Click2Flicks - Kingdom of Heaven - The Story Behind The Movie - Slaughter in Jerusalem - Chapter 6

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>KINGDOM OF HEAVEN</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 6 - SLAUGHTER IN JERUSALEM</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">On the 6th of June, 1099, the First Crusaders finally <a target="_blank" href="images/reached.jpg"><b>reached</b></a> Jerusalem. <a target="_blank" href="images/godfrey6.jpg"><b>Godfrey</b></a> (a <a target="_blank" href="images/Charlemagne.jpg"><b>Charlemagne</b></a> <a target="_blank" href="images/NUREMBERG.CHRONICLE.CHARL.DESCENDANTS.jpg"><b>descendant</b></a> for whom there really <i> was</i> no future in Europe since Emperor Henry IV had confiscated his lands) had been the first to put together an army. He and his men (including his brother Baldwin, an intelligent man educated in the cathedral school at Reims) <a target="_blank" href="images/left_europe.jpg"><b>left Europe</b></a> in August of 1096. When they arrived at the Italian port of Brindisi, in September of that year, they were joined by <a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gesta-cde.html#bohemund1" target="_blank"><b>Count Bohemund</b></a> of Taranto and his nephew, Tancred. All would play prominent roles in the battle for Jerusalem. All were French. As Bohemund reportedly said, when he decided to join with <a target="_blank" href="images/godfrey6.2.jpg"><b>Godfrey</b></a>:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>Are we not Franks?</b></i> [He was actually a Norman who had adopted a Frank identity.] <b><i>Did not our ancestors come here from <a href="http://www.friesian.com/perifran.htm" target="_blank"> Francia</a> and liberate this land with arms? What a disgrace! Will our blood relatives and brothers go to martyrdom and indeed to paradise without us?</i></b></font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">The Muslims holding Jerusalem that summer were well-armed and prepared. The Crusaders had been through enormous struggles, <a target="_blank" href="images/costly_victories_dore.jpg"><b>costly victories</b></a> and deprivation. They had lived, according to Jonathan Riley-Smith, “in an alien, <a target="_blank" href="images/suffering_world_dore_dorylaeum.jpg"><b>suffering world</b></a> of their own.” But now they had reached the point of their destination. They were hearing the Muslim call to prayer inside “the holy city.” Would they be able to fulfill the destiny Pope Urban II had envisioned?</p> <p>After they built two <a target="_blank" href="images/siege.jpg"><b>siege</b></a> <a target="_blank" href="images/siege_towers.jpg"><b>towers</b></a>, the whole army marched around the city walls seven times (akin to Joshua’s march around the walls of Jericho). The <a target="_blank" href="images/jerusalem_walls.jpg"><b>walls</b></a> failed to fall, and the city’s <a target="_blank" href="images/defenders.jpg"><b>defenders</b></a> must have been astonished by the Europeans’ efforts. A five-week <a target="_blank" href="images/siege6.jpg"><b>siege</b></a> ensued.</p> <p>On the 15th of July, however, <a target="_blank" href="images/the_crusaders.jpg"><b>the Crusaders</b></a> found a way to penetrate <a target="_blank" href="images/jerusalem6.jpg"><b>Jerusalem’s</b></a> defenses. Godfrey had <a target="_blank" href="images/fulfilled.jpg"><b>fulfilled</b></a> his mission. Tancred, one of the first to enter the city, tried (without success) to spare the lives of some of the inhabitants.</p> <p>About 40,000 Muslims were <a target="_blank" href="images/killed.jpg"><b>killed</b></a> in two days.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"><a href="kingdom_heaven_ch5.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="kingdom_heaven_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>    <a href="kingdom_heaven_ch7.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>