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crusader city from which help could have been dispatched was Antioch, just north of the modern Syrian/Turkish border. But Antioch was ruled by Eleanor’s uncle Raymond, who detested Joscelin to the point of refusing help in the hour of need. Given the rules of the game, Zengi would have been a poor player not to strike when he did.
    As reported by Archbishop William of Tyre in his generally trustworthy History of Deeds Done Overseas , 3 the Turkish attack had been a textbook military operation. While Joscelin kept out of the way at Tel Bashir, waiting for help from Jerusalem or Antioch, an efficient blockade of Edessa, stocked neither with food nor weapons thanks to his parsimony and indolence, was followed by a brief siege. Barrages of arrows from the ground and the platforms of siege-towers higher than the walls kept them virtually unmanned as catapults and rams battered away at their bases and sappers tunnelled beneath them. When the props were fired and a section of wall collapsed, the Turks rushed through the breach into the city.
    The terrified inhabitants made for the safety of the citadel, in whose entrance there was such a crush of people that, long before the Turks reached them, men and women were climbing over the bodies of those crushed to death in the effort to get in. 4 Casualties included Archbishop Hugh of Edessa, clutching a chest full of the taxes he had levied to pay the mercenaries, but kept for himself.
    Zengi personally intervened to halt the massacre of civilians, sending his second-in-command to negotiate with Abu el-Farraj, in return for whose oath of loyalty sworn on the New Testament safe conducts were given to the Syrians and Armenians. From the Franks, however,everything was taken: gold, silver, holy objects and jewellery. Their priests and notables were led off in chains to the slave market of Aleppo, while skilled artisans were put to work at their trades. About 100 Frankish knights and men-at-arms were executed. 5
    During the entire disaster, in which 6,000 people died, Prince Raymond did nothing, despite the fact that the fall of Edessa put his principality next in line for Turkish attack. By the time distant and disorganised Jerusalem had concerted help, it was too late.
    Founded after the First Crusade, the Latin Kingdom was carpet-bagger territory, up for grabs from start to finish by French lords audacious enough to carve out a fief for themselves and strong and ruthless enough to hold it. Many died prematurely from disease or in combat with each other or the common enemy, leaving sons too young to govern or daughters who were forcibly taken in marriage to give a cloak of legitimacy to their successors. Between the conflicts with Muslim neighbours, the princes and barons of Outremer squabbled and skirmished, conspiring with Greeks against Turks and with Turks against their fellow Christians and welcoming traders of any race or religion.
    Among the emissaries sent to beg for military support from Europe after the fall of Edessa was Prince Raymond’s friend and vassal, the bishop of Djebail. To the first rumours of disaster in the East, he added political and military argument. The recent death of King Fulk of Jerusalem had left the Latin Kingdom in the hands of his widow Queen Melisende as regent for their thirteen-year-old son, Baldwin II. With Joscelin’s city firmly in the hands of the infidel and the ruling houses of the kingdom enfeebled by deaths and disputes over succession, the Holy Land might soon be lost again to the infidel.
    Pris est Rohais, ben le savetz.
    Dunt crestiens sunt esmaietz.
    Les mustiers ars e desertez.
    Deus n’i est mais sacrifietz.
    [Edessa has fallen, as well you know. / For Christians this is great woe. / Her altars are desecrated / and Mass no more celebrated.]
    If Louis listened in pious horror, Eleanor’s concern was personal. Prince Raymond was her father’s younger brother, only ten years older than herself. Casting about for his place in the sun, he