A History of the Crusades-Vol 2 (20 page)

1118-20:
Beginnings of the Military Orders

The most important internal event of these
years was the foundation of the Military Orders. In the year 1070 some pious
citizens of Amalfi had founded a hostel at Jerusalem for the use of poor
pilgrims. The Egyptian governor then in possession of the city had allowed the
Amalfitan consul to choose a suitable site; and the establishment was dedicated
to Saint John the Almsgiver, the charitable seventh-century Patriarch of
Alexandria. The hostel was staffed mainly by Amalfitans, who took the usual
monastic vows and were under the direction of a Master, who in his turn was
under the Benedictine authorities established in Palestine. At the time of the
Crusaders’ capture of Jerusalem the Master was a certain Gerard, probably an
Amalfitan. With his co-religionists he had been banished from Jerusalem by the
Moslem governor before the siege began; and his knowledge of local conditions
had been of value to the Crusaders. He persuaded the new Frankish government to
make endowments to the Hospital. Many of the pilgrims joined his staff, which
was soon released from its obedience to the Benedictines and raised to be an
Order of its own, under the name of the Hospitallers, owing direct obedience to
the Pope. More lands were conferred on it and most of the great ecclesiastics
of the realm offered it a tithe from their revenues. Gerard died in about 1118.
His successor, the Frenchman Raymond of Le Puy, had larger ideas. He decided
that it was not enough for his Order to guide and entertain pilgrims; it must
be ready to fight to keep the pilgrim-routes open. The Order still contained
brothers whose duties were purely pacific; but its main function was now to
keep up an establishment of knights bound by the religious vows of personal
poverty, chastity and obedience, and dedicated to fight against the heathen.
About the same time, as though to mark the greater status of the Hospital, John
the Almsgiver was imperceptibly replaced as its patron saint by John the
Evangelist. The distinctive badge of the Knights Hospitaller was the white
cross that they wore on their tunics over their armour.

This transformation was helped by the
simultaneous establishment of the Knights Templar. Indeed, the idea of an Order
that should be both religious and military probably sprang from the brain of a
knight from Champagne, Hugh of Payens, who in 1118 persuaded King Baldwin I to
allow him to install himself and a few companions in a wing of the royal
palace, the former mosque al-Aqsa, in the Temple area. Like the Hospitallers
the Templars first followed the Benedictine rule but were almost at once
established as an independent Order, with three classes, the knights, all of
noble birth, the sergeants, drawn from the bourgeoisie, who were the grooms and
stewards of the community, and the clerics, who were chaplains and in charge of
non-military tasks. Their badge was the red cross, worn on a white tunic by the
knights and on a black by the sergeants. The first avowed duty of the Order was
to keep the road from the coast to Jerusalem free from bandits, but soon they
took part in any campaign in which the kingdom was involved. Hugh himself spent
much of his time in western Europe, gaining recruits for his Order.

King Baldwin gave the military Orders his full
support. They were independent of his authority, owing allegiance only to the
Pope. Even the great estates with which he and his vassals began to endow them
involved no obligation to fight in the King’s army; but a generation passed
before they were rich enough to challenge the royal authority. In the meantime
they provided the kingdom with what it most needed, a regular army of trained
soldiers, whose permanent presence was assured. In the lay fiefs the sudden
death of the lord and the passing of the inheritance to a woman or a child
might interrupt the organization of his troops and perpetually involve the
suzerain in anxious and tiresome business. Nor could he count on replacing the
lords that he lost by new-comers from the West whenever he needed them. But the
Military Orders, with their efficient organization and with their glamour and
prestige spreading through western Christendom, could ensure a regular supply
of devoted fighting-men who would not be distracted by thoughts of personal
ambition and gain.

1121: The
Georgian Crusade

In 1120 Baldwin returned to Antioch. Ilghazi’s
governor of Athareb, Bulaq, had begun to raid Antiochene territory, while
Ilghazi himself had marched on Edessa. Both raids were checked; but Ilghazi
passed on to the neighbourhood of Antioch. The Patriarch Bernard sent nervously
to Jerusalem, to the King; and in June Baldwin started northward, bearing with
him once more the True Cross, to the distress of the Church of Jerusalem, which
disliked to see its precious relic exposed to the risk of war. The Patriarch
Gormond himself accompanied the army, to take charge of the relic. When Baldwin
arrived in the north he found that Ilghazi, weakened by desertions from his
Turcoman troops, had already retired; and so alarmed were the Moslems that
Toghtekin was summoned to Aleppo. During the campaign that followed each side
marched to and fro, till at last the Moslems were wearied. Toghtekin retired to
Damascus; and Ilghazi made a truce with Baldwin. A definite frontier-line was
drawn between their zones of influence, in one place cutting a mill and in
another a castle in half so. that by mutual consent the buildings were
destroyed. Zerdana, which remained a Moslem enclave, was dismantled. Early next
spring Baldwin returned home, having won a bloodless moral victory. He was
needed in the south, as Toghtekin, believing him fully occupied in the north, had
carried out an extensive raid into Galilee. In July 1121 Baldwin, in reprisal,
crossed the Jordan and ravaged the Jaulan, occupying and destroying a fort that
Toghtekin had built at Jerash. Meanwhile Joscelin made a profitable razzia in
Ilghazi’s lands in the Jezireh.

