1. BATTLES AND SIEGES OF THE CRUSADES 1071-1192
A note on topography: The geography of the Middle East combines narrow strips of fertile land with huge mountain ranges and vast expanses of desert. Throughout history this has resulted in protracted war for possession of vital ‘choke points’ such as mountain passes and river crossings plus repeated sieges of the walled cities that dominate the fertile areas and the coast. The religious significance of many places, especially Jerusalem, also means that ground normally deemed strategically insignificant is often fought over ferociously. In these circumstances armies had a tendency to converge on each other unintentionally precipitating a much greater instance of battles in proportion to sieges than in Europe, where battles were very much the exception. The combination of closed and open ground also meant that the Crusader tactics of close order battle and the Muslim techniques of manoeuvre meant that neither side had an inherent advantage over the other. Victory in such circumstances invariably belonged to the side that made better use of the landscape, be it desert (Saladin’s victory at Hattin in 1187) or mountain (Baldwin IV’s victory at Montgisard in 1177).

2. CAUSES OF THE CRUSADE BATTLE OF MANZIKERT 1071 CAUSES OF THE CRUSADE
PROTAGONISTS: 70,000 BYZANTINES (EMP. ROMANOS IV DIOGENES), 30-40,000 SELJUK TURKS (ALP ARSLAN)
RESULT: DECISIVE SELJUK VICTORY
BACKGROUND: The culmination of a 50 year frontier war between Byzantines and an expansionist Seljuk empire.
KEY EVENTS: Seljuk hit-and-run and envelopment tactics led to the separation of the Byzantine army's units and its defeat in detail plus the first ever capture of a Byzantine Emperor.
CONSEQUENCES: The destruction of the professional core of the Byzantine army and the humiliation of Romanos IV who was freed by Alp Arslan soon after the battle. Recriminations in Constantinople led to civil war and the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in Asia, a catastrophe which lost the empire its greatest military recruiting grounds and tax base. It led ultimately to the fall of Nicea in 1081 and the establishment of the Sultanate of Rum which directly threatened Constantinople.
CAUSES OF THE CRUSADE
BATTLE OF DYRRACHIUM 1081
PROTAGONISTS: 20,000 BYZANTINES (EMP. ALEXIUS I COMNENOS), 20,000 NORMAS (ROBERT GUISCARD)
RESULT: DECISIVE NORMAN VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Encroachment of the Normans into Muslim Sicily, Byzantine southern Italy and finally invasion of the Byzantine Balkans.
KEY EVENTS: Alexius’ sound battle plan collapsed when the wings of his army charged the Normans without permission leading to the destruction of the army in an early use of the Norman couched lance charge. Casualties included almost the entire Varangian Guard.
CONSEQUENCES: Guiscard’s victory briefly threatened the Byzantine’s surviving European territories. The following year Gusicard and a part of the Norman army was drawn into a war on the Italian peninsula enabling Alexios to defeat the remainder at Larissa and recover his territory. However Dyrrachium convinced Alexios not only that his resources were insufficient to recover his empire but also impressed upon him the military capabilities of western Europe. From 1090 therefore he entered into negotiations with the Papacy that would culminate in the despatch of the First Crusade.

