USA Does anyone know how many knights & men actually fought in the crusades?

[wetdrip]

Question for a history buff.
Does anyone know how many knights & men actually fought in the crusades?

 

[Toxic Ted]

No precise numbers exist, but it is estimated that at the Order's peak there were between 15,000 and 20,000 Templars, of whom about a tenth were actual knights.

Croppie might be in a better position to answer more clearly but the above is all i could find in specific numbers.

 

[wetdrip]

Cheers, just trying to get my head around the logistics, food and water plus shelter.
How'd you move carts through sand etc.

 

[Ray Stafford]

Which crusade did you have in mind Wetdrip? It covered a long period, of greater and lesser intensity.

For the logistics, you are probably better going to Roman sources, which are much better documented, despite being 1000 years earlier. Although there were changes in military technology between the two periods, the logistical requirements would have been almost identical.

 

[Ray Stafford]

try Armchair General Magazine - We Put YOU in Command! | All things military history!

You will find lots of threads in their forum on logistics in both modern and historic eras.

 

[wetdrip]

Which crusade did you have in mind Wetdrip? It covered a long period, of greater and lesser intensity.

For the logistics, you are probably better going to Roman sources, which are much better documented, despite being 1000 years earlier. Although there were changes in military technology between the two periods, the logistical requirements would have been almost identical.

Where the Templars were in the front line.
It's the numbers and logistics I'm interested in Ray, as I've watched several T.V. documentries where the nowadays logistics are mind boggling.
Trying to figure out how they managed it back then, as,to me, seems an impossible task.
I mean how did they transport all their food and water on carts through sand, where the grease on the hub must have just dripped-off in the heat, and all hubs would have seized up.

 

[kris]

I did enjoy the film , The Kingdom of Heaven lol

 

[Gray0689]

Roman roads

 

[Riley]

I'm more of a holy grail man, ride on sweet concord

 

[Ray Stafford]

A lot of the Crusades logistics would have been by water - until the coming of modern railways, it was by far the most effective way of moving bulk supplies. Outremer has the advantage of being pretty coastal, so you can easily supply by ship.



But there was also a lot of living off the land, or sacking the nearest town for whatever you needed.

 

[Dotty]

Question for a history buff.
Does anyone know how many knights & men actually fought in the crusades?

47 keniggits, 932 serfs, 13 wenches and 1 goat.

Dunno to be honest. Before accurate records were taken.

However I do know that the papal bull to dissolve the Templar order was issued on Friday 13th of October 1307 at the behest of King Phillip of France.

Probably doesn't help much....

 

[Riley]

What an utter fountain of knowledge you are cropster

 

[R.Oak]

I think logistics was the main reason the crusades failed, the armies starved whilst Saladin moved his army from water to water and waited

 

[wetdrip]

What an utter fountain of knowledge you are cropster

Na, he's read The Da Vinci code, same as half the planet

 

[Riley]

Ha ha.

 

[wetdrip]

I think logistics was the main reason the crusades failed, the armies starved whilst Saladin moved his army from water to water and waited

Exactly my thinking, I know about the ships they used, but still think they just about starved to death. What a thirst they must have had too, and chainmail in that heat.

 

[Dotty]

Na, he's read The Da Vinci code, same as half the planet

Naaa

Holy Blood, Holy Grail....

 

[Riley]

47 keniggits

was a dead giveaway