Kat Cendana – Page 16 – Amazing Bible Timeline with World History

Posted on April 26, 2017April 26, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Kublai Khan Ruled China

Apart from his grandfather Genghis Khan, no other Mongol ruler matched the accomplishments of Kublai Khan. His branch of the Mongol royal family was not expected to rule. But because of his strength and intelligence, Kublai became the Mongols’ Great Khan. Khublai Khan ruled China as its first Mongol Emperor in 1271 after he defeated the Southern Song Dynasty. He then established the Yuan Dynasty which ruled China from 1271 to 1368. Kublai Khan is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History between 1234-1305.

The Mongol Conquest From Genghis Khan to Kublai Khan

When Kublai was born in 1215, Genghis Khan had already conquered the Jin Dynasty of Northern China. At that time, the Mongols were also the undisputed masters of Asia and to some extent, Russia. The Mongol Empire stretched from Korea to Iraq, while their armies even ventured as far as Eastern Europe. They also destroyed the Abbasid Dynasty in 1258 and ended the Khwarezmian Dynasty of Persia in 1220.

The whole family disagreed on which son would inherit the role of Khagan (Great Khan) when he died in 1227. Because of the disagreement, it took the Mongols two years before they elected Genghis’s third son Ogedei as his successor. This compromise also led to the division of the Mongol Empire. Batu, Genghis’ grandson through Jochi, became the ruler of the Golden Horde in Russia and West Asia. Chagatai, Genghis Khan’s second son, ruled Central Asia. Tolui, Kublai’s father and youngest of Genghis’ sons, ruled the northern part of China and their Mongolian homeland.

In 1234, Ogedei completely crushed the Jin resistance in Northern China. The Mongols then turned Korea, Armenia, Georgia, Tibet, and Russia into tributaries. They even ventured as far as Poland and Hungary in 1241. They later withdrew and hurried back to Mongolia when Ogedei died on December 11, 1241.

Early Life

Kublai Khan was born on September 23, 1215. Kublai’s father was Tolui. He was Genghis Khan’s youngest son, by his Keraite wife, Sorghaghtani Beki. His brothers were Mongke, Hulagu, and Ariq Boke. Little is known about his early life as they were just another branch of the royal family and were not expected to rule the Mongols.

Sorghaghtani Beki and Her Sons

The Christian Keraite princess Sorghaghtani Beki was one of the most prominent women who married into Genghis Khan’s family. Kublai’s father, Tolui, was always away on military campaigns, so she was left to raise her four boys without him. She was also responsible for their education, and she made sure that her sons learned how to ride, shoot, and hunt at a young age. Kublai also learned how to read and write Mongolian because of his mother’s insistence. The boy, however, never learned to read and write Chinese, so he had to rely on interpreters and translators for much of his reign as emperor.

Tolui died of alcoholism between 1231 and 1232. The Mongol Khagan Ogedei offered to arrange the marriage between his widowed sister-in-law and his own son Guyuk. Sorghaghtani, however, politely declined the Kagan’s offer. She told Ogedei that she would rather devote her time to her sons.

Kubli_Kahn — “The Yuan Dynasty of China, c. 1294”

Kublai as a Young Mongol Ruler

Sorghaghtani later asked Ogedei to give her an appanage (a piece of land). This request was granted in 1236. Ogedei gave her Zhengding County in Hubei Province. It was ruled by her son Kublai soon after. Kublai also received his own land to rule in Hubei later on. However, he stayed in Mongolia, so he was unaware that his Mongol administrators oppressed the Chinese farmers who lived in his appanage. The Chinese farmers were forced to leave the area because of the oppression and settled in areas where Mongols did not rule.

When Kublai learned of the situation in his appanage, he immediately replaced the corrupt Mongol administrators with Chinese officials. He also reformed the administration to ease the farmers’ burden. By 1240, many of those who left returned to their own land and worked as farmers again.

Kublai had four principal wives, but it was his second wife and chief consort named Chabi who became influential in his court. He married her before 1240, and she gave birth to their oldest son, Dorji, in 1241. It was also the year when the Khagan Ogedei died. Ogedei wanted his grandson Shiremun to succeed him as Khagan. But his wife, Toregene Khatun, wanted the Mongols to elect her son Guyuk. While he was away on a military campaign, Toregene bribed and schemed so her son would get elected as Khagan. However, she fell out of favor with some Mongol ruling families because of her schemes.

Sorghaghtani also worked hard to maneuver her sons to success. She became friends with Guyuk’s enemy, Batu Khan of the Golden Horde of Russia. However, this was not powerful enough to challenge her sister-in-law. Guyuk finally became Khagan in 1246, and the Mongols under his rule continued to expand their domain in Asia and Europe.

In 1247, the hostility between Batu Khan and Guyuk came to a head. Guyuk gathered his men and headed west to attack Batu. When Sorghaghtani learned of his plans, she immediately sent messengers to Batu to tell him of Guyuk’s plan, but the khagan died on the way. Her loyalty pleased Batu Khan. He assured her afterward that he would support one of her sons as the next khagan in the Mongol assembly.

Batu and the other Mongol rulers hurried back to their homeland to elect a new khagan in 1251. Although it was not without opposition, the Mongol leaders elected Kublai’s brother Mongke as the new khagan. Sorghaghtani died in early 1252. Her sons honored her with a commemorative tablet in Beijing. They also had her portrait displayed in a Nestorian church in Mongolia.

The Rise of the Tolui’s Sons

The fight for the position of khagan continued as the sons of Ogedei and Chagatai did not acknowledge Mongke as khagan. Guyuk’s widow, Oghul Qaimish, also sided with the rival faction. Mongke was swift in getting rid of opposition, and he ordered the execution of many of them, including Guyuk’s widow. As a typical Mongol ruler, Mongke was tolerant of other religions. He also lowered taxes and expanded the Mongol realm. Some of his most important achievements were the fall of the Ismaili sect known as the Order of the Assassins in Persia and the Sack of Baghdad. His younger brother, Hulagu, was promoted as commander of the Mongol army because of these conquests.

Mongke prepared an invasion against the Southern Song as early as 1252. He assigned his younger brother, Kublai, as commander of the army that would besiege Hangzhou, the capital of Southern Song. The brothers knew that a direct attack from the north would not weaken the Southern Song. So they tried to soften the eastern and southwestern fronts of the Empire. Their first target was the Kingdom of Dali.

The Dali Campaign

One of Kublai’s most reliable general in the Dali campaign was General Subotai’s son Uriyangkadai. They led the march south in 1253 and immediately sent the Mongols’ usual “submit-or-else” message to the chief minister of the Kingdom of Dali. This message was sent through Mongol envoys, but the chief minister executed them upon hearing the Mongols’ demand.

Because of the chief minister’s refusal to submit, Kublai and his troops started the invasion in October 1253. The Mongols quickly subdued the kingdom and executed the officials who defied them. Kublai left behind Mongol administrators who shared power with Dali’s ruling family. General Uriyangkadai, meanwhile, continued his campaigns in the southwest with Kublai’s blessing. The general even ventured as far as North Vietnam (Annam) which became the Mongols’ tributary.

In Northern China and The Trouble with Mongke

After the Dali campaign, Kublai was free to rule his land in northern China. The khan’s land now stretched from Hunan to Shaanxi. He ruled it with the help of Chinese and Mongol officials. He cultivated a close relationship with the Chinese adviser Liu Bingzhong who later helped him choose a site for his new city. They decided to build it near the former Jin capital Zhongdu (modern Beijing) and named the new city Dadu/Khanbaliq. Liu Bingzhong was also the architect of Kublai Khan’s summer capital called Shangdu (Xanadu).

The Mongol nobility did not like Kublai’s adoption of Chinese values and lifestyle. It seemed to them that Kublai was abandoning the Mongol values and way of life for a sedentary Chinese life. After the Dali campaign, Kublai also became famous, and because of this, Mongke became envious of his brother.

In 1257, Mongke sent his own men to investigate the collection of taxes in Kublai’s land. But it was only a scheme against his own brother. After inspecting the books, Mongke’s men gathered Kublai’s Chinese officials and had them all killed. Some were lucky enough to escape the purge only because they were under the protection of Mongol noble families who lived in China. Mongke then forbade Kublai from collecting taxes from his own land.

