The crusaders believed their oaths were made invalid when the Byzantine contingent under Tatikios failed to help them during the siege of Antioch ; Bohemund, who had set himself up as Prince of Antioch, briefly went to war with Alexios in the Balkans, but was blockaded by the Byzantine forces and agreed to become Alexios ' vassal by the Treaty of Devol in 1108.

Alexios IV Angelos, the son of the deposed Isaac II, had recently escaped from Constantinople and now appealed to the crusaders, promising to end the schism of East and West, to pay for their transport, and to provide military support to the crusaders if they helped him to depose his uncle and sit on his father's throne.

The crusaders, whose objective had been Egypt, were persuaded to set their course for Constantinople before which they appeared in June 1203, proclaiming Alexios IV as Emperor and inviting the populace of the capital to depose his uncle.

The crusaders had wanted to conquer Egypt since the days of Baldwin I, who died during an expedition there.

The Fatimids, under the nominal rule of caliph al-Musta ' li but actually controlled by vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah, had lost Jerusalem to the Seljuqs in 1073 ; they recaptured it in 1098 from the Artuqids, a smaller Turkish tribe associated with the Seljuqs, just before the arrival of the crusaders.

John did accompany Frederick to the mainland, but Frederick was not well-received there ; one of his few supporters was Balian, Lord of Sidon, who had welcomed the crusaders the year before and now acted as an ambassador to the Ayyubids.

The crusaders may have been aware of the new divisions among the Ayyubids ; al-Kamil had occupied Damascus in 1238 but had died soon afterwards, and his territory was inherited by his family.

Along the way, Walter of Brienne captured livestock intended to resupply Damascus, as the Ayyubids had probably learned of the crusaders ' plans to attack it.

Damietta was captured without resistance when the crusaders landed in June 1249, but the crusade halted there until November, by which time the Egyptian sultan Ayyub had died and had been succeeded by his son Turanshah.

According to Ellenblum's interpretation the inhabitants of the Kingdom ( Latin Christians living alongside native Greek and Syrian Christians, Shia and Sunni Arabs, Sufis, Bedouin, Turks, Druze, Jews, and Samaritans ) all had major differences between each other as well as with the crusaders.

The Turks were the common enemy for everyone, as they were only very recent arrivals in the Levant, and although they had imposed their rule prior to the arrival of the crusaders, it is unlikely that they were thoroughly Islamicized as Prawer and others believed.

The crusaders were neither totally integrated with the native population, nor did they segregate themselves in the cities away from the rural natives, but rather that they settled in both urban and rural areas ; specifically, they settled in areas that had traditionally been inhabited by the eastern Christians.

The crusaders " had a natural tendency to ignore these matters as simply without interest and certainly not worthy of record.

Greeks, Syrians, and Jews continued to live as they had before, subject to their own laws and courts, with their former Muslim overlords simply replaced by the crusaders ; Muslims now joined them at the lowest level of society.

Jerusalem collected money through tribute payments, first from the coastal cities which had not yet been captured, and later from other neighbouring states such as Damascus and Egypt, which the crusaders could not conquer directly.

The last Estonian county to hold out against the invaders was the island county of Saaremaa, whose war fleets had raided Denmark and Sweden during the years of fighting against the German crusaders.

Innocent III declared that those who took the vow to become crusaders but could no longer perform the tasks that they had promised to complete, they could be released of their oaths by a contribution of funds to the original cause.

In 1224, after additional troops led by prince Vyachko of Kukenois had been installed in the fort, it was besieged and conquered for one last time by the German crusaders.

These men, who had gone to Palestine from Europe either as pilgrims or as crusaders, chose Mount Carmel in part because it was the traditional home of Elijah.

He shared the poor opinion of Alexius I Comnenus that had developed during the First Crusade, although he was also critical of some of the crusaders ' dealings with Alexius.

By mid 1209, around 10, 000 crusaders had gathered in Lyon before marching south.

