norman, Bohemond of Taranto,


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00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:14,440
a guileful military genius, perhaps
the greatest general of his age.


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00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:20,680
And there was Stephen of Blois
from Northern France,
William the Conqueror's son-in-law.


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00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:23,440
Stephen left his wife Adela
behind to rule in his stead


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00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:27,240
and later wrote her
a series of extraordinary letters
from the front line,


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00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:29,360
describing his adventures
in the East.


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00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:36,640
"In fighting against these enemies of
God and of our own, we have,


196
00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:39,480
"by God's grace,
endured many sufferings


197
00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:42,640
"and innumerable evils
up to the present time."


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00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:51,480
'Stephen's words survive as a direct,
eye-witness account of the Crusade.


199
00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:54,320
'But there were
many other contemporaries


200
00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:58,360
'who also sought to chronicle
this remarkable expedition.'


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00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:13,040
This manuscript is a French copy


202
00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:15,680
of the Histoire d'Outremer.


203
00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:19,200
William of Tyre.


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00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:21,600
It's illuminated.


205
00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:30,040
It is one of
our most popular manuscripts


206
00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:32,480
for the story of Crusaders.


207
00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:36,440
This feels like
you're touching the past.


208
00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:38,680
It's an amazing feeling.


209
00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:47,240
'This is an illustrated copy,
produced in 1289,


210
00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:50,200
'of the most famous chronicle
of the Crusades,


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00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:51,960
'written by William of Tyre,


212
00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:56,280
'a Christian historian working in
the Holy Land in the 12th century.'


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00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:06,960
There's something absolutely
extraordinary about being this close


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00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:09,000
to an item of this kind of rarity.


215
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,760
Such a precious manuscript -
to actually be able to touch it,


216
00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:15,000
for me, it's almost electrifying.


217
00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:20,440
This is an absolute masterpiece
in terms of depicting


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00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:23,040
the start of the First Crusade.


219
00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:26,880
And what it shows is a series
of knights riding out from Europe,


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00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:30,560
preparing for their 3,000-mile
journey to reach Jerusalem.


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00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:33,120
And we can see
Godfrey of Bouillon himself,


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00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:36,920
one of the great leaders of
the Crusade, in amongst this group.


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00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:39,080
And he's against a golden background,


224
00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:42,120
and it's that gold
that really sets this image alight.


225
00:18:42,120 --> 00:18:45,280
It makes it seem as if the horses
themselves are moving,


226
00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:47,560
it gives action,
gives life to the image.


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00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:52,480
And it's that which conveys this
sense of a journey beginning -
the start of the Crusade.


228
00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:02,800
But this dignified procession
belies the ramshackle reality
of the First Crusade.


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00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:12,400
For most people, embarking on a
crusade was a colossal leap of faith.


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00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:15,960
This would be a journey
to a wholly alien and unknown world,


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00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:19,560
attempted with little or no planning
and no accurate maps.


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00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:24,880
This was
an extraordinary mass migration


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00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:28,000
undertaken by over 60,000 people -


234
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:32,520
an unprecedented tide of humankind.


235
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:41,200
The first to depart were small groups
of peasants and some knights.


236
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:45,720
Too poor to pay for ships,
their only option was to walk,


237
00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:50,360
dragging their few belongings
behind on carts,


238
00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:54,440
living hand-to-mouth off the land.


239
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:00,760
As they marched East,
this rabble of Christian fanatics


240
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:05,600
became embroiled
in a series of murderous attacks
on the Jews of Europe.


241
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:13,360
The main contingents
of knights soon followed.


242
00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:16,280
But it was only
in the first months of 1097,


243
00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:19,600
almost a year after
the first pilgrims set out,


244
00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:24,400
that the First Crusade
finally united at Constantinople,


245
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:27,680
capital of the Byzantine Empire.


246
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,720
For most Crusaders, this was the end
of the world as they knew it -


247
00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:39,160
a mighty metropolis ten times the
size of any city in Western Europe.


248
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:43,040
And it was the centre
of the Greek Church in the East,


249
00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:47,440
the greatest Christian
superpower of the medieval age.


250
00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:56,320
Constantinople boasted an unrivalled
collection of sacred relics.


251
00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:00,800
It had the Crown of Thorns,
locks of hair from the Virgin Mary,


252
00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,360
at least two heads
of John the Baptist,


253
00:21:03,360 --> 00:21:06,440
and the bones
of virtually all the apostles.


254
00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:08,840
And it had this - St Sophia,


255
00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:13,760
undoubtedly medieval Christendom's
most spectacular church.


256
00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:30,560
"I arrived at Constantinople
with great joy by the grace of God.