3. SIEGE OF NICEA MAY-JUNE 1087
PEOPLES’ CRUSADE
BATTLE OF CIVETOT 1096
PROTAGONISTS: 20-60,000 CRUSADER PEASANTS (GEOFFREY BUREL), 5,000 SELJUK TURKS (KILIJ ARSLAN)
RESULT: DECISIVE SELJUK VICTORY
BACKGROUND: In a prequel to the First Crusade, tens of thousands of peasants under the leadership of Peter the Hermit had converged on Constantinople where a bemused Alexios I ferried them into Anatolia
KEY EVENTS: The Seljuks ambushed the Peoples’ Crusade at a time of divided leadership – Peter was in Constantinople arranging supplies. The Seljuks ambushed them in a narrow wooded valley and most were slaughtered. Burel and 3,000 men were eventually rescued by the Byzantines and formed the Tafur contingent of the First Crusade.
CONSEQUENCES: The easy victory made the Seljuks complacent and contemptuous of Crusader military capabilities. As a result they failed to reinforce their garrisons in Anatolia with disastrous results.
FIRST CRUSADE
SIEGE OF NICEA MAY-JUNE 1087
PROTAGONISTS: 30-40,000 CRUSADERS AND 2,000 BYZANTINES (GODFREY DE BOUILLION, BOHEMOND OF TOULOUSE, TATIAKOS), 10,000 SELJUKS (KILIJ ARSLAN)
RESULT: SELJUK SURRENDER TO BYZANTINES
BACKGROUND: The first target of the joint Byzantine-Crusader offensive to recover Anatolia, the former besieged the city via the lake alongside it and the latter on land.
KEY EVENTS: The Crusaders were hampered by a lack of heavy artillery, as they would be in subsequent sieges. The stalemate was resolved when the Byzantines concluded a separate peace, allowing the Seljuks to evacuate and taking possession of the city undamaged.
CONSEQUENCES: Nicea served as a hub for the Byzantine reconquest of western Anatolia, but at the cost of the goodwill of the Crusaders who believed any negotiations with Muslims to be treason.

4. FIRST BATTLE OF DORYLEUM 1 JULY 1097
FIRST CRUSADE
FIRST BATTLE OF DORYLEUM
1 JULY 1097
PROTAGONISTS: 20,000 CRUSADER (BOHEMOND OF TARANTO),30-8,000 SELJUK TURKS (KILIJ ARSLAN)
RESULT: DECISIVE CRUSADER VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Following the fall of Nicea, the main body of the Crusader army split into two columns and advanced into the heartland of Anatolia. Kilij Arslan attempted to destroy the vanguard led by Bohemond in isolation when it was encamped at Doryleum.
KEY EVENTS: The Seljuks surrounded Bohemond’s forces shooting a hail of arrows. The Crusaders successfully repelled this by means of a shield wall until reinforcements arrived and crushed the Seljuk formations by means of coordinated charges
CONSEQUENCES: This victory effectively led to the collapse of Seljuk power in western Anatolia enabling it to be reclaimed by the Byzantines. The Crusaders were able to march southwards and lay siege to Antioch unopposed.
FIRST CRUSADE
SIEGE OF ANTIOCH
OCT JUNE 1098
PROTAGONISTS: C. 20,000 CRUSADERS AND C. 2,000 BYZANTINES (GODFREY DE BOUILLION, BOHEMOND OF TOULOUSE, TATIAKOS), 10,000 SELJUK DEFENDERS (YAGHI SIYAN)
RESULT: CAPTURE OF CITY BY CRUSADERS (BUT NOT CITADEL)
BACKGROUND: The huge fortress city of Antioch was the principle obstacle between Anatolia and the Holy Land. Kilij Arslan had withdrawn to Mesopotamia to gather a large army leaving the city’s garrison to face the Crusaders alone.
KEY EVENTS: The Crusaders’ lack of heavy artillery caused the siege to stagnate. Convinced that they were doomed, Alexios withdraw all supplies from the defenders. Eventually the city fell through treachery, although the garrison retired to the citadel.
CONSEQUENCES: Alexios’ action fully divorced the Crusaders from the Byzantines, the former would now act independently. The capture of Antioch was followed by the arrival of Kilij Arslan’s army leaving the besiegers besieged.