Kublai became angry, but he could not risk the stability of the Mongol Empire by rebelling against his own brother. His Chinese advisers instead told him to submit to his brother by sending envoys of his own to Karakorum, the Mongol capital. It was useless as Mongke did not listen to his envoys, so Kublai was forced to go to his brother’s court himself. Kublai’s submission was effective, and they reconciled. Mongke joined his brother in leading the army in the invasion of the Southern Song in 1258.

The First Invasion of Southern Song

Mongke’s invasion of Southern Song encountered fierce opposition from the Mongol leaders. They insisted that the venture would fail as southern China was a breeding ground for diseases and that their horses would find it difficult to navigate the swampy and rugged terrain. Mongke was insistent, and the march of the Mongol army to conquer Southern Song started in early 1258. The Khagan left behind their youngest brother, Ariq Boke, to rule the Mongol homeland while he was away.

The Mongols were great horsemen, and their use of cavalry in previous wars always gave them an advantage. They chose to use bombards and foot soldiers instead as their horses would find the terrain difficult. The large Mongol army led by Mongke and Kublai crossed the Yellow River in 1258. They soon captured a Southern Song stronghold in Sichuan. The army then marched to Chengdu and crossed the Yangtze River where they met with Uriyangkadai’s troops from Yunnan.

Mongke was not meant to finish the campaign as he died of cholera or dysentery while besieging a town in Chongqing in 1259. His death sent the campaign into a sudden halt. The Mongols returned Mongke’s remains to Mongolia, while Kublai stayed behind. They buried him alongside his father and grandfather. The Southern Song would remain free of Mongol rule for a few more years.

Mongol Civil War

When news of the khagan’s death reached Ariq Boke, he immediately gathered his troops and marched to Kublai’s domain in Northern China. Kublai’s wife Chabi heard of Ariq Boke’s approach, so she immediately sent a messenger to her husband to hurry back to Northern China. Kublai returned to his land with his troops when news of the invasion reached him in 1260. He traveled to Karakorum in the same year to join the assembly there.

Their brother, Hulagu, also left his campaign in Syria and came back to Karakorum to elect a leader. Hulagu was secure in his own domain in West Asia, so he was not interested in being khagan. Both Kublai and Ariq Boke wanted to become the Great Khan, but most of the Mongol leaders sided with Kublai. Hulagu himself supported his older brother, and Kublai accepted the position on May 5, 1260.

Ariq Boke, along with his conservative Mongol allies, were unhappy with the results of the election. His allies declared him as the rightful khagan in June 1260. He was supported by Hulagu’s enemy Berke Khan of the Golden Horde, as well as by Alghu of the Chagatai Khanate. Kublai was left without an ally when Berke and Hulagu’s hostility finally escalated to war in 1262.

The Southern Song also used the civil war to attack the Mongol garrisons in the south. Kublai could not afford to be distracted from his war against Ariq Boke, so he left the Song alone temporarily. Meanwhile, he blocked his younger brother’s supply route so Ariq Boke could not receive provisions in his base in Karakorum. Kublai then led his troops and attacked the Mongol capital in the fall of 1260. Ariq Boke was forced to retreat deeper into Central Asia while Kublai occupied the capital.

In November 1261, the rival brothers and their troops finally faced off in the Battle of Shimutai. Kublai overpowered Ariq Boke’s army at first, but the younger brother tried hard to keep his army intact. They met once again when Ariq Boke attacked Kublai’s army near the Khingan Mountain. Kublai easily crushed Ariq Boke’s troops, but his rebellious brother escaped.

But Ariq Boke food was about to run out, so he sent his envoys to the Chagatai khan Alghu to collect some provisions. Alghu saw that Ariq Boke’s cause was hopeless, so the Chagatai khan ordered the execution of the envoys. Angered because of the death of his envoys, Ariq Boke attacked Alghu’s stronghold in Almalikh and ruled it when the Chagatai khan fled.

Ariq Boke became increasingly cruel with his people when he saw that his war against his brother was hopeless. He finally surrendered to Kublai in 1264 and appeared in his court in the same year. It seemed that all was well again between the two. But Kublai ordered Ariq Boke not to appear in his presence for a full year as punishment.

Mongol custom, however, dictated a harsher punishment for Ariq Boke’s rebellion. Kublai knew that he needed to do it soon, so he invited other Mongol khans to attend an assembly to come up with a fitting punishment for his brother. Hulagu and Berke did not attend as they were in the middle of a war against each other. Alghu Khan sent an unenthusiastic reply. Kublai’s problems were solved in 1266 when Alghu, Hulagu, and Berke died. Ariq Boke also died sometime in 1266, so there was no need for Kublai to punish him. Whether he died of an illness or foul play, Kublai’s path to ruling as the sole khagan was clear.

Kublai: Khan of Khans and Ruler of North China

While the civil war with Ariq Boke was raging, Kublai also made overtures to Southern Song officials. He rewarded Southern Song defectors to encourage others to side with the Mongols. Now that his position as Khagan was secure, he could focus on ruling Northern China and renew the conquest of the Southern Song. His desire to conquer the south was only natural as its land was more fertile than the north. It was also the gateway to the lucrative sea trade with Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East.

Preparations for a renewed invasion of the Southern Song went on between 1261 and 1264. He enlisted the help of Jurchen, Mongol, and Chinese troops. These soldiers were led by Chinese, Uighur, Mongol, and Persian generals. Kublai knew that he needed to build a navy to counter the Southern Song, but this was one skill that the Mongols did not have. Instead, he ordered his Jurchen, Korean, and Northern Chinese men to build the Mongols a fleet.

Before the invasion started, Kublai first sent an envoy to the Southern Song royal court in Hangzhou to demand the emperor’s submission. The Southern Song ministers did not learn anything from the Siege of Baghdad or the Dali campaign, so they imprisoned the khan’s envoys after hearing their message. Kublai Khan immediately ordered his army to march south when he heard of the fate of his envoys.

The Battle of Xiangyang

In 1265, the Mongols defeated the Southern Song defenders in the battle at Diaoyu Fortress in Chongqing. It was the first major clash between the two, and the Mongols later seized more than a hundred Song ships which he added to his fleet. In 1267, they besieged the Southern Song cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng in Hubei. Both cities were located on the banks of the Han River, so the Mongols blocked all ships that tried to ferry supplies into the city. The defenders of Fancheng and Xiangyang continued to hold out even though they were low on food and other provisions.

While he was in the middle of the siege in 1271, an adviser suggested that the Khan should name his own dynasty. The adviser suggested the name “Yuan” which means “origin” in Chinese. Kublai was pleased, and he adopted it as the name of China’s new dynasty.

In 1271, the khan finally became impatient to break the siege of Fancheng and Xiangyang. He sent a message to Ilkhan Abaqa in Persia to help him. The Ilkhan sent Kublai two Muslim engineers named Ismail and Al al-Din in 1272. The two then designed and built a mangonel (catapult) that battered the walls of Fancheng and Xiangyang. Ismail and Al al-Din’s mangonel was effective. The defenders of Xiangyang and Fancheng finally surrendered the Southern Song stronghold to Kublai’s forces in 1273.

The Fall of the Southern Song

After the fall of Xiangyang and Fancheng, Kublai assigned the Turkic general Bayan as commander of the troops bound for Hangzhou. Bayan and his soldiers conquered Southern Song towns along the way. They also engaged the Southern Song defenders in land and naval battles in Hankou (Hubei) in 1275. The defenders, however, were heavily outgunned. They were defeated when the Mongols once again used their mangonel.

The people and the officials of the Southern Song panicked when they heard that Xiangyang fell and that the Mongols were on their way to Hangzhou. Emperor Duzong also died in 1274. He only had young sons as his successors. This situation added to hopelessness felt by the Southern Song royal family. The officials hastily proclaimed the young Prince Zhao Xian as his father’s successor. His grandmother, Empress Dowager Xie, stood as his regent.

Many of the Southern Song officials either died or defected to Kublai Khan’s side some years before, so the Empress had no one to turn to for help. The Empress made a last-ditch effort to convince General Bayan that they would submit to the Mongols if only they would turn back. Victory was on the horizon, so Bayan thought it was unreasonable to abandon the conquest. He ignored the Empress Dowager’s pleas until she had no choice but to send the royal family’s seal to the general as a sign of her family’s submission.