257
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:36,440
"The Emperor verily received me
with dignity and honour


258
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:40,360
"and with the greatest affection
as if I were his own son."


259
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:47,160
The Crusaders had arrived
at the gateway to the Orient,


260
00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:49,560
the frontier with Islam.


261
00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:54,920
The Byzantine Emperor had,
for some time,


262
00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:57,000
been appealing to the West for help


263
00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:59,720
in defending Christendom's
Eastern border.


264
00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:10,560
With the aid of his troops,
the Crusaders targeted Nicaea,


265
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:13,680
an Islamic foothold
in Western Asia Minor.


266
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:21,120
After a month-long siege,
the city was conquered.


267
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:26,080
The holy war had begun.


268
00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:32,520
But there was no immediate response
to this audacious invasion.


269
00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:38,320
The Crusaders had, inadvertently,
chosen the perfect moment to strike.


270
00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:45,680
The Muslim world
was in a state of disarray,


271
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:48,120
riven by religious
and ethnic divisions.


272
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:54,720
As yet, Islam could not draw upon the
same profound sense of shared purpose


273
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:58,000
that united the Crusaders,


274
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:04,360
the dream that drove these Christians
on towards their sacred objective.


275
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:07,240
"I tell you, my beloved,"


276
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:10,720
wrote Stephen of Blois
to his wife back in France,


277
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:14,520
"In five weeks,
we will reach Jerusalem."


278
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:30,000
Because of its vast size,


279
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,880
the Crusade couldn't realistically
move forward as a single force.


280
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:37,760
A column of 60,000 people
might take an entire day


281
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:39,960
just to pass a single point.


282
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:43,240
And foraging for
food and supplies as they went,


283
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:47,680
they might scour the surrounding
landscape like a plague of locust.


284
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:52,240
Instead, the Crusaders decided
to divide their army in two.


285
00:23:57,360 --> 00:23:59,560
Led by Bohemond of Taranto,


286
00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:03,600
the first contingent set off, with
a plan to regroup after four days,


287
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,640
here at an abandoned
Byzantine military camp,


288
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:10,680
100 miles south-east of Nicaea.


289
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:17,720
But the holy army
never made its rendezvous.


290
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:22,200
HORSE WHINNIES IN PANIC


291
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:29,080
As the Crusaders marched
across the plains of Asia Minor,


292
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:33,160
they were ambushed by a ferocious
band of nomadic warriors...


293
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:40,280
..their first terrifying taste
of Turkish horsemen in full flight.


294
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,600
One of Bohemond's followers
recalled the moment of horror


295
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:46,800
as the Turks suddenly came into view


296
00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:48,840
and began to howl and gabble.


297
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,200
HORSE WHINNIES IN PANIC


298
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:56,280
Another eye-witness, caught
in the thick of the fighting, wrote,


299
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:58,480
"The Turks were howling like wolves."


300
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:02,720
"They began
shooting a cloud of arrows.


301
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:04,560
"We were all stunned by this.


302
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,640
"Because for all of us,
this form of warfare was unknown."


303
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:17,440
Ranged against a seemingly endless
multitude of Turks,


304
00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:20,320
the Christians were
thrown into disarray.


305
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:22,920
Instead of chaotic retreat,


306
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:26,360
Bohemond managed
to establish a defensive formation.


307
00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:30,480
But isolated and exposed,
the Crusaders faced disaster.


308
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:38,240
"Huddled together
like sheep in a fold,


309
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:42,240
"we were trembling and frightened,
surrounded on all sides by enemies


310
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:46,480
"so that we couldn't
turn in any direction,"
one Crusader later recalled.


311
00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:51,760
To strengthen their resolve,


312
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:55,080
the Crusaders
passed a morale-boosting message
down the line.


313
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:59,320
"Stand fast, trusting in Christ
and the victory of the cross."


314
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:07,520
One account described how
the Turks burst into the camp,


315
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:10,800
striking with arrows
loosed from their horned bows,


316
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:16,240
killing men, women and children
indiscriminately and sparing no-one
on grounds of age.


317
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,720
Stunned and terrified
by this hideous killing,


318
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:26,320
girls who were delicate
and nobly born were rushing
to get themselves dressed up


319
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:28,560
and offering themselves to the Turks.


320
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:32,560
So that at least,
appeased by their beauty,


321
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:34,720
they may offer
their prisoners some pity.


322
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:45,440
This idea of Western women
rushing into their tents


323
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:47,080
to beautify themselves,


324
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:51,680
all in the hope that they'd be taken
slave rather than killed on the spot,


325
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:55,800
can almost sound comical.
But this anecdote is supposed
to tell us something.


326
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,600
It's supposed to reveal that the
Crusaders were absolutely terrified


327
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,760
by what they encountered
at Dorylaeum.