5. FIRST CRUSADE BATTLE OF ANTIOCH 28 JUNE 1098 FIRST CRUSADE
PROTAGONISTS: 20,000 CRUSADERS (RAYMOND OF AGUILERS, TANCRED), ,000 SELJUK TURKS (KILIJ ARSLAN)
RESULT: DECISIVE CRUSADER VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Hugely outnumbered and facing starvation within the walls of Antioch, the disheartened Crusaders were boosted by the apparent discovery of the Holy Lance by Peter Bartholomew. They therefore marched out to confront the Seljuks.
KEY EVENTS: In a state of religious ecstasy, the Crusaders rapidly advanced to contact with the Seljuks whose army split into component parts and collapsed.
CONSEQUENCES: Seljuk power in western Asia Minor was broken and surviving garrisons surrendered soon afterwards. The Fatimids exploited Seljuk weakness by reoccupying the Holy Land. The Crusaders, now utterly convinced of victory, marched south.
FIRST CRUSADE
SIEGE OF JERUSALEM
JUNE- JULY 1099
PROTAGONISTS: C. 10,000 CRUSADERS (GODFREY DE BOUILLION, TANCRED, RAYMOND OF ST GILES), C. 5,000 SELJUK DEFENDERS (IFTKHA AL-DAWLA)
RESULT: CAPTURE OF CITY BY CRUSADERS, GENOCIDE
BACKGROUND: Perhaps 10% of the original Crusaders reached and besieged Jerusalem. The discovery of a large quantity of wood by Tancred enabled the construction of two large siege towers.
KEY EVENTS: Assaults were mounted simultaneously on two sides of the city leading to its fall. Tancred saved al-Dawla and his officers but the rest of the population was massacred by Crusaders consumed by uncontrollable religious zealotry – as many as 80,000 died.
CONSEQUENCES: Formal foundation of the Crusader kingdoms and a terrible legacy of bloodshed which would taint future Crusader relations with their new neighbours. In the short term the Fatimids despatched a relief force from Egypt to retake the city.

6. PREQUEL TO SECOND CRUSADE FALL OF EDESSA 1144-1159
FIRST CRUSADE
BATTLE OF ASCALON
28 JUNE 1098
PROTAGONISTS: 10,000 CRUSADERS (GODFREY DE BOUILLON), C. 50,000 FATIMIDS (AL-AFDAL SHANASHAH)
RESULT: DECISIVE CRUSADER VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Following the fall of Jerusalem, the Fatimid's major base in the Holy Land was the port of Ascalon. Shahanashah advanced from Egypt through the Sinai Desert to reinforce the city as a preliminary to recapturing the Holy Land. Godfrey led the Crusader army to confront them now bearing the True Cross as well as the Holy Lance.
KEY EVENTS: The battle took the form of a frontal assault in which superior Crusader morale and armour shattered the Fatimid army, driving it back into the Sinai and leaving Ascalon isolated.
CONSEQUENCES: With the capture of the Holy Land essentially complete, most of the Crusaders returned home, leaving Godfrey to begin constituting a new state and a new army. Ascalon fell a few years later.
PREQUEL TO SECOND CRUSADE
FALL OF EDESSA
PROTAGONISTS: UNKNOWN NUMBER OF ARMY OF EDESSA (COUNT JOSCELIN II) UNKNOWN NUMBER OF ZENGID TURKS (ZENGI)
RESULT: FALL OF CRUSADER STATE OF EDESSA
BACKGROUND: The most exposed and underpopulated of the Crusaders states, Edessa was subject to Turkish raids from its inception.
KEY EVENTS: In 1144 the Turkish ruler Zengi exploited the absence of Joscelin II with his army to capture the city of Edessa. Over the next 15 years the fortresses and cities of Edessa were systematically besieged and captured making the principality of Antioch vulnerable in turn.
CONSEQUENCES: The fall of Edessa precipitated the calling of the Second Crusade. The Zengids were temporarily checked by the assassination of Zengi himself in 1174, but in due course the as-Din dynasty would unite the Muslim neighbours of the Crusader states against them.

