0:01:50 > 0:01:53I'm in the deserts of the eastern end of the Mediterranean in Jordan.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57People have been wandering through these lands for tens of thousands of years
0:01:57 > 0:02:00and I'm with one of the last groups to do so, the Bedouin.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04Like their ancestors, they're almost entirely dependent
0:02:04 > 0:02:06on their domesticated animals.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Their camels, their sheep and their goats.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13But the animal that they prize most of all
0:02:13 > 0:02:17is, oddly, the one which seems to have little practical value to them.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19They neither eat it nor milk it,
0:02:19 > 0:02:21nor use it as a beast of burden.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24It's this. The horse.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29The Arabs are great judges of horse flesh and great riders.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32And they used the horse, only until recently,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35on those raids and skirmishes which up to 30 years ago
0:02:35 > 0:02:37were so much a part of their lives.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Wild horses, like these,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45once lived over much of Europe and central Asia.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48They have short, stiff manes that stand more or less upright
0:02:48 > 0:02:52and a bold black stripe running down their back.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Man tamed them some 3,000 years after he had domesticated cattle,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01initially in order to eat them.
0:03:01 > 0:03:07But by 3,000BC he had found that he could use them to pull carts and wagons.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10The Egyptians harnessed them with wide reins low around their necks
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and used them for pulling their war chariots.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18At around the same time, farther to the east,
0:03:18 > 0:03:24the Assyrians were putting a jointed bar of metal, a bit, into the horse's mouth
0:03:24 > 0:03:26and controlling it much more effectively.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Stirrups were unknown in the Mediterranean, even in Greek times.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32That invaluable aid for riding
0:03:32 > 0:03:36probably originated far away in the steppes of central Asia.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41Some people there, even today, virtually live on horseback.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46In Afghanistan, they still play the ancient and violent game of Buzkashi,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48a kind of mass polo,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52in which the ball is a sand-filled skin of a freshly killed goat.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57Roman writers said that the wild tribes
0:03:57 > 0:04:01who regularly raided settlements along the frontier of the empire
0:04:01 > 0:04:02were perpetually on the move,
0:04:02 > 0:04:04driving their livestock in front of them,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07the women and children following behind in wagons.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11They never slept inside a house nor planted any crops.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14They lived entirely on milk and meat.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18Their cruelty shocked even the Romans, who had such a taste for it.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21After battles, they skinned their slaughtered enemies
0:04:21 > 0:04:24and slung the bloody pelts over their horses as trophies.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38This passion for horses spread right round the eastern Mediterranean
0:04:38 > 0:04:42and along the northern coast of Africa, where it still flourishes.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59In the fourth century, the mounted tribes living along the northern frontier
0:04:59 > 0:05:01of the decaying Roman Empire,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04in a series of extraordinary mass migrations,
0:05:04 > 0:05:05overran western Europe,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09burning, looting and destroying wherever they went.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18The Huns rode west around the Caspian Sea into Hungary.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Another tribe, the Visigoths, started southwards,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24fighting their way through Greece into Italy
0:05:24 > 0:05:27and on into France and Spain.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29The Vandals rode down from the north
0:05:29 > 0:05:31right across Europe into North Africa
0:05:31 > 0:05:35to cross the Mediterranean again and sack Rome.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39The Huns, on the move once more, were joined by Goths
0:05:39 > 0:05:41to complete the destruction of Roman power
0:05:41 > 0:05:44and the civilisation that had grown up under its protection.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50By this time the great Roman cities of North Africa,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53such as Leptis were already in decline.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56The fields around them, once so fertile,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59but now stripped of their cover of natural vegetation
0:05:59 > 0:06:03were badly eroded and could no longer provide the food
0:06:03 > 0:06:05to support a large population.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08So, the aqueducts fell into disrepair,
0:06:08 > 0:06:10the columns of the temples tumbled
0:06:10 > 0:06:13and the influence of Rome began to wane.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17How far nomads were responsible for this change
0:06:17 > 0:06:19is a matter of argument among historians.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23But certainly, as the Roman way of life diminished,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27so the surviving peoples took to a more pastoral way of life
0:06:27 > 0:06:29becoming more and more dependent on grazing animals,
