Knights at the Opera, Part 14 – Postscript

Godfrey met up with Tancred in Nicomedia, en route to the Seljuk [Turkish] capital, and together they confronted the Sultan, who ultimately surrendered to the Crusaders when he realized that his neighbor, Alexium, was financially backing their assaults. Alexium, by rewarding the victorious Europeans, won the loyalty of many of the knights who had formerly balked at giving him their oath. But when he then treated the defeated Turks kindly, having no enmity for them himself, the invaders saw it as a slimy, two-faced move rather than an act of a peace-loving man.

Led by an assortment of European noblemen, the First Crusaders continued East, battling the Turks again and again, caught short by the military skills of their enemy. Their first goal was Antioch, a great fortress held by the Turks. Wearied by their inability to make significant headway and cut off from their supplies by supporters of the Turkish cause who were continually intercepting the transports and raiding the camps, the knights and their horses began to die of hunger. Several deserting leaders, including Peter the Hermit (see Part 1 if you've forgotten his part in this), were rounded up and brought back in shame by Tancred. It was decided that they would build a blockade of their own, against the camp raiders, and Tancred was put in charge of its construction. Spirits renewed and better fed, the knights recovered their strength and captured Antioch, slaying all the Turks they could find and pillaging local homes, robbing Christians and Moslems residents alike.

A year later, the Crusaders moved on to Tripoli, accepting now-mandatory hefty payoffs from the inhabitants of Beirut to ensure that they would pass through the city without destroying it. Tancred was eventually welcomed by the natives of Bethlehem, where he installed his family flag over the town over the protests of the clergy and rivaling European noblemen.

The Crusaders then proceeded to their final goal, the walled city of Jerusalem. It was governed by Iftikhar ad-Daula, who poisoned the wells and relocated whatever food supplies he anticipated the approaching army would seize for nourishment; he also sent all the Christian residents away from the area to prevent their aiding the invaders, and gathered together Arab and Sudanese troops to defend the walls of the city. Many of the starving and exhausted knights, after failing time and again to break into the well-guarded town, rebaptized themselves in the River Jordan

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