7. SECOND BATTLE OF DORYLEUM 25 OCTOBER 1147
SECOND CRUSADE
SECOND BATTLE OF DORYLEUM
25 OCTOBER 1147
PROTAGONISTS: 20,000 GERMAN CRUSADERS (CONRAD III OF HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE), UNKNOWN NUMBER OF SELJUKS (MESUD I)
RESULT: DECISIVE SELJUKVICTORY
BACKGROUND: The German Crusaders had advanced overland via the Byzantine Empire. Ferried into Asia by the Byzantine navy, they followed the same route into the Anatolian highlands as their forebears in the First Crusade.
KEY EVENTS: Sultan Mesud I laid an ambush in a wooded valley close to the old battlefield of Doryleum. Trapped in an arrow storm, all but 2,000 of Conrad’s army were killed.
CONSEQUENCES: Deprived of the bulk of his army, Conrad amalgamated his surviving forces with the French and headed south to the Crusader kingdoms. The loss of the sizeable German contingent was a key factor behind the failure of the Second Crusade at the siege of Damascus the following year.
SECOND CRUSADE
SIEGE OF DAMASCUS
JULY 1148
PROTAGONISTS: 50,000 CRUSADERS (BALDWIN III OF JERUSALEM, CONRAD III OF HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, LOUIS VII OF FRANCE), UNKNOWN NUMBER OF ZENGIDS AS GARRISON AND ARMY (MUIN AD-DIN UNUR (CITY), NUR AD-DIN (ARMY))
RESULT: DECISIVE ZENGID VICTORY
BACKGROUND: AFTER THE COUNCIL OF ANTIOCH THE RULERS OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, FRANCE AND JERUSALEM REOSLVED TO DIVERT THEIR OFFENSIVE FROM ODESSA TO THE ZENGID FORTRESS CITY OF DAMASCUS.
KEY EVENTS: THE CRUSADERS’ ADVANCE WAS HAMPERED BY A FIGHTING WITHDRAWL AMONGST THE ORCHARDS OF DAMASCUS, FOLLWING WHICH THEY BECAME TRAPPED BETWEEN THE CITY WALLS AND AN ADVANCING ZENGID RELEIF ARMY. THEY RETREATED TO THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM LEAVING A TRAIL OF DEAD AND WOUNDED IN THEIR WAKE.
CONSEQUENCES: RECRIMMINATION AMONGST THE CRUSADER LEADERS WHICH BROUGHT THE SECOND CRUSADE TO A PREMATURE CLOSE. THE ZENGIDS BUILT UPON THEIR VICTORY TO CONTINUE THEIR POLICY OF UNIFICATION OF THE MUSLIM MIDDLE EAST.

8. CRUSADER KINGDOMS INVASIONS OF EGYPT 1154-69 CRUSADER KINGDOMS
PROTAGONISTS: ARMY OF JERUSALEM AND BYZANTINES (AMALRIC I), FATIMIDS (VIZIER SHAWAR), ZENGIDS (NUR-AD DIN AND SALADIN)
RESULT: DECISIVE ZENGID VICTORY
BACKGROUND: The fall of Fatimid Ascalon in 154 and a series of weak Fatimid Sultans prompted Amalric to invade Egypt by land and sea four times with the support of the Byzantine navy, his aim being to prevent Zengid domination of Egypt which would complete the encirclement of the Crusader kingdoms.
KEY EVENTS: The joint Crusader/Byzantine force seized parts of the fertile Nile delta and the capital Cairo but was ultimately driven out by Syrian Zengids who also executed the Crusaders’ ally Vizier Shawar.
CONSEQUENCES: The cost of the failed campaigns nearly bankrupted the Crusader kingdoms whilst the elevation of Saladin to the sultanate of Egypt completed the encirclement. In 1174 Nur ad-Din died and Saladin united all of the Muslim Middle East under his command. He immediately began to attack the Crusader kingdoms.
CRUSADER KINGDOMS
BATTLE OF MONTGISARD
25 NOVEMBER 1177
PROTAGONISTS: C. 8,000 ARMY OF JERUSALEM (BALDWIN IV) C.30,000 AYUBBIDS (SALADIN)
RESULT: DECISIVE CRUSADER VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Following the unification of the Crusader kingdoms’ Muslim neighbours in 1174, their leader Saladin launched a series of probing attacks from Egypt and Syria
KEY EVENTS: Saladin’s army was surprised in camp in the foothills of the mountain Montgisard. Driven against the mountain by the Crusaders’ couched lance charges, most of Saladin's army was annihilated. Saladin himself barely escaped with perhaps 10% of his army into Egypt.
CONSEQUENCES: The Zengid threat to the kingdom of Jerusalem was temporarily averted, Saladin ceased to attack through the mountainous border regions of the kingdom and instead moved his forces further north towards the border with Tripoli. Baldwin rushed to complete the defences on this border with the construction of Jacob’s Ford Castle.

