Following Orders

[Lady Christina de Pond]

yes i agree very good read

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

As I am not sure how many of the Brothers and Sisters of this thread will be off tomorrow, enjoying a possible long four day weekend, I thought I'd take this time to wish you all well, and remind you that tomorrow the 29th of August is the 829th anniversary of a violent, but obscure battle in Templar history: the Battle of Jacob's Ford......a prelude to Hattin!

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

The Crusaders' Lost Fort: Battle at Jacob's Ford

http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii245/Warrior_Monk/?action=view&current=BattleofJacobsFord.flv

The Battle at Jacob's Ford
At dawn on Thursday 29 August 1179, the great Muslim sultan Saladin launched a deadly assault on the Crusader castle of Jacob's Ford in the Holy Land. As his troops poured through a burning breach in the walls, the Christian garrison of elite Templar knights made a bloody, but ultimately futile, last stand.

In a final act of bravery the Templar commander mounted his warhorse and charged into the fray. One of Saladin's lieutenants later described how 'he threw himself into a hole full of fire without fear of the intense heat and, from this brazier, he was immediately thrown into another - that of Hell'.
'He threw himself into a hole full of fire without fear of the intense heat...'

On that day 800 of the garrison were butchered, and a further 700 taken captive. With the stronghold overrun, Saladin set about razing it to the ground, later claiming that he ripped the foundation stones out with his own hands. The site was then abandoned and for eight centuries it lay untouched, its story all but forgotten.

The true significance of Jacob's Ford, around 50 miles north-west of Jerusalem, is only now becoming apparent. With its location rediscovered and archaeological excavation underway, it now appears that the fall of this seemingly obscure fortress was actually a pivotal moment in the history of the Crusades as well as the wider struggle between Islam and the West.

The struggle for power

The year 1174 saw two men assume power in the Near East whose careers and fortunes were inextricably entwined.

Baldwin IV ascended to the throne of the kingdom of Jerusalem aged just 13 and was already suffering from leprosy. In that same year, Saladin, more than 20 years Baldwin's senior and ruler of Egypt, seized possession of ancient Damascus, the seat of Muslim power in Syria.

'These two rulers were against one another in a bitterly fought contest for dominion over Jerusalem'
Saladin set out to forge an empire that encircled the Crusader states, promoting himself as a champion of Islamic Jihad, all with the avowed intention of recovering Jerusalem. At the same time, King Baldwin's reign was dominated by the spectre of Muslim invasion and the need to defend the Holy City at any cost.

These two rulers were against one another in a bitterly fought contest for dominion over Jerusalem, which the Crusaders had held since 1099.

In November 1177, Saladin launched his first full-scale invasion of the Latin kingdom, but in an unexpected show of courage and martial skill, King Baldwin managed to surprise and overwhelm the sultan's numerically superior force near a hill known as Mont Gisard.

This was a striking achievement - the only defeat in pitched battle that Saladin suffered before the advent of Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade. The sultan's troops were routed, while he himself only narrowly avoided death and was forced to limp back to Egypt, his aura of invincibility shattered.

Although the cost in manpower to Baldwin was severe - 1,100 dead and a further 750 injured - he had earned a resounding endorsement of his right to rule, the 'miracle' of his victory appearing as a sign of divine mandate. But how would the young king build upon this success?

Development of Jacob's Ford

In October 1178 Baldwin set out to construct a castle which would destabilize Saladin's nascent empire and shift the balance of power in his own favor - the fortress of Jacob's Ford.



He began fortifying a strip of raised ground on the west bank of the River Jordan, beside an ancient ford north of the Sea of Galilee. With swamps upstream and rapids to the south, this ford was the only crossing of the Jordan for 50 miles and, as such, acted as a gateway between Latin Palestine and Muslim Syria.

'It stood in a frontier zone contested by both Baldwin and Saladin - a kind of no-man's-land between their respective realms'

But Jacob's Ford did not lie on the Crusader's side of a literal border line. Instead it stood in a frontier zone contested by both Baldwin and Saladin - a kind of no-man's-land between their respective realms. Add to this the fact that Jacob's Ford was just one day's march from Damascus, and it becomes clear that Baldwin was, in 1178, adopting an audacious, even visionary, strategy.