During the summer of 1121 a new factor made
itself felt in eastern politics. Away to the north, in the Caucasian foothills,
the Bagratid Kings of Georgia had established their hegemony over the Christian
peoples there that still remained independent of Moslem domination; and King
David II had extended his rule to the south of the Araxes valley, where he came
into conflict with the Seldjuk prince, Toghrul, governor of Arran. After a
defeat by David’s forces Toghrul invited Ilghazi to join him in a Holy War
against the impudent Christian. The campaign that followed was disastrous for
the Moslems. In August 1121 the united army of Toghrul and Ilghazi was almost
annihilated by the Georgians; and Ilghazi barely escaped with his life as he
fled back to Mardin. King David was able to establish himself in the old
Georgian capital of Tiflis, and by 1124 he had acquired northern Armenia and
the metropolis of Ani, the ancient home of his house. Henceforward the whole
Turkish world was desperately conscious of the danger that Georgia, with its
superb strategic position, presented to them; nor was the danger lessened by
David II’s death in 1125. His successors inherited his vigour. Their prowess,
by keeping the Moslems perpetually nervous of their northern flank, was of
great value to the Franks, though there seems to have been no direct contact
between the two Christian powers. The Georgians, bound by links of religion and
tradition to Byzantium, had no liking for the Franks; and the chilly treatment
accorded to their religious establishments at Jerusalem was not such as would
please a proud people.

Nevertheless, Ilghazi’s fate at their hands
gave Baldwin an opportunity that he did not miss. Ilghazi’s son, Suleiman,
recently appointed governor of Aleppo by his father, rashly profited by his
father’s defeat to declare his independence, and, finding himself unable to
meet the attack that Baldwin at once launched against him, he made peace with
the Franks, ceding to them Zerdana and Athareb, the fruits of Ilghazi’s
victory. Ilghazi hastened to punish his disloyal son, but judged it prudent to
confirm the treaty with Baldwin; who returned to Jerusalem, well pleased with
the year’s achievements.

1122: Capture of
Count Joscelin

Early in 1122 Pons, Count of Tripoli, suddenly
refused to pay allegiance to the King. The reason for his insubordination is
unknown. It is difficult to see what support he hoped to find that would enable
him to maintain it. Baldwin was furious and at once summoned his vassals to
come and punish the rebel. The royal army marched up from Acre; and on its
approach Pons submitted and was forgiven. His submission was timely; for Ilghazi,
urged on by his nephew Balak, formerly prince of Saruj and now lord of Khanzit,
was on the warpath once more. Baldwin, when the news was brought to him,
refused to believe it. He had made a treaty with Ilghazi, and he believed that
a gentleman — the Arab chronicler uses the word ‘sheikh’ — kept his word. But
Ilghazi was no gentleman; and he had the promise of Toghtekin’s help. He laid
siege to Zerdana, which the Franks had rebuilt, and had captured part of the
fortifications when Baldwin approached. There followed another campaign without
a battle, as Baldwin refused to be lured by the habitual Turkish stratagem of a
feigned flight. Once again the Moslems were the first to weary of the marching
to and fro and returned to their homes. Baldwin contentedly sent the Cross back
to Jerusalem and himself went to Antioch.

Before the Cross had reached its destination,
bad news came from Edessa. On 13 September 1122, Count Joscelin and Waleran of
Birejik were riding with a small force of horsemen near Saruj when they
suddenly came across Balak’s army. They charged the enemy; but a heavy shower
of rain turned the plain into mud. The horses slid and stumbled; and the
light-armed Turcomans had no difficulty in surrounding the Franks. Joscelin,
Waleran and sixty of their comrades were captured. Balak at once offered them
their liberty in return for the cession of Edessa. On Joscelin’s refusal to
listen to such terms, the prisoners were taken by Balak to his castle of
Kharpurt.