328
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:05,880
They'd come across an alien enemy -
something they'd never
experienced before.


329
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:08,880
What's really extraordinary
is that they didn't give up,


330
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:12,000
they didn't buckle.
Instead they managed to re-group,


331
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,800
re-order their lines and hold
their position for five hours


332
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,040
until crusading reinforcements
arrived.


333
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:26,520
In the ensuing battle, as many
as 4,000 Christians were killed.


334
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:30,560
But, crucially, the Crusaders
simply refused to give in.


335
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,400
The Turks
were not defeated at Dorylaeum,


336
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:37,600
but their resistance was broken,


337
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,400
and the route across
Asia Minor opened up.


338
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:48,400
Empowered by their faith, the
Western invaders seemed invincible.


339
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,880
In contrast,
Islam's defence lay in the hands


340
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,960
of a disparate array
of squabbling warlords.


341
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:01,600
But the Crusaders faced
a different kind of enemy


342
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:03,760
as they marched across Asia Minor,


343
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:07,000
enduring the blistering heat
of the summer months,


344
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,960
plagued by starvation and thirst.


345
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:19,920
For the first time, a lack of water
became a real issue.


346
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,920
The death rate skyrocketed
and there's one thing that's


347
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:27,480
really extraordinary about
this period and that's that
the eyewitness testimony


348
00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:32,600
seems to suggest that the Crusaders
were almost as concerned, if not more
concerned,


349
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:37,520
about the death of animals
as they were about those men and
women who died through thirst.


350
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:40,480
We've always thought that
the Crusaders


351
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:44,680
arrived in the Holy Land with
their cavalry intact, the truth is


352
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:49,240
that, crossing Asia Minor, almost
all of these Western horses died.


353
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:51,280
By the time they reached
the Holy Land,


354
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:54,320
the Crusaders were forced to ride,
sometimes on donkeys


355
00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:58,680
with their feet dragging in
the dirt, others were astride oxen.


356
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:02,080
So this idea of
an invincible military force,


357
00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:04,960
that the Crusade had at
its fingertips, is an illusion.


358
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:15,560
Christian numbers were severely
depleted by an epic journey


359
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:19,200
that concluded with a terrifying
traverse of the Taurus Mountains.


360
00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:26,320
By the time the First Crusade
reached northern Syria,


361
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,000
in the autumn of 1097,


362
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:33,960
only around half of those who had
left Europe a year earlier survived.


363
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:41,680
The crossing of Asia Minor had been
an extraordinary feat in itself.


364
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:44,600
But now, standing at the gateway
to the Holy Land,


365
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:47,080
the Crusaders faced
a gargantuan task,


366
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:50,080
one that eclipsed everything that
had gone before.


367
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:54,080
The conquest of one of the great
cities of the Orient - Antioch.


368
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:05,920
Antioch was a crucial staging post,
as the Crusade now looked south


369
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:10,240
to Jerusalem itself, perhaps
less than a month's march away.


370
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:17,200
But Antioch lay under the rule
of Muslim Turks,


371
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,760
shielded by two great mountains,


372
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,080
and a ring of awesome battlements
that made this


373
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:27,560
one of the most strongly-fortified
cities in the medieval world.


374
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:43,440
So this is the iron gate.


375
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:48,240
I absolutely love this place,
because it's the perfect spot to
come to if you want to


376
00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:51,280
understand what medieval Antioch
would have looked like.


377
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:55,360
And why the Crusaders thought this
city was going to be impregnable.


378
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:04,120
This is Antioch's last surviving
gate, part of a series


379
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:08,120
of formidable defences that made
an immediate attack impossible.


380
00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:14,040
The city was garrisoned by
around 5,000 Turks...


381
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:17,840
..enough to mount a defence


382
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:22,480
but not sufficient to confront
the Crusaders in open battle.


383
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:27,280
The result, an appalling stalemate
that would test


384
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:29,720
the Christians' faith to the limit.


385
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:35,160
From the autumn of 1097 onwards,
the Crusaders committed


386
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:40,320
themselves to the grinding reality
of a medieval encirclement siege -


387
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:43,560
a devastating war of attrition
that would last for eight months.


388
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:51,400
That winter would prove to be
a living hell for the Crusaders


389
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:56,800
camped outside Antioch, facing
illness, disease and starvation.


390
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:07,200
The height of the Crusaders'
suffering came in January 1098.


391
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:11,480
Stephen of Blois, who managed to
survive these darkest of days,


392
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:13,240
later wrote in a letter,


393
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:16,560
"Throughout that winter
we suffered from excessive cold,


394
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:20,920
"and enormous torrents of rain. What
some say about the impossibility


395
00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:24,600
"of being able to bear the heat of
the sun throughout Syria is untrue


396
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:28,520
"because the winters there are very
similar to our own in the West."


