Byzantium And The Crusades

The Fifth Crusade is poised for victory in Egypt. But its final offensive ends in catastrophe. Find out what went wrong in this episode.

The Fifth Crusade has struck at Egypt. Can its fanatical leader, Cardinal Pelagius, achieve the greatest victory since the First Crusade? 

The Fifth Crusade isn't as well known as it should be. It was actually one of the most significant military expeditions that set out to recover Jerusalem. 

This episode looks at one of the strangest episodes in the whole history of the Crusades when, in 1212, groups of children in France and Germany followed child preachers on a wildly unrealistic expedition to liberate Jerusalem. It provides a fascinating insight into the medieval mind, dominated by a belief in miracles and a yearning to seek a better life.

How did the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade rule their new city of Constantinople and their lands in Greece? And how did the break-away Byzantine states oppose them? Find out in this episode.

The Fourth Crusade was initiated as a plan to attack Egypt. But with the Crusaders short of money, and the emergence of a Byzantine pretender, claiming that he would help the Crusaders if they helped him, things started to develop somewhat differently. With the scheming Venetians in the background, the Crusaders looked east not to the Holy Land but to the glittering city of Constantinople.

The First Crusade had saved Byzantium. Now the Fourth Crusade would be directed against it. How and why did this happen? Find out in this episode.

Ever heard of the German Crusade of 1197? Probably not. It must be one of the most overlooked Crusades. And yet it could have been a game-changer. Discover why in this episode.

In this episode, we move onto what can be called the Second Age of the Crusaders, that is the period after the Third Crusade, when the Crusader states were weakened but still controlled the coast of Palestine. After Richard the Lionheart's departure from the Holy Land in 1192, it wasn't long before his great rival, Saladin, also died, an event that would reshape medieval Islam and the entire Middle East.

In this episode, we hear how Richard the Lionheart was close to giving up on ever capturing Jerusalem. He had defeated Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf, but he knew that Saladin's army was still numerically superior to his, and that even if captured Jerusalem, it would be virtually impossible to hold it against the might of a united Islamic state that stretched from Aleppo to the Sudan. Yet Richard was both a gifted soldier and an adventurer, and he couldn't resist making one last throw of the dice.

King Richard the Lionheart has won a great victory over Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf in 1191. The tide seems to have turned in the Crusaders' favour. The road to Jerusalem lies open. Or is it? Saladin's army has been defeated but not destroyed. The Crusaders remain divided in their loyalties between King Guy and Conrad of Montferrat, and between the English and French Kings. In this episode, we hear how the path ahead for King Richard was fraught with problems.

In this episode, the Kings of England and France arrive in the Holy Land. Richard the Lionheart leads the English while Philip II leads the French. Not only are the two men enemies but they find the surviving Crusaders are also divided between King Guy and Conrad of Montferrat. Yet for once, Islam is united against them, under the leadership of Saladin, the most gifted Islamic ruler for centuries. The scene is set for a conflict that will pass into legend, both in the Middle Ages and even still today, as one of the most heroic, brutal and surprising stories in history.

In this episode, we hear about the journey of the English and French Kings to the Holy Land to try to save the last Crusader states from Saladin. The English King was Richard the Lionheart, who has passed into history as one of the most heroic of all the Kings of England. He is also central to the folk story of Robin Hood, the legendary English outlaw, that has featured in so many films. But what was he really like? Find out in this episode.

Frederick Barbarossa's Crusade had failed miserably when the German Emperor accidentally drowned in a river while crossing Turkish-held Anatolia. The Crusaders left in the Middle East were  desperately hanging onto Tyre, Tripoli  and Antioch. Quarrels between them undermined their hopes of resisting Saladin. But at the moment of despair, there was an unexpected development that would give the Crusades a whole new lease of life.

In this episode, we hear how, on receiving news of Saladin's great victory at Hattin in 1187, and his taking of Jerusalem, the Monarchs of the West pledged to stop fighting each other and to march East on a Crusade to recover Jerusalem for Christendom.  First among them was the German Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa. He set out with a great army, taking the land route to Constantinople. But his passage through Anatolia would lead to a most unexpected outcome.

Saladin had been victorious. In 1187, he defeated the main Crusader army at Hattin and recaptured Jerusalem. Despite his compassionate treatment of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, sparing the entire Christian population, and even allowing most to leave the city on payment of a small ransom, there was horror in the West. The aged Pope Urban III, is said to have died from shock. His successor, Gregory VIII, called for the end of all warfare between the rulers of Christendom for seven years, in order to mount a great offensive to reclaim the Holy Land from Saladin. The Third Crusade had begun.

In this episode, we hear how Saladin followed up his great victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Having surrounded and captured most of the Crusader army, including King Guy, the way ahead now seemed relatively easy. But some Crusaders had  escaped from Hattin and were now trying to rally resistance in the Crusader castles and towns. Saladin's main target was the City of Jerusalem, where Balian of Ibelin was leading a desperate attempt to save the city and its inhabitants from what seemed like certain death and destruction.

In this episode, we hear about the continuing quarrels between the Crusaders, just as Saladin was gathering the greatest army Islam had put into the field since the Battle of Manzikert, a century before. The clock was now ticking down to one of the largest and most decisive battles of the Middle Ages: the Battle of Hattin.

In this episode, we hear how the Crusader states in the 1180s were unable to find unity or strong leadership to face the growing threat of Saladin. Instead, the death of the leper King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem resulted in a fractious and divided political environment. Matters were only made worse by the renegade behaviour of Reynald of Châtillon, whose outrageous attacks on Muslim convoys passing between Egypt and Syria provided the perfect excuse for Saladin to call for a decisive war against the Crusaders.

In this episode, we hear how Saladin continued to build his empire by taking Aleppo in 1183, which he added to his control of Damascus, so that he ruled a state stretching from Egypt to the borders of modern Turkey, completely encircling the Crusaders. Meanwhile, the Byzantine Empire had faded after its defeat by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1076, and the Crusaders themselves suffered from the lack of a capable leader, and were increasingly dominated by the irresponsible and self-seeking Reynald of Châtillon.