His new castle was designed to be a defensive tool as well as an offensive weapon, to severely inhibit Saladin's ability to invade the Latin kingdom while simultaneously undermining the sultan's security in Damascus. If completed, this fortress could thwart Saladin's ambitions for an empire stretching into northern Syria and Mesopotamia.

Baldwin took his new project at Jacob's Ford exceptionally seriously, committing practically the entire resources of his realm to its construction. Between October 1178 and April 1179 he actually moved his seat of government to the building site to be on hand as supervisor and protector. He also enlisted the aid of the Templars, a military order that combined the ideals of knighthood and monasticism in the sacred pursuit of the Holy Land's defense.

Saladin's response

However, Saladin did not have the manpower to launch an attack as he was fighting Muslim rebels in the north of Syria.

Instead he sought to use bribery in place of brute force. He offered Baldwin 60,000 dinars, then increased this offer to 100,000 dinars, if he halted building work and left Jacob's Ford, but the king refused, and by April, the first stage of construction was completed.

The castle now had a formidable ten meter high wall - what one Arabic contemporary later described as 'an impregnable rampart of stone and iron' – and a single tower, but it was still a work in progress.

'Jacob's Ford was described by an Arabic contemporary as 'an impregnable rampart of stone and iron''

By late August 1179 Saladin was ready to launch a full-scale attack on Jacob's Ford. On Saturday 24 August he began an assault-based siege, his intention to break into the castle as rapidly as possible. There was no time for a protracted encirclement siege, because Baldwin IV was by now stationed nearby at Tiberias, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, just a half day's march to the south west.

As soon as news of the attack reached him the king began assembling a relief army, so the siege was effectively a race - could the Muslims crack the stronghold's defenses before the Latin forces arrived?

Saladin's tactics

The 12th-century written records, and the archaeological evidence now being uncovered, offer a vivid picture of what happened over the next five, grim days.

Saladin began by bombarding the fortress with arrows from east and west - hundreds of arrowheads have been discovered on these fronts. At the same time, specialist miners, probably from Syrian Aleppo, were sent to tunnel under the north-eastern corner of the walls, working night and day to collapse the ramparts through the technique of sapping.
'Specialist miners, probably from Syrian Aleppo, were sent to tunnel under the north-eastern corner of the walls'

Meanwhile, Baldwin was preparing to march from Tiberias. In the half-light of dawn on Thursday 29 August the king set out with his army to save Jacob's Ford.

Unbeknownst to him, at that same moment fires were being lit within Saladin's expanded siege mine. Its wooden pit props burned and the passageway caved in, bringing down the walls above. With such a colossal breach the Latin garrison was all but beaten and a bloody sack followed.
Archaeological evidence

Human skeletal remains unearthed within the fortress bear witness to the ferocity of the assault. One of the skulls showed evidence of three separate sword cuts, the last of which split the head and crushed the brain. Another warrior's arm was chopped off above the elbow before he was dispatched.

With much of the castle in flames, Saladin slaughtered more than half of the garrison, amassing a mountain of plunder, including 1,000 coats of armor.
'Baldwin got his first despairing glimpse of smoke on the horizon - evidence of the destruction at Jacob's Ford'

By noon, racing northwards, Baldwin got his first despairing glimpse of smoke on the horizon - evidence of the destruction at Jacob's Ford. He was just six hours too late.

In the two weeks that followed, Saladin dismantled the castle of Jacob's Ford, stone by stone. Most of the Latin dead, along with their horses and mules, were thrown into the stronghold's capacious cistern. This was a rather ill-advised policy, because soon after a 'plague' broke out, ravaging the Muslim army and claiming the life of ten of Saladin's commanders.

By mid-October, with his primary objective achieved, Saladin decided to abandon the seemingly cursed site, and Jacob's Ford became a forgotten ruin.