The crusaders arrived at Jerusalem in June 1099 ; a few of the neighbouring towns ( Ramla, Lydda, Bethlehem, and others ) were taken first, and Jerusalem itself was captured on July 15.

The city was, however, still occupied, and was taken by the crusaders only after a difficult siege in June 1098.

It was not taken by the crusaders until 1153.

In June 1218 the crusaders began their siege of Damietta, and despite resistance from the unprepared sultan Al-Adil, the tower outside the city was taken on August 25.

The crusaders had left Nicaea on June 26, with a deep distrust of the Byzantines, who had taken the city without their knowledge after a long siege.

Ida disappeared during this ambush and was presumably killed, but according to later legend she was taken into captivity and became the mother of Zengi, a great enemy of the crusaders in the 1140s, which-however-is impossible due to chronological factors.

Nafplio was taken in 1212 by the French crusaders of the Principality of Achaea, then in 1388 was sold to the Republic of Venice.

The oft-given figure of 100, 000 crusaders is dismissed by Tuchman, who notes that 100, 000 men would have taken a month to cross the Danube at Iron Gate, while the crusaders took eight days.

No measures had been taken to supply these voluntary crusaders with food or clothing ; as harvest-time approached, the landlords commanded them to return to reap the fields, and, on their refusing to do so, proceeded to maltreat their wives and families and set their armed retainers upon the local peasantry.

The crusaders were luckily granted time to prepare for their arrival, as Kerbogha had first made a three-week long excursion to Edessa, which he was unable to recapture from Baldwin of Boulogne, who had taken it earlier in 1098.

On the way back to Constantinople, Stephen and the other deserters met Alexios, who was on his way to assist the crusaders, and did not know they had taken the city and were now under siege themselves.

According to captives taken by Tancred in a skirmish near Ramla, the animals were there to encourage the crusaders to disperse and pillage the land, making it easier for the Fatimids to attack.

In Cologne, other smaller bands of crusaders met Emicho, and they left with quite a lot of money taken from the Jews there.

The Pope's call was taken up and the heavily armed crusaders set off across Europe, through the Balkans, past the Byzantine Empire and even wandered in sight of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia on their way to Jerusalem.

The Roman Catholic crusaders were no match for the Hussites and Deutschbrod was quickly taken and sacked.

Some sons of elders from all five Vironian clans were taken hostages by the crusaders as part of the truce.

Duke Nameisis ' warriors unsuccessfully attacked Rīga in 1280, in response to which around 14, 000 crusaders besieged Turaida castle in 1281.

He then marched to Acre which was already besieged by a lesser contingent of crusaders and started to construct large siege equipments before Richard arrived in 8 June ( see Siege of Acre ).

** December 31 – at the battle of Harenc, the crusaders defeat the troops from Aleppo trying to come to the relief of besieged Antioch.

In 1157 Nur ad-Din besieged the Knights Hospitaller in the crusader fortress of Banias and routed a relief army from Jerusalem, but he fell ill that year and the crusaders were given a brief respite from his attacks.

Meanwhile, the crusaders besieged and captured Tyre, with help from a Venetian fleet.

Béziers ' Catholics were given an ultimatum to hand over the heretics or leave before the crusaders besieged the city and to " avoid sharing their fate and perishing with them.

When the port was besieged and occupied by Frisian crusaders in 1219, Francis of Assisi arrived to peaceably negotiate with the Muslim ruler.

However, the tower was besieged by the mob of crusaders, demanding that the Jews convert to Christianity and be baptized.

Tartus was besieged by Emir Bilban and the crusaders had to flee to the nearby island of Arwad and was captured on August 3, followed by Atlit on August 14.

Led by Jan Žižka, the Hussites besieged 2, 000 Royalist crusaders.

" Mu ' in ad-Din reluctantly sent for help from Nur ad-Din and Saif-ad Din Ghazi, whose power he did not wish to see extend as far south as Damascus, and the crusaders besieged the city for only four days before withdrawing.