The End of the Song

General Bayan accepted the Empress Dowager’s submission. Before the invasion, Kublai told him to refrain from unnecessary violence toward the Chinese people. The Khagan also forbade him from destroying Hangzhou. Bayan followed his orders, and the general himself escorted the child emperor, his mother, and his grandmother to Kublai’s capital.

Kublai received them in his court, and they were treated very well. The Yuan Emperor, however, demoted the former Song Emperor to the position of the Duke of Ying. Zhao Xian lived in Kublai’s court until he went into exile in Tibet and became a monk in 1296. His mother and grandmother were placed under the care of Kublai’s chief consort Chabi. They, too, were treated very well until their deaths.

The Mongols captured Hangzhou, but pockets of resistance still existed in some parts of Southern China where some Song loyalists fled. Some of them crowned Zhao Xian’s young brother as the new emperor in Fuzhou. This emperor later died on May 8, 1278—on the run and pursued relentlessly by Mongol warriors. Another brother was also proclaimed as emperor after his brother’s death, but he drowned and died a year later while on the run as well.

Kublai as Emperor of China

With the Southern Song out of his way, Kublai set about in proving that he was the legitimate ruler of China and that he was on the side of the Chinese people. He discouraged his Mongol officials from oppressing the Chinese so they could continue their occupations. He understood that the land was destroyed by many years of war, so he wanted as little disruption in their lives as possible. His policy of toleration led to China’s prosperity, while his Mongol homeland was also stable.

Kublai’s concern for his subjects was obvious on the policies and projects he started during his reign. These policies and projects included:

* The grant of tax relief so the people could recover from wars. He also established a fixed tax system which made the payment of taxes easier for the people. This system helped curb the corruption and abuses of local officials. All taxes went directly to the central government, and the revenue would then be divided between the appanage and Kublai’s government.

* Lighter taxes for those whose mulberry trees and silkworms were damaged during the wars.

* The distribution of paper money as an aid for the people during times of disaster.

* The distribution of grains to orphans and widows.

* The reduction of corvée labor for peasants.

* The prohibition of the conversion of farmlands into pastures. Many Mongol noble families wanted to convert the Chinese farmlands into pastures. But Kublai Khan thought that this would lessen the grains that they could harvest from the farms.

* The extension of the Grand Canal.

* The establishment of post offices all over the Mongol Empire. The post offices made the relay of messages across the empire faster and more efficient. The post offices were also valuable for merchants who passed through the Silk Road (such as the Polo brothers and Niccolò’s son, Marco) as these doubled as hostels along the trade routes.

* The extensive use of paper money in the Yuan Empire. Kublai told the people to surrender all their coins, and he replaced them with paper money.

* The favor he gave to the artisans and the merchants of China. Trade flourished under the Yuan Dynasty so that the Chinese were able to import goods from and export their products to India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

Kublai Khan, however, was not too fond of landowning families which produced China’s scholars and officials. Since he generally favored non-Chinese advisers and he did not revive the civil service examinations, these scholars became unemployed. Some of them were forced to switch careers as poets and monks, while others became bitter and joined other Song loyalists.

Khublai Khan retained his grandfather’s use of the elite Mongolian bodyguards called kheshig. He also required all adult males in his realm aged seventy and below to serve in the military. His concern for the Chinese was balanced with caution. He knew that it was still possible that they would rebel against him, so he did not allow them to cultivate bamboo. He did this so that the plant would not be used as weapons (bows and arrows) against the Mongols. He also ordered that all horses owned by the Chinese should be surrendered to him. Those who hid their horses faced severe punishments from the Mongols.

Later Years and Death

His favorite wife, Chabi, died in 1281. He took her death really hard, and he began to withdraw from the court. The death of his heir, Zhenjin, also added to Kublai’s depression in his later years. He was already obese in his later life, but he continued to turn to food and alcohol to deal with these personal blows. He proclaimed Zhenjin’s son Temur as his successor before his death on February 18, 1294. Kublai Khan was 78 when he passed away.

References:
Picture By Ian Kiu – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link
Man, John. Kublai Khan: From Xanadu to Superpower. London: Bantam Press, 2006.
May, Timothy Michael. The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2017.
Nicolle, David, and Richard Hook. The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hülegü, Tamerlane. London: Brookhampton Press, 1998.
Robinson, David M. Empire’s Twilight: Northeast Asia Under the Mongols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2009.
Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1988 1988. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6g5006zc/

Posted on April 25, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

China: Political Reforms

Wang Anshi initiated some of China’s first reform programs in the eleventh century. Some of these were continued by the Southern Song emperors well into the twelfth century. Although things did not work out well for him despite his good intentions and radical ideas, Wang Anshi’s reputation recovered. His political reforms were recorded in the Bible Timeline Poster with World History between 1100 and 1200.

Wang Anshi and His “New Policies”

Wang Anshi implemented reforms called the “New Policies” during the reign of the Emperor Shenzong (1065-1085) after he was promoted to the position of Chief Councillor. The reforms, however, failed after the program encountered stiff opposition from the landowners, aristocrats, and entrenched bureaucrats whose careers (and profits) he had endangered. However, it was the loan and tax reform programs that he implemented for the farmers that unraveled all his efforts. This occurred after a drought had wiped out the farmers’ production and made them unable to pay the debts they owed to the government.

Wang Anshi left the capital in disgrace, and despite his good intentions, his name was demonized for nearly a thousand years until it was hailed by communists as the first of the socialist reforms in China. He died in 1086, but a number of reform policies were revived by Emperor Zhenzong (1085-1100) when he curbed the power of Wang Anshi’s opponent and influential Song Chancellor Sima Guan. His successor and younger brother, the ill-fated Emperor Huizong, was an ardent supporter of Wang Anshi’s reforms. He implemented these initiatives during his reign between 1100 and 1126. During Huizong’s reign, however, Wang Anshi’s reform programs were nothing but slogans that were used by opportunistic politicians against their rivals. Corruption was so widespread during this period that the common people were forced to launch rebellions.

The twelfth century was a tumultuous period for China after the invasion of the Jurchen nomads, the mass migration of Song refugees from north to south China, and the establishment of the city of Lin’an (present-day Hangzhou) as the Southern Song (1127-1279) capital. The baojia system, a community-based law enforcement program, was among Wang Anshi’s reform programs which flourished during the Southern Song dynasty until China was folded into the Mongols’ Yuan Dynasty in the late thirteenth century.

References:
Picture by Public Domain, Link
Fairbank, John King, and Merle Goodman. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.
Grousset, Rene虂. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970.
Mote, Frederick W. Imperial China, 900-1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Ropp, Paul S. China in World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Posted on April 24, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Latin Empire, Establishment of

The Fourth Crusade of 1203 ended in the large-scale destruction of Constantinople. After some detours in the cities of Venice, Zadar, and Constantinople, not a single Crusader arrived in Jerusalem to reconquer it. After they deposed the Greek ruling family, the Crusaders then declared Baldwin, Count of Flanders, as the new ruler of the city. The Byzantine Empire briefly disappeared after the establishment of the Latin Empire in 1204 where it is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History.

The Latin Empire

After they had destroyed Constantinople in April 1204, the Crusaders elected Baldwin, Count of Flanders, as the Emperor of the new Latin Empire. In reality, what he held was far from an empire as the Venetians and the Franks divided the lands between them. The result was the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae (or Partitio Romaniae), and the Byzantine lands were divided as follows:

One-quarter of the so-called Empire went to Emperor Baldwin. It included a part of Constantinople, Thrace, and northwestern part of Asia Minor.

Three-eighths of the land was given to the Franks under Marquis Boniface of Montferrat (Thessalonica). The territories were given to the marquis after he was passed over for the role of the emperor during the election.

Three-eighths of the land was given to the Republic of Venice. It included a part of Constantinople, as well as the islands between Venice and the Dardanelles.

