Fortune's Wheel: A Podcast History of Our Medieval Story

SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 212: Ascalon: The Final Battle

Jerusalem was firmly in crusader hands, but the Fatimids weren’t yet finished. On this episode, we see the final chapter in the story of the First Crusade.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 211: Holy City, Unholy Slaughter

Standing at the walls, a behemoth task was about to unfold: After four long years and thousands of miles traveled in some of the most hostile territory in the medieval world for Christians, could Jerusalem finally be recaptured? FAIR WARNING: This episode gets a bit graphic. Listener discretion advised.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 210: “Many Wept For Joy”

The road from Arqa to Jerusalem was no stroll in the park, and soon the crusaders found themselves humbled at the sight of Jerusalem…at long last. The anonymous author of the Gesta Francorum wrote, “When they finally saw Jerusalem, many wept for joy.” Despite the great humility each pilgrim experienced upon seeing the city for the first time, they were still denied entry. These walls have never been easily breached, but Antioch had taught these pilgrims many valuable lessons. Each lesson would be put to the test against the holiest city of them all. 

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 209: Ground Zero: Jerusalem

This is the final offering from my archive—an episode I couldn’t leave behind. It became something more than a retelling; it became a reckoning with one of the most consequential places in human history.

Because everything — everything — seems to lead back to Jerusalem.

Long before crusaders fixed their eyes on its walls in 1099, this city had already stood at the center of the human story: a meeting point of heaven and earth, of covenant and conquest, of faith and blood. For Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, Jerusalem is not merely a city — it is memory, promise, and destiny intertwined. Empires rose and fell for it. Prophets wept over it. Kings fought to possess it. And still, it endured — scarred, sacred, and unyielding.

To understand the First Crusade, you must first understand this: Jerusalem is not the destination. It is the axis upon which the story turns.

So before the armies arrive… before the siege begins…let’s step back and see the city that made it all inevitable.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 208: A Crusade Divided

Antioch had fallen—and with it, unity. Bohemond of Taranto claimed the city as his prize, but the greater question lingered: who, if anyone, could command the Crusade itself? Raymond of Toulouse would test that claim, pressing southward with visions not merely of victory, but of purpose. Yet between Antioch and Jerusalem lay more than distance—it was a road darkened by hunger, ambition, and fracture.

At Ma'arrat al-Numan, desperation reached its most harrowing depths, as starvation drove crusaders to acts that would haunt the memory of Christendom. What began as a holy expedition now strained under the weight of human weakness, competing loyalties, and the terrible cost of survival.

The path to Jerusalem remained—but the Crusade itself stood divided.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 205: Antioch & the Gate to Heaven

As Antioch grinds its besiegers down to the bone, whispers of salvation begin to circulate—quiet plans, private bargains, and a single gate that might open from the inside. Bohemond and Tancred step out of the mud and into the realm of cunning, where redemption is no longer earned by endurance but by nerve, secrecy, and timing. This episode follows the moment when suffering gives way to revelation, and the road out of hell begins not with a miracle, but with a choice.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 206: Antioch & the Harrowing of Hope

The long siege of Antioch grinds on, and the crusaders are forced to endure more than a military struggle. Between disaster and miraculous deliverance, they fight not only for survival, but for meaning, as hope is beaten, tested, and harrowed by suffering.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 205: Antioch & the Winter in Hell

Winter descends on Antioch like a verdict. Starvation, disease, and desertion hollow out the Crusader camps while Ridwan of Aleppo and Duqaq of Damascus circle like patient predators, turning every foraging run into a blood tax. This episode lives in the season where faith freezes, hope thins, and survival becomes the only prayer still answerable.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 204: Antioch & the Edge of Damnation

The Crusaders reach Antioch in October of 1097 and begin the uneasy work of surrounding one of the greatest fortified cities in the eastern Mediterranean, probing its roads, rivers, and defenses to see where it might break. Over the ensuing weeks, camps harden into positions, violence escalates on both sides, and the siege takes on a darker, more personal character as Antioch and its attackers lock eyes and wait.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 203: Before the Walls of Antioch

What was Alexios and the Romans doing while the main army swept through Cilicia and the Taurus Mountains? This beef forming between Tancred and Baldwin…is it going to boil over or fizzle away? How is the main army doing as they approach the mighty walls of Antioch? Hey, where’s Baldwin go–? Can someone see what Baldwin’s up to now? Every ball is in the air at this point in the First Crusade.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 202: Routes & Ruptures

Steel meets panic at Dorylaeum in 1097, where the Crusade nearly collapses before clawing its way back from annihilation. From that chaos, Tancred and Baldwin peel off and barrel into Cilicia, turning the march southeast into a ruthless side-quest of ambition, betrayal, and opportunistic warfare. This episode follows the moment the holy army stops pretending it’s unified and starts revealing the knives behind the vows.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 201: The Secret Drama of Treachery

Nicaea.