0:06:29 > 0:06:31and in particular, the goat.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37The goat has the most extraordinary mouth.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40It seems impervious to the sharpest thorns
0:06:40 > 0:06:44and goats will eat vegetation that no cow or sheep will tackle.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47That means that they can live in near desert.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50It also means that because they eat every seedling
0:06:50 > 0:06:52and anything else that is green,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54they keep the land a near desert.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13The desert peoples had another important animal in their lives,
0:07:13 > 0:07:15a beast of burden, the camel.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19In the seventh century, a camel driver
0:07:19 > 0:07:21working with the caravans that crossed the Arabian deserts,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25taking gold and spices to the Mediterranean ports,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29had profound religious visions and began to preach a new faith.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33His name was Mohammed and his faith, Islam.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37MUEZZIN CALLS FAITHFUL TO PRAYER
0:07:58 > 0:08:03Mohammed's revelations were recorded in the sacred book of Islam, the Koran.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07Associated with it were a great variety of religious texts
0:08:07 > 0:08:11which included detailed instructions on how to care for the horse
0:08:11 > 0:08:14and this account of its origin.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18God took a handful of the south wind, it says,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20and created the horse.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24And he said unto it, "I create thee and name thee Arab.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28"Goodness I tie to the hair of thy forelock.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30"Booty shall come from the strength of thy back.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33"Power shall be with you, wherever you are.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38"I hold you above all beasts, making you lord of them all.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42"I make you obedient to your master
0:08:42 > 0:08:45"and able to fly without wings.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49"You are destined for flight and pursuit."
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Inspired with the fanatical fervour by Mohammed's teaching,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14the horsemen of Islam set of on a series of lightning campaigns
0:09:14 > 0:09:17to convert all the people around them to this new faith.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23No foot soldiers or baggage trains accompanied this swashbuckling cavalry.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27They lived off the land and they carried their swords and the Koran
0:09:27 > 0:09:29all around the Mediterranean.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32From Mecca, where Mohammed first preached,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35they rode north to Jerusalem and onto Constantinople.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38They went west all along the coast of North Africa
0:09:38 > 0:09:41across the Straits of Gibraltar and into Spain.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44There they defeated the armies of the Visigoths,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47the one-time nomads who had ruled Spain for three centuries.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52So, the Spanish people lost one alien rule and gained another.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58They established their Spanish capital here at Cordoba
0:09:58 > 0:10:01They partly demolished the Christian basilica
0:10:01 > 0:10:06and using marble columns rescued from the Roman ruins
0:10:06 > 0:10:08that lay all around this ancient city,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12They converted it in the year 785, into a mosque.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17They were to build over 3,000 mosques in this one city.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20They installed street lighting and public sanitation.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23They established a university.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27And so they converted Cordoba with its half million inhabitants
0:10:27 > 0:10:30into one of the great cities of Islam.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33They also greatly enlarged this mosque
0:10:33 > 0:10:37by building a forest of pillars.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42To do that, they needed no specifically Islamic architectural technique.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46But on one side, facing not east, towards Mecca, as is traditional
0:10:46 > 0:10:49but south towards land from which they came,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52they built a mihrab.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00It's one of the glories of Islamic architecture
0:11:00 > 0:11:04and epitomises the dazzling artistry craftsmanship of these people.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15The Arab prince who ruled over Granada,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19built himself a magnificent citadel on the hill above the city
0:11:19 > 0:11:22that became known as the Red Palace, Alhambra.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05As might be expected of people with traditions of living in deserts,
0:12:05 > 0:12:10they lavished great care and skill on conserving and controlling water.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23They built giant water wheels like these, which still survive in Syria.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Groaning as they turn on their wooden axles,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29as they have done on this site for a thousand years.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42Driven by the current of the river, they lift water 70 or 80 feet,
0:12:42 > 0:12:45and tip it out into an aqueduct along which it flows
0:12:45 > 0:12:48throughout the city to irrigate its gardens.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15For them a garden was literally paradise.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17They used the same word for both.
