Deus Vult

Council of Clermont

Nov 18, 1095

Called by Pope Urban II after the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I appealed for help with Seljuk Turk Invasions. Urban called for prominent lords and church officials to attend. He declared the Crusade at the meeting

First Crusade

Period: Nov 18, 1095 to Aug 12, 1099

Extremely Successful, Holy land taken, Arabs defeated. Started because Alexius I Emperor of the Byzantine Empire appealed to the pope for help from turkish invaders.

Armies arrive at Constantinople #1

1096

The first army led by Hugh count of Vermandois (Frank) arrives at Constantinople, he is so impressed with the city that he swears fealty to Alexis II and swears to hand over all captured land to the Byzantines. Godfrey of Boullion arrives, isnt happy with constantinople and doesnt take the oath, Alexis cuts him off from supplies and Godfrey attacks the city, Godfrey ends up swearing the same oath, so that his men dont starve

Armies arrive at Constantinople #2

1096

Bohemund I Prince of Otranto arrives from his land in Sicily. Bohemund and Alexis had a bad history, when he arrived he considered attacking Constantinople until Alexis showed him a room full of gold and then gave it all to him, what a lad. Raymond IV Count of Toulouse arrived last, and he and Alexis were good pals, no problems here. After they all swore oaths to give all conquerored land to Byzantine Empire they were ferried accorss to Asia Minor all 100 000 of them (Fighting men only).

The People's Crusade

Period: Apr 1, 1096 to Oct 1, 1096

Pete the Hermit got some peasants riled up, and they went Crusading early it was not part of the church-sanctioned crusade and the army was made up of inexperienced illiterate peasants. They started attacking Hungarians to get food on the way to Constantinople they arrived at Constantinople and started raiding and plundering villages for food, so Alexius quickly ferried them accorss they tried to seige Nicea were surronded in the process and then had the option to convert to islam or die

Siege of Nicea

May 14, 1097

Nicea, previously belonging to the Byzantine Empire and conquered by the Turks was the Crusaders first goal. After a battle which the Crusaders won then long drawn out siege, when the Crusaders were about to win, Alexis did some cheeky underhand mischeif and made a deal with the Niceans, they surrendered to him instead of the Crusading army, as they knew the Crusading army would slaughter them. This cause tension between the crusaders and the Empire

1st Battle of Dorylaeum

Jul 1, 1097

The old King of Nicea returned with his army and ambushed the crusaders for a second time on their way to Antioch One part of the army of the other part, the Norman portion was surrounded by Turkish horse archers and was being killed, when the French portion caught up and caught the turks between both forces, the turks fled instead of fighting both armies. This is considered the first major victory. However, on the way to antioch all food and water had been destroyed by the retreating turks

Siege of Antioch Part 1

Oct 20, 1097

The Crusaders tried to besiege the city of Antioch, it was impenetrable. The Crusader armies were dying and losing men. Bohemund is able to persuade someone from Antioch to lower a ladder for his men. They then Slaughter heaps of people in Antioch.

Siege of Antioch 1097 Part 2

Oct 20, 1097

After the Crusaders captured Antioch they themselves became besieged in its walls. The very next day the turks arrived and vastly out numbered them. Then some guy mysteriously found the holy lance.The lance of longinus. The Crusaders rallied under the lance and managed to defeat the Infadels.

Baldwin takes edessa

1098

Baldwin wnet out on his own and took an Orthodox city in Turkish lands from himself, he does this by becoming the heir of the ruler then allegedly killing him.

Seige of Ma'aarat

Nov 12, 1098

The Crusaders took this town to resupply before their siege of Jerusalem, this is where they went all cannibal.

Battle O Ascalon

Jan 1, 1099

The Crusaders found fatamid camp and took out the rest of the turks

Siege of Jerusalem

Jun 7, 1099

There was no wood near Jerusalem to build siege engines. Some old mate went to pee and found some Jesus wood in a cave, enough to build a battering ram. The crusaders eventually broke through and massacred every Muslim in Jerusalem.

Aftermath

Aug 12, 1099

Godfrey became the not king of Jerusalem, Bohemond was captured but later released and raised an army to raid the Byzantines, but is defeated. Baldwin marches to Egypt to attack more Muslims. Alexis gets nothing. The holy land opened up lucrative trade routes. Four Kingdoms were established, the kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, County of Triopoli, Country of Edessa.