May – June, 1097.

Anna Komnene writes about “the secret drama of treachery,” a hint as to how this formidable Seljuk capital of the new Sultanate of Rum would return to Roman hands. Would it fall by Western efforts…or by some other way? It’s a fascinating story about the opening salvos of the First Crusade, showcasing Western cooperation, Seljuk ferocity, and Byzantine statecraft.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 200: God’s Mercs, Pt. 2

Last time, we introduced (or reintroduced) ourselves to Hugh of Vermandois, Godfrey of Bouillon, Baldwin of Boulogne, and, of course, the incomparable Bohemond and his lightning bolt of a nephew, Tancred. This time, we round out these introductions and end right at the beginning, the moment these armies meet and cross the Bosporus. 

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 199: God’s Mercs, Pt. 1

On this episode, we begin a two-parter laying out the principle leaders of the First Crusade. Who were they? What were their stories? What connections did they share? I can’t wait to unpack this part of the series. 

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 198: Poor People’s Crusade

A tidal wave of zealots, doomsday preachers, and broke knights surges across Europe in the so-called Poor People’s Crusade—burning bright, burning fast, and mostly burning down. From Emicho’s disastrous rampage along the Rhine to the ragged march of Walter Sans Avoir straight into the jaws of Kilij Arslan at Civetot, this is the First Crusade’s explosive prologue. A movement born in frenzy ends in annihilation, leaving a smoking warning flare for the armies yet to come. 

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 197: The Fez Massacre

This is an older Patreon episode about another Jewish pogrom taking place in Fez in modern Morocco decades before the Rhineland massacres during the Poor People's Crusade. This serves as a bonus episode and not a direct part of my research into the First Crusade.A new episode will be released in a couple days getting us back on track!

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 196: Blood on the Rhine

The First Crusade hadn’t even started yet, so why was the Rhine flowing red?  

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 195: Did God Will It?

Where does a pope get off telling thousands of armed men to march across the known world with a promise of eternal salvation? This wasn’t a whim. It was centuries in the making. Welcome to the origin story of Christian holy war.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 194: Deus Vult!

Clermont., France.

November 27, 1095.

Pope Urban II lit the match that set Europe ablaze. This episode dives into the conflicting accounts of that speech—where “Deus Vult” became both a prayer and a war cry.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 193: Eastern Rome on the Eve of Crusade

On this episode, we hear from Dr. Warren Treadgold -- retired professor, historian, and author -- who has spent a decades-long career studying Byzantine history. In the show's first interview, we discuss Alexios Komnenos, differences between the Christian East and the Latin West, and whether the Crusades themselves were a net positive or net negative.

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SEASON 8: The First Crusade

EPISODE 192: The World(view) Behind the First Crusade

Let’s take a moment to survey Europe by 1095. What was the world like on the Eve of the First Crusade? What were the various political and economic ideas that flooded out of Western Europe and into the Holy Land? What kinds of technology were these westerners skilled in using, both militarily and in other parts of life? What was trade like? There are endless avenues to go down, and it would behoove us all to do a once-over before proceeding into the epic that was the First Crusade! Oh, and I’ve earthquakes, comets, and even a tornado to mention…who knew?!

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Patreon Series: Book of Alexios

Episode 191: The Pecheneg Problem

NOTE: This is the last episode in our Patreon episodes covering the rise and early reign of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos! But his story continues well into the First Crusade...and beyond, so stay tuned, my friends! Alexios Komnenos' story is only beginning!

Guiscard is dead, and the Byzantine Empire breathes a short-lived sigh of relief. But from the north, a new storm brews. The Pechenegs, nomadic raiders of the steppes, have pierced the empire’s borders...yet again. Today, we follow Emperor Alexios I as he trades one crisis for another and marches north to face a threat that could unravel everything he’s barely been able to hold together thus far. Just another day in 11th-century Byzantium.

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Patreon Series: Book of Alexios

Episode 190: Chapter 8: The Wolf's Mouth

Today, two future legends meet. Bohemond of Taranto meets the Byzantine living legend Emperor Alexios I—a moment that will ignite a complicated and world-shaping rivalry. It’s a tense encounter, but not all is war and scheming: somewhere nearby, a child is born. A girl who is destined to leave her own mark on history.

