In 1095, a pope stood in a field in France and called on the knights of Europe to march two thousand miles and take Jerusalem. Four years later, against every reasonable expectation, they did. Then they had to figure out how to keep it. This is the story of the First Crusade and the improvised kingdom its survivors built, held together by bad deals, Italian fleets, warrior monks, and the fact that their enemies could not get along.

Sources

Primary sources

• Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana
• Gesta Francorum
• Raymond of Aguilers, Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem
• Albert of Aachen, Historia Ierosolimitana
• Robert the Monk, Historia Iherosolimitana
• Guibert of Nogent, Gesta Dei per Francos
• Walter the Chancellor, The Antiochene Wars
• Solomon bar Simson, Chronicle
• Usama ibn Munqidh, Kitab al-I'tibar (Hitti translation, An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades)
• Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi'l-Ta'rikh
• Michael Attaleiates, History
• Nikephoros Bryennios, Material for History
• Bernard of Clairvaux, In Praise of the New Knighthood

Modern works

• Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, Vols. I and II
• Thomas Asbridge, The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land, and The First Crusade: A New History
• Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, and The First Crusaders
• Christopher Tyerman, God's War
• Malcolm Barber, The Crusader States, and The New Knighthood
• Amin Maalouf, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
• R. C. Smail, Crusading Warfare

In this episode:

4:31 The board before the first move: Byzantium, Manzikert, the Seljuks, and the reforming Church

41:03 A surplus of swords, and why it had to be Jerusalem

52:25 Urban II at Clermont

1:00:34 The Rhineland, 1096

1:07:35 Peter the Hermit and Civetot

1:14:20 The princes, Nicaea, and the march across Anatolia

1:32:03 Antioch: eight months outside the walls

1:35:27 The Holy Lance and the rout of Kerbogha

1:44:04 The siege of Jerusalem and July 15, 1099

1:57:16 Ascalon

2:07:15 After the conquest

2:13:32 The rider to Edessa

2:17:48 Baldwin I and the army that wouldn't stay

2:24:07 The kingdom almost dies three times at Ramla

2:34:07 The ports, one at a time

2:39:59 Raymond's mountain and the founding of Tripoli

2:45:52 Four states on a coast

2:49:52 The kingdom marries

2:58:09 Usama ibn Munqidh

3:11:10 Baldwin II and Harran

3:19:35 The king in chains and the Pactum Warmundi

3:24:17 Azaz and the Field of Blood

3:34:21 The Templars and the Hospitallers

3:45:35 Everyone who actually lived there

3:55:21 The kingdom in 1131