397
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:33,160
That January, hundreds,
perhaps thousands, lost their lives,


398
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:35,880
not to the edge of a sword,
but to illness,


399
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:37,640
and malnourishment.


400
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:39,760
Indeed, according to one account,


401
00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:44,560
food became so scarce that the poor
were forced to eat dogs and rats,


402
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:48,880
the skin of beasts and
even seeds of grain found in manure.


403
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:58,400
Many Christians began to question
why God had abandoned
the Crusade, his sacred venture.


404
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:05,840
And when it seemed that things
couldn't get any worse,


405
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:08,760
the Muslim world finally
appeared to unite.


406
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:18,360
Just as the advent of spring
began to shift the balance


407
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:20,680
of the siege
in the Crusaders' favour,


408
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,640
a dread-laden rumour began to
circulate.


409
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:27,440
Scouts from the Christian camp
revealed that they'd seen


410
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:28,680
a Muslim army.


411
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:34,040
Reportedly swarming over mountain
paths. Like the sands of the sea.


412
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:44,240
Kerbogha of Mosul,
a fearsome Iraqi general,


413
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,200
and some 40,000 Syrian
and Mesopotamian troops were


414
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:51,760
on the way, and now they were less
than one week away from Antioch.


415
00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:16,280
This huge relief force, mobilised
in response to desperate appeals


416
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:19,320
for support from
Antioch's Muslim leaders,


417
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:22,280
outnumbered the Crusaders
by two to one.


418
00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:28,600
Stranded outside the city,


419
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:32,520
the Christian army would surely be
crushed against Antioch's walls.


420
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,840
Facing the very real threat of panic
and mass desertion,


421
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:41,680
the Crusade's leaders convened
an emergency council.


422
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:49,280
And Bohemond, the military genius who
had taken command at Dorylaeum,
stepped forward.


423
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:56,520
Bohemond argued that whoever
could orchestrate Antioch's fall


424
00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:58,880
should be given legal rights
to the city.


425
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,480
And it was only after
the bargain had been sealed,


426
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:05,440
that the wily Bohemond showed
his hand.


427
00:35:10,720 --> 00:35:16,440
Bohemond had made contact
with a renegade inside Antioch,


428
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:20,720
an Armenian Christian
tower commander named Firuz,


429
00:35:20,720 --> 00:35:23,200
who was willing to betray the city.


430
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:30,240
Just a few short days after
the Crusaders' emergency council,


431
00:35:30,240 --> 00:35:34,120
a small group of Bohemond's men
stole up to the foot


432
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:37,640
of an isolated section of the city's
south-eastern walls.


433
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:40,480
There, Firuz lowered a ladder.


434
00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:49,440
We know from eyewitness testimony
that these men must have been


435
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:53,600
absolutely terrified, most of them
expecting to be killed as soon as


436
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:55,320
they reached the top.


437
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:58,040
As it turned out,
they were able to despatch the guards


438
00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:01,840
at all the three surrounding towers
in almost complete silence,


439
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:05,480
and soon afterwards
a small gate was opened below.


440
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:13,160
The calm night air was suddenly
shattered, a shrill bugle sounded


441
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:16,440
to signal a wave of secondary
attacks on other parts of the city.


442
00:36:19,240 --> 00:36:22,400
And the Christians began screaming
out their battle cry,


443
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:24,360
"God wills it! God wills it!"


444
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:29,600
The Muslim garrison was thrown
into a state of utter confusion


445
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:32,240
and soon Antioch's remaining gates
were thrown open


446
00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:33,880
and the Crusaders poured in.


447
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:38,040
In the half light of dawn,
a chaotic slaughter began


448
00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:42,960
as the Crusaders unleashed
eight months of pent-up anger
and aggression.


449
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:58,280
This illumination depicts the fall
of Antioch on the 3rd of June 1098.


450
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:00,920
And I think it's
an absolutely remarkable image.


451
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:04,800
One Muslim is having a sword
stabbed through his chest.


452
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:07,840
Another is about to be decapitated.


453
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:12,840
And I find this image quite
troubling because in many ways
it's very beautiful.


454
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:16,440
The colour is extraordinary,
it looks as if it was painted


455
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:18,440
last week, not 800 years ago.


456
00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:22,200
But, at the same time, it's horrific.


457
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:25,280
And I think, in a way, this cuts to
the heart of the enigma


458
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:28,480
of the First Crusade and the Crusades
that would follow,


459
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,280
because this
is about violence that's enacted


460
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:33,280
in the context of Holy War.


