HOME



picture info

Siege Of Ma'arra
The siege of Ma'arra occurred in late 1098 in the city of Ma'arrat Nu'man, in what is modern-day Syria, during the First Crusade. It is infamous for the claims of widespread cannibalism committed by the Crusaders. Background The First Crusaders, including Raymond IV of Toulouse and Bohemond of Taranto, launched the siege of Antioch in October 1097. That December, Bohemond and Robert II of Flanders led 20,000 men to forage and plunder the surrounding countryside of food, opening Raymond IV to counterattack by Seljuk Empire commander and Antioch governor Yaghi-Siyan. The crusaders were suffering widespread hunger by early 1098. In July 1098, Raymond Pilet d'Alès, a knight in Raymond IV's army, led an expedition against Ma'arra, an important city on the road south towards Damascus. His troops met a much larger Muslim garrison in the town, and they were routed with many casualties. For the rest of the summer, the Crusaders continued their march south, captured ma ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

First Crusade
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest of the Levant, Islamic rule. While Jerusalem had been under Muslim rule for hundreds of years, by the 11th century the Seljuk Empire, Seljuk takeover of the region threatened local Christian populations, pilgrimages from the West, and the Byzantine Empire itself. The earliest initiative for the First Crusade began in 1095 when List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military support from the Council of Piacenza in the empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. This was followed later in the year by the Council of Clermont, during which Pope Urban II supported the Byzantine request for military assistance and also urged faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This call was met ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Robert II, Count Of Flanders
Robert II, Count of Flanders ( 1065 – 5 October 1111) was Count of Flanders from 1093 to 1111. He became known as Robert of Jerusalem (''Robertus Hierosolimitanus'') or Robert the Crusader after his exploits in the First Crusade. Early life Robert was the eldest son of Robert I of Flanders (also known as Robert the Frisian) and Gertrude of Saxony. His father, hoping to place the cadet branch (or "Baldwinite" branch) of Flanders over the county, began to associate him with his rule around 1086. From 1085 to 1091 he was regent of the county while his father was away on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Robert II became count in 1093 and supported the restoration of the diocese of Arras in order to limit the influence of the Holy Roman Empire in his dominion. With the approval of Pope Urban II, the diocese was split off from the diocese of Cambrai in 1093/94 and Lambert of Arras, Lambert of Guines elected as its first bishop. First Crusade In 1095, Robert joined the First Crusade ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