9. CRUSADER KINGDOMS BATTLE OF MARJ AYYUN 10 JUNE 1179 CRUSADER KINGDOMS
PROTAGONISTS: UNKNOWN NUMBERS OF THE ARMY OF JERUSALEM (BALDWIN IV) AND THE AYUBBIDS (SALADIN)
RESULT: SIGNIFICANT AYUBBID VICTORY
BACKGROUND: After his victory at Montgisard, Baldwin IV wanted to push beyond the north eastern frontiers of Jerusalem to create a ‘buffer zone’ against Saladin
KEY EVENTS: After an initially successful strike on Saladin’s raiding cavalry, the Crusaders became complacent and were successfully assaulted by Saladin having allowed a gap to form between their cavalry and infantry. Baldwin managed to extricate most of the army and retreat, at the cost of leaving the unfinished castle of Jacob’s Ford at Saladin’s mercy.
CONSEQUENCES: Saladin swiftly besieged and captured Jacob’s Ford, creating a weakness in Crusader frontier defences. Baldwin was planning a series of limited defensive battles to regain it when he died of leprosy in 1185.
CRUSADER KINGDOMS
BATTLE OF HATTIN
4 JULY 1187
PROTAGONISTS: 20,000 ARMY OF JERUSALEM (GUY DE LUSIGNAN) 30,000 AYUBBIDS (SALADIN)
RESULT: DECISIVE AYUBBID VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Guy de Lusignan, husband of Baldwin IV’s successor Sybilla was less cautious than his predecessor. Saladin successfully lured him out of the cover of high ground by besieging the isolated Crusader town of Tiberias.
KEY EVENTS: Concealing his army between the twin peaks of the Horns of Hattin, Saladin managed to trap the Army of Jerusalem in the desert between water supplies. Surrounded, plagued by thirst and arrows, almost all the Crusader army either died or surrendered, including Guy.
CONSEQUENCES: Jerusalem was left almost defenceless. After a brief siege the garrison under Balian of Ibelin surrendered and Saladin spared them death or slavery. Most of the rest of the kingdom’s fortresses and towns surrendered and by 1189 most of the Crusader States’ land had been captured.

10. CRUSADER KINGDOMS BATTLE OF MARJ AYYUN 10 JUNE 1179 CRUSADER KINGDOMS
PROTAGONISTS: UNKNOWN NUMBERS OF THE ARMY OF JERUSALEM (BALDWIN IV) AND THE AYUBBIDS (SALADIN)
RESULT: SIGNIFICANT AYUBBID VICTORY
BACKGROUND: After his victory at Montgisard, Baldwin IV wanted to push beyond the north eastern frontiers of Jerusalem to create a ‘buffer zone’ against Saladin
KEY EVENTS: After an initially successful strike on Saladin’s raiding cavalry, the Crusaders became complacent and were successfully assaulted by Saladin having allowed a gap to form between their cavalry and infantry. Baldwin managed to extricate most of the army and retreat, at the cost of leaving the unfinished castle of Jacob’s Ford at Saladin’s mercy.
CONSEQUENCES: Saladin swiftly besieged and captured Jacob’s Ford, creating a weakness in Crusader frontier defences. Baldwin was planning a series of limited defensive battles to regain it when he died of leprosy in 1185.
CRUSADER KINGDOMS
BATTLE OF HATTIN
4 JULY 1187
PROTAGONISTS: 20,000 ARMY OF JERUSALEM (GUY DE LUSIGNAN) 30,000 AYUBBIDS (SALADIN)
RESULT: DECISIVE AYUBBID VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Guy de Lusignan, husband of Baldwin IV’s successor Sybilla was less cautious than his predecessor. Saladin successfully lured him out of the cover of high ground by besieging the isolated Crusader town of Tiberias.
KEY EVENTS: Concealing his army between the twin peaks of the Horns of Hattin, Saladin managed to trap the Army of Jerusalem in the desert between water supplies. Surrounded, plagued by thirst and arrows, almost all the Crusader army either died or surrendered, including Guy.
CONSEQUENCES: Jerusalem was left almost defenceless. After a brief siege the garrison under Balian of Ibelin surrendered and Saladin spared them death or slavery. Most of the rest of the kingdom’s fortresses and towns surrendered and by 1189 most of the Crusader States’ land had been captured.