461
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:41,640
And perhaps in that context the idea
that that violence might be sinful,


462
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,680
that it might be morally
wrong, has been erased.


463
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:47,000
Because this was now
the work of God.


464
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:56,120
Having spent eight months battling
to gain entry to Antioch,


465
00:37:56,120 --> 00:38:01,400
the Crusaders now found themselves
ensnared in a bizarre predicament.


466
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:10,960
The very next day, Kerbogha's
great army began to arrive.


467
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:15,120
The first Crusaders were now
trapped inside Antioch,


468
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,200
the besiegers had become
the besieged.


469
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:28,600
Kerbogha's ferocious army formed
a cordon around Antioch.


470
00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:36,600
Trapped inside a city already
bereft of supplies,


471
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:41,720
the Christians now faced
the greatest test of their faith.


472
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:45,920
Food very quickly ran short


473
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,320
and starvation became endemic.


474
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:50,360
It was said that the poor were forced


475
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:52,200
to eat the leather
of their own shoes,


476
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:56,360
while others drank the blood
from the few remaining horses
to sustain themselves.


477
00:38:56,360 --> 00:38:58,120
Many Crusaders now deserted.


478
00:38:58,120 --> 00:38:59,800
Lowering ropes from the walls,


479
00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,000
and escaping under cover of darkness,
these rope danglers,


480
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,600
as they came to be known,
included many well-known knights.


481
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:12,760
The Crusaders had
reached their lowest point.


482
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:15,880
Weakened by hunger, utterly
terrified of the enemy outside


483
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:20,840
baying for their blood, they were
in a state of total despair.


484
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:25,240
It seemed that the First Crusade
was about to end in disaster.


485
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:34,320
Surely only a miracle could save
the Christians now.


486
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:51,440
In mid-June 1098, a southern French
peasant named Peter Bartholomew
came forward,


487
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:55,200
announcing that he'd
experienced a series of visions.


488
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:57,440
In these, St Andrew revealed to him


489
00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:03,200
the resting place of an incredibly
powerful spiritual weapon -
the Holy Lance -


490
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:08,200
the very spear that had pierced
the side of Christ on the Cross.


491
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,520
Peter Bartholomew led
a group of Crusaders


492
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:26,280
to the basilica of St Peter's
in Antioch and began digging.


493
00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:32,000
One member of this party, Raymond
of Aguilers, described the scene.


494
00:40:36,240 --> 00:40:38,960
"We'd been digging until evening
when some of us


495
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:42,040
"began to give up
hope of unearthing the lance.


496
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:45,320
"But Peter Bartholomew, seeing
the exhaustion of our workers,


497
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:48,720
"stripped off his outer garments
and, clad only in a shirt


498
00:40:48,720 --> 00:40:51,200
"and bare-footed,
dropped into the hole"


499
00:40:56,520 --> 00:41:00,920
"He then begged us to pray to God,
to return his lance


500
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:03,640
"and bring strength and victory
to his people.


501
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:06,880
"Finally, the Lord showed us
his lance,


502
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:11,760
"and I kissed its point as it barely
protruded from the ground -


503
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:16,200
"what great joy
and exaltation filled the city."


504
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:28,600
What Peter Bartholomew supposedly
found was probably no more


505
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:31,400
than a small shard of metal.


506
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:38,080
But the idea that God might
manifest his will on Earth


507
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:43,440
through such sacred objects was part
and parcel of medieval Christianity.


508
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:46,440
And the ravings of
a religious fanatic


509
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:51,640
and the discovery of
such a significant relic


510
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:55,000
had the potential to reignite
the Crusaders' belief


511
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:56,560
in their holy mission.


512
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:02,360
Most accounts indicate that
the discovery of the Holy Lance had
an electrifying effect


513
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:04,200
on the Crusaders' state of mind.


514
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:09,480
Even though they were exhausted,
starving,


515
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:11,760
and facing seemingly
insurmountable odds,


516
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:15,720
this seemingly irrefutable
demonstration of divine support


517
00:42:15,720 --> 00:42:20,160
fired the Crusaders to take up arms
and confront Kerbogha head on.


518
00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:29,960
On that day,
they scored a miraculous victory,


519
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:32,320
driving Kerbogha's horde
from the field.


520
00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:41,000
Antioch was theirs, and the cult
of the Holy Lance was born -


521
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:45,440
a cult with the power to shape
the future of the Crusade.


522
00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:16,320
I've always been captivated
by the story of the Holy Lance


523
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:20,080
and for a long time I believed, like
everyone else, that the discovery


524
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:23,280
of this relic provided
an electrifying boost
to Crusader morale,


525
00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:26,320
sending them sprinting
out of Antioch to confront Kerbogha.


