1099 AD
On July 15, 1099, after a five-week siege, the Crusaders breached the walls of Jerusalem. What followed was a massacre of terrible proportionsβMuslims and Jews alike were slaughtered in the streets and at the Temple Mount. The chronicler Fulcher of Chartes wrote that 'men were wading in blood up to the ankles.' The Crusaders then processed barefoot to the Holy Sepulchre in tears of gratitude.
The capture of Jerusalem established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Latin Christian state in the Levant that would endure for nearly two centuries. Godfrey of Bouillon was offered the crown but refused it, saying he would not wear a crown of gold where Christ wore a crown of thorns. He accepted the title 'Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre' instead.
The Crusader states were always precarious, surrounded by hostile Muslim powers. Despite periods of coexistence and trade, the tension between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Holy Land would continue for centuries. Key Sources: Fulcher of Chartres; Raymond of Aguilers, Historia Francorum; William of Tyre, Historia Rerum in Partibus Transmarinis Gestarum