Armies of Heaven Read Online Free

would occur on Easter during a year when two important religious celebrations fell on the same day: the Annunciation and Good Friday. The former, marking the day when Mary learned that she would give birth to Christ, always occurred on March 25. The latter, commemorating the day Christ died, varied according to the Easter calendar. It was a relatively rare occurrence for the two anniversaries to coincide. The last time it would have happened before 1064 was seventy-two years earlier in 992, though it would occur again relatively quickly, in 1076.
    How many of the German pilgrims accepted this idea, and how fervently they believed it, we cannot know, but the liturgical anomaly does help to explain why such a large number of pilgrims decided to go to Jerusalem during an otherwise unremarkable and even unpropitious year. All of them would have speculated about the likelihood of portentous events occurring on March 25. As the day grew nearer and as the journey grew harder, more and more of them must have begun to think that they were indeed living in apocalyptic times, that this pilgrimage would be unlike any other that had gone before. 11

    About this last point, at least, they were correct. For as the pilgrims neared their destination, apparently on Maundy Thursday—three days before the predicted end of the world on Easter—an army of Turks suddenly came upon them, riding quickly, firing arrows, and screaming bloody murder in the terrifying and unfamiliar Turkish style. The pilgrims had likely stumbled onto one of the small Seljuk armies seeking to make inroads against Fatimid power, but far as the Germans could tell, this was just another band of pagans, apparently attracted by the bishops’ finery and showy wealth. Whatever the case, the Turks had caught the Christians completely off-guard. Many of them had not bothered to carry weapons. Indeed, as pilgrims they were supposed to travel unarmed—though it is difficult to believe that the bishops and nobles accompanying this pilgrimage had not hired a band of retainers to keep them safe, whatever religious etiquette might dictate.
    The Christians who had weapons fought back. Others resisted as best they could, perhaps fighting with rocks or branches or whatever else happened to be on hand, thus preventing an immediate massacre. The Turks could easily encircle the Germans, but as long as the latter maintained discipline and stuck close together, they stood some chance of survival. Acting quickly, a significant number of the pilgrims managed to make their way to an abandoned town to hide behind its walls. 12
    A makeshift siege began. The Turks surrounded the city and tried to starve the Christians into submission. According to one particularly lurid account, the Turks tried to break the pilgrims’ will by bringing forth “a most noble abbess” whom they had captured during the fight and raping her repeatedly just within sight of the walls but out of the range of any archers. They eventually killed her, but the pilgrims maintained their discipline, holding out, perhaps hoping to catch a glimpse of Christ in the sky as that ominous Easter Day, March 27, approached. They were living through the Last Days, many surely believed, trapped in a destroyed city set against an endless desert, besieged by the servants of Antichrist.
    By Easter Sunday, with the end of the world no longer offering a potential escape, some of the priests suggested an alternative route. Rather than continue to fight, they should instead offer the Turks money and thus buy their safety. This counsel pleased everyone. 13

    The pilgrims extended an offer of surrender, and an “Arab duke,” along with seventeen of his most important advisors, agreed to meet with them. They entered the city, eight of them separating from the other ten and climbing a ladder to an upper room. There, the bishops of Mainz and Bamberg waited. But the Turks did not intend to negotiate. Their leader