Siege
An account by Albert of Aachen stated that Godfrey spent six weeks building mangenae or stone throwers, which were used to support two siege towers. [3] The number of Godfrey's men, however, was severely reduced after most of the crusaders returned home via Laodicea. [4] In the end the two assaults made on Arsuf were defeated when the garrison set the siege towers on fire. [5] Godfrey was left with no options and ended the siege.
During the siege, while the Crusaders pounded the walls with catapults, the Fatimids had Gerard hung from the mast of an old ship that had been lying in the city. They raised Gerard up to be in view of the attacking Crusaders. Gerard begged Godfrey to take pity on him. Godrey responded that while Gerard was the bravest of knights, but he could not call off the attack. Godfrey said that it was better for Gerard to be the sole casualty than to Arsuf to remain a danger to Christian pilgrims. Gerard then asked that his property be donated to the Holy Sepulchre, of which Godfrey was Defender, instead of the king. The Crusaders continued their attack. Gerard was wounded multiple times, though he managed to survive and make it back to Jerusalem.
The city rulers offered to surrender to Raymond of Saint-Gilles, but Godfrey refused. [6] Raymond even encouraged the garrison at Arsuf to hold out against Godfrey, touting his perceived weakness. [7] Within Godfrey's army, Franco I of Maasmechelen, a relative of Godfrey, is known to have died in the battle.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem, was a Crusader state that was established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 until the siege of Acre in 1291. Its history is divided into two periods with a brief interruption in its existence, beginning with its collapse after the siege of Jerusalem in 1187 and its restoration after the Third Crusade in 1192.
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Year 1099 (MXCIX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
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Godfrey of Bouillon was a French nobleman and pre-eminent leader of the First Crusade. First ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1100, he avoided the title of king, preferring that of prince (princeps) and Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, or Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre. Second son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, Godfrey became Lord of Bouillon in 1076 and in 1087 Emperor Henry IV confirmed him as Duke of Lower Lorraine, a reward for his support during the Great Saxon Revolt.
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The Battle of Ascalon took place on 12 August 1099 shortly after the capture of Jerusalem, and is often considered the last action of the First Crusade. The crusader army led by Godfrey of Bouillon defeated and drove off a Fatimid army, securing the safety of Jerusalem.
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Geldemar Carpenel (Waldemar) (died 7 September 1101), of unknown parentage. Lord of Dargoire, Lord of Haifa (Calphas).
The siege of Acre took place in May 1104. It was of great importance for the consolidation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been founded only a few years earlier. With the help of a Genoese fleet, King Baldwin I forced the surrender of the important port city after a siege that lasted only twenty days. Although all defenders and residents wishing to leave the city had been assured by the king that they would be free to leave, taking their chattels with them, many of them had been massacred by the Genoese as they left the city. Moreover, the attackers had also sacked the city itself.
The title of Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, or Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre, has been ascribed to Godfrey of Bouillon in his role as the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem. In the aftermath of the First Crusade, there was disagreement among the clergy and secular leaders as the leadership of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. There was opposition to the naming of a king over the Holy City and the wearing of a crown in the city where Christ suffered with a crown of thorns. The original sources differ on the actual title assumed by Godfrey. However, it is generally accepted by most modern historians that, once Godfrey was selected to be leader, he declined to be crowned king instead taking the titles of prince (princeps) and advocate or defender of the Holy Sepulchre.
Fatimid Caliphate 
Kingdom of Jerusalem 
Godfrey of Bouillon 
