With the British Army in The Holy LandLock, H. O. (Henry Osmond)
History
With the British Army in The Holy Land
Lock, H. O. (Henry Osmond)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Palestine
"The news of the fall of Jerusalem was received in Europe with a thrill
of horror and indignation."[7] Thereupon set forth the Third Crusade,
that which is identified with Richard I of England. Travelling by sea,
these Crusaders avoided the horrible sufferings inevitable to the
crossing of Asia Minor. Acre was captured in 1190, by the Crusaders,
after a siege lasting for two years. Thence they marched southwards,
through Caesarea to Jaffa, fighting on their way the great battle of
Assur, when Saladin was defeated. But Richard, instead of marching upon
Jerusalem, which lay in his grasp, vacillated and negotiated. At length
he decided to go up against Jerusalem. Some twenty miles from the city
he stopped. Again he vacillated. Dissensions broke out between the Duke
of Burgundy and King Richard. The design of besieging Jerusalem was
given up, and the army slowly and sadly returned to Jaffa. Thereupon, in
1192, a peace was concluded, whereby the sea coast, from Jaffa to Acre,
was ceded to the Franks, but Jerusalem still remained in the hands of
the Saracens.
There were several more Crusades. None of them (unless we except the
treaty of the excommunicated Frederick in 1229) ever reached Jerusalem.
Some of them never even reached Palestine, being shamefully diverted to
other purposes. Saddest of all was the Children's Crusade, when fifty
thousand poor misguided children followed the Cross (like the Pied Piper
of Hamelin) to slavery, dishonour, or death. But these form no part of
the history of Jerusalem.
In 1244, we find Christian and Saracen making common cause in Palestine
against the Kharezmians. These Mongols, who only appeared on the stage
of history for a brief period of four years, swept through the country,
captured Jerusalem, massacred all on whom they could lay hands, Moslem
and Christian alike, and destroyed such sacred relics as they could
find. Then, defeated by the Egyptians, they perished out of history as
suddenly as they had appeared.
In 1291, the Christians, by this time reduced to their last stronghold
of Acre, were finally expelled by the Moslems from Palestine--and that
was the end of the Crusades. Europe became reconciled to the fact that
the Kingdom of Christ is a Kingdom, not of the sword but of the soul.
And so, the watchword by which the Crusades were inspired now became the
consolation of their end--"Dieu le veut."
In 1400, Syria and Palestine fell under another Mongol invasion by
Timoor the Tartar (Tamerlane). In 1517, Palestine was annexed to the
Ottoman Empire under Selim I, of which Empire it has since formed an
integral part. At the close of the eighteenth century, Napoleon marched
through the country, defeating the Turks at Gaza and on the Plain of
Esdraelon, but was forced to withdraw. In 1832, Mohammad Ali, having
thrown off the Turkish yoke in Egypt, conquered Syria, but nine years
later, through the action of the European Powers, the country was
restored again to the Ottoman Porte.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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