Latin_empire — “Location of Latin Empire”

Many parts of the empire were not even in their hands, so the deal was effective in paper only. The presence of Alexius (the usurper), Mourtzouphlos, and the kings that surrounded the Byzantine empire also made the Crusader rulers’ job difficult. In 1205, many of the Crusader soldiers went home which left the ex-emperors free to come back if they wanted. To safeguard their hold on the empire, Baldwin captured Mourtzouphlos and ordered his execution. Meanwhile, Marquis Boniface also captured the former usurper Alexius. But this did not mean that their thrones were safe.

Three other men rose to challenge the Crusaders’ claim to the empire. The first was Alexius I of Trebizond who came from the powerful Komnenus family. His son-in-law, Theodore I Laskaris, also declared himself the first independent Emperor of Nicaea. Michael I Komnenos Doukas, a cousin of Alexius, declared himself the ruler of the Despotate of Epirus as well.

A hostile neighbor, King Kaloyan of Bulgaria (nicknamed Ionnitsa), also threatened the Latin Empire. He conquered the city of Adrianople in 1205 and captured Emperor Baldwin when he and his knights rushed in to take the city back. Baldwin died in Kaloyan’s prison, and the Latin Empire passed on to his brother Henry. It seemed that the odds were in the Latin Empire’s favor once again as Henry proved to be a competent ruler. He toppled the rulers of the rogue states one by one, but his reign was cut short when he died in 1216.

The Latin Empire passed on to another member of Henry’s family when he died. It took many years before Constantinople recovered from the destruction it suffered. The recovery was also hampered because of the incompetence of the rulers who succeeded the emperor. The rule of the Latin Emperors ended in 1261 when the last emperor fled Constantinople for his homeland in Western Francia.

References:
Picture By Varana – own work; base map from Natural Earth, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Jacoby, David. The New Cambridge Medieval History C. 1198-1300. Edited by David Abulafia. Vol. V. Cambridge: University Press, 1995.
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Phillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.
Roberts, J. M., and Odd Arne. Westad. The History of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Posted on April 21, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Turks 1118, Successful Combat Against the

The Seljuk Turks were a force to be reckoned for much of the tenth and twelfth century. But the Europeans learned that they were not as invincible when they scored three successful combats against the Turks in AD 1118 (this event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time). These victories included:

* The Georgian King David IV the Builder’s capture of the Kingdom of Lori from the Seljuk Turks
* Joscelin I of Edessa successful capture of the town of Azaz (in present-day Syria)
* The capture of Sardis (present-day Manisa Province, Turkey) by the Byzantine general Philocales
* Georgia Recaptured

Located between the coasts of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the tiny Kingdom of Georgia was a battleground for foreign powers. It was united for the first time when Bagrat III became the first king of Georgia in 1008. However, his descendants still had to contend with the Seljuk Turks when they poured out of Central Asia and into Asia Minor and the Levant.

It was not until the reign of King David IV the Builder in 1089 that the Georgians started to fight back against the Seljuks. They reclaimed one by one, the lands once conquered by the Turks. In 1118, King David IV recovered the kingdom of Lori (Tashir-Dzoraget) from the Seljuk Turks. He also resettled thousands of allied Kipchak warriors to keep the land from being invaded once again by the Seljuks.

Joscelin I of Edessa Captured the Town of Azaz

The Frankish nobleman Joscelin of Courtenay arrived in the Levant in 1101 and his cousin, Count Baldwin II of Edessa, gave him the fortress of Turbessel (Tell Bashir) as his tiny domain. Their relationship broke down in 1113, and Joscelin was driven out of Turbessel in the same year. He fled to Jerusalem where he was granted the title of Prince of Galilee. He later helped capture Aleppo’s satellite town of Azaz from its Seljuk atabeg in 1118.

Philocales Captured Sardis

Just like the Kingdom of Georgia, the former Lydian capital of Sardis changed hands many times as years passed because of its strategic location. It was conquered by the Seljuk Turks some time in the eleventh century and was under the Sultanate of Rum’s (a Seljuk vassal) domination during the early part of the twelfth century. The Byzantine general Philocales wrested the city of Sardis from the Turks in 1118.

References:
Picture By Édouard Odier (1800-1887) – Unknown, Public Domain, Link
Napier, Gordon. The Pocket A – Z of the Knights Templar: A Guide to Their History and Legacy. Stroud: Spellmount, 2014. Print.
“See of Sardis.” Wikipedia. Accessed November 09, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_of_Sardis.
West, Barbara A. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. New York: Facts On File, 2009. Print.

Posted on April 20, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, Sixth

If the past five Crusades were violent and the results were often disappointing, then the Sixth Crusade was downright strange. It was pulled off with great timing and without bloodshed by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II between 1228 and 1229. He received Jerusalem after signing a treaty with the Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil, but neither Muslims nor Christians were happy with the turn of events. He returned to Europe in the same year, but not before he earned the ridicule of the people of the Holy Land and Europe. The Fifth Crusade is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during 1248 AD.

Frederick’s Crusade

Although it was not as violent as the previous ones, the Fifth Crusade also ended in disappointment and humiliation. One of those who shouldered the blame was the papal legate Pelagius because he convinced the Crusaders to attack Cairo even though they were not prepared. Pope Honorius III’s popularity also took a beating when the Fifth Crusade ended. But then he shifted the blame to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II after he failed to follow through on his promise to go to the Holy Land and lead the Crusader army.

Two years after the end of the Fifth Crusade, Frederick once again promised Pope Honorius that he would lead an army to recover Jerusalem. He set the year of his voyage in 1225, but he postponed it once again when it was time for him to leave. He promised that he would go in 1227 after the exasperated Pope finally threatened him with excommunication.

Meanwhile, Frederick agreed to marry Isabelle II (Yolande of Brienne), the teenage queen of Jerusalem. This union was also backed by Pope Honorius III and the bride’s father King John in hopes that it would force Frederick to commit himself to the Crusade. Since Isabelle was still young, her father became her regent, and he hoped that Frederick would give him the troops he needed to take back Jerusalem. It did not happen as Frederick wanted the title of the King of Jerusalem himself.

John was angry with Frederick, but there was nothing that he could do. Pope Honorius died in March of 1227 so that the German emperor once again postponed the voyage until August of that year. When August came, he conveniently fell ill after boarding the ship, and they returned to Italy after just three days at sea. No one believed that Frederick was sick. Many thought it was just another reason for him to postpone the Crusade. Pope Gregory IX, Honorius’ successor, was angry and impatient. He immediately excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor, and the two became bitter enemies afterwards. They hated each other so much that the Pope even labelled Frederick as the Antichrist. Meanwhile, Frederick also did not have one good word to say about the Pope.

In the Holy Land

Isabelle II, Frederick’s wife, died after giving birth to their son Conrad in spring of 1228. Eager to claim Jerusalem for his son (or for his own), Frederick finally took the voyage to the Holy Land with a small number of knights. The Sixth Crusade started when his ship docked in the Holy Land in September of the same year. Pope Gregory was unhappy with Frederick’s initiative since he had been excommunicated before. The Pope issued a second excommunication since Frederick left Europe without the Church’s blessing.

Crusad_sixth — “Kingdom of Jerusalem after treaty from 1229”

As expected, Frederick showed that craftiness and a great sense of timing worked in his favor in the Holy Land. He made an alliance with the Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil who, at that time, was struggling with his brother and ruler of Syria al-Mu’azzam Isa. The Syrians under Al-Mu’azzam Isa had rebelled against al-Kamil, so he was eager to put it down with the help of Frederick and his German troops. In exchange, al-Kamil would hand over Jerusalem to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick.

But Al-Mu’azzam Isa had already died when Frederick arrived in Acre. Sultan al-Kamil did not need Frederick’s help anymore, but he was not also looking forward to a new war with him. Instead, he honored their earlier treaty and simply gave Jerusalem to Frederick. But the Sultan made it clear that he wanted the Muslim inhabitants of the city to stay even though Jerusalem was back in Christian hands. He also told Frederick not to rebuild the walls of the city. A ten-year peace between them sweetened the deal.

Frederick took back Jerusalem without bloodshed—something that past Crusader Kings did not accomplish. But this strategy did not sit well with the Pope as he had excommunicated the emperor twice. The Muslims and Christians of the Holy Land were also displeased with this.