0:13:17 > 0:13:23Outside its walls, lay the blazing sand and harsh sun of the desert.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27Inside, cool shade, the sound of trickling water,
0:13:27 > 0:13:29the colour and perfume of flowers.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32So around their castles here in Spain
0:13:32 > 0:13:36they built gardens, just as they had back in Africa.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39And they brought with them many of their favourite plants.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Including, for example, this. The orange.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47They had acquired this tree from the Chinese,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50and grew it as much for its perfume as for its fruit,
0:13:50 > 0:13:52which in the early varieties, was bitter,
0:13:52 > 0:13:54as several oranges are still today.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00They also imported peacocks from the eastern territories of their empire,
0:14:00 > 0:14:02which now extended as far as India,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06to glorify their gardens with their astounding displays.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41The Arabs, indeed, were particularly knowledgeable and skilled
0:14:41 > 0:14:42in the handling of birds.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49Pigeons were probably the first birds to be domesticated by man anywhere.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51The Romans had kept them imprisoned
0:14:51 > 0:14:53and even broke their wings to prevent them flying
0:14:53 > 0:14:55so as to fatten them for the table.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58The Arabs, however, allowed them to fly free
0:14:58 > 0:15:02and provided them with miniature castles, like these in Egypt.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05They're built of earthenware pipes stuck together with mud,
0:15:05 > 0:15:07inside which the birds nest.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11From these colonies they range over the surrounding countryside,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15collecting scattered grains of corn and other tiny particles of food.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18These they convert into meat and eggs and droppings
0:15:18 > 0:15:21which accumulate in the bottom of these towers
0:15:21 > 0:15:23and constitute a magnificent fertiliser.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33But falcons are the Arabs' passion.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36500 years ago, when they had no guns,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40hawks were almost the only means they had of catching game
0:15:40 > 0:15:44and they carried falcon with them wherever they went.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47The tradition continues unbroken.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54The favourite quarry in winter is the Houbara bustard.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57It's a big bird, about twice the size of most falcons,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00which must have both strength and courage if they're to bring one down.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30The hood is an Arab invention.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33It has drawstrings around the neck
0:16:33 > 0:16:35and fits snuggly over the beak when it's on,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38so that light is totally excluded from the bird's eyes
0:16:38 > 0:16:41and it immediately settles down and remains clam.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55These portable perches were also devised by the Arabs.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03By tradition, the falconers always make a point of handling their birds a great deal,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07both to keep them tame and to make it easier to treat them for minor injuries,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09such as broken feathers.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21A hare, an eagerly sought-after quarry,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25both for the skill needed to catch it and the value of its meat.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45SQUEALING
0:17:49 > 0:17:52This is exactly how falcons catch their prey in the wild.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56For the bird, is of course, at this moment an entirely free agent.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06The falconer allows his bird a share of its catch.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10Usually the liver, the lungs and the heart.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13If he did not, the falcon might not continue to hunt.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17But the owners take the main part of the carcass
0:18:17 > 0:18:20and they will eat it with particular relish.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23For, although falconry in Arabia is certainly a sport,
0:18:23 > 0:18:27it also remains, as once most importantly was,
0:18:27 > 0:18:29a way of catching food in the desert,
0:18:29 > 0:18:34where real hunger continually afflicts most animals and men.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43The Europeans also hunted with falcons for many centuries
0:18:43 > 0:18:45but their techniques were less sophisticated
0:18:45 > 0:18:48and the Arab style of hawking spread from places
0:18:48 > 0:18:50where Muslim influence was strong,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53such as Sicily and also of course from Islamic Spain.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00Although the people of Medieval Europe
0:19:00 > 0:19:05were learning newer and more efficient ways of hunting animals,
0:19:05 > 0:19:08their beliefs about them and their attitudes towards them
0:19:08 > 0:19:13remained in many instances rooted in a pre-Christian pagan past.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16They credited some animals with the most extraordinary powers.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19For example in gullies like this,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21where the moss-covered rocks
0:19:21 > 0:19:25retain just a particle of moisture even during the hottest summer,
0:19:25 > 0:19:30they believed they occasionally could find one of the most lethal and poisonous creatures
0:19:30 > 0:19:31in the whole of creation.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35A 13th-century writer describes
0:19:35 > 0:19:38how the army of Alexander the Great
0:19:38 > 0:19:42drank from a stream through which this animal had just passed
0:19:42 > 0:19:44and during the night all 4,000 men