Holy Orders are set up

1119

After the crusade went back to Europe so did the knights that came along with it, the Holy land was undefended. Holy Orders were created to hold the holy land and look after pilgrims. The Templars were devoted to the protection of travelling pilgrims. The Hospitallers were devoted to looking after sick and injured Pilgrims, the Teutons were just a bit German.

Damascus Alliance

1137

After being threatened by Imad ad-Din Zengi, Damascus decided to make an unexpected alliance with the Crusader States for protection agaisn't Zenghi.

Seige of Eddessa

Nov 28, 1144

Imad ad-Din Zengi decided to lay seige of Eddessa to recapture it from the christians. After a realtively short seige he broke through the walls and took the crusader state back. The Christians were put to death.

Pope Eugenius III Calls Crusade

Dec 1, 1145

After hearing of the fall of Eddessa Pope Eugenius III calls for a Crusade to recapture Christian lands. The Crusade was unpopular and had very little support at first until Eugenius added a whole heap of new crusader benefits, and this time more VIP's wouold take part.

Bernard of Clairvaux

1146

Bernard is selected by the Pope to act as a spokesman for the Crusade, he goes around to the different leaders persuading them and encouraging religous fervour .

Imad ed-Din Zengi assassinated.

1146

Imad ad-Din Zengi was assassinated by a frankish slave. Zengi became incredibly drunk one night and passed out, the slave tried to steal his jewelled ring. Zengi woke up (Still incredibly drunk) and told the slave in drunken stuppor that he would kill him in the morning, the slave panicked and killed Imad ad-Din Zengi in his sleep. His son Nur ad-Din took over his role.

Stephen dogs the boys in the second battle of Dorylaeum

1147

Stephen the trustworthy leads the German Crusader army on, and persuades them not to wait for the Franks. He then guides them into a really ambushy spot, and mysteriously disappears, right before a whole bunch of turks ambush and slaughter 9/10 of the German Army. The Second Battle of Dorylaeum was an inside job confirmed.

Second Crusade

Period: 1147 to 1150

To restablish the Holy Lands after Nur al-Din took Eddessa. Achieves literally nothing except pissing off their closest ally. People blamed its failure on the sins of the Crusaders and Western Europe.

Conrad with a C reaches Constantinople

Sep 10, 1147

After much journeying he reaches Constantinople. After a small cheeky skirmish where Byzantines and Germans fought eachother due to the intense tensions, both rulers decided that the best course of action would be to quickly ferry the Crusaders to Asia Minor. Manuel give the crusaders his best man .... Stephen

Louis VII reaches Constantinople

1148

Louis reaches Constantinople and is quickly ferried over the Bosphorus. He sees the remains of Conrads retreating army on the way to the Holy Land. Conrad is severely ill, and is looked after by his now gay lover Manuel of Byzantine Empire.

Louis is a dick to the fam

Jan 5, 1148

Realizing that his army won't be able to make it to Antioch by land due to Turkish Gurellia warfare, he asks Manuel to send ships to take the army. Instead of sending the 200 ships needed Manuel is a stingy bastard and sends five. Louis decided that him and his best men will take the ships and the rest of the army can walk. The rest of the army was never heard from again. Smells like orc mischeif from Manuel.

Council of Acre

Jun 24, 1148

The remaining crusaders all had a gavo at Antioch to decide where they are going to attack, instead of taking Eddessa they decide to attack their one and only ally in the region, Damascus.

Siege of Damascus

Jul 24, 1148

The Crusaders decided to siege Damascus. They decide to seige the city from the west through the orchids so that they can have food. However this give the mulsims a good place to do some gureilla warefare. To escape the constant ambushes the moved to the plains on the western side of the city, there was much less food and water on this side, and they were open to attack. They were surrounded by Nur al-Din, so they fucked off home

Nur ad-Din tries to take Egypt

1164

Nur ad-Din was the first Muslim ruler to unite the muslims in the holy lands. He then went on to try to take Egypt - the Fatimid Empire. The Fatamids asked the crusaders for help and they obliged ridding Egypt of Nur al-Din

Crusaders attack Egypt

1168

After a short period of alliance, the crusaders accuse the Egyptians of not paying their 'alliance' payments to the crusaders, probably and excuse to attack them. They then go and attack the Fatamids. The Fatamids turn to Nur al-Din for help

Seige of Belbeis

1168

The Crusaders seige Bilbeis in Fatamid lands, slaughtering all of its inhabitants. This persuaded Nur al-Din to become involved, he repels the crusaders and annexs egypt.