526
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:34,640
I'd come to Venice to see
perhaps the oldest surviving copy


527
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:38,440
of a chronicle
written by Matthew of Edessa,


528
00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:43,040
an Armenian historian who lived
during the time of the First Crusade.


529
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:46,120
It's really exciting to see
this manuscript.


530
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:52,000
Poised between the Western Christian
and Muslim perspectives,


531
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:55,760
Matthew's account offers
a more neutral version of events.


532
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:58,000
So this is the text.


533
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:00,800
So one of the reasons
that I've come here


534
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:05,760
is because Matthew Of Edessa offer us
a unique moment in his text


535
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:09,480
where he describes what's actually
happening in Antioch in June 1098.


536
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:12,080
Can you show us
that specific bit of evidence?


537
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:14,200
This is the part.


538
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:19,920
And could you read the section
actually in Armenian to me? Yes.


539
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:27,440
'The Franks became threatened with
a famine, because provisions


540
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:30,760
'in the city had long
become exhausted.


541
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:35,800
'More and more hard-pressed, they
resolved to obtain from Kerbogha


542
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:40,120
'a promise of amnesty on condition
that they deliver the city


543
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:44,120
'into his hands, and return
to their own country.'


544
00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:47,560
So Matthew's telling us
that the Crusaders


545
00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:50,680
in this month of June, that they
actually tried to negotiate


546
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:55,240
a surrender to be able to leave
Antioch - to give up effectively?


547
00:44:55,240 --> 00:45:00,640
Yes, yes. And, er...to have
his assurance


548
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:08,640
that they could turn to their home
in, er...Europe.


549
00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:19,240
For so long,


550
00:45:19,240 --> 00:45:22,120
the Crusaders' reaction to
the discovery of the Holy Lance


551
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:23,360
has been held up as proof


552
00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:25,720
of their unshakable,
almost blind, piety


553
00:45:25,720 --> 00:45:28,520
but if they did indeed try
to negotiate a surrender,


554
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:31,520
then we're left with
a very different image -


555
00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:35,560
one of medieval warriors
still wracked by fear and doubt.


556
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,920
For me, Matthew's account is
so important - because it allows us


557
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:42,840
to construct a more human and more
nuanced image of these Crusaders.


558
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:49,160
Kerbogha dismissed the Crusaders'
terms of surrender,


559
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:53,120
leaving the Christians
with a hopeless choice -


560
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:57,520
to die within the city
from starvation, or to die fighting.


561
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:05,520
In the end,
the Crusaders did undoubtedly


562
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:08,000
make an extraordinarily
brave decision -


563
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:10,280
to confront Kerbogha's hoard head on.


564
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:11,920
But they seem to have done so


565
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:14,960
not in a state
of ecstatic religious fervour


566
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:18,000
but in utter desperation,
expecting to die.


567
00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:25,520
The Christians fought with a primal
sense of desperation.


568
00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:30,920
Ironically, facing certain death,
with nothing to lose, they won...


569
00:46:32,680 --> 00:46:36,440
..defeating an enemy that turned out
to be anything but invincible.


570
00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:43,880
Far from being a united army,


571
00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:48,440
Kerbogha's force was actually a loose
and fragile coalition
of rival warlords,


572
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:53,480
each suspicious that Kerbogha himself
was hoping to use
the Crusader invasion


573
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:56,040
as a pretext to seize Antioch
as his own.


574
00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:59,240
That was why the Muslim army
shattered so readily


575
00:46:59,240 --> 00:47:01,760
when struck by the Christians charge,


576
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:03,920
retreating in headlong defeat.


577
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:10,840
For most Crusaders, the seemingly
miraculous victory over Kerbogha


578
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:13,600
was proof of the power
of the Holy Lance,


579
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:17,760
and the relic's most ardent advocate,
Raymond of Toulouse,


580
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:21,480
now asserted moral leadership
over the expedition.


581
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:25,840
But in the months that followed,


582
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:29,360
some of the Crusades' leaders became
increasingly greedy


583
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:30,760
for power and plunder.


584
00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:35,360
Bohemond remained to rule Antioch,


585
00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:40,360
and instead of driving on
to Jerusalem,
the expedition's holy goal,


586
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:45,240
Raymond insisted on pursuing further
conquests in Syria and Lebanon.


587
00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:59,720
For many Christians, these delays
were unforgivable.


588
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:05,840
Some even began to question
the authenticity of the Holy Lance,


589
00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:11,120
and the integrity of the increasingly
delusional fanatic who had found it.


590
00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:22,080
Facing a barrage of criticism,
Peter Bartholomew actually begged


591
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:26,080
to undergo a potentially lethal
trial by ordeal,


592
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:30,320
all to prove his own innocence and
the authenticity of the Holy Lance.


