The war during the first three crusades – History Archives

Medieval warfare was harsh, chaotic and bloody, but at the same time it contributed to the development of the societies of the time and the construction of future political maps and national entities that we enjoy today, also becoming a driver of development and technological evolution, since the difficulties experienced on the battlefield and the need to find a solution to them, caused the birth of new military innovations during the medieval period, which contributed to the evolution of the war phenomenon and changed the way of war from the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This is the story of the Crusades.

During the Middle Ages, specifically during the 11th-12th centuries, there was no greater battlefield in the known world than the one developed in Palestine during the years of the first three crusades (1095-1192), a place that functioned as a continuous military testing laboratory for all the warlike innovations that were emerging, both in Europe and in other corners of the known world.

Warfare in the Holy Land, during the first three Crusades, was generally a static or sieges contest.where open field battles were scarce, since the crusaders on their tour of Palestine encountered numerous ancient fortresses and walled cities, such as Antioch, whose walls date from the time of Emperor Justinian, or Jerusalem, whose walls were conceived and designed in the time of the Roman emperor Hadrian, reaching both ancient constructions, intact and stronger if possible, to the time of the crusades. This type of conflict, previously mentioned, caused the appearance of important warlike innovations, in this way, the construction of war machinery designed expressly and in situ took place, since the engineers of the different armies studied the characteristics of each besieged square to build the war machines appropriate to the architectural characteristics of the fortress and of the walls. This situation led to the appearance of new machines such as traction trebuchets, counterweights or almajaneques, “a kind of catapult that could launch a 22-kilo projectile 120 meters away” (FRANCE 2010, p.90), in addition to the recovery of the Tormentary Art, which involved the use of heavy weapons at sites prior to the appearance of gunpowder, such as neuroballistics.

Despite the use of these new siege engines, cities continued to be difficult to take, see for example Damascus during the Second Crusade or Acre during the Third Crusade. To which it also came to help, the new use of stone from the 11th century in the construction of the new castles and fortresses that were built throughout the Holy Land to protect the new Crusader conquests from Muslim attacks, replacing the traditional use of sand and wood in military constructions, fickle materials and vulnerable to fire. In addition, these new castles will have defensive innovations in their architecture, such as: moats, shooting galleries inside the wall, ramparts, mines or larger and more robust towers that could support the weight of a defensive catapult – see the case of the city of Damascus. Also noteworthy is the castle of Belvoir, located in the region of eastern Galilee, defended and run by members of the Order of the Hospital, which became a model to follow, since it represented a great innovation in defensive matters through the construction of concentric defense systems in the design of its walls.

Secondly, in the sites that took place in the Holy Land, the use of siege towers was frequent (invention of ancient origin), important innovations that emerged during the proposed period. These innovative machines, generally made of wood and covered with fireproof materials that would withstand the attacks of Greek fire thrown from the walls, have their embryo in the catssmall wooden sheds with wheels used by archers to protect themselves from enemy fire during sieges, as it is, these cats They developed over time, gaining in height and length, causing during the high medieval period the birth of useful siege towers, so demanded in the sites carried out by crusaders and Muslims during the first three crusades.

But without any doubt, the great innovation that marked the proposed period was the birth of chain mail at the dawn of the eleventh century (invention of ancient origin), which was, as Soto Rodríguez points out: “A relatively comfortable and reliable type of armor, used by both horsemen and infantrymen, who protected their head, torso and upper part of the thighs under the dense ringing” ( SOTO RODRIGUEZ 2011, p.84). Its emergence meant an equestrian, social, military and agricultural revolution, since the type of horse used in battles was changed for a more robust one that could support the greater weight of the rider, which caused a rise in the cost of the horse since its diet varied. because it was necessary to start the rotation of crops of barley, wheat, cereal and oats, thus increasing the price of breeding and buying the animal, at the same time that it will change the traditional schemes of battles and the way of riding. Chain mail was born in Western Europe due to the large iron deposits that the region had, but it quickly spread throughout Europe, becoming the main armor for almost the entire medieval period, also being transported by the Crusaders to Holy Land.

Faced with this innovation, the Muslim warrior will have similar means of protection, lighter and less heavy, as a result of the climate where they usually fought, achieving greater mobility. See clothes like: qarqal –padded garment–, jawshan, come out, yadla either masruda. This lighter equipment was the one that best suited their peculiar way of fighting, since the Turkish armies made an art of rapid maneuvers, counting on light horsemen and Turkish-Mongolian horse archers to create chaos in the rival army, provoking –in the case of the Christian hosts– the rupture of their solid charge columns, causing the knights to stumble upon the corpses of their previous fallen comrades as they advanced, creating confusion.

However, the reliability that chain mail gave off in the contests developed on the European continent was not the same as it showed in the battles that took place in the deserts of Palestine, becoming inadequate equipment to fight in these regions. Its weight and the heat it gave off, together with the hot climates and desert geographies of these regions, caused its use on many occasions to do more harm than good to European armies. In addition, the Muslims had much lighter coats, suitable for fighting in hot climates, which led them to avoid hand-to-hand combat, since Christian mail was designed to withstand these types of contests.

The above makes us see how the hot climate and desert geography influenced the development of the crusadessince many Europeans appeared on the Asian continent with inadequate equipment, in this way, climate and geography will end up decanting the outcome of the battles, since their knowledge and planning could tip the balance of the contest towards the side of victory or of defeat, as for example, was the case of the Battle of the Horns of Hattin (1187), where a bad strategy, together with poor planning, water scarcity and the accumulated fatigue of marching through the desert, led to the massacre of the only Crusader army that could defend Jerusalem from the unstoppable advance of the Muslim leader Saladin.

Undoubtedly, all these innovations and advances had a great influence and a decisive role throughout the first three crusades, all of them contributing to cause a change and an evolution of traditional combat models. As we see, the eleventh and twelfth centuries were a time of great arms, tactical and military boiling, where new models appeared and traditional ones were improved, taking advantage of the continuous military testing ground offered by the course of medieval politics. In short, the crusades were an incomparable and unique phenomenon for the medieval period, where war, religion and politics were perfectly mixed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AYTON, A. (2005). Weapons, armor and horses. In M. Keen (ed.), History of warfare in the Middle Ages (pp.239-267). Madrid: A. Machado Books.

EDBURY, P. (2005). The war in the Latin towns of the east. In M. Keen (ed.), History of warfare in the Middle Ages (pp.123-149). Madrid: A. Machado Books.

FRANCE, J. (2010). The revival of Latin Christianity and the Crusades in the East. In M. Bennett (Coord.), Warfare in the Middle Ages (pp. 84-111). Madrid: Akal.

KEEN, M. (2005). Introduction: war and the Middle Ages. In M. Keen (ed.), History of warfare in the Middle Ages (pp.15-25). Madrid: A. Machado Books.

RUNCIMAN, S. (2008). History of the Crusades. Madrid: Publishing Alliance.

SOTO RODRIGUEZ, JA (2011). “Medieval military art: a look from the eleventh century”. Time and space 26. September: 67-93.

VALDES FERNANDEZ, F. (1996). The military architecture of the Crusaders in the East”. Codex aquilarensis: Research notebooks of the Monastery of Santa María la Real 12. September: 153-178.