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Patreon Series: Book of Alexios

Episode 189: Chapter 7: Appointments, Penance, Delegation & Threats

The purple robes are his, but the work has only begun. In his first month on the throne, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos must navigate a Byzantine Empire under siege—externally and internally. A divided capital, looming threats across the Bosporus, and guilt that whispers louder than any enemy… Welcome to the real beginning of his reign.

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Patreon Series: Book of Alexios

Episode 188: Chapter 6: April 4, 1081

NOTE: This is a repeat of Episode 132, but in the interest of the flow of this series, I've decided to include it for continuity.

The empire is on fire—figuratively and nearly literally—as Alexios Komnenos makes his bold play for the throne. With the capital in chaos, loyalties split, and Eastern Rome teetering, one man dares to seize it all. Welcome to the storming of Constantinople.

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Patreon Series: Book of Alexios

Episode 187: Chapter 5: Cheese Week

NOTE: This is a repeat of Episode 131, but in the interest of the flow of this series, I've decided to include it for continuity.

In this episode, we explore the dangerously creamy days leading up to the rise of Alexios Komnenos—because nothing says imperial coup like dairy. Before he seizes the throne of Eastern Rome, the empire simmers in chaos, conspiracy... and cheese. But not just any cheese—this is Cheese Week, the final stretch of indulgence before the Eastern Orthodox Great Lent begins. We’ll serve up a quick primer on this deliciously bizarre tradition, where meat is banned, cheese is sacred, and political plots thicken like a good béchamel. Come for the theology, stay for the treachery.

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Patreon Series: Book of Alexios

Episode 186: Chapter 4: The Writing on the Wall

NOTE: This is a repeat of Episode 130, but in the interest of the flow of this series, I've decided to include it for continuity.

Emperor Nikephoros III watches his empire crumble like dry parchment. With rebellion brewing and a once-loyal general rising in fame, the old emperor can’t ignore the writing on the wall—literally and figuratively. In this episode, we explore the origins of that ominous phrase…before the pace picks up, fast.

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Patreon Series: Book of Alexios

Episode 185: Chapter 3: Alexios & the Erymanthian Boar

On this episode, we employ a comparison used by Alexios Komnenos’s daughter when describing her father. There is absolutely no doubt that Anna Komnene revered her legendary father, but the comparison she makes in this episode some would say is a bit over the top. That said, I encourage everyone to consider it. More than that, I encourage everyone to try to find a way to disprove Anna Komnene’s mythical comparison. 

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Patreon Series: The Book of Alexios

Episode 184: Chapter 2: Bryennios's Rebellion

NOTE: This is a repeat of Episode 129, but in the interest of the flow of this series, I've decided to include it for continuity.

Today, we watch Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates take the reins of a smoldering empire still reeling from the Bread Riots of 1078. But no sooner does he don the purple than the first coup slams into his rule like a battering ram. Who does he turn to? His golden boy, Alexios Komnenos. But this isn't Roussel de Balliol anymore—this is something darker, sharper, and far more dangerous. And it's only just begun.

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Patreon Series: The Book of Alexios

Episode 183: Chapter 1: Roussel de Balliol

Today, we watch a young Alexios Komnenos do what Alexios Komnenos does best: survive and outmaneuver. The foe? A rogue Norman warlord named Roussel de Balliol, who decided to carve out his own little empire from Byzantine soil. It's the Komnenos kid versus the Norman upstart—and spoiler alert: the empire might just have found its next champion.
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Patreon Series: Book of Alexios

Episode 182: Prologue

Today, we crack open The Book of Alexios, a new mini-series chronicling the rise of one of Byzantium’s greatest emperors. But before we launch into the heart of his reign, we need to sweep up a few imperial messes. The chessboard is rearranged: emperors fall, others rise, and somewhere far to the east…a new threat stirs. No, not the Seljuks—someone else. Buckle up, it's going to get imperial.

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Patreon Series: Rise of the Crusading Spirit

Episode 181: The Papacy of Pope Alexander II

Today, we pause our sprint through imperial chaos to turn toward Rome—because while emperors rise and fall in the East, a powerhouse is at work in the West. We revisit the reign of Pope Alexander II, a quiet juggernaut of the 11th century, whose influence reverberated from papal chambers to battlefields. It’s time to connect a few dots—and maybe fill in some of the glaring gaps we’ve been skipping over.

