Battle of Ramla

May 17, 1102

Baldwin I, caught with only a few hundred knights, charged an Egyptian army many times his size and was routed. He escaped by hiding in a reed bed and sneaking back to Jaffa at night. Within weeks he was back in the saddle, having lost almost everyone. The defeat underscored how thin the Crusader margin of survival was, with barely a thousand knights defending a kingdom the length of Palestine.