#siege of jerusalem

15 July 1099

It was on this day in history, 15 July 1099, that the Crusaders completed their siege of Jerusalem during the First Crusade. English soldiers played a very small role in the Crusade, with Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, providing the strongest English tie to the First Crusade. The Siege of Jerusalem ended in a massacre of the city’s inhabitants, a historical black mark on the crusade and its participants. Historians have highlighted several motivating factors behind the Crusades including religious rhetoric, racial animus, and the church’s desire to expand its economic control.