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Patreon Series: Rise of Poland

Episode 180: Poland Remains

While kingdoms rose and crumbled all across Europe, Poland—battered, bruised, and often overlooked—managed to hold itself together through the chaos of the 11th century. How did this patchwork realm survive where others fell apart? It's a testament to the thousand-year-old Polish spirit.

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Patreon Series: Rise of Poland

Episode 179: The Worthy Brother

Today, we dive into the wild, ruthless, and often misunderstood reign of Bolesław II—better known as Bolesław the Bold. He wasn’t just another medieval ruler jockeying for land and power. No, Bolesław was a king with ambition carved in steel and sealed in blood. He fought wars, crowned himself, and clashed with the Church… and let’s just say things didn’t end with a retirement party. This is the story of a man who burned hot, fast, and left a mark on Polish history few could match.

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Patreon Series: Rise of Poland

Episode 178: But It's Not Too Heavy

Today, we trace the quiet but critical rise of Casimir the Restorer—a man who didn’t charge into history with a sword held high, but instead rebuilt a kingdom from the ground up. After Poland fell into disarray, it was Casimir who returned from exile, restored order, and stabilized the monarchy with a mix of diplomacy, grit, and just enough muscle to be taken seriously. He may not be the flashiest figure of the 11th century, but without him, Poland might have disappeared entirely from the map.

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Patreon Series: Rise of Poland

Episode 177: Heavy Is the Crown

Today, we dive into the brutal and chaotic reigns of Mieszko II Lambert and his charming brother Bezprym—if by “charming” you mean “sadistic, power-hungry nightmare.” After Bolesław the Brave left Poland strong and unified, his sons quickly reminded everyone just how fragile power can be. This is a story of exile, betrayal, torture, and the kind of sibling rivalry that makes Cain and Abel look like playground squabbles. Buckle up—Poland’s royal soap opera is in full swing.

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Patreon Series: Rise of Poland

Episode 176: The Many Wars of Boleslaw

Today, we charge headlong into the bloody campaigns and calculated power plays of Bolesław I of Poland—known to some as “the Brave,” and to others as “the guy who never saw a war he didn’t like.” Whether it was the Holy Roman Empire, the Kievan Rus’, or internal rivals, Bolesław saw them all as opportunities for expansion—or revenge. His reign set the stage for Polish statehood…but not without some scorched earth and shattered alliances along the way.

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Patreon Series: Rise of Poland

Episode 175: A Foundation to Build Upon

Today, we stand at the crossroads of dynastic transition in Poland. Mieszko I, the man who carved out the foundation of a Christian Polish state through diplomacy, war, and strategic marriage, breathes his last. But before the dust settles, his son—Bolesław—steps forward, eyes fixed on expansion and glory. The age of consolidation gives way to the age of conquest. A peaceful succession? Hardly. The 11th century doesn't do peaceful.

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Patreon Series: Rise of Poland

Episode 174: King of the North

Today, we begin a brand-new arc: the rise of Poland. And like all good origin stories, it starts with a decision that changed everything. Mieszko I, the first ruler of Poland we can name with confidence, takes a leap into the unknown—converting to Christianity and aligning his people with the rising power of Latin Christendom. It wasn’t just a baptism; it was a geopolitical masterstroke that reshaped the fate of Central Europe.

QUICK NOTE ABOUT TODAY'S AUDIO: The quality was off and I didn't catch it until it was too late. If you can forgive me here, future episodes will be back to normal audio quality. Thank you for understanding!

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Patreon Series: Context of a Conquest

Episode 173: Eadric the Wild

This tale is one of alliance, defiance, and no small amount of grit. We’re headed to the borderlands in this episode. Eadric of Herefordshire and Shropshire teams up with Welsh princes in a last-ditch effort to push back the Norman tide. Anglo-Saxon resistance isn’t dead—not yet. And in the shadowy woods and rugged hills, a fragile hope still flickers.

[Fits nicely between public Episodes 76 and 77.]

NOTE: Any mispronunciation of Welsh names is entirely due to my Midwestern 'Merican accent. I hope I can bring respect through the attempt, but I'm afraid my attempts may be so bad it's in fact disrespectful. Forgive me. :)

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Patreon Series: Context of a Conquest

Episode 172: Flanders In Crisis

Losses abound in this chapter of our story. But before we get swept away in the grief and fallout, we finally pause to give the County of Flanders its due. A key player in the game of 11th-century thrones, Flanders is about to show us just how much sway it holds over the fortunes (and misfortunes) of Europe’s rising powers. It’s time to zoom in on a region too important to ignore.

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