Dart History
CRUSADES – Dartmouth’s Harbour Helps the Western World Go to War with the East
by Phil Scoble D
artmouth is famous for its involvement in D-Day – when
400 ships full of brave men sailed away to take part in the biggest naval invasion ever – but 797 years earlier another huge flotilla of boats had set out to war from the harbour: on the Second Crusade. How did Dartmouth come to
be part of this massive and still controversial campaign in the ‘Holy Land’ that resulted in more death, pain and anguish than we, in the modern world, can comprehend? Dartmouth started as Tunstal – a
Saxon settlement up on the hill about the mouth of the river Dart. The land by the water was, not surprisingly perhaps, unpopular for the building of houses. But when the Norman’s arrived, following the Battle
of Hastings in 1066, things began to change. William the Conqueror – who must have been
relieved to get the name because before that he was known as ‘William the Bastard’ – had raised his invasion force on promises of land and titles. Walter of Doai – known as Walter the Fleming,
giving the nearby village its name – was the man handed Townstal. He must have been very much trusted by William, because the river Dart led straight to Totnes – one of the most important towns in the South West at the time –only second in size to Exeter. It was during his stewardship that construction by
the river side, building jetty’s and houses, began. The strategic importance of Dartmouth as a port had been
realised and the town quickly became a centre for boat building and trade. The two communities of Clifton – on the southern jut of land which included St Saviours – and Hardness - where Mount Boone now stretches down to Coronation Park – became well established. By the calling of the Second
St Bernard
Crusade in 1145, Dartmouth was a thriving harbour town with ship wrights, supply routes and all the other things which would allow the fleet to be well-prepared and well-armed for the voyage - and battles – to come. The Second Crusade was, as these things often are, a result of a previous war. The First Crusade had
been called in 1069 as a response to the expanding Muslim empire. The Holy City of Jerusalem, which had been out of Christian hands for more than four and a half centuries, was the aim. A huge army was convened at the behest of Pope Urban II and it was strictly victorious, gaining control of Jerusalem in 1099. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa were set up at its conclusion. The ‘Crusader States’ were seen as the ultimate embodiment of the exercise’s success. However, as can be seen in many invasions, if that
victory is not backed up with large amounts of soldiers prepared to set up new states and control them – they will be weak and prone to collapse. And so it proved in 1144 when Edessa fell to the Muslim forces of Imad ad-Din Zengi. The crisis in the region for the Christians was
massive, surrounded and ill-equipped to deal with the challenges they faced. There was a real chance that the region would fall back into Muslim hands and the church would not stand for it. The Crusade was called by Pope Eugene III in
Seige of Lisbon - Muslim surrender
1146. The call went out to all Christian Knights to support the Crusade. He even employed a marketing man – the Monk Bernard of Clairvaux, who was later to be named a saint – to preach throughout Europe that the Crusade was god’s will. The first Crusade had seen many knights, Kings and landowners fail to go because it was considered a huge risk and, frankly, a bit of a mad
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