0:19:44 > 0:19:47and their 4,000 horses died.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51And this is the creature they were so terrified of.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55It's a salamander.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57And, of course, it's entirely harmless.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01It's a kind of large newt that spends most of its time on land.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Being an amphibian it has a moist skin
0:20:04 > 0:20:07and during the day it usually hides in damp places -
0:20:07 > 0:20:11under leaves or beneath the bark of wet, rotten logs and is rarely seen.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15Perhaps if such a log were thrown on a fire
0:20:15 > 0:20:17a salamander might come out of it.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19And if the log were really damp and rotten,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21the fire might be put out.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27At any rate, the salamander was believed to be so magically powerful
0:20:27 > 0:20:30that it could live in fire and extinguish it.
0:20:38 > 0:20:39And still, to this day,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43we call a species the fire salamander.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01Even as inoffensive and harmless a creature as a moth
0:21:01 > 0:21:05could become in the medieval mind, a creature of dread.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11If it flew in through an open window at night,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15people believed it might kill them as they lay sleeping.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23And all because it had on its body
0:21:23 > 0:21:26a mark that looked like a death's head.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35The fox was believed to be so sly and deceitful
0:21:35 > 0:21:40that it would feign death and entice birds to fly down and feed on its corpse.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Then it would suddenly come to life and catch them.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51The eagle was thought to be immortal.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54When it got old it flew close to the sun,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57scorched off its tattered, worn-out feathers
0:21:57 > 0:21:59and dived into the waters of a lake.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03Then it came out, rejuvenated,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07perhaps even, like this one, with a fish in its talons.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09Maybe the artist had seen an osprey fishing.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18This species of wild goose is a rare visitor to southern Europe
0:22:18 > 0:22:22and no-one living there in medieval times could have seen its nest.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26So, people reasoned, these geese must come into the world in some other fashion.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28Perhaps from these barnacles
0:22:28 > 0:22:32which have what look like small, bedraggled feathers inside them.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35And, as everyone knows, only birds have feathers.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39So, the illustrators of the medieval natural history books, the bestiaries,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42obligingly showed exactly how that came about.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Nonsense? 0f course.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51These geese lay eggs in nests like any other bird.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54But they do so out of most people's sight in the Arctic.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59Nonetheless, we still call this species of goose the barnacle goose,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02and that kind of barnacle, the goose barnacle.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06There were also superstitions about plants.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10This strange spike appears each summer on a rocky islet in Malta.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17For centuries, it was thought that it lived only in this one tiny location.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21Though now it has been found in one or two other places as well.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25And for centuries, too, it was thought not only to be rare
0:23:25 > 0:23:29but a very powerful medicine against a whole variety of diseases.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32So much so, it was extremely valuable.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35And the Grand Master of the Knights of St John in Malta
0:23:35 > 0:23:38had to post a guard on this rock to prevent thieves.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40And he regularly gathered it
0:23:40 > 0:23:43and sent it as a most valued gift
0:23:43 > 0:23:45to all the crown heads of Europe.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50The mandrake contains a drug that produces hallucinations
0:23:50 > 0:23:53and was used by apothecaries in potions.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55Its root, often cleft,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58was believed to be shaped like a human being.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02And close inspection could determine whether it was male or female.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05If it was pulled up, it was supposed to scream,
0:24:05 > 0:24:09and anyone who heard that dreadful sound would be struck dead immediately.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13So, an apothecary gathering a mandrake
0:24:13 > 0:24:18had to take with him a horn and to plug his ears with beeswax.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21Even tugging at the plant could be lethal
0:24:21 > 0:24:24and to deal with that, he had to have a dog,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26which he had to tie to the mandrake.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Then, blowing his horn to drown the dreadful shriek
0:24:32 > 0:24:34and whipping the dog so that it bolted,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37he could draw the root in safety.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45CHURCH BELLS RING
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Not all of these pagan beliefs have completely died.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57In Cucullo, a small village in the Abruzzi mountains, east of Rome,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00an ancient animal cult still flourishes.
