Jack Ludlow - Prince of Legend

On his behalf and before the Quadrangular Tower, Gaston of Bearn was supervising the building of Godfrey’s tower, and those working on it could see the men they would later face placing long wooden barbs through the ramparts, no doubt well anchored behind them, which they hoped would keep Gaston’s tower from contact with the walls until it could be destroyed.

Neither Embriaco or Bearn was willing to rely solely on their towers; mangonels were also constructed to fire both rocks and balls of flaming cloth and rope soaked with pitch, which would be employed to keep the defenders away from the primary points of assault. Prior to that, heavier weapons would batter the walls in the hope of creating a breach.

To further split the defence there was a fearsome battering ram — a huge baulk of timber with dozens of handholds drilled right through and tipped with a metal barb — that would move forward under a bombardment screen and seek to drive in one of the gates. There were endless ladders and climbing frames, as well as wattle panels behind which armed men could advance with some degree of safety prior to climbing to engage.

The noise of construction was not the only sound to fill the air outside the Holy City; it was almost as if, having got to Jerusalem in rancour, the princes needed a new dispute to keep alive their spirits and this one was Antioch all over again. Who, when the city fell and the hallowed places were in Christian hands, should be the person tasked with defending what would become a prime target for recovery by the Muslims?

Pious protestations of holding the city for the faith did little to hide another reason for seeking guardianship; there was also the usual one of greed, carefully concealed under more openly expressed and pious concerns. Revenues from the flood of pilgrims that would flock to the Holy City once it was in Christian hands would be enough to dwarf the income of Rome itself, and whoever had title to Jerusalem would also have its coffers.

Naturally Raymond favoured himself as the prime candidate, seemingly, due to his arrogance, unaware, even if the evidence of it was staring him in the face, that he would never get the role by acclamation. Lords with more sense did not openly aspire, even if they held secret hopes that a stalemate between Godfrey de Bouillon, the only other viable candidate, and Toulouse would entail an agreement on a compromise nominee.

Thus the two Roberts, Normandy and Flanders, refused to come down on one side or the other while Tancred used his position of being a junior magnate to claim he lacked the position to even take part in any decision; Gaston of Bearn was too busy with construction to even consider attending. Yet opposition to the very idea of a layperson being given the role of guardian was vociferously challenged from the churchmen; even Peter of Narbonne went against his liege lord on the matter, though he chose another target to make his point.

‘Is it not an indication of how unbecoming such a notion is that we have within our councils a man who does not fear to hoist his standard over one of the most, if not the most holy place in Christendom? I refer to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. By what right does a man not consecrated place a temporal banner on a religious site?’

‘Bishop Peter,’ Tancred replied, for the accusation was levelled at him, ‘you have clearly not yet visited Bethlehem.’

‘What does it matter that I have not?’

‘If you had,’ came the response, ‘you would see that there are few buildings of any size other than the church. How else can it be signalled to any Muslim seeking to recapture it that Bethlehem is defended, without they see a Crusader banner?’

Raymond’s personal confessor, a namesake cleric who hailed from Aguilers, spoke up and with scant courtesy, a manner obviously approved of by his nodding master. Toulouse was a man strong in grievances who made little secret that he now saw Tancred as both greedy, treacherous and still, even if it was not openly made obvious, a liegeman of Bohemund.

‘That, Lord Tancred, is a piece of sheer sophistry. Had you hoisted a Crusader cross above the church your argument might carry some merit, as it is any thinking man can only see the avarice of possession.’

The reply was icy. ‘Your cloth protects you from the consequences of such an accusation, Aguilers, but I would not wish to hear it from any lips not consecrated.’

‘I am sure you acted without wickedness,’ insisted Godfrey, before anyone else could be foolish enough to speak.

There was no one in the room who could fight Tancred and be sure that they would emerge from the encounter in one piece; if he was not quite Bohemund, there was not a great difference in either his regard for his reputation or his ability with weapons.

‘Our cleric does not understand war and the needs that press upon us in such situations.’

‘On the contrary, Duke Godfrey,’ Aguilers replied. ‘We understand only too well.’

Peter of Narbonne took up the argument. ‘My colleague refers to that of which there seems a reluctance to speak, namely the spoils that will accrue from Jerusalem if it falls.’

‘ When it falls,’ growled his master, who was obviously far from pleased that a man he had elevated to a bishopric was taking what he saw as sides against his claims.

‘That, My Lord, is in God’s hands,’ Peter replied sonorously, but he had a sharp rejoinder to add. ‘As should be the monies that will accrue to the holder of the city. I say that should be a man of the cloth, for, without that, ambition will ever triumph over the needs of our faith.’

‘Is this discussion not premature?’ asked Godfrey, with a sigh.

‘As it was at Antioch, perhaps?’ Raymond snapped. ‘I have no mind to have my rights trampled here as they were there.’

‘Trampled, Lord Raymond,’ Tancred replied. ‘I think you agreed, in a council no different to this one, that whosoever opened the city to capture should have title to it.’

Robert of Normandy, hitherto silent, spoke up, cutting off any response from Toulouse, who was no doubt about to reprise what was now a redundant discussion.

‘Which tells me that what we decide here may well not hold once the city is ours. Should we not convene to decide such a weighty matter at a time when our deliberations will have a true and pressing purpose, namely when Jerusalem is ours?’

‘I can think of a very good reason why delay might suit Normandy,’ Raymond snapped.

‘While I can see no purpose in you, My Lord, pressing your case for a position that you cannot now aspire to.’

That was like a slap and Toulouse took it in that fashion, almost physically recoiling to have his lack of support so publicly stated. But the Duke was not finished and proved that he was also capable of showing he had a good understanding of the needs of diplomacy.

‘Perhaps by your deeds you may stand head and shoulders above us all when Jerusalem is overcome; I should add that will be an opportunity that falls to us all. Let us then wait to see if an act of outstanding valour elevates one of our number higher than the rest, for surely that would be by God’s divine intervention.’

Invoking the Almighty was enough to terminate any further argument from nobles and clerics alike, but only for the moment; it was necessary that they meet often to discuss how the assault was to be pressed home and no such gathering could convene without at some point the vexed subject of guardianship being raised.

If the Crusaders were working to perfect the weapons of assault, the defenders were just as occupied in counter-measures. Sure of the places at which the towers would make contact they moved their own mangonels to batter them with rocks in the hope of killing the attacking knights.