Joscelin’s capture did not much affect the
man-power of the Crusading states. We find the knights of Edessa successfully
raiding Moslem territory during the following month. But it was a blow to
Frankish prestige; and it forced Baldwin to add to his labours by taking over
once more the administration of Edessa. Fortunately, in November, Ilghazi died
at Mayyafaraqin, and his sons and nephews divided up the Ortoqid inheritance.
His elder son Suleiman took Mayyafaraqin and the younger, Timurtash, Mardin.
Aleppo went to a nephew, Badr ad-Daulah Suleiman; and Balak increased his
possessions in the north and took Harran to the south.

The Moslems had recently reoccupied Athareb;
and in April next year Baldwin took advantage of the present confusion to force
the feeble new ruler of Aleppo to give it back once and for all. After
recapturing Birejik, the King then proceeded to Edessa to make arrangements for
its government. He placed Geoffrey the Monk, lord of Marash, at the head of its
administration, and went on with a small force north-eastward, to reconnoitre
the scene of Joscelin’s captivity. He encamped on 18 April not far from Gargar
on the Euphrates. As he prepared to enjoy a morning’s sport with his falcon,
Balak, of whose proximity he knew nothing, fell upon the camp. Most of the army
was massacred, and the King himself was taken prisoner. He was treated with
respect and sent under escort to join Joscelin in the fortress of Kharpurt.

1123: Baldwin
and Joscelin attempt to escape

Once again Baldwin and Joscelin found
themselves together in captivity. But it was more serious than in 1104, for
Baldwin now was king, the centrepiece of the whole Frankish fabric. It was a
testimony to his administrative ability that the structure remained standing.
Geoffrey the Monk continued to govern in Edessa. At Antioch when the news came
there the Patriarch Bernard once more made himself the responsible authority.
At Jerusalem it was first rumoured that the King was killed. The Patriarch
Gormond summoned the council of the kingdom to meet at Acre. By the time that
it assembled the truth about his captivity was known. The council elected
Eustace Gamier, lord of Caesarea and Sidon, to act as constable and bailiff of
the kingdom till the King should be delivered. In all three territories
administrative life went on undisturbed.

The emir Balak had acquired a vast prestige;
but he used it, not to deliver a death-blow against the Franks, but to
establish himself in Aleppo. It was a harder task than he expected, for he was
unpopular there. By June he was its master; and he then attacked the Frankish
possession farther south, capturing Albara in August, only to be summoned north
again by extraordinary news from Kharpurt.

Joscelin had always been well-liked by the
Armenians. Soon after his arrival in the East he had, like Baldwin I and
Baldwin II, married an Armenian wife, the sister of the Roupenian Thoros, and
she, unlike the two Queens of Jerusalem, was not born Orthodox but of the
Separated Armenian Church and therefore in greater sympathy with most of her
compatriots. She was dead now, and Joscelin had remarried; but his intimacy
with the Armenians had continued and he had never shown against them the
severity shown by his predecessor Baldwin II. The castle of Kharpurt lay in
Armenian country; and a local peasant agreed to take a message to Joscelin’s
Armenian friends. Fifty of them came in various disguises to Kharpurt and were
allowed entry as being monks and merchants of the district with a grievance
that they asked to lay before the governor. Once inside the fortress they
produced arms from beneath their garments and overpowered the garrison. Baldwin
and Joscelin suddenly found themselves the masters of their prison. After a
brief conference it was decided that Joscelin should leave the fortress before
the Ortoqid army came up and should seek help, while Baldwin should try to hold
the fortress. Joscelin slipped out with three Armenian comrades. When he had
managed to pass between the gathering Turkish forces, he sent one of his men
back to reassure the King. He himself went on through the dangerous enemy
country, hiding by day and tramping wearily by night. At last the fugitives
reached the Euphrates. Joscelin could not swim; but he had two wineskins in
which he had carried water. Blowing them up with his breath he used them as
floats; and his two companions, both strong swimmers, were able to push him
across through the darkness. Next day they were found by a peasant, who
recognized the Count and welcomed him with joy; for Joscelin had given him alms
in the past. With the help of the peasant and his family Joscelin travelled on
cautiously to Turbessel, where he revealed himself to his wife and the court.
He would not stay there but hurried to Antioch to raise troops to rescue the
King. But the army of Antioch was small and the Patriarch Bernard was nervous.
At his suggestion Joscelin rode at full speed to Jerusalem. His first act was
to offer his chains at the altar of Calvary. Then he summoned the council of
the kingdom and told his story. With the eager help of the Patriarch Gormond
and of the Constable Eustace, troops were collected and, with the True Cross at
their head, set out under his leadership by forced marches to Turbessel. But
when they arrived there they heard that it was too late.