Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The roots of victory
- 2 War in the West
- 3 Campaigns, generals and leadership
- 4 Preparations and prelude
- 5 The size of the crusader army
- 6 The first enemy: the Turks of Asia Minor
- 7 The second enemy: the siege of Antioch
- 8 The siege of Antioch: crisis and delivery
- 9 The siege of Antioch: victory
- 10 Divisions
- 11 Jerusalem: triumphant ending
- 12 Perspectives
- Appendix: A note on the sources
- Select bibliography
- Index
2 - War in the West
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The roots of victory
- 2 War in the West
- 3 Campaigns, generals and leadership
- 4 Preparations and prelude
- 5 The size of the crusader army
- 6 The first enemy: the Turks of Asia Minor
- 7 The second enemy: the siege of Antioch
- 8 The siege of Antioch: crisis and delivery
- 9 The siege of Antioch: victory
- 10 Divisions
- 11 Jerusalem: triumphant ending
- 12 Perspectives
- Appendix: A note on the sources
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
In 1077 Robert Curthose broke with his father, William the Conqueror, after a spectacular quarrel with his brothers William and Henry. He immediately tried to seize the castle of Rouen but was foiled by the vigilance of his father's butler, Roger of Ivry. When Godfrey de Bouillon's enemy Albert of Namur wanted to challenge his control of the family holding at Bouillon in 1082, he tried to build a castle at Mirwart in order to menace the lands which depended on the castle at Bouillon upon which were enfeoffed the knights who formed the core of Godfrey's mouvance. In both cases the first step in the campaign was to secure a fortification. Here we come face to face with a most important facet of warfare in the eleventh century – the key importance of strongpoints. The castle at Rouen would have enabled Curthose to control his father's capital, giving a certain reality to his earlier claim to hold the duchy in his own right, and it would have provided a rallying point at which to gather all the malcontents of the duchy who, in the event, proved ready enough to rally elsewhere. Albert would probably have built a wooden castle at Mirwart and from there would have ravaged the lands of Godfrey's vassals around Bouillon in a campaign which could have shaken their loyalty by undermining their economic base and that of Godfrey himself.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Victory in the EastA Military History of the First Crusade, pp. 26 - 51Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994