Saladin comes to power

1174

It was decided that after the death of Nur ad-Din that the only person strong enough to defend the Muslim lands from the Crusaders was his Nephew Saladin, who became the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and the sultan of Egypt and Syria

Baldwin IV the Lep gets a treaty

1180

old-mate-no-arms took over when he was 14 years old, he was able to negotiate a peace treaty with Saladin which gauranteed the peace of Muslim travellers through the holy lands.

Raynold is a dick

1180

Raynold, despite the treaty continues to raid and kill Muslim travellers and merchants, attempting to draw the wrath of Saladin so that he can go to war.

Baldwin Dies

1185

Despite being maaaad, he dies cause he was a dirty lep. His brother in law takes over as king of Jerusalem, the pretty boy guy.

Battle of Hattin

1187

King Guy and Reynald went to fight off Saladin who was attacking Crusader land as reparation for their constant attacks on muslims. They marched into the desert and were dying from heat and no water. They were massacred by Saladins forces, King Guy was spared casue he was dumb, by Reynald was beheaded for being a douche.

Jerusalem is captured by Saladin

1187

This time, unlike when the Crusaders took it, almost no civilians are harmed in the taking. The Chruch blames the loss of Jerusalem on the sin of the people.

Saladin Tithe

1188

An extra tax imposed by Henry II, king before Lionheart, to fund the crusade. If this tax wasn't paid then you were excommunicated from the church, unless of course you went on crusade yourself. The tithe was 1/10 of your income

Fredrick Barabossa arrives in the holy land

1189

Fredrick I Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire arrived in the holy land with the largest every army to have left Germany at this stage.He however rather, unfortunately, died when swimming in a fast flowing river. His army pretty much just died after this.

King Guy is released from prison and raises an army

1189

King Guy is released by Saladin, he then goes on to raise an army and tries to siege Acre. At this point, only Antioch and Tripoli still stood under the banner of the cross. The Merchants of Pisa helped to fund Guy, as the Merchants of Pisa and Genoa were losing a lot of money now that the west no longer held the holy lands. Soon tho, after two years Saladin had Seiged Guy who was Sieging Acre.

The Third Crusade

Period: 1189 to 1192

This crusade was successful in the fact that it returned lots of land back to the crusaders, however it failed to recapture the holy land.

Richard and Phillip's armies head off towards the crusade

1190

After the crusade was called by Pope Gregory VIII (8), Phillip and Richard agreed not to attack eachother's land while they were out on crusade.

Richard takes Cyprus on the way to the holy land.

1191

On the way a storm dispersed the fleet. One of the boat had all of his treasure, wife and sister on it. They had all been captured by Byzantine Emperor Isaac on the island of Crete. So Richard took the Island, looted it, and resuced his fam.

Ricahard arrives at Acre and sieges Saladin

1191

Richard and Phillip arrived at Acre, meaning that now it was a triple siege, Acre being sieged by Guy, Guy being sieged by Saladin, Saladin being sieged by Richard and Philip. They beat Saladin and then captured Acre

Hostages of Acre

1191

After the Seige of Acre Richard help several thousand Muslim hostages and said he would set them free in return for the holy cross. Saladin didn't pay up and thousands were slaughters.

Battle of Arsuf

1191

Richard had set off to take Jerusalem with his army. However on the way. Richard won by a landslide.

Ascalon

1191

Before heading to Jerusalem Richard went to Ascalon and foritifed and rebuilt the garrison.

Jaffa

1192

Saladin captured and took Jaffa while Ricahrd was in Ascalon, Richard then went in pirate style and retook the city from the ocean. Saladin was loosing power, because he was loosing so many battles, and Richard didnt have enough men to take Jerusalem, there was a stalemate.

Treaty of Rammla

1192

Richard and Saladin agreed to sign a peace treaty the terms were, Pilgrims were allowed to continue visiting the holy land under the protection of Saldin. The lands taken by the Crusaders were also allowed to be held by the Crusaders, the defenses at Ascalon. It also lasted a period of three years.

Deal with Venice

1200

Venice makes a deal with the Crusaders wehre theyll make them lots of ships for a price and ferry them over. however there werent enough crusaders to pay for the ships so they were pretty much imprisoned by Boniface Montferrat.

Fourth crusade

1202

with the aim to recapture jerusalem. called by innocent III

Zara

1202

In order to pay back their debt, they decide to attack the cristian town of Zara for Bontiface Montferrat

Innocent III excommuniates

1202

He excommunicates all the people who besieged Zara

Fourth Crusade

Period: 1202 to 1204

Wasnt even against muslims