1099
Jerusalem falls to the First Crusade
Crusaders breached the walls and poured into the city, massacring Muslims and Jews alike. Chroniclers described blood running ankle-deep around the Dome of the Rock and in the synagogue where the Jewish community had taken shelter. Godfrey of Bouillon became Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre that day. He refused the title of king, saying he would not wear a crown of gold where Christ had worn one of thorns.
Death of El Cid
Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar died at Valencia, the city he had carved out as his personal principality between Christian and Muslim Spain. His widow Jimena would hold Valencia for three more years before the Almoravids retook it and she retreated carrying his bones to Castile, where they were interred at Cardena.
Norse Vinland voyages end
The last documented Norse voyages to Vinland ended around this time, with only occasional timber expeditions to follow over the next two centuries. The Greenland colonies themselves were entering a slow decline. The first European contact with the Americas slipped back into myth, waiting to be rediscovered four centuries later.
Crusaders reach Jerusalem
After three years of brutal marching and siege warfare, the reduced Crusader army arrived before the walls of Jerusalem on a hot June day. Many knights wept at the first sight of the city. Their numbers had fallen from tens of thousands to perhaps twelve thousand exhausted fighters under the walls.
Godfrey of Bouillon elected ruler of Jerusalem
The Lotharingian duke, chosen over his rivals as leader of the captured city, refused the title of king in the place where Christ had worn a crown of thorns and accepted instead the humbler Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre. He would rule just a year before dying of illness the following summer.
Death of Pope Urban II
The pope who had called the First Crusade died at Rome before news of Jerusalem's capture reached him. His successor would inherit the complicated legacy of a new Latin East to which Western Christendom was now committed by force of vow. Urban's Clermont sermon had opened a two-century chapter of armed pilgrimage that would reshape the relationship between Islam and Christianity permanently.
Battle of Ascalon
Godfrey of Bouillon's Crusaders caught a Fatimid relief army from Egypt outside the port of Ascalon and routed it in a dawn attack. The victory secured the Latin kingdom against immediate Egyptian counter-attack. Quarrels among the Crusader leaders, however, prevented the capture of Ascalon itself for another fifty years. The fortress port remained a thorn in the Crusader flank, a Fatimid outpost from which raids struck inland for decades.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1099?
Saeculum lists 8 curated events from 1099. The most significant is Jerusalem falls to the First Crusade: Crusaders breached the walls and poured into the city, massacring Muslims and Jews alike. Chroniclers described blood running ankle-deep around the Dome…
What era was 1099 part of?
1099 falls within the High Middle Ages (1000-1300). Crusades, cathedrals, and the slow waking of Europe.
Which regions saw notable events in 1099?
The curated events from 1099 span Middle East, Europe and North America.