213: A Very Curthose Thing to Do

The First Crusade is over.

Pope Urban II's dream of a reclaimed Jerusalem has been realized.

So what happens next? Well, the answer is surprisingly simple.

Most people just went home.

Well, Raymond IV of Toulouse went searching along the Mediterranean coast for glory and his own slice of First Crusade legacy.

Duke Godfrey of Bouillon shimmies out of his inheritance up in Boulogne and dons the title of Defender of the Holy Sepulchre, the sole ruler of a Latin Christian Jerusalem.

His little brother Baldwin of Boulogne continued his rule up in Edessa as a forward outpost of the Latin West in the wild, wild west of Seljuk, Arab, Greek, and Armenian hostilities.

Count Bohemond of Taranto? He's been styled as Prince Bohemond of the Principality of Antioch, and continues to be a thorn in Emperor Alexius Comnenus' side for years to come.

Tancred de Hauteville, Bohemond's dangerous and capable nephew, he consolidated his hold over the Principality of Galilee, though his fate will not keep him there long.

And though each of these legendary leaders decided to stick it out in the Holy Land, creating what came to be called the Crusader States in a land that the French came to call Outremer, translated as Land Beyond the Sea, the vast majority of Crusaders again simply packed up their spoils, And they left.

The crusade had retaken the holiest city on earth, but Europe was about to undergo a fundamental transformation with what was about to hit its shores.

Now, one might consider these men deserters.

Godfrey only had a tenuous grip over Jerusalem, its surrounding regions, and a path to the ports of Ascalon and Jaffa.

Tancred controlled Galilee, Tiberiana, and Bethlehem.

Raymond led his army northward, but he had yet to establish a base of operations.

300 miles north of Jerusalem was a rather unfriendly Bohemond in rather unfriendly territory.

Further on from him was Baldwin again.

The point is, is that Godfrey's hold over the Holy Land, and all the rest of them as well, was due quite literally to the absence of Fatimid and Seljuk forces, not because he had some powerful standing army left to protect it.

And now, most of the men who made that all a possibility, most of these men were were left after Ascalon and were now slinging their valuables over the back of a horse or a camel and heading to the ports as quickly as they can to catch a ride back home.

They were leaving while their army, their liege lord, was still squarely inside enemy territory.

This was a legitimate concern found in the records, but there was a counter-argument to this criticism.

See, Urban specifically called for aid to Eastern Rome and the liberation of Jerusalem.

The whole thing was marketed very clearly as a pilgrimage, albeit one in extremely hostile territory.

So it'd be best if you guys just grabbed your swords and armor and shields and throw some warhorses in there.

And you know what? Why don't you just find some buddies and organize into larger and larger groups? It'd be smart if you guys trained and discussed battle plans and general military logistics.