Re: Tomar Castle

["Spirit One Email" <laurel@spiritone.com>]

Dear Jean,
    Yes, the knights and wealthy had started out with several horses each
for themselves and their retinue but as the years passed and desperate
struggles ensued along the way, horses and men were thinned out.  It takes a
lot of forage to maintain those large horses.   By then they were a rag tag
army.  The battles and environment had taken an unbelievable tole.
    The Governor of Jerusalem had the trees for miles around cut down.  He
poisoned all the wells around the city.   The Crusaders had no wood to make
scaling ladders or siege towers.  One hermit advised them to fling
themselves at the walls without this equipment but this failed and the
attackers went into a profound depression.   Their accessment of their
situation was this, they lacked siege equipment, wood, men (over a million
people had set out on this Crusade but now there were only about 20,000) ,
food and time.   An Egyption relief army was on its way.  And they were out
in the burning heat of the summer and Moslems sprang upon them from ambush.
What water there was would have gone to the men and not the horses. To
shorten the story, they found a cache of timber, 6 ships arrived at Jaffa
with provisions and they got through this crisis.
   At this point the whole Crusade was boosted once again by a vision.   A
prist gave detailed instructions on how to capture Jerusalem.   The Governor
of Jerusalem was baffled to see the attackers kick off their shoes and march
barefoot around his city, singing hymns.   His army gathered on the
battlements and hurled ridicule and abuse at the procession as it made a
circuit of the walls, and then continued it way onto the Mount of Olives for
a few rousing sermons.  The Bishop had guaranteed that if they did the, the
city would fall within nine days.
    5 days later the siege towers had been completed and during the night
the soldiers struggled to move them into position, fighting against a
barrage of arrows and Greek Fire.  Godfrey's (de Boullion) topped with its
golden cross, was in place by the morning of the 15th and by lunchtime his
men had managed to get a bridge across from the top of the tower to the
wall.  Two Flemish brothers, leapt across and the north wall of Jerusalem
fell to the Crusaders.
from: Crusades by Terry Jones & Alan Ereira

   This probably goes back to when the Isralites walked around the walls of
Jericho (yes, I know they didn't have horses) until the walls came tumbling
down.  Joshua 6:1-20
Laurel




----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean" <sinead@milamba.com>
To: <sinclair@matrix.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 12:40 AM
Subject: Re: Tomar Castle


> Dear Laurel
> you have a vivid imagination if you can see the Crusaders walking.
> Mostly they rode. The foot soldiers would have walked,possibly unwillingly
> too, because they were the vassals and servants of their Lords. The
> children of the Children's Crusade certainly walked and many died along
the
> way.


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