History of the Crusades.

the Crusades. episodes.

Episode 16, the First Crusade Roman numeral 12.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the dark side of the crusading expedition

in the annihilation of the town of Marat-Anuman.

At the end of the episode, we saw Riemont of Toulouse bow to pressure from the rank and file members of the army and start marching south to Jerusalem along

with Tancret and Robert of Normandy.

The combined armies of these three leaders amounted to only around 1,000 Knights and 5,000 foot soldiers,

which wasn't a big force at all when you consider that their aim was to proceed through hostile territory,

taking cities that were heavily fortified and well defended.

Luckily for the Crusaders, their reputation proceeded them.

News spread like wildfire through Syria and further south of the defeat of Kaboga's massive army and of the events at Marat-Anuman. Stories of cannibalism at Marat became more and more exaggerated as they spread, until horrified residents of southern

towns heard that the Crusaders roasted babies on spits and boiled adults up in huge cooking pots.

And for the first time, rumors spread of the actual goal of the Franks.

They weren't Byzantine mercenaries after all. Their goal was Jerusalem.

This news was met with relief all around.

Jerusalem at the present time was in the hands of the Egyptians and we'll discuss this in more depth in the next episode.

The Egyptians were Shia Muslims who were in conflict with local Sunni Muslims.

So the local rulers were more than happy to negotiate with the Crusaders for them to pass through their territory as quickly as possible and get themselves on to Jerusalem

where they would become an Egyptian problem.

Time after time on the road south Raymond would receive emissaries from nearby towns.

...