Their opinions did not matter for Frederick as he and his troops marched in victory in Jerusalem in 1229. He also crowned himself the King of Jerusalem instead of his son Conrad. The Patriarch of the holy city, however, did not support him as he had been excommunicated by the Pope. He never stayed in the city for long. He appointed two Frankish noblemen as his representatives in the city and left it in the same year to face Pope Gregory who, by then, had invaded Sicily.

References:
Picture By Muir’s Historical Atlas (1911), at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbookmap.html, Public Domain, Link
Abulafia, David. Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Edbury, Peter. The New Cambridge Medieval History C. 1198-1300. Edited by David Abulafia. Vol. V. Cambridge: University Press, 1995.
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.

Posted on April 19, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, Fifth

The mess that was the Fourth Crusade ended in violence and humiliation, so Pope Innocent was eager to launch a new one. The plans for a Fifth Crusade started in 1213. It was begun in 1215 during the Fourth Council of the Lateran. The first batch of Crusaders landed in the Holy Land two years later, but the war later shifted to the Egyptian city of Damietta. Inadequate preparations and poor leadership led to the massive and embarrassing failure of the Fifth Crusade in 1221. It is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History around that time.

New Players for an Old Goal

When news of Constantinople’s destruction at the hands of the Crusaders reached him in 1204, Pope Innocent III was horrified. More than that, he was angry and embarrassed as the Fourth Crusade was his project. The Crusaders of 1204 never reached Jerusalem which was their original goal. Their only achievement (if it was indeed one) was the establishment of the unstable Latin Empire of Constantinople.

So it was only natural for Pope Innocent III to desire the redemption of the idea of the Crusades after the bloody mess of 1204. As early as 1213 and at the height of the Crusade against the Albigensian heretics, he laid out the plans for the Fifth Crusade. Two years later, he summoned hundreds of bishops, archbishops, and abbots to discuss the Fifth Crusade at the Fourth Council of the Lateran (November 1215). They were also joined by some European noblemen.

Pope Innocent III did his best to prevent the repeat of the Fourth Crusade. In the Council, he insisted that all Crusaders should fulfill their vows and forbade them from leaving the war without a good reason. To ensure the success of the coming war, he commanded them to refrain from trading weapons or materials with Muslims. He also allowed priests to pardon the sins the Crusaders confessed before they left.

Unfortunately, Pope Innocent III was not meant to see the fruits of his labor as he died in 1216. Pope Honorius III succeeded him, and he took over the project by requiring cardinals to give a part of their incomes to fund the Crusade. The Fifth Crusade started officially in 1217 when Rhineland, Frisian, and English knights travelled down to France and Spain. They made their way into Portugal where they helped the locals capture a Muslim fortress and then sailed off to the city of Acre in the Holy Land.

They arrived in Acre in spring of 1218. They joined the troops of King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold of Austria who arrived in 1217. Together, they besieged the fortress built by the Ayyubid Sultan al-Adil (brother of Saladin), but nothing came of it. King Andrew felt that he had already fulfilled his vow, so he returned to Hungary in 1218. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II also promised to join the Fifth Crusade, but he only sent his soldiers to the Holy Land as his uncles threatened his hold on the German throne.

The Detour in Egypt

In 1218, King John of Jerusalem decided to weaken the Ayyubid rulers first by attacking Egypt. Their target was the city of Damietta on the banks of the Nile River, and it was ruled by Sultan al-Adil’s son, al-Kamil. The choice seemed like a big mistake as Damietta was heavily fortified and protected by a large chain to prevent ships from sailing too near the city. The Crusaders’ only hope was to block the ships that brought food to the people inside it. They later destroyed the chain that protected Damietta and scaled its tower, but they failed to enter the city itself. Many became discouraged with the lack of developments with the siege, and some made plans to go home. But their chances improved when additional Crusaders arrived to swell their ranks. Sultan al-Adil also died in 1218 so that the city was left in chaos.

An Egyptian nobleman took advantage of the Sultan’s death and rebelled against al-Adil’s heir, al-Kamil. The new sultan was forced to leave Damietta because of the rebellion. The Crusaders responded by blocking the ships that brought in the people’s food. The city’s defenders held out, but many of the people starved to death.

Al-Kamil finally put down the rebellion, and he came back to Damietta to lead its defence. Francis of Assisi also arrived to preach to the Crusaders, and he was later invited by al-Kamil to his court to preach. The sultan listened to him and treated him with politeness, but did not convert to Christianity. Disappointed, Francis returned to the Crusaders and remained with them until they finally conquered Damietta in November of 1218. Their victory was an empty one as most of the city’s inhabitants had died of starvation from the blockade. Francis of Assisi was horrified at what he saw, and he persuaded the Crusaders to refrain from more bloodshed.

Another Failure

The Crusaders spent the year 1219 in Damietta, but their situation did not improve. Francis was forced to leave Egypt. He travelled to the Holy Land before he returned to Europe. In 1221, a papal legate named Pelagius rejected the peace Sultan al-Kamil offered. Instead, he convinced the Crusaders to attack Cairo, but this strategy was bound to fail. Al-Kamil knew Egypt, and he decided to cut off the important supply routes of the Crusaders while they travelled to Cairo. The Crusaders were already short on food, water, and other supplies, so this blockade was a big blow to their plans.

He also opened the gates of the dam so that the Nile overflowed. Unable to continue to Cairo because of the flood, the Crusaders were forced to accept the peace al-Kamil offered in 1221. Many of them went home to Europe in the same year. The dismal ending of the Fifth Crusade was blamed largely on the papal legate Pelagius. Pope Honorius took some of the blame as well, but he was also disappointed in Emperor Frederick when he failed to show up and lead the Crusaders.

References:
Picture By Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen – Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork, Public Domain, Link
Jacoby, David. The New Cambridge Medieval History C. 1198-1300. Edited by David Abulafia. Vol. V. Cambridge: University Press, 1995.
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Moses, Paul. The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace. New York: Doubleday Religion, 2009.
Powell, James M. Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.

Posted on April 18, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, The Fourth

The Fourth Crusade that was launched in 1203 (as listed on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History) ranked as one of the messiest and most violent of all the Crusades. None of the Crusaders who left Europe ever reached the Holy Land nor the seat of power of the Ayyubids which was Egypt. Strapped for cash, the Crusaders only succeeded in occupying the city of Zadar after an agreement with the Venetians. In 1204, they sacked Constantinople, removed its Greek rulers, and established the Latin Empire. The failure of the Fourth Crusade angered Pope Innocent III who denounced them for the destruction of Constantinople.

The Fourth Crusade: Messy, Broke, and Adrift

Pope Innocent III was elected in 1198. He immediately launched a new Crusade to take back Jerusalem from Muslim hands. He sent one of his cardinals to France and the other one to Venice. The France-bound cardinal was tasked to reconcile King Philip II and King Richard the Lionheart so they would lead the new Crusade. Both kings did not want to join at first since the last Crusade did not end well for them. But the two kings eventually agreed to sign a peace treaty and prepared to return to the Holy Land. This plan, however, was put on hold when Richard was killed in 1199.

The other cardinal went to Venice, and he convinced the city’s leader to provide them with ships with which to transport the new Crusaders. Pope Innocent also did not give up on convincing the European noblemen to join the Fourth Crusade. Between 1199 and 1200, Count Theobald of Champagne, Count Louis of Blois, and Count Baldwin of Flanders answered the call to join the Crusade.

Henry VI of Germany died in 1197, and he was succeeded by his brother, Philip of Swabia, as Holy Roman Emperor. Philip had married the Byzantine princess Irene Angelina in the same year. Over at the Byzantine court, Irene’s father, Isaac II Angelos, was deposed by his own brother. His heir, the young Alexius, was also imprisoned. Alexius escaped Constantinople and travelled to the court of his brother-in-law in Swabia for shelter. Philip also had his own problems with the German noblemen, so he could not leave Germany for the Holy Land.

Soon, European noblemen and knights made their way to Venice so they could board the ships to the Holy Land. They arrived in Venice in 1202, but there were too few of them. They discovered that there were too few Crusaders in Venice, so they were strapped for cash. Since their money was not enough, the ruler of Venice, Doge Enrico Dandolo, would not allow them to board the ships they financed specifically for this mission. They could not go forward, but they could not return to their homes, too, as it would mean humiliation.