593
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:36,640
On 10th April 1099,


594
00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:39,560
outside the city of Arqa in Lebanon,


595
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:43,440
the peasant visionary began
to prepare for a dramatic trial,


596
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:47,840
the outcome of which would determine
the fate of the First Crusade.


597
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:55,760
Peter spent the next four days
fasting to purify his soul


598
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:57,520
and then on Good Friday,


599
00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:00,720
olive branches were stacked
into two pyres,


600
00:49:00,720 --> 00:49:04,640
four feet in height
and 13 feet in length.


601
00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:30,880
With the two pyres set alight,


602
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:34,240
wearing a simple tunic and bearing
the relic of the Holy Lance,


603
00:49:34,240 --> 00:49:38,880
Peter Bartholomew willingly
walked into the heart of the inferno.


604
00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:58,280
Some of Peter Bartholomew's
supporters later wrote


605
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:02,040
that he managed to emerge
miraculously from the flames
unscathed,


606
00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:05,760
and it was only subsequently
that a frenzied crowd mobbed him


607
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,160
and broke the bones of his body,


608
00:50:08,160 --> 00:50:11,280
but a very different story was
told by his opponents.


609
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:15,480
They recorded that he emerged
mortally wounded by burns.


610
00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:21,160
One thing's certain. The man who had
found the Holy Lance in Antioch


611
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:24,400
had died within 12 days
of his ordeal.


612
00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:31,720
The spell of the Holy Lance
was broken,


613
00:50:31,720 --> 00:50:36,200
and, with it, the reputation
of Raymond of Toulouse.


614
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:43,560
It was Godfrey of Bouillon
who emerged as the Crusade's
new leader,


615
00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:49,120
as after more than ten months
of delay the Christians advanced
with almost breakneck speed.


616
00:50:56,240 --> 00:51:01,440
Any thoughts of further
conquests in Lebanon
and Palestine were abandoned.


617
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:03,360
And just three weeks later,


618
00:51:03,360 --> 00:51:07,080
on Tuesday, 6th June,
in the year 1099,


619
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:08,880
after three years


620
00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:11,280
and more than 2,000 miles,


621
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:13,920
the First Crusade finally arrived


622
00:51:13,920 --> 00:51:17,720
at the spiritual centre
of the Christian cosmos.


623
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:34,480
Around 90% of those
who had set out from Western Europe


624
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:39,000
had been lost along the way,
either to death or desertion.


625
00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:45,160
For those few who managed to make it
this far,


626
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:50,600
the sight long-awaited
of Jerusalem must have been
incredibly moving.


627
00:51:50,600 --> 00:51:53,880
But it wasn't just
because the journey to get here


628
00:51:53,880 --> 00:51:56,200
had been so long and arduous -


629
00:51:56,200 --> 00:52:01,560
it was because this place was the
most sacred Christian site on Earth.


630
00:52:01,560 --> 00:52:07,200
It was the place in which Christ had
undergone his passion, his life,
his death,


631
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:11,160
and, perhaps most importantly of all,
his resurrection.


632
00:52:11,160 --> 00:52:14,080
Many Crusaders believed
that if they could conquer this city,


633
00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:17,560
it would become one
with the heavenly Jerusalem,


634
00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:20,320
a glorious Christian paradise.


635
00:52:27,080 --> 00:52:31,640
Jerusalem's walls,
and the Muslim garrison within,


636
00:52:31,640 --> 00:52:35,160
made it an even bigger obstacle
than Antioch.


637
00:52:36,600 --> 00:52:40,200
But for the Crusaders,
having come so far,


638
00:52:40,200 --> 00:52:42,920
defeat here was simply unthinkable.


639
00:52:45,160 --> 00:52:47,480
After a frantic six-week siege,


640
00:52:47,480 --> 00:52:50,880
Godfrey of Bouillon made
the decisive breakthrough,


641
00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:54,800
breaching the city's inner defences.


642
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:07,040
On the 15th July, 1099,


643
00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:11,160
the first Crusaders finally achieved
their long-cherished dream -


644
00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:13,560
the liberation of Jerusalem.


645
00:53:16,680 --> 00:53:21,200
Surging through these streets
in bloodthirsty ravening packs,


646
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:23,160
they overran the Holy City.


647
00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:31,480
Fuelled by three years
of unimaginable strife,


648
00:53:31,480 --> 00:53:33,360
privation and yearning,


649
00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:39,000
they unleashed a rampaging torrent
of barbaric
and indiscriminate slaughter.


650
00:53:45,040 --> 00:53:49,600
One Crusader joyfully reported
"With the fall of Jerusalem,


651
00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:52,120
"one could see many marvellous works.


