Timeline Key Dates | Crusades Timeline of Events |
1071 | Byzantine army is destroyed by Turks |
1071 - 1085 | Mercenary Seljuk Turks conquer Syria and Palestine. The City of Jerusalem is taken from the more civilised Saracen caliphs |
1085 - 1095 | 3000 Christian Pilgrims were massacred in Jerusalem and the Christian churches were destroyed or used as stables |
1095 | Emperor Alexius I sent an embassy to Pope Urban II regarding the atrocities in Jerusalem and the growing threat of the Turks to Constantinople and the whole of Europe |
1095 | Pope Urban II called a great council of the Church at Placentia, in Italy, to consider the appeal - decisions were deferred until later in the year |
1095 November 27 | Pope Urban II called a great council of clergy and nobles to meet at Clermont in France called the Council of Clermont. He called for a crusade against the Infidels |
1095 - Spring 1096 | Peter the Hermit took up the cry "God wills it!" and ordinary people join in the 'People's Crusade' - most were unarmed |
Summer 1096 | Armed forces gathered at Constantinople led by leaders such as Tancred and Godfrey of Bouillon to embark on the First Crusade |
August 1096 | Emperor Alexius I shipped the Peoples Crusade over the Bosphorus |
October 1096 | The Peoples Crusade were annihilated by the Turks in Anatolia |
May – June 1097 | Siege of Nicacea |
July 1097 | Battle of Dorylaeum |
Oct 1097 - June 1098 | The Siege of Antioch |
1098 June 1 | Stephen of Blois and numerous French crusaders flee the siege of Antioch with news of the arrival of Emir Kerboga of Mosul |
1098 June 3 | Bohemond I, elder son of Robert Guiscard, led the capture of Antioch |
1098 June 5 | Emir Kerboga of Mosul and his army of 75,000 lays siege to the crusaders led by Bohemond |
1099 Feb 14 - June | The siege of Arqah, near Tripoli |
1098 June 28 | The Battle of Orontes. The First Crusade wins a victory forcing Emir Kerboga to lift the siege of Antioch |
1099 June 13 | Raymond of Toulouse leads the crusaders from Antioch and to Jerusalem |
1099 July 15 | The soldiers of the First Crusade successfully scale the walls of Jerusalem and take the Holy city |