People's Crusade
The People's Crusade was the beginning phase of the First Crusade whose objective was to retake the Holy Land, and Jerusalem in particular, from Islamic rule. In 1095, after the head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Urban II started to urge faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the People's Crusade was conducted for roughly six months from April to October 1096. It is also known as the Peasants' Crusade, Paupers' Crusade or the Popular Crusade as it was executed by a mainly untrained peasant army prior to the main church-organized crusade. It was led primarily by Peter the Hermit with forces of Walter Sans Avoir. The peasant army of this crusade was destroyed by the forces of the Seljuk dynasty, Seljuk Turks under Kilij Arslan I, Kilij Arslan at the Battle of Civetot in northwestern Anatolia. The People's Crusade was the first, largest, and best documented of the popular crusades. The start of the more official and fully church-backed crusade, called ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Anna Komnene
Anna Komnene (; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine Greek historian. She is the author of the '' Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Her work constitutes the most important primary source of Byzantine history of the late 11th and early 12th centuries, as well as of the early Crusades. Although she is best known as the author of the ''Alexiad'', Anna played an important part in the politics of the time and attempted to depose her brother John II Komnenos as emperor in favour of her husband, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger.Hanawalt 1982, p. 303. At birth, Anna was betrothed to Constantine Doukas,Hanawalt 1982, p. 303. and she grew up in his mother's household.Neville 2016, p. 2. She was well-educated in "Greek literature and history, philosophy, theology, mathematics, and medicine." Anna and Constantine were next in the line to throne until Anna's younger brother, John II Komnenos, be ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Ralph Of Caen
Ralph of Caen (also known as Radulphus Cadomensis) (c. 1080 – c. 1120) was a Norman chaplain and author of the '' Gesta Tancredi in expeditione Hierosolymitana'' (The Deeds of Tancred in the Crusade). Biography Ralph was born before 1080 to an unknown family who likely traced their roots to Caen in Normandy. As Ralph's early education was conducted at the cathedral school in Caen under his teacher and life-long friend Arnulf of Chocques, later Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, this suggests that his family were of significant status. Ralph was ordained as a priest by 1106 and recruited by Bohemond I of Antioch in that year as his chaplain. In 1107, Ralph traveled with Bohemond on his ultimately unsuccessful campaign in the Balkans. Ralph of Caen was well educated in the Latin classics. Besides Virgil, whose work he knew well, he was acquainted with Ovid, who did not become popular until the twelfth-century Renaissance, and even Horace, who never developed much medieval reputation. ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Albert Of Aix
Albert of Aix(-la-Chapelle) or Albert of Aachen; ; ''fl.'' c. 1100) was a historian of the First Crusade and the early Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was born during the later part of the 11th century, and afterwards became canon (priest) and ''custos'' (guardian) of the church of Aachen. Endnote: See * F. Krebs, ''Zur Kritik Alberts von Aachen'' (Munster, 1881) * B. Kugler, ''Albert von Aachen'' (Stuttgart, 1885) * M. Figeonneau, ''Le Cycle de la croisade et de la famine de Bouillon'' (Paris, 1877) * H. von Sybel, ''Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzuges'' (Leipzig, 1881) * F. Vercruysse, ''Essai critique sur la chronique d'Albert d'Aix'' (Liege, 1889). Nothing else is known of his life except that he was the author of a ''Historia Hierosolymitanae expeditionis'' (“History of the Expedition to Jerusalem”), or ''Chronicon Hierosolymitanum de bello sacro'', a work in Latin in twelve books, written between 1125 and 1150. This history begins at the time of the Council of Clermont in 1095, deal ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Fulcher Of Chartres
Fulcher of Chartres ( in or near Chartres – after 1128; ; ) was a priest who participated in the First Crusade. He served Baldwin I of Jerusalem for many years and wrote a Latin chronicle of the Crusade. Life Fulcher was born . His appointment as chaplain of Baldwin of Boulogne in 1097 suggests that he had been trained as a priest, most likely at the school of Chartres. However, he was probably not a member of the cathedral chapter, since he is not named in the listing of the ''Dignitaries of the Church of Our Lady of Chartres''. The details of the Council of Clermont of 1095, in his history, suggest he attended the council personally, or knew someone who did; perhaps Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, who influenced Fulcher's opinions on Church reform and the investiture controversy with the Holy Roman Empire. Fulcher was part of the entourage of Count Stephen II of Blois and Duke Robert Curthose of Normandy which made its way through southern France and Italy in 1096, crossing int ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Raymond Of Aguilers
Raymond of Aguilers was a participant in and chronicler of the First Crusade (1096–1099). During the campaign he became the chaplain of Count Raymond IV of Toulouse, the leader of the Provençal army of crusaders., vol. IV, p. 1009. His chronicle, entitled '' Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem'', which he co-wrote with Pons of Balazun, ends with the events immediately following the capture of Jerusalem in 1099., pp. ix–xlvi. Biography Raymond was probably born second half of the 11th century in the vicinity of Toulouse., vol. 3 (1050–1200), pp. 297–300. "Aguilers" is probably a reference to the village of Aiguilhe. Before the crusade, Raymond was a lay canon (deacon) of the cathedral of Le Puy. He probably travelled originally in the entourage of Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy, the papal legate. There is a purported charter of Bishop Adhemar that refers to his chancellor as Raymond of Aguilhes, but the existence of this charter and the identification of the chanc ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Peter Tudebode
Peter Tudebode () was a Poitevin priest who was part of the First Crusade as part of the army of Raymond of Saint-Gilles. He wrote an account of the crusade, ''Historia de Hierosolymitano itinere'', including an eye-witness account of the siege of Antioch of 1097–1098. The work is included in Patrologia Latina,Migne, J. (Jacques-Paul). (18441902)Patrologiae cursus completus: series latina Sive, Bibliotheca universalis, integra, uniformis, commoda, oeconomica, omnium SS. patrum, doctorum scriptorumque ecclesiasticorum qui ab aevo apostolico ad usuque Innocentii III tempora floruerunt. Parisiis: excudebat Migne, etc. Volume 155, pp. 758–823. The work appears in ''Recueil des historiens des croisades'' (RHC), with a translation and ''Præfatio'' by French historian Jean Besly (1572–1644). The anonymous ''Gesta Francorum ''Gesta Francorum'' (Deeds of the Franks), or ''Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum'' (Deeds of the Franks and the other pilgrims to Jerusal ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Gesta Francorum
''Gesta Francorum'' (Deeds of the Franks), or ''Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum'' (Deeds of the Franks and the other pilgrims to Jerusalem), is the name given to one of a family of Latin narrative accounts of the First Crusade. Its simplicity, relative brevity, and similarity to a number of other Latin accounts of the crusade have led scholars to advance a number of theories about the work's authorship, date, and relationship to the larger corpus of Latin crusade chronicles. Although it is still often cited as a stand-alone account of a single author, there is little agreement about the context or authorship of the work nor its exact place within the corpus. Its status as a very early account of the events, informed directly by the experiences of those that took part, is unquestioned. It remains one of the most important sources for the history of the First Crusade. The ''Gesta Francorum'' (often shortened to "the ''Gesta''") narrates the events of the First Cru ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Human Cannibalism
Human cannibalism is the act or practice of Human, humans eating the Meat, flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The meaning of "cannibalism" has been extended into zoology to describe animals consuming parts of individuals of the same species as food. Early modern human, Anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals, and ''Homo antecessor'' are known to have practised cannibalism to some extent in the Pleistocene. Cannibalism was occasionally practised in Egypt during ancient Egypt, ancient and Roman Egypt, Roman times, as well as later during severe famines. The Island Caribs of the Lesser Antilles, whose name is the origin of the word ''cannibal'', acquired a long-standing reputation as eaters of human flesh, reconfirmed when their legends were recorded in the 17th century. Some controversy exists over the accuracy of these legends and the prevalence of actual cannibalism in the culture. Reports describing cannib ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]