Raymond Pilet, a knight in the army…
December 1098 CE
Raymond Pilet, a knight in the army of Raymond de Saint Gilles, had in July 1098, led an expedition against Maarat, an important city on the road south towards Damascus.
His troops, meeting a much larger Muslim garrison in the town, had been completely routed with many casualties.
For the rest of the summer the crusaders had continued their march south and captured many other small towns, and arrived again at Maarat in November.
Around the end of November, thousands of crusaders had started to besiege the city.
The citizens were at first unconcerned, since Raymond Pilet's expedition had been such a failure, and they had taunted the crusaders.
The crusaders can also not afford to conduct a lengthy siege, as winter is approaching and they have few supplies, but they are also unable to break through the city's defenses, consisting of a deep ditch and strong walls.
The defenders of the city, mostly an urban militia and inexperienced citizens, manages to hold off the attacks for about two weeks.
The crusaders spend this time building a siege tower, which allows them to pour over the walls of the city, while at the same time a group of knights scale the undefended walls on the other side of the city.
The crusaders occupy the walls on December 11.
The Muslims retreat into the city, and both sides prepare to rest for the night, but the poorer crusaders rush through and plunder Maarat.
On the morning of December 12, the garrison negotiates with Bohemond, who promises them safe conduct if they surrender.
The Muslims surrender, but the crusaders immediately begin to massacre the population.
Meanwhile, Bohemond seizes control of the walls and towers while Raymond of Toulouse takes control of the interior of the city, continuing their dispute over who will rule conquered territories.
Maarat is not as rich as the crusaders had hoped and they are still short of supplies and food as December progresses.
Most of the soldiers and knights prefer to continue the march to Jerusalem, caring little for the political dispute between Bohemond and Raymond, and Raymond tries to buy the support of the other leaders.
While the leaders negotiate away from the city, some of the starving crusaders at Maarat reportedly resort to cannibalism, feeding on the dead bodies of Muslims.
A chronicler, Radulph of Caen, writes (in 1107, nine years after the fact): Some people said that, constrained by the lack of food, they boiled pagan adults in cooking-pots, impaled children on spits and devoured them grilled.
These events are also chronicled by Fulcher of Chartres, who writs: I shudder to tell that many of our people, harassed by the madness of excessive hunger, cut pieces from the buttocks of the Saracens already dead there, which they cooked, but when it was not yet roasted enough by the fire, they devoured it with savage mouth.
The crusaders also begin destroying Maarat's fortifications, forcing Raymond to finally agree to continue the march south.