0:25:00 > 0:25:020n the first Thursday in May, every year,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05a statue of St Dominic is brought out from the church.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09He is being adorned with snakes.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22The snakes are harmless.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25They are four-lined and Aesculapian snakes.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28And as they, in the wild, frequently climb in trees,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30they tend to cling to the statue.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35As the saint and his snakes are carried in procession,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38the worshippers entreat him to protect them from the bites of other snakes,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42for there are dangerously poisonous snakes in the countryside.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46He is also said, by a rather curious and convoluted logic,
0:25:46 > 0:25:48to be able to cure toothache.
0:25:52 > 0:25:53BRASS BAND PLAYS
0:26:01 > 0:26:04The people believe that their saint, St Dominic,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08who founded the Dominican order of monks in the 13th century,
0:26:08 > 0:26:10was once bitten by a poisonous snake
0:26:10 > 0:26:13but, miraculously, he suffered no ill effects,
0:26:13 > 0:26:17and that therefore he has the power to grant protection to others.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25But it's likely that the origins of this bizarre cult
0:26:25 > 0:26:28are rooted in practices of a far more distant past.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32Many pagan myths became absorbed into Christian practice in this way
0:26:32 > 0:26:37and some were even built into the fabric of the churches themselves.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41This centaur - half horse, half human -
0:26:41 > 0:26:43is an inheritance from the myths of Greece.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48There's also another alien influence in this cloister, that of Islam.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51For this church in Le Puy in southern France
0:26:51 > 0:26:54has arches reminiscent of the mosque in Cordoba.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57Le Puy stands on the pilgrim road
0:26:57 > 0:27:00leading to the shrine of St James in Compostela in Spain,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03one of the most holy sites in all Christendom.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08But Compostela was not far from the Spanish territories held by the Muslims.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12And the Bishop of Le Puy must have regarded Islam as a very real threat.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16In 1095, the Pope arrived here from Rome to confer with the Bishop.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22We can't be certain exactly what they talked about
0:27:22 > 0:27:27but we do know for sure that the Pope had been receiving urgent pleas for help
0:27:27 > 0:27:29from the Christians of Constantinople
0:27:29 > 0:27:33who were under continuous attack by the armies of Islam.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36And it seems likely that they were planning a holy war.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38At the end of their conversations,
0:27:38 > 0:27:40the Pope summoned all the bishops of Christendom
0:27:40 > 0:27:42to come and meet him in three months' time
0:27:42 > 0:27:45in Clermont, 50 miles from here.
0:27:45 > 0:27:51At the end of that conference, the Pope preached a sermon to an enormous congregation
0:27:51 > 0:27:53just outside the city of Clermont.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56"It was an insult to Christianity," he said,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00"that Jerusalem and the Holy Land should be in the hand of the infidel."
