Warfare in practice — the Crusades

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With heavy armoured cavalry (knights) charging in a mass, backed by infantry — powerful in a head-on clash but slow and heavy.

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With light, fast mounted archers who fired arrows and wheeled away, using speed and distance to harass and exhaust the enemy.

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Crusaders relied on the shock of a heavy charge; Turks relied on mobile hit-and-run archery. Whoever controlled the pace usually won.

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Holding the Holy Land meant capturing the walled cities that controlled roads, ports and land — so winning sieges, not field battles, won the war.

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The crusaders besieged it for eight months, got in by treachery, then were themselves besieged inside by a relief army before winning a desperate victory.

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The crusaders built siege towers from sea-supplied timber, stormed the walls in July 1099, captured the city, and massacred its inhabitants.

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Their huge concentric walls let a small garrison hold territory against far larger forces, helping settlers control the Levant for nearly two centuries.

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The long march, fierce heat, lack of water, disease (like dysentery) and feeding men and horses — these killed more crusaders than battle did.

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These Italian city-states provided fleets to transport and supply the armies and blockade ports, in return for trading privileges in captured cities.

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Genoese ships were broken up so their timber could be hauled inland to build the siege towers that finally cracked the walls in 1099.

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The Muslim leader who united Egypt and Syria, defeated the crusaders at Hattin in 1187, and recaptured Jerusalem.

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He lured the crusaders across a waterless plateau in fierce heat, surrounded the exhausted army, and destroyed it — then retook Jerusalem.