Monday, July 25, 2011

The Norwegian Crusade 1107 –1110

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/c/c5/20090521142453!SigurdNorwegianCrusade1107-1111OldNorse.png
The Norwegian Crusade was a crusade that lasted from 1107 to 1110, in the outcome of the First Crusade, by the advance of the Norwegian king Sigurd I. Sigurd was the first European king to ever go on crusade to the Holy Land, and not one argue during the crusade was abandoned. The Norwegian crusade seems to have acted out very alike to ahead Viking raids, however the Norwegians' critical aims were more noble this time.

Sigurd and his men sailed from Norway in the autumn of 1107 with sixty ships and perhaps around 5,000 men. In the autumn he indoors in England, where Henry I was king. Sigurd and his men stayed there all the chill, awaiting the spring of 1108 when they again set sail westwards.

After numerous months they came to the city of St. James (Jakobsland) in Galicia (Galizuland) where they were permitted by a citizen lord to adjourn for the winter. However when the winter came there was a shortcoming of food, which made the lord decline to advertise food and cargo to the Norwegians. Sigurd then gathered his militia, attacked the lord's castle and looted what they could there.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/276/03080166.jpgDuring the journey the Norwegians encountered a great bandit ("viking") fleet of galleys which were seeking peaceful trading-ships to rob. However, Sigurd set his course arranged for the pirates and stormed their ships. After a abrupt time all the pirates had been also slain or escaped, and Sigurd acquired eight ships from them.

After this they came to a castle in Muslim Al-Andalus called Sintra (Sintre - award day Sintra, Portugal). They took the castle, and killed every man there as they had refused to be christened. Added they sailed to Lisbon, a "half Christian and half heathen" city, said to be the allotment between Christian and Muslim Iberia. There they won their third battle, and acquired great assets.

Their fourth battle was won in the city of Alkasse (maybe a allusion to Al Qar) where they killed so many people that the town was said to have been left bare. Also here they got great materials.

After another victorious battle against pirates when sailing through the Passage of Gibraltar (Norfasund) they sailed added along the saracen land (Serkland) into the Mediterranean (Griklands hafi), and inwards at the Balearic Islands. The Baleares were at the time perceived by Christians to be nothing more than a pirate harbor and slaving axis. The Norwegian raids are also the first recorded Christian attacks on the Muslim Balearic islands (although minor attacks certain have occurred).

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-GKMR8mFGBs/TQATlRN6fLI/AAAAAAAABN4/7nQrWVjbD6o/s1600/crusade-8.jpgThe first place they inwards at was Formentera, where they encountered a great number of Blamenn (Black men) and Serkir (Saracens) who had taken up their abode in a cave. The course of the argument is the most complete of the complete crusade through written sources, and might maybe be the most notable historic affair in the small island's memoirs. After this battle, the Norwegians supposedly acquired the best materials they had ever got. They then went on to beat Ibiza, and then Minorca, in both spaces victoriously. The Norwegians seems to have avoided attacking the biggest of the Balearic islands, Mallorca, most expected as it at the time were the prosperous and well equipped center of an independent taifa kingdom. Tales of their sensation may have inspired the Catalan Pisan capture of the Baleares in 1113-1115.

In the spring of 1109, they reach at Sicily (Sikileyjar) where they were welcomed by the master Count Roger II who was only 12/13 years old at the time.

In the summer of 1110 they lastly inwards at the harbor of Acre (Akrsborg) (or perhaps in Jaffa), and went to Jerusalem (Jorsala) where they met the ruling crusader king Baldwin I. They were cordially welcomed, and Baldwin rode together with Sigurd to the river Jordan, and back again to Jerusalem.

The Norwegians were given greatly assets and remainder, counting a chip off the holy angry that allegedly Jesus himself had been crucified on. This was given on the clause that they would maintain to promote Christianity and beget the artifact to the committal locate of St. Olaf.

Later Sigurd returned to his ships at Acre, and when king Baldwin were departing to the "heathen" (i.e. Muslim) city of Sidon (Saett) in Syria (Syrland) Sigurd and his men accompanied him in the blockade. The city was then full and subsequently the Lordship of Sidon established.