0:28:00 > 0:28:03And he called for an army to go and free it.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07The sermon was met with wild enthusiasm.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10The Bishop of Le Puy was one of the first to volunteer
0:28:10 > 0:28:12and was put in charge of the whole enterprise.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15And the next autumn, men from all over Europe
0:28:15 > 0:28:19started marching eastwards to assemble in Constantinople
0:28:19 > 0:28:21and to go on the First Crusade.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30There was much squabbling about who should take command,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33but eventually the huge army marched out of the gates of the city,
0:28:33 > 0:28:38crossed the straits of the Bosphoros and set off eastwards for Asia.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41In the mountains of Turkey, the going is rough.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44The Crusaders' horses were large, heavily built animals,
0:28:44 > 0:28:46unsuited for such country.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Many fell and were eaten by the hungry troops.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56By the time the Christian army reached the desert
0:28:56 > 0:28:58and turned south towards Jerusalem,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01much of the baggage was being carried by locally obtained mules,
0:29:01 > 0:29:03even goats and dogs.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09The heavily armoured knights fought by charging the enemy,
0:29:09 > 0:29:11and trying to unseat them with a lance.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13They could then butcher them with their swords.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20The Muslim horses were small and agile,
0:29:20 > 0:29:23ideal for making swift, surprise raids.
0:29:24 > 0:29:28In their citadels, they defended themselves with spears and arrows.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32The Crusaders stormed the walls directly,
0:29:32 > 0:29:34and tunnelled beneath them.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38They used huge catapults to hurl boulders over the ramparts,
0:29:38 > 0:29:40or to batter them down.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44One by one, the Muslim cities were taken,
0:29:44 > 0:29:49each siege ending only too often in a wholesale massacre of the inhabitants.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53Until at last, July 15th, 1099,
0:29:53 > 0:29:55Jerusalem, the Holy City itself,
0:29:55 > 0:29:58was reclaimed for Christendom.
0:30:02 > 0:30:03To keep control of their gains,
0:30:03 > 0:30:08the Crusaders set up a chain of huge castles round the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12The most perfectly surviving today is Crac De Chevalier in Syria.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18Inside the fortified walls lived a huge community,
0:30:18 > 0:30:23some 4,000 Christian souls in the case of this particular castle.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27There was the commander, his wife and his children,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30100 knights or so, who had sworn allegiance to him,
0:30:30 > 0:30:35and many more foot soldiers and locally recruited servants and helpers.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40Here in the heart of the castle, the knights had their lodgings where they slept.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44Beyond that, stood the vaulted refectory where they ate
0:30:44 > 0:30:48and the chapel where together they all prayed.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Beneath, on the ground floor, is a vast hall
0:30:55 > 0:30:57where they stabled all their horses.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00And below that, vaults that held enough supplies
0:31:00 > 0:31:03for them to withstand sieges of months or even years.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07An aqueduct channelled in water, though during a siege,
0:31:07 > 0:31:10rain could be collected in vast cisterns cut deep in the rock.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15Even so, the Christian soldiers who patrolled these walls
0:31:15 > 0:31:17began to adopt the local customs.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20They developed a taste for spicy food
0:31:20 > 0:31:22and wore silken robes, even turbans.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26Crac's defences were unsurpassed
0:31:26 > 0:31:30and surrounded by an outer ring of walls studded with towers.
0:31:30 > 0:31:32Inside that lies a moat
0:31:32 > 0:31:35and beyond that another line of walls.
0:31:35 > 0:31:40The only way in was over a drawbridge and through a heavily guarded gate.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47If, by some trickery or sheer force of arms,
0:31:47 > 0:31:51attackers got across the drawbridge and through the main gate,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55they then had to fight their way up this long, sloping passage.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58And when they got here they were faced
0:31:58 > 0:32:00with a confusing change of direction.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05A hairpin bend, behind which a fresh band of defenders could be waiting.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07And up this passage there was a new peril.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Holes in the roof.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14Through them poured a lethal hail
0:32:14 > 0:32:16of boulders and arrows
0:32:16 > 0:32:19and boiling pitch and oil.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21Even if he survived as far as this,
0:32:21 > 0:32:25an attacker had then to face the massed knights,
0:32:25 > 0:32:29who awaited him to do battle in the inner courtyard.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32In fact, during the entire history of the castle,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35no invader fought his way as far as this.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Indeed, these defences were so carefully planned
0:32:39 > 0:32:41and so ingeniously designed,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44that the castle was virtually impregnable.