1179 - the turning point

The year 1179 proved to be a turning point in the struggle between Baldwin IV and Saladin. With the loss of Jacob's Ford, Baldwin's plan to stem the rising tide of Islamic Jihad foundered.
'With the kingdom of Jerusalem destabilized and his hold over Damascus secured, Saladin flourished'
Between his victory at Mont Gisard and the fortification of Jacob's Ford, the young king had seized the initiative, garnering an aura of legitimacy and daring. But, with the advent of the 1180s, Baldwin's fortunes waned. Increasingly debilitated by leprosy, his reign now stained by bitter defeat, Baldwin's grasp on the throne faltered. He died in 1185, aged just 23, his hopes of defending the Holy Land in tatters.

In contrast, with the kingdom of Jerusalem destabilized and his hold over Damascus secured, Saladin flourished, uniting the Muslim world between the Nile and the Euphrates and encircling and isolating the Crusader kingdom.

In 1187, he met one of Baldwin's successors in pitched battle, crushed the Latin army and went on to recapture Jerusalem for Islam. The Holy City was to remain in Muslim hands until the 20th century.


Also see:
http://ateret.huji.ac.il/about.html

[Sir William Marcus]

Fascinating. One must raise a cup to those that have fell.....Deus Vult!

[Femme Falchion]

To the Council of the Few and Templar Professors

This is a formal request for a week long leave of absence to attend the First Annual Conference of Cavalleras. (the location of which....a beautiful beach of unparalleled beauty to the South on the shores of the Atlantic)

I look forward to attending and bringing back information to share.  Workshops include;

2-Handed Throwing: Getting the Biggest Bang for your Chuck.  2 hatchets are better than 1! Build precision and strength to eviscerate that invader the first time, every time.

Papal Dispensation: How to Obtain Favors without Selling your Soul. It's a patriarchal world out there.  How to be granted funds to do good works.

Mary, Queen of the Heavens. A new look at the Holy Mother through the ages.  What does she really mean to the Templars?

Rightfully Yours: Managing Assets, Apparel and Jewels.  How to run your finances now that you legally can.

Raising the Seize & Looking Your Best.  Wearing the vestments of our men can be difficult given our God-given gifts.  Learn strategies to look your best while protecting your homeland.

Yoga for Hatchet Wielders. Learn breath, meditation and muscle lengthening practices to center your Cavalleras mind and spirit.


Maintaining the Nobleman's Ego.  Many husbands feel threatened by strong Cavalleras who bear arms and speak freely and first.  Learn ways to maintain a happy household through Tapas, Tempranillo and (sanctioned) Temptations.

Inspirational Speakers

Lady Ashley of De Coals on  Listening to God.  Hear the Militissa of the Frati della Beata Gloriosa Vergine Maria share her story of how God saved her from getting a tattoo.

Lady Knight Poofie shares with us her groundbreaking life as a female jouster and gifted chain maille crafter.  (hauberks, chausses, coifs and aventails available for purchase at the registration desk)


Please consider my humble request and I look forward to the Council's response (although I'm packing presently and intend on leaving the day after next).  It is also my intention to study the new information that has been released by the Professors as well as a thorough celebration of the warriors of the Battle at Jacob's Ford.

Many thanks to Professor Mikael de Aragon for including the Order of the Hatchet in his 'Templars in Spain: 101' lecture.

Ave Maria!

Respectfully,

Sister Hatchet

[Lady Christina de Pond]

  that should be good ff

[Mikael of Aragon]

(STAMP OF APPROVAL)   

[Eternal Ranger]

Where do I sign up Sister Hatchet?

ER

[Sir William Marcus]

APPROVED!!! Most Excellent Sister Hatchet!!

And as an added bonus, and a showing of genorosity to this spectacular extravaganza. I William Marcus will donate....


To this soon-to-be historical event, at no additional charge...Deus Vult!

Have a great time Sisters!

[Lady Christina de Pond]

APPROVED!!! Most Excellent Sister Hatchet!!

And as an added bonus, and a showing of genorosity to this all ready spectacular extravaganza. I William Marcus will donate....



To this soon-to-be historical event, at no additional charge...Deus Vult!

Have a great time Sisters!

Brother William Marcus you may wish to do pentance for temptation of gluteny

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

Doing a little Iberian Orders representing!

