High Middle Ages · Middle East · Religion

1102

Second Crusade of 1101 remnants reach Jerusalem

1102

A scattered band of survivors from the routed crusader armies of the previous year finally straggled into the Holy City, hollow-eyed and half-starved. Many fulfilled their pilgrim vows at the Holy Sepulchre and immediately booked passage home. The expedition had swallowed perhaps fifty thousand lives and produced no territorial gain, teaching western commanders that the overland road through Anatolia was a graveyard for armies.