First In 1096, a number of armed bodies set out in different divisions. Many of these hosts were unamenable to military dis cipline, and, being unprovided with even the necessaries for such an expedition, were prac tically completely destroyed in the different countries through which they had to pass before reaching Constantinople, which had been chosen for their place of meeting. Only a few strag glers found their way home again or succeeded in maintaining themselves for a time until the arrival of the more regularly organized bodies of troops which set out the next year. With this body were most of the distinguished men whose names are associated with this first great chivalric effort to redeem the Holy Land from the infidel. At the head of nearly 100,000 men were Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lower Lor raine; Hugh of Vermandois, brother to Philip, king of France; Baldwin, brother of Godfrey.; Robert II of Flanders; Robert II of Normandy, brother of William II, king of England; Ray mond of Toulouse ; Bohemond of Tarentum, son of Robert Guiscard; Tancred of Apulia, cousin of Bohemond; and other heroes. Tancred is the hero of whom so many poets have sung. He was what Chaucer called °the type of the very gentle perfect knight." It is this first crusade that has formed the subject of Tasso's 'Jerusa lem Delivered,' and the poem owed not little of its interest to the fact that it was written while the victory at Lepanto was fresh in the mind of the poet and still well remembered by his readers, for, while the crusades are considered to end with the last quarter of the 13th century, the gathering of the naval force that overcame the Turks under Don John of Austria was really the result of the crusading spirit.
The various armies of the First Crusade gath ered at Constantinople about Christmas 1096. Here they were delayed for some time by the diplomacy of the Greek emperor, who wished to be assured that the immense forces which had come partly as the result of his own request for aid would not prove the ruin of his tottering empire. About Pentecost, 1097, the Crusaders crossed over to Asia by the Strait of Gallipoli, and their first conquest was the town of Nicea in June 1097. Shortly after this, on 4 July, the Crusaders met an Eastern arjny in pitched battle for the first time, at Dorylaeum, and routed and put it to flight. The crusading army now marched through Asia Minor until they reached Antioch. They would probably have been long delayed in the siege of this town but for treach ery which threw it into their hands in June 1098. The citadel, however, remained in possession of the Turkish garrison. Before they captured it, they themselves had to stand siege in Antioch from a Turkish army which surrounded the town soon after its capture. After three weeks of siege the Crusaders were reduced to a very pitiable condition, but on 28 June they made a vigorous sortie and succeeded, in spite of their famished and exhausted condition, in completely routing the Turkish besiegers. The Crusaders
remained nearly a year in the neighborhood of Antioch and only in May 1099 was the march against Jerusalem begun. The siege of the city was commenced early in June. Finally, after six weeks of a fierce siege, the city was captured by a two days' storming, on 15 July. Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen king of Jerusalem, but humbly refused to wear the king's crown on the spot where the Saviour of the world had worn a crown of thorns. He accepted as his designa tion instead of king that of Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. ter scarcely a year of sov ereignty, however, he died in 1100 and was suc ceeded by his brother Baldwin. Baldwin had separated from the main army of the Crusaders while it was in camp in the neighborhood of Antioch and had proceeded to Edessa. This city was in possession of a Christian prince, who was able to maintain himself only with diffi culty against the Mohammedans. Baldwin con cluded a treaty by which he agreed to aid this prince against the Mohammedans on, condition that he himself should be his successor on his death. This treaty was made in February 1098, and, as the Prince of Edessa was killed soon after in a popular insurrection, Baldwin asserted effectually his claims to succeed him and soon made himself ruler of an extensive territory stretching even beyond the Armenian Moue tains and the plain of Mesopotamia. He was accordingly his brother's natural successor- as the ruler in Palestine.
Second Crusade.— In 1144 the Saracens re captured Edessa. This produced great coaster nation throughout Europe, because it was feared that the other acquisitions made by the Chris+ tiaras during the First Crusade would also faU once more into the hands of the infidels. As a result, Pope Eugenius III called upon Saint Ber+ nard of Clairvanx to preach the Second Crusade. The two leaden of the expedition were the German emperor, Conrad III, and the king of France, Louis VII. They collected about 140,• 000 men and in 1147 led them to the East. Not+ withstanding the enthusiasm with which this crusade had been entered upon, for it is recorded that after Bernard's sermon, it happened more than once, that enough crosses not having been provided for all those who wished to assume the cross, that is, to promise to go on the ctn. sade, Bernard had to cut up his garments in order to supply them, the army failed of its purpose of recapturing Edessa, and indeed only served by its presence still further to weaken the already almost tottering kingdom The crusading. armies returned toEuropein 1149 and it was nearly 50 years before any other attempt was made to diminish the domina+ tion of the Saracens.