Jerusalem, siege of (1099). The First Crusade had been inspired by the idea of delivering the Holy Sepulchre from the infidel so when the crusaders besieged Jerusalem on 7 June it was not a military objective but the emotional mainspring of the whole undertaking. The 0.62 mile (1 km) long north wall, unlike the east and west walls which crowned steep slopes, lacked natural defences but was protected by an outer wall and ditch. Level land outside made Zion Gate, which was shielded only by a ditch, vulnerable. Religious exaltation and fear of a relief force impelled the crusaders, with no siege equipment, to a doomed attack on 13 June.
When a crusader fleet landed supplies at Jaffa on 17 June the army began to erect two siege towers. The northern French built one, with a ram to breach the outer wall, at the north-west corner of the city, while the Provençals constructed theirs outside Zion Gate. On the night of 9/10 July the northern tower and ram were moved from the west to the east end of the north wall, surprising the defenders. A two-pronged attack was launched on 13 July. On 15 July after very fierce fighting the northern French broke into the city causing the garrison to surrender to the Provençals in the south in order to avoid massacre. The inhabitants were less fortunate, and almost all were butchered, an act which was to erect a lasting barrier to good relations between Christian and Muslim. Not for the last time, one fanaticism awoke another.
Bibliography
- France, J., Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (Cambridge, 1994).
- Prawer, J., ‘The Jerusalem the Crusaders Captured: A Contribution to the Military Topography of the City’, in Crusade and Settlement in the Latin East (Cardiff, 1985)
— John France