652
00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:54,520
"Some pagans were
mercifully beheaded,


653
00:53:54,520 --> 00:53:58,040
"others pierced by arrows plunged
from towers, yet others,


654
00:53:58,040 --> 00:54:01,800
"tortured for a long time, were burnt
to death in searing flames".


655
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:06,280
Piles of heads, hands and feet
littered the streets,


656
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:10,520
and even the soldiers
carrying out the killing
could hardly bear the stench


657
00:54:10,520 --> 00:54:13,560
rising from the blood
lapping at their ankles.


658
00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:18,760
Jews as well as Muslims
were butchered.


659
00:54:18,760 --> 00:54:21,880
This was holy war in all its horror.


660
00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:30,120
Many Muslims fled to Jerusalem's
most hallowed ground,


661
00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:35,120
revered in Islam as the site
of Mohammed's ascent to heaven.


662
00:54:40,480 --> 00:54:43,000
But the Christian warriors
went after them,


663
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:47,040
cutting them down
as far as the famous Aqsa Mosque...


664
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:50,680
..where there was such a massacre


665
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:54,200
that the Crusaders were wading
through their enemies' blood.


666
00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:03,560
The massacre that took place


667
00:55:03,560 --> 00:55:08,800
on the streets of Jerusalem was not
simply a feral outpouring
of pent-up rage.


668
00:55:08,800 --> 00:55:13,280
Instead, it was a much more
calculated and prolonged campaign
of killing,


669
00:55:13,280 --> 00:55:15,880
that lasted at least two days.


670
00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:21,000
It left this city awash
with blood and strewn with corpses.


671
00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:29,960
In a moment that perfectly
encapsulated the Crusade's
extraordinary fusion


672
00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:31,720
of violence and faith...


673
00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:37,280
..at sunset on 15th July, 1099,


674
00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:41,560
the Crusaders, still covered in
their enemies' blood,


675
00:55:41,560 --> 00:55:45,240
gathered here in the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre,


676
00:55:45,240 --> 00:55:49,760
believed to be the site of Christ's
death and resurrection,


677
00:55:49,760 --> 00:55:51,840
to give thanks to their God.


678
00:55:57,400 --> 00:56:00,520
For us today,
the idea that the first Crusaders


679
00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:03,680
could present themselves
as faithful Christians,


680
00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:06,720
even as they carried out
acts of butchery


681
00:56:06,720 --> 00:56:10,480
might seem abhorrent,
almost incomprehensible.


682
00:56:13,440 --> 00:56:15,920
But if we want to understand
the first Crusaders,


683
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:19,600
then we have to try to see
the world as they saw it,


684
00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:24,720
to appreciate that they had
a distinctly medieval conception
of religion.


685
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:41,160
All the best eyewitness
and contemporary evidence


686
00:56:41,160 --> 00:56:44,320
indicates that they ardently
believed in what they were doing,


687
00:56:44,320 --> 00:56:49,280
that for them killing for Christ was
itself an act of devotion,


688
00:56:49,280 --> 00:56:53,400
an expression of faith
that would open the gates of heaven.


689
00:56:58,840 --> 00:57:04,480
Four years after Pope Urban II
delivered his dramatic call to arms,


690
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:07,080
the First Crusaders
had achieved their goal.


691
00:57:12,760 --> 00:57:18,120
Jerusalem was now undeniably
in the hands of Western Christians.


692
00:57:23,880 --> 00:57:27,200
The success of the first Crusades
stunned Christian Europe,


693
00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:31,000
and it became
the most widely-recorded event
of the Middle Ages.


694
00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:34,480
Contemporaries saw Jerusalem's
seemingly miraculous conquest


695
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:37,520
as an immutable proof
that their God did indeed want them


696
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:40,200
to embrace the idea of Holy War.


697
00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:42,760
This single moment
of Christian triumph


698
00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:46,880
would fuel enthusiasm for
the Crusades for centuries to come.


699
00:57:55,600 --> 00:57:59,440
But in the decades and centuries
that followed, Islam came to regard


700
00:57:59,440 --> 00:58:06,040
the sack of Jerusalem as the
central act of Crusader barbarity
and defilement.


701
00:58:09,320 --> 00:58:12,720
The Middle East was now locked into
a bitter struggle


702
00:58:12,720 --> 00:58:14,720
that would rage for 200 years,


703
00:58:14,720 --> 00:58:19,240
a conflict in which Muslims
would embrace the cause of Jihad,


704
00:58:19,240 --> 00:58:24,520
uniting in pursuit of vengeance
and the Holy Land's re-conquest.


705
00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:44,480
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd


706
00:58:44,480 --> 00:58:46,520
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