0:32:46 > 0:32:51But in the end, the defence of a castle depends on an adequate number of men.
0:32:51 > 0:32:56And after a century and a half of sending successive armies to the Holy Land,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59the Europeans were beginning to lose their zeal.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02In 1271, a much depleted garrison
0:33:02 > 0:33:05surrendered this castle after only a month's siege,
0:33:05 > 0:33:10in exchange for a safe passage down to the Mediterranean coast, at Tripoli.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16Over the next 20 years, the rest of the Crusaders straggled back home.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19They took with them a love of silk and spices,
0:33:19 > 0:33:23an admiration of the agile lightly built Arabian horse,
0:33:23 > 0:33:25and something that ultimately
0:33:25 > 0:33:27was to devastate all Europe.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32It crept on board the ships of the returning armies
0:33:32 > 0:33:34and travelled with them.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36It was the black rat.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40It had already reached Europe, one way or another, in previous centuries.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43But the rats the Crusaders inadvertently carried with them
0:33:43 > 0:33:46had come from the ports of the eastern Mediterranean
0:33:46 > 0:33:49where plague was rampant and endemic.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01The rats were infected with a form of septicaemia in their blood,
0:34:01 > 0:34:03which eventually killed them.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06They couldn't transmit this directly to man.
0:34:06 > 0:34:11But they were also infested with fleas - and they could.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17Some fleas are very particular about their hosts
0:34:17 > 0:34:19and will bite only one kind of animal.
0:34:19 > 0:34:24But, tragically for humanity, that was not so with these fleas.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39The fleas fed by sucking the rat's blood.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41And when the rat died of its disease,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44the fleas hopped onto another rat,
0:34:44 > 0:34:46or a human being,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49and passed on the bacillus by injecting when they next fed
0:34:49 > 0:34:51into the blood of their new host.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02As the rats spread through the increasingly crowded
0:35:02 > 0:35:05and insanitary cities of Western Europe,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07so did the disease.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11The great pestilence broke out in 1347.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13It appeared first in Sicily
0:35:13 > 0:35:15but soon it was raging all over the Continent.
0:35:18 > 0:35:20Boils appeared on people's bodies.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24Their breath became foul and they vomited blood.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27And then they died. Sometimes in a few days,
0:35:27 > 0:35:29sometimes within a few hours.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32Nobody knew what caused the disease.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34Nobody knew how to stop it.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Within three years of its outbreak in Europe,
0:35:36 > 0:35:39it had killed one person in three.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Most of Europe at this time was covered with forest.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52Although towns were growing,
0:35:52 > 0:35:55there were still vast tracts of the wild wood
0:35:55 > 0:35:57largely unaffected by man.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00Every species of animal that had been known
0:36:00 > 0:36:03to the Romans still flourished.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Wild pig were very common
0:36:11 > 0:36:14and they regularly interbred with domesticated pigs
0:36:14 > 0:36:16that wandered out into the forest.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36Deer were abundant and much hunted for their excellent meat.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00The beaver, which today is almost entirely restricted
0:37:00 > 0:37:02to northern and eastern Europe,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04was, in medieval times, common in rivers
0:37:04 > 0:37:07right down to the coast of the Mediterranean.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26But others were felling trees in the forest at that time, too.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Wood, after all, was still people's primary fuel.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32It was used for building and the population,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35now rapidly increasing after the ravages of the plague,
0:37:35 > 0:37:40wanted more cleared land for their houses, their crops and their herds.