[Sir William Marcus]

Very nice image representing the Iberian Orders my brother. By chance, did you produce it??

[Sir William Marcus]

Did we just lose a post??

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

I did some touch up work on it...

And yes we did lose a post, but she'll deny it!

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

In an attempt to further shed light on our Warrior Monk Brethren and Sisters on the peninsula, I offer for your consumption:

PROPERTY OF THE MILITARY ORDERS (In Iberia)

The medieval Iberian Reconquest brought about the organization of Christian knights into Hispanic military orders, similar to the European Knights Templars and the Knights of Malta. The most important of the strictly Hispanic crusading orders were the Knights of Calatrava, Alcántara, and Santiago, all founded on the Christian- Moslem frontier in the mid-twelfth century. These crusading orders played a major role in expanding and defending the frontier. In return, the kings of León and Castile rewarded them generously with land grants in formerly Moslem territories. It was not long until the three largest orders had become exceedingly powerful, the owners of extensive domains, especially in New Castile. Land meant wealth, and the orders' wealth posed a threat to royal authority. That threat was removed when Ferdinand and Isabella managed to gain for the crown the master ships of all three major Hispanic orders. Thus the orders were deprived of their political independence, but although controlled by the crown, they maintained their traditional structures, and continued to exert a powerful influence over rural Castilian society throughout the sixteenth century.

The property of the orders was assigned to the organizations' various dignitaries, often in encomiendas (territories entrusted to their care). Each encomienda was administered by a comendador appointed by the Grand Master of the order, and included specified lands, revenues, and privileges. The income from the encomienda was to be used for the support of the local churches and clergy, and for military expenses. But the comendadores could pocket the difference between revenues and expenses; consequently, such positions were much coveted, and they were used to reward personal, political, and military favors. Some encomiendas were created at the time of the Reconquest, but others came into existence later, to encourage resettlement of empty spaces, even as late as the sixteenth century. The military orders played the same kind of role in resettling their lands as the nobility and the church did on theirs. They repopulated most of the pre-Reconquest settlements, and sponsored altogether new ones, apportioning land to individual colonists for grain and for vines, and to newly formed town councils for pasture and for other community purposes. But the orders reserved for themselves the ownership of a large part of the land of their territories, to provide income through rentals and other dispositions for their own benefit. The orders exercised over their territories the same kind of seigneurial jurisdiction enjoyed by the church and the nobility over some of their lands. The territories of the orders were concentrated in New Castile, but Salomon (1964: 203-6) found that only 16.8 percent of the 569 villages he studied were under the seigneurial jurisdiction of military orders, whereas 31.2 percent were realengos, 11.9 percent were abadengos, and 39.8 percent were de señorío. Order villages tended to be more populous than these others, however, and Salomon calculated that they contained 31.9 percent of the total population of the villages he studied.



The map shows the location of the order territories in Castile during the second quarter of the sixteenth century. The concentration of order influence in New Castile is quite clear. However, it should not be thought that the orders owned all the lands in the areas shown on the map, nor did they even exercise seigneurial jurisdiction over all of those areas. The city of Ciudad Real, for example, located in the middle of a huge territory dominated by the Order of Calatrava, was a royal town, and there were many others within the order areas, originally established by the Castilian monarchs to provide a royal presence to counterbalance the power of the orders. There were, similarly, some abadengo and señorío villages situated within the areas indicated on the map as belonging to the orders. As stated earlier, the orders had found it necessary to grant landownership to individuals and to towns to encourage colonization. And even after the initial resettlement grants, the comendadores followed the practice of granting additional lands as population growth made the original allocations inadequate. As was the practice in other seigneurial lands, the orders typically reserved for themselves a specified annual tribute, in recognition of their jurisdiction.