From One Bad Idea to Another

So Enrico Dandolo offered them a way out. They would attack the city of Zadar (Zara), and in exchange, the Venetians would let them board the ships to the Holy Land. The problem was that Zadar was a Christian city and it was held by the only king who promised to join the Crusade. These facts did not matter for the Crusaders, and they went ahead with the siege. The confused defenders of Zadar surrendered after a fierce siege. The Venetians allowed the Crusaders to sail to the Holy Land, but winter stood in their way. So the voyage was once again postponed, and they were forced to stay in Zadar for the time being.

In Germany, Philip was still unable to leave his kingdom to join the Crusade because his hold on the throne was threatened by his brother Otto. So the young Alexius came up with a plan: enlist the stranded Crusaders in Zadar in removing the usurper in Constantinople. Alexius promised thousands of his own men to add to the ranks of the Crusaders. He also pledged money to pay off the Crusaders’ debts to the Venetians. Some of the Crusaders wanted to accept the offer, while others wanted to go on to the Holy Land once winter was over. Another group wanted to sail off to Egypt and attack the Ayyubid rulers instead.

Crusad_fourth — “The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople “

Those who wanted to go to Constantinople and oust the emperor eventually won. They marched to Corfu to meet with Alexius, but many of those who did not agree with the plan went home. The rest of the Crusaders sailed to Constantinople and arrived in the Bosphorus with Alexius in summer of 1203. When they arrived, they were forced to besiege the city because the defenders closed the city gates on them.

The siege went on for several days until they finally broke through the city walls. The usurper (Alexius’ own uncle) fled, and Isaac II Angelos was freed from prison. He then crowned his son Alexius as his co-emperor, but Alexius knew that his hold on the crown was not secure. He offered to keep the Crusaders on his payroll so that they would stay until spring. Money was something neither he, nor his government had, so he had to impose higher taxes on his people to pay the Crusaders. The people hated Alexius for it, but he had a greater problem when the Crusaders fought among themselves. The resentful residents of Constantinople also hated them.

The Sack of Constantinople

A high-ranking military officer named Mourtzouphlos then rebelled and deposed Alexius. He proclaimed himself the new emperor and ordered the death of the previous emperor. It was clear to the Crusaders that the payment will never come at this point. Broke and humiliated, the dream of fighting in the Holy Land or in Egypt all but disappeared. The restless Crusaders had enough. They attacked Constantinople in 1204 and the beaten down Byzantine troops fought them for some days then fled. The new emperor also escaped the city after his soldiers deserted him.

The Crusaders then rampaged through Constantinople for three days and stole everything they wanted. They went on a killing and raping spree that spared not even the elderly, children, priests, and nuns. After three days, the Crusaders declared Baldwin of Flanders as the new emperor of Constantinople. The news of the rampage reached the horrified Pope Innocent III who immediately condemned the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade. The Crusaders had their taste of chaos, plunder, and bloodshed even if they never reached the Holy Land.

References:
Picture By Eugène Delacroix – The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH., Public Domain, Link
Angold, Michael. The Fourth Crusade: Event and Context. Harlow: Longman, 2003.
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Phillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.
Roberts, J. M., and Odd Arne. Westad. The History of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Posted on April 17, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, Third

The aftershocks of the loss of Jerusalem from Christian hands in 1187 rocked Europe. News of the city’s fall reached the Europeans in 1188. A Third Crusade was launched by European nobles in 1189. This Crusade was initially led by Europe’s three most powerful kings: Henry II of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. King William II of Sicily also joined the Third Crusade and assisted the Crusaders with his navy. The real hero of the Third Crusade was King Richard the Lionheart, the rebellious son of Henry II of England. The Third Crusade which lasted from 1189 up to 1192 ended with no clear winner. The Third Crusade is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time. It ended with the Treaty of Jaffa which was signed by both Saladin and Richard in 1192.

Aftershocks

In late 1187, a ship with black sails landed on the shores of Italy. The ship carried the elderly Archbishop Joscius of Tyre who immediately appealed to King William II of Sicily and Pope Gregory VIII for help. He had brought the news that the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt, Saladin, had conquered most of Holy Land. It included the city of Jerusalem which now returned to Muslim hands after many years under Christian rulers.

The news came as a shock to Pope Gregory VIII who immediately issued a papal bull called Audata Tremendi (“We have heard things that make us tremble”). He then sent Archbishop Joscius and Cardinal Henry of Albano to deliver the papal bull to the noblemen of Europe. Count Richard of Poitiers and King William II of Sicily were some of the first to respond to the call of taking back the Holy Land from Muslim hands. Next were Henry II of England and Philip II of France who agreed to set aside their border wars to launch the Third Crusade. The elderly Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa also answered the call and prepared his army to leave for Jerusalem. The three kings agreed to leave for the east on Easter of 1189.

Crusad_Third — “Ruins of Dürnstein Castle, where Richard was kept captive”

Henry II and Philip II: War Between Kings

But the preparations of 1188 were put on hold because of Henry II’s problems with his son Richard and his long-time enemy, Philip II of France. Richard had sided with Philip II, and insisted to his father that he make him the heir to the throne of England instead of his brother John. The three men negotiated, but it broke down into shouting matches and drawn swords. Nobody was injured, but Henry II fell sick afterwards. Many of his own knights sided with Philip II and Richard, including his heir John. Henry had no choice but to give up and announce Richard as the next king of England. He died in July of 1189, but not before expressing his anger and disappointment toward his sons.

Richard rose to become England’s king in 1189. He was given the title of “Lionheart” because of his bravery in battle. Since his father was dead, it was up to him to continue the preparations for the Crusade. He announced his commitment to the Crusade after his coronation. However, his fundraising methods drained England’s treasury. Philip II and Richard the Lionheart left the coast of France for the Holy Land on mid-August 1190.

The Death of Frederick Barbarossa

The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa left Europe with his German troops in spring of 1189. Hungarian, Bosnian, and Serbian soldiers joined them on the way. When they arrived in Constantinople, the appearance of a large army frightened the Byzantine king Isaac II Angelos. He was afraid that instead of taking back the Holy Land, Frederick Barbarossa might try and conquer the rest of the Byzantine lands. So the Byzantine king sent men to harass the European troops. The attack angered Frederick Barbarossa. He sent some of his men to confront Isaac II Angelos. The Byzantine king had them imprisoned which made the Holy Roman Emperor angrier. Frederick then sent a letter to the Pope and asked for his permission to wage a holy war against Constantinople so he could retaliate.

With the threat of a war he could not afford, Isaac II Angelos finally let the European troops pass into Armenia. When Frederick Barbarossa and his soldiers arrived in Cilician Armenia in 1190, he heard that the king wanted to welcome him. So he went ahead and crossed the shallow waters of the Saleph River. Unfortunately, he fell from his horse and drowned. He probably suffered a fatal heart attack, but this event put his soldiers into chaos. Some of the soldiers went back to Germany while those who continued the march to the Holy Land suffered from sickness and died on the way.

Disaster

Those who did not die continued to Acre to help Guy (Lusignan) of Jerusalem. He was one of the noblemen free by Saladin after the disastrous Battle of Hattin. Guy promised Saladin that he would not attack any of his territories. However, he broke it when the new Crusaders arrived and besieged Acre. The German soldiers who survived death on the way to Acre were not as helpful to Guy in conquering the city. Philip II and his French troops arrived in spring of 1191, but they were not of much help either. Richard the Lionheart was delayed after he was shipwrecked in Cyprus. He arrived in Acre in June of 1191 only after he had conquered the island.

The soldiers who camped outside of Acre rejoiced when they saw Richard and his fleet on the coast. The only one who seemed unhappy was Philip II who became sick during the Third Crusade. The fact that it was Richard who had conquered Cyprus and not Philip did not sit well with him either. The two kings barely talked while Richard was attacking a part of Acre, Philip was inside it negotiating with its leaders. The leaders knew that they would not hold out for much longer, so they sent a message to Saladin that they would surrender the city.