11. THIRD CRUSADE SIEGE OF TYRE JULY-DECEMBER 1187 THIRD CRUSADE
PROTAGONISTS: UNKNOWN NUMBERS OF ARMY OF JERUSALEM (CONRAD DE MONTFERRAT) PLUS 17 WARSHIPS, AND AYUBBIDS (SALADIN) PLUS 10 WARSHIPS
RESULT: CRUSADER VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Adventurer Conrad de Montferrat arrived in Tyre from the Byzantine Empire to find the city on the verge of surrendering to Saladin. By sheer force of personality he gained control of the defence and defied the Ayubbids.
KEY EVENTS: Conrad led an active defence including sallies against Ayubbid artillery. Accordingly Saladin transferred his effort to an assault by sea which was defeated and the Ayubbid fleet destroyed. This disaster convinced Saladin to abandon the siege.
CONSEQUENCES: The preservation of Tyre gave the Crusaders a vital port which relief forces from Europe could sail to. As the first victory since Hattin, it also breathed life into a Crusader cause tottering on the edge of despair and elevated Conrad de Montferrat’s status to the extent that he was nominated king of Jerusalem.
THIRD CRUSADE
SIEGE OF ACRE
AUGUST 1189-JULY 1191
PROTAGONISTS: INITIALLY 3,000 ARMY OF JERUSALEM AND GERMAN CRUSADERS (GUY DE LUSIGNAN AND LEOPLOD OF AUSTRIA), LATER 25,000 + ENGLISH AND FRENCH CRUSADERS (RICHARD I AND PHILLIP II), 6,000 GARRISON OF ACRE AND 20,000 RELIEF FORCE (SALADIN)
RESULT: CRUSADER VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Having secured Tyre the survivors of the Kingdom of Jerusalem pushed south to besiege Acre, the intention being to use it as a base fir a reoccupation of the coastal plain of the kingdom of Jerusalem.
KEY EVENTS: Lacking inadequate numbers to fully surround the city and artillery with which to breach the walls, the Crusaders initially made little progress and were in turn contravallated by a relief army under Saladin. French and English Crusaders arriving by sea in 1191 broke the impasse, bringing 12 trebuchets with them which swiftly opened a breach in the city’s walls leading to its surrender in July 1191.
CONSEQUENCES: The capture of Acre gave Richard I the prestige to unite the Crusader armies under his command and a base from which he could mount his invasion of the coast of the Holy Land in August 1191.

12. THIRD CRUSADE BATTLE OF ARSUF 7 SEPT 1191 THIRD CRUSADE
PROTAGONISTS: C. 20,000 EUROPEAN CRUSADERS, ARMY OF JERUSALEM (RICHARD I) C.30,000 AYUBBIDS (SALADIN)
RESULT: DECISIVE CRUSADER VICTORY
BACKGROUND: Following the capture of Acre, Richard I led the Crusader army south reoccupying the coastal plain of the Holy Land, keeping in close contact with supply ships. They were subject to constant harassing attacks by the Ayubbids.
KEY EVENTS: Saladin’s attempt to isolate the Hospitallar rearguard of the Crusader army triggered a general engagement in which Richard skilfully coordinated three separate assaults on the Ayubbid army, trapping and destroying a portion of it and driving the rest to flight.
CONSEQUENCES: Victory gave Richard control of the coast of the Crusader kingdoms, remaining cities swiftly fell under his control and the Kingdom of Jerusalem was re-established. Saladin withdrew to defend the approaches to Jerusalem itself.
THIRD CRUSADE
BATTLE OF JAFFA
8 AUGUST 1192
PROTAGONISTS: GARRISON OF JAFFA PLUS C.3,000 CRUSADERS (RICHARD I), 7-10,000 AYUBBIDS (SALADIN)
BACKGROUND: A stalemate had emerged between Richard and Saladin by 1192, the former in control of the coast but lacking the manpower to advance on Jerusalem. Saladin attempted to break this state in July 1192 by assaulting Jerusalem’s port, Jaffa.
KEY EVENTS: Richard arrived by sea with a small army to find the Ayubbids in the process of capturing Jaffa. He immediately launched an amphibious assault creating confusion, panic and flight amongst the Ayubbids.
CONSEQUENCES: Crusader control of the coast was confirmed by Richard’s victory at Jaffa. This prompted Saladin to open truce negotiations by which he recognised the restored Kingdom of Jerusalem and allowed access to the city for Christian pilgrims. Richard departed soon after, bringing the Third Crusade to a close.