Michael S Fulton - Siege Warfare During the Crusades

Siege Warfare during the Crusades

Michael S. Fulton

For Elizabeth (the best of moms)

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Michael S. Fulton, 2019

ISBN 978-1-52671-865-5

eISBN 978-1-52671-867-9

Mobi ISBN 978-1-52671-866-2

The right of Michael S. Fulton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Maps

Regional Maps

Key

The Jazra

The Upper Euphrates

The Middle Euphrates

Cilicia and Western Syria

Western Syria and Northern Lebanon

Lebanon and Northern Palestine

Southern Palestine

Sinai

Egypt

Cyprus

The First Crusade

The Frankish principalities at about their largest

Desert castles

Region around the Hula Valley

Jabal Awf

Reynald of Chtillons Arabian campaigns, 1181, 118283

Templar towers on the road from Jaffa to Jericho

Castles around Ascalon

Strongholds slighted by Saladin (119091) and al-Muaam s(121819)

Strongholds preserved and slighted by the , 126091

Major battle

Baybars campaign against Safed, 1266

Saladins campaign in Palestine, 1187

Saladins campaign in western Syria, 1188

Plans

Desert castles

Damascus, citadel

Bosra, theatre-citadel

Kerak (with topography)

Crac des Chevaliers and Jacobs Ford in the twelfth century

Bnys (with topography)

Tyre (with topography)

Jerusalem, siege of 1099, final deployments (with topography)

Arsf (with topography)

Antioch, town defences and siege forts of the First Crusade (with topography)

Atlit, outer wall embrasure

Ajln, level 2 with exposed sections of level 1

Tortosa,

Caesarea, defences improved by Louis IX and earlier Roman wall (with topography)

Sidon, sea castle

Bent entrances

Cairo, Bb al-Barqiyya

Aleppo, citadel gatehouse

Crac des Chevaliers (with topography)

Saone (with topography)

Twelfth-century enclosure castles

Belvoir

Cairo, citadel

Cairo, citadel towers Burj al-Ramla and Burj al-addd

ubayba

Montfort

Atlit, second level of the outer defences, first level of the inner defences

Mamlk towers with central pillars

ubayba, outer southwestern tower

Edwardian castles

Acre, siege of 1291

Images

Jerusalem

Antioch, town walls as seen in the eighteenth century

Crac des Chevaliers

Apamea

Qar al-ayr al-Sharq, entrance of the smaller enclosure

Montreal

Beaufort

Caesarea

Ajln

Ajln and region to the immediate south

ubayba

Aleppo, citadel gatehouse

Castellum Regis, in the centre of Miilya

Montfort

ubayba, from the east

Le Destroit

Kerak

Jacobs Ford, northeastern corner of the castle and the river to the right

Margat

Qalat Jabar

Montfort, mine in the outer southwestern tower

Montfort, mine in the southern wall of the upper ward

Siege tower

Counterweight , Cardiff castle

Traction trebuchet, Caerphilly castle

Al-arsss Persian trebuchet

Arsf, outer southern tower, featuring artillery damage inflicted during the siege of 1265 before the tower was destroyed by the Mamlk sappers

Arsf, artillery projectiles from the siege of 1265

Mayf

Al-abis, from the great temple of Petra

Subayba, reservoir

Saone, cistern

Crac des Chevaliers, western end of the outer southern defences

ubayba, s of the southern rounded tower

Belvoir, embrasures of one of the inner towers

Belvoir, exterior of one of the embrasures of the inner enclosure

Saone, embrasures along the outer eastern wall

Kerak, line of casemates built by the Mamlks along the outer western wall

Chastel Neuf,

Kerak, northern fosse

Saone, eastern fosse

Caesarea, around the town defences

Shayzar, northern

Kerak, eastern glacis

Ajln, slot over the inner gate of the outer gateway

Montfort, machicolation over the inner northwestern gate

Montfort, looking down through the machicolation over the outer northwestern gate

Crac des Chevaliers, Mamlk box machicolations

Bnys, through column

Arsf, through column

Caesarea, outer gate of the eastern gateway, featuring a slot machicolation, groove, lower socket for a leaf door and pocket in the wall for a locking bar

Ajln, outer gate and barbican

Ajln, inside the outer barbican

Safed, southwestern gate and barbican

Caesarea, closed in the northern town wall

Belvoir, staircase to the postern in the western mural tower

Belvoir, postern in the outer southwestern tower

ubayba, postern in tower 11

Chastel Blanc

Belvoir

Crac des Chevaliers, eastern side of the outwork from the outer wall

Al-Raba

Montreal, inscription on the north tower

Le Destroit, with Atlit in the background

ubayba, topmost northeastern shooting chamber of the outer southwestern tower

Montreal, from the west

ubayba, upper castle from the outer southwestern tower

Fort Saint-Andr (Villeneuve-ls-Avignon), main gate

Chepstow, Martens Tower and straight eastern entrance

Graphs and Tables

Use of siege towers, 10971200

Use of Frankish siege towers by decade

Maritime forces at twelfth-century Frankish sieges of coastal Mediterranean towns

Terms of surrender after the battle of Hattin

Belligerents of sieges

Distribution of sieges, before and after Hattin and Saladins death

Sieges against coreligionists

Length of sieges

Distribution of twelfth-century sieges

Distribution of thirteenth-century sieges

Length and success rates of sieges by period

T he study of siege warfare can be traced back to antiquity. Much as some Roman figures sought to learn from the engagements of the ancient Greeks, and certain medieval rulers looked to their Roman predecessors for inspiration, a number of early modern commanders tried to gain an advantage in battle by examining medieval, as well as ancient, sieges. As the modern discipline of historical study developed over the following centuries, armies grew to unprecedented sizes and the rate of technological innovation rapidly accelerated. In this context, which saw traditional fortifications become increasingly obsolete, most nineteenth-and early twentieth-century historians of medieval warfare focused naturally on the significance of battles rather than sieges. In the wake of the Second World War, guerrilla warfare became more prevalent and, consciously or not, historians began to shift their focus beyond the great battles. Today it is widely acknowledged that there were simply too few battles to decide the many wars and campaigns that raged across medieval Europe and the Middle East. Sieges tended to be more significant on a year-to-year, decade-to-decade basis, while raids, including small skirmishes, were by far the most common military actions.