Saladin approved the surrender on the condition that the Crusaders would let the prisoners leave the city unharmed. But for some reason, Richard broke the treaty and killed thousands of prisoners. When Saladin saw this, he immediately ordered his army to prepare for war. But Philip II had already left the Holy Land for France so that Richard was left to lead the Crusader army. Back in Europe, the relationship between the two kings had soured so completely that Philip II dared to ask the Pope the permission to attack Richard’s lands in France. The Pope refused his request, so Philip asked Emperor Henry VI to capture Richard just in case he passed through Germany on his way back to England.

Stalemate and Richard’s Return to Europe

Back in the Holy Land, Richard remained unaware of Philip’s plans against him. He continued the Crusade and led the March of the Crusaders into Jaffa in 1191. Saladin, Richard, and their troops met in battle in the same year. Crusaders defeated Saladin’s army in the Battle of Arsuf. The battles and negotiations continued until the next year while both sides remained strong. Little by little, reports of Philip’s schemes in France reached Richard in the Holy Land, so he decided to wrap up the Third Crusade and return to Europe. He negotiated with Saladin and finally, they reached a truce at Ramla in 1192.

The result was the Treaty of Jaffa which they finalized in September of 1192. The conditions of the treaty included:

A three-year peace between the Crusaders and Saladin’s army.

The return of captured territories to Saladin. Christian cities and towns on the Mediterranean coast would remain under Crusader rule.

Muslims must also allow Christians to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land without fear of harassment from them.

Richard also permitted Guy to rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem. What made this arrangement strange was that it was the Kingdom of Jerusalem in name only. Its capital was in Acre, and it did not even include Jerusalem itself. He also gave Cyprus for Guy to rule, and returned with his men to Europe. He did not receive a hero’s welcome in Europe as the Emperor Henry VI imprisoned Richard when he and his soldiers passed through Germany. Henry VI even asked for a hefty sum of seventy thousand marks of silver so that Richard would be freed. Richard’s mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and other English nobles hastily gathered that amount of money so the king would be freed.

Richard was ransomed and freed in 1194. He immediately attacked Philip and his own brother who sided with the king of France when Richard was in the Holy Land. Philip negotiated for a five-year peace in 1199. Richard died soon after it was finalized – An argument between Richard and a local nobleman turned into a siege after the latter refused to give up treasures he discovered in his own land. Richard and his troops besieged the nobleman’s castle, but the king was struck by an arrow while he was exploring the area. The wound became infected, and he died at the age of 42.

References:
Picture By Airin – Own work, CC BY-SA 1.0, Link
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Nicolle, David, and Christa Hook. The Third Crusade 1191: Richard the Lionheart, Saladin and the Struggle for Jerusalem. Oxford: Osprey, 2006.
Reston, James. Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade. New York: Doubleday, 2001.
Ricardus, Helen J. Nicholson, and William Stubbs. Chronicle of the Third Crusade: A Translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum Et Gesta Regis Ricardi. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 1997.

Posted on April 14, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, Second (1147-1149)

The Second Crusade was launched by European rulers in 1147 after the fall of Edessa to Zengri two years earlier. It is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during 1140 AD. It ended in disaster in 1147, and Edessa stayed in Muslim hands in the years that followed. The Crusades in Europe against the Wendish people and the Muslims of Portugal were successful.

The Siege of Edessa

On the 28th of November 1144, Zengi, the Turkish atabeg (governor) of Mosul besieged the city of Edessa that was ruled by Joscelin I of Courtenay. The count was busy with the siege of Aleppo at that time, so the people were caught by surprise when Zengi’s troops arrived. The atabeg blocked all the passages into the city, so the people ran out of food. He had many of Edessa’s people killed when he finally entered the city. Those who survived the massacre fled from the city, but many of them were crushed to death when they tried to take refuge in a nearby citadel.

Count Joscelin tried to help his people by asking Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem, for more troops. The queen agreed to help him and sent Elinard of Bures, Philip of Milly (Nablus), and Manasses to Edessa. But they were too late as Edessa fell to Zengi on the 24th of December, 1144.

The Papal Bull

When news of the fall of Edessa reached him in 1145, Pope Eugene III immediately sent a papal bull to the king of France Louis VII. In his letter, he encouraged the king to launch a new Crusade in the Levant and take back the city of Edessa from Zengri. Louis was eager to go to the Levant, but many of his barons did not feel like it was a good idea. So to convince them, he asked Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux to preach a message that endorsed the Crusade. It worked, and many of the noblemen and peasants answered the call to take back Edessa.

Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux also traveled to Germany in 1146 to convince the German emperor Conrad III to join the Crusade. Conrad III and the Germans were easier to convince than the French nobles, and his army marched to Constantinople in May 1147. Meanwhile, King Louis VII, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, Pope Eugene, and their troops followed in June of the same year. Conrad and the German troops arrived in Constantinople four months later, while the French troops led by Louis arrived in October.

But the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos did not really like the presence of the European rulers and soldiers in his city. Roger II of Sicily had attacked Byzantine territories. Manuel was afraid that the European rulers would join Roger instead. He was also afraid of the undisciplined European troops that stayed in his city during winter.

A Disastrous Crusade

By spring of 1148, Conrad’s troops marched from Constantinople into the Levant. Their first mistake was to follow the route the first Crusaders took some years before instead of the route Manuel suggested. On the way south, Conrad divided his soldiers into two teams and allowed the Bishop of Freising to lead the infantrymen into another route. They had not even left Asia Minor when Conrad’s troops were defeated by the Seljuk Turks, while Otto’s soldiers were defeated later on.

The King Louis VII’s army left Constantinople some time later, but they, too, were unlucky. They travelled through the western route to the city of Attalia, many of Louis’ men died after they faced a harsh winter. Seljuk raiders also attacked them on the way south, and Louis (just like Conrad) had to continue with fewer men in the ranks. Louis and his remaining men were forced to travel to Antioch by sea instead of land.

Louis VII and his men arrived in Antioch in March of 1148. The city was ruled by Raymond of Poitiers (who also happened to be Eleanor of Aquitaine’s uncle), and he asked Louis to help him recapture the city of Edessa from Zengi. Although it was the original goal of the Second Crusade, Louis refused to help Raymond. He decided to march his men to Jerusalem instead. He also refused to help Count Raymond of Tripoli beat back the invaders of his tiny domain.

Many Europeans were unhappy with the results of Second Crusade in the Levant when news of the disaster reached them. Most of the blame fell to Bernard of Clairvaux and the pope for encouraging the Crusade. Some people blamed Manuel I Komnenos as they thought that he did not help the Crusaders. Even the success of the Crusade against the Wendish people of Europe and the Reconquista efforts in Portugal were not enough to keep the people from blaming them in their part in the disastrous Second Crusade.

References:
Picture By Jean Colombe – Adam Bishop, copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/, Public Domain, Link
“Eugene III: Summons to A Crusade, Dec 1, 1154.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Accessed November 16, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/eugene3-2cde.asp.
Madden, Thomas F., ed. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Setton, Kenneth M., and Marshall W. Setton, eds. A History of the Crusades: The First Hundred Years. Vol. 1. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
“William of Tyre: The Fall of Edessa.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.

Posted on April 13, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade (1095–1099), First

The Eleventh Century Byzantine Empire and the Arrival of the Seljuk Turks

The First Crusade is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History during 1096 AD. It began with a series of events starting with Tughril. Tughril (Togrul), the great Seljuk dynasty ruler, accomplished what the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs failed to do hundreds of years before. This was to cut a large swath of Byzantine territories in Asia Minor and claim it all for the Seljuk Empire after Emperor Constantine Monomachos ceded the area to him. Constantine died in 1055, and the throne passed to the minister Michael Gerontas. Tughril, meanwhile, turned south and drove out the powerful Buyids from Baghdad (who, at that point, held the reins of power for the puppet caliphs of the Abbasids). Michael was later ousted by the military due to his advanced age. He was replaced with a military commander named Isaac Komnenus in 1057. Komnenus died after his short stint as Byzantine emperor, and he was succeeded by a government official named Constantine Doukas who ruled until 1067. Romanos IV Diogenes ruled in 1068, but Constantine Doukas’ sons remained as Romanos IV’s co-emperors.