After the crown took over the masterships, the orders were administered by the Council of Orders in Madrid. But under this arrangement, although the medieval structures were maintained, the orders could not be supervised as closely as they had been when they were completely autonomous. And this greater laxity was translated into a loss of lands as a result of peasant and other usurpations, and into a gradual loss of revenues and privileges (Quirós 1965: 209-l0). These reductions in order property, however, were minor when compared to the losses that came as the result of crown sales. The perpetual financial difficulties of the Habsburgs caused them to be constantly on the search for new revenue-making possibilities. And in 1529 Charles V obtained a bull from Pope Clement VII authorizing him to alienate order property and revenues worth up to 40,000 ducados a year. By virtue of that authority, the emperor sold numerous jurisdictions, revenues, and lands, assigning government bonds (juros) to the comendadores as compensation for their lost property. According to the papal authorization, the funds the crown gained through these were to be used exclusively for building convents and forts in the kingdom of Granada and in Africa, for defense against the Moslems. But the forts and convents, in fact, were never founded. When Charles V abdicated the throne in 1556, he transferred to his son Philip his right to dismember order property up to the 40,000 ducados a year. This right, which was confirmed by Pius IV in 1560, was amplified in 1569 by Pius V, who gave Philip another bull authorizing the disposal of an additional 40,000 ducados per year. And the 'prudent king' did not hesitate to take full advantage of the opportunity. But he suffered great scruples about the sales, and in his will he ordered Philip III to buy back the alienated property and to restitute it to the orders. But Philip III did not find it possible to do so, and in turn ordered his successor to make the restitution. And in the end, despite these royal pangs of conscience, the orders never regained their lost property. Furthermore, it seems that Charles V and Philip II sold more order property than the authorized amount, and when it became difficult for the royal treasury to make payments on the bonds given in return, the crown appropriated additional order revenues to pay them. And it appears that the price the crown allowed the orders for the alienated property was far below its real value.

Some order lands were sold as tierras baldías, in a major fund raising project developed in the early years of the reign of Philip II. For example, in 1577-80 the crown dispatched two special commissioners to sell the tierras renteñas (rental lands) of the Order of Calatrava in the area of Martos (Jaén). These lands were sold to individuals and to municipalities through censos al quitar (redeemable mortgages) that yielded payments totaling 7,944,075 mrs per year. But this amount was insufficient for the exigencies of the treasury of Philip II, and in 1580 that monarch sold his rights to the censo payments to the German banker Marcus Fugger for the principal sum of 111,217,053 mrs. After that, it was Fugger, rather than the crown, who collected the annual censo payments. And in Mohernando (Guadalajara), the baldíos sold in the early 1590S were actually lands of the Order of Santiago.
The orders did not directly exploit their lands, but rather gave them out for rental. Arable lands were typically let out to peasants through censos enfitéuticos, which might call for the payment of a specified sum each year, or they might require the payment of a share (often one-fifth) of the harvest. But some lands were rented for short periods. For example, the Order of Santiago owned certain lands near Seville that it rented out in 1575 for terms of varying length -- some for only a year, and others for several years. Each rental contract was different: some provided for cash rent; others for a share of the crop; and still others for a combination of cash and goods. One piece of land, for instance, was rented for 70 cahizes of grain, 18 chickens, 1 sheep, 1 hog, 1 calf, 1 fanega of chickpeas, 1 arroba of cheese, and 3 ducados of cash. In some contracts there was a provision that in bad years the renter would be excused from the normal rent, and would pay one-sixth of the harvest, instead. Order lands were rented not only by individuals, but also by town governments, who subcontracted them to their vecinos for arable, for pasture, or for both purposes.

But the orders reserved for themselves the best pastures of their vast territories, and these were rented (often at public auction) for use as winter pastures for migratory northern herds, and for summer pasture (agostadero) for local animals. The Mesta, of course, claimed the right to pasture its flocks on any lands upon which they had ever grazed, but it had to pay for the privilege. The length and terms of these rental contracts varied, but it was usual to charge a certain amount per animal. As indicated in chapter 2, the use of acorns was supposed to be common, and free. Nevertheless, there were times when the orders tried to charge a fee for the utilization of the acorns on their lands. In 1491 Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the master of the Order of Alcántara to stop the practice. Nevertheless, in the early 1550s, after the crown had assumed the masterships, the Order of Santiago continued to sell the right to pasture pigs on the acorns of its dehesas near Mérida (Badajoz), demonstrating once again that where money was involved, the crown was not consistent in its policies.