The Battle of Manzikert (1071)

While the Byzantine crown passed from one hand to another, the Seljuk Sultanate passed easily to Tughril’s nephew died in 1063. This nephew, the ambitious and brilliant Alp Arslan, planned to wrest more of the Byzantine territories in Asia Minor for the Seljuks. Romanos knew that the Seljuks were a serious threat, so he gathered his troops and started a campaign in 1071 to the eastern frontier to drive them out of Asia Minor for good. He was initially successful in driving the Seljuk troops out of eastern Anatolia, but Alp Arslan was only preparing to ambush the Byzantine troops in the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

The result of Romanos’ miscalculation was a massive loss of life on the side of the Byzantines. He was captured by Alp Arslan during the battle, but strangely, he was later set free. Romanos was as good as dead when he started the journey home to Constantinople as the blame for the disastrous results of the Battle of Manzikert fell on his shoulders. The Doukas family commanded some of their trusted men to intercept Romanos on his way and had him captured. He was later sent to the Monastery of Transfiguration in the Sea of Marmara after he was blinded as punishment for the defeat.

crusade_first — “The crusader states after the First Crusade”

The First Crusade

Things were not working out very well for the Byzantines after the adventurer Robert Guiscard of Normandy wrested the last of their holdings in Italy in the late eleventh century. They were also wracked with infighting and saddled with the emperor Michael VII whose passion for literature clashed with his responsibilities in the Byzantine government. The exasperated John Doukas (Michael’s own uncle) rebelled against him, but it did not succeed when general Alexios Komnenus rallied Seljuk mercenaries and some Byzantine troops against John. Michael resigned in 1078, and the Byzantine crown passed on from one man to another until the formidable Alexios I Komnenus held it between I081 until 1118.

Alp Arslan, meanwhile, had died and was succeeded by his son Malik Shah as sultan. The Seljuks under his command had turned west and conquered the city of Jerusalem from the Fatimids in 1077 after a bloody massacre of Jews and Fatimid Arabs. Malik Shah died in 1092, and his death left the Seljuk Empire divided between his competing sons and brother (meanwhile the eastern portion of Asia Minor was held by the Seljuk vassal, the Sultanate of Rum).

Alex Komnenus wanted to get rid of the Seljuk threat once and for all when he saw that they were in chaos over the succession. However, he did not have enough troops to go up against the Byzantine’s most formidable enemy just yet. So he sent a message through envoys to Pope Urban II and asked him to send his own troops as reinforcements against the Seljuks. Alex Komnenus’ message reached Pope Urban II while he was traveling through Western Francia. He altered Alex’s simple request for reinforcements and weaved religious sentiments into it. In Clermont (Western Francia), he preached and encouraged the people to help the beleaguered Byzantine empire but added that they also needed to pitch into the liberation of the Jerusalem—something that Alex Komnenus did not request.

The Frankish noblemen, knights, and peasants snapped up the chance to wage war against the Seljuk “infidels” in the Levant after Pope Urban promised them the protection of their land while they were away on a holy pilgrimage (for the nobles) and forgiveness for their sins. The pope promised that paradise awaited them as a reward for their courage, and the first to answer the call to engage in the “holy” war was Godfrey, the Duke of Lorraine. His brothers Eustace and Baldwin came along with him, while others, such as Duke Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond of Otranto (son of Robert Guiscard), and Robert, Duke of Normandy, also volunteered. They brought with them their own troops, and they assembled in Constantinople in later 1096. Count Stephen of Blois and Hugh of Vermandois also joined the list of nobles who started to Constantinople.

After an inauspicious start, Walter the Penniless and his small troops were the first to arrive in Constantinople. They were followed closely by other nobles, knights, and troops until their number swelled to around 100,000 by 1097. The army that gathered in Constantinople were propelled to fight for different reasons which included:

Religious fervor and the promise of remission of sins upon death in the “holy pilgrimage” to Jerusalem.
The reward of additional money and land for the most pragmatic noblemen and knights.

Alex Komnenus did not expect a large number of additional men that swelled his troops, and apparently, he did not know how to properly deal with the European noblemen who came with these troops. Some of the troops who answered the call were led by a preacher named Peter the Hermit and his ragtag soldiers were later christened the “People’s Crusade.” Alexius asked them to move to the Asian side of the empire as he was worried that they would cause trouble if they stayed near Constantinople. His anxiety was confirmed when the soldiers left their camp in Asia and raided the nearby city of Nicaea which was then held by the Sultan of Rum.

The sultan of Rum sent his own soldiers to counter this leaderless bunch and promptly had them massacred. The survivors of the “People’s Crusade” had to be rescued by Alexius’ own Byzantine army. The emperor learned his lesson when various nobles arrived with their own armies between 1096 and 1097. He had them swear that they would return any territory they recovered during the crusade, but the prominent leader Raymond of Toulouse refused and swore to simply honor him instead. The crusader army first conquered the city of Nicaea from the Sultanate of Rum, and then headed south and wrested the cities of Sardis, Ephesus, Smyrna, and Philadelphia on the way to Jerusalem.

The Siege of Antioch

The army, led by Bohemond, Raymond of Toulouse, and Godfrey, stopped short of the city of Antioch (in present-day Turkey) when they saw the mighty ramparts of the city. They started the siege on October 21 of 1097, but famine and the difficulty of besieging an impregnable city frayed on the Crusaders’ resolve. Some of those who joined them abandoned the siege of Antioch, while those who veered off to other cities (such as Baldwin in Edessa and Stephen of Blois in some Mediterranean city) were better off.

They were encouraged when a ship that was commanded by the English nobleman Edgar Atheling docked and brought them fresh provisions. Edgar himself joined them as one of the crusade leaders and helped them block the provisions coming into Antioch. The crafty Bohemond also sealed a deal with a Turkish soldier inside the city of Antioch by promising him riches if he would open the gates and let the Crusader army into the city. The soldier agreed to the devil’s bargain and let them in, but what ensued was total destruction as the restless crusader army killed many of the citizens of Antioch and spared no one from the massacre.

Three days later, the situation took a turn for the worse when the Seljuk sultan dispatched a large army from Baghdad to rescue Antioch. The besiegers were now the besieged, and the Crusaders shut themselves inside the city when they saw the large Seljuk army that came after them. The rotting corpses left on the streets and the lack of provisions disheartened them, but it was lifted when the “Holy Lance” was discovered by a soldier named Peter Bartholomew. The lance, most likely, was an invention of the crafty Bohemond. The crusader army was encouraged to charge out of Antioch and beat back the Seljuk army.

The Parting of Ways and the Siege of Jerusalem

Although Bohemond swore to Alexius that he would return any land they recovered, he never really took it seriously, and he started to occupy Antioch as his own land in Asia. Raymond of Toulouse disagreed with Bohemond over this, and he left Antioch with Robert of Normandy and Tancred of Hauteville (Bohemond’s nephew). They continued to Jerusalem with Godfrey and their troops, and Bohemond was now free to claim Antioch as his own. Raymond and his troops reached Jerusalem in 1099 and started the siege on the 3rd of June of the same year. The attack they launched against Jerusalem was so fierce, and the crusader troops so determined to take the city that it took only thirty days to complete the siege.

What followed, however, was an equally fierce massacre of Jerusalem’s inhabitants that even later Christian and Muslims chroniclers of the siege were horrified. The Fatimids of Egypt sent an army to regain Jerusalem, but the Crusaders easily drove them back when they arrived. Edessa, Antioch, and Jerusalem were now firmly in Christian hands. However, it was far from what Alexius Komnenus expected as those territories stayed under the Crusaders’ rule. By the end of the first crusade, Raymond of Toulouse served as Jerusalem’s Duke, while Bohemond ruled the Principality of Antioch, and Baldwin ruled the city of Edessa.

Godfrey later died in 1100, and Baldwin started to rule Jerusalem as King starting in 1100 up to 1118. The Crusaders went on to capture the coastal cities of Beirut and Sidon in the following years, but this time, they were aided by the Italians from Genoa and Pisa.

References:
Picture By MapMaster – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Bradbury, Jim. The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. London: Routledge, 2004.
Comnena, Anna. “Medieval Sourcebook: The Alexiad: On the Crusades.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Accessed October 19, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/comnena-cde.asp.
Luscombe, David and Jonathan Riley-Smith, eds. The New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.