0:37:42 > 0:37:48In Spain, this animal had a particular responsibility for the destruction of the forests.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50These are merino sheep,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53a breed which was introduced in the 13th century into Spain
0:37:53 > 0:37:56by the Arabs from North Africa.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59Every summer since then, huge herds of them
0:37:59 > 0:38:02have been driven right across Spain from south to north.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04They stick to the same traditional routes,
0:38:04 > 0:38:08even though during the last few centuries towns have grown up in their path.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12No matter. The traffic must stop to let the sheep past.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25The journey is made because as summer approaches,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29their winter pastures on the lowlands of southern Spain dry up
0:38:29 > 0:38:33and the sheep have to get to the grass that is now sprouting in the mountains.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38Merinos, when they first appeared in Europe, were a sensation.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41Their wool was longer than any other known until then
0:38:41 > 0:38:43and it made a marvellous cloth.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46Everyone wanted it and only Spain produced it.
0:38:50 > 0:38:55More and more Spanish aristocrats acquired bigger and bigger herds.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59The King of Spain put a tax on the head of every merino sheep
0:38:59 > 0:39:02and every pound of wool they produced.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05And eventually he, too, had became a great sheep owner.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09By the 16th century there were three million merino sheep in Spain.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13And their wool was a major element in the country's economy.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17The King of Spain did everything he could to protect them
0:39:17 > 0:39:20and, therefore, his wealth.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23He made it illegal to export a living merino sheep,
0:39:23 > 0:39:26so as to protect the country's monopoly.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29And he did his best to protect these,
0:39:29 > 0:39:31These great, wide drovers' roads
0:39:31 > 0:39:35running right across Spain, the canadas.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51The sheep needed these broad ribbons of land
0:39:51 > 0:39:54not simply to walk on but to feed on.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57The 500-mile journey took them a month or so
0:39:57 > 0:39:59and they had to eat as they travelled.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02The King made laws forbidding the farmers to fence their fields,
0:40:02 > 0:40:06or even to drive the sheep away if they started feeding on their crops.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Land was commandeered to widen the canadas,
0:40:09 > 0:40:12and if a farmer objected he could be put to death.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17Eventually these great paths were 250 feet across, as this one is.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24Up in the mountains, the pastures were also greatly expanded.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27The forests that had once come close to the summits
0:40:27 > 0:40:30of all except the highest peaks, were cut down.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32First around the high moorland,
0:40:32 > 0:40:35and then farther and farther down into the valleys,
0:40:35 > 0:40:39until, in some places, the whole mountain had been stripped bare
0:40:39 > 0:40:41to provide grass in the summertime
0:40:41 > 0:40:44for the searching muzzles of thousands of sheep.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57So, the forests of Spain,
0:40:57 > 0:40:59from the lowland winter pastures,
0:40:59 > 0:41:01along the wide canadas,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04and up here into the mountains
0:41:04 > 0:41:06were sacrificed for the merino sheep.
0:41:06 > 0:41:12At the end of the 15th century, the King of Spain sent merinos to Italy,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15where he also owned vast territories.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17And the same thing happened there.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22And there too, there was another reason for the wholesale felling of trees.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52Italy was not yet united into one nation,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55but was a group of independent states.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57And foremost among them was Venice,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00The Most Serene Republic as she called herself,
0:42:00 > 0:42:02and certainly the greatest naval power
0:42:02 > 0:42:05and richest trading nation in the western Mediterranean.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13Every year, her ruler, the Doge,
0:42:13 > 0:42:16was rode in great states down the Grand Canal
0:42:16 > 0:42:20and out into the lagoon to be ceremonially wedded to the sea
0:42:20 > 0:42:22on which the city's prosperity depended.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01But the cities wealth also depended on ships
0:43:01 > 0:43:03and ships required trees.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08Venice owned vast forest that stretched almost unbroken
0:43:08 > 0:43:11from the shores of her lagoon, to the flanks of the Alps.
0:43:11 > 0:43:16And in them were all the different kinds of trees her shipwrights required.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19Oaks for ribs, deck beams and keels.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Elms for capstans, walnut for rudders.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25Spruce and fir for masts
0:43:25 > 0:43:27and beech for oars.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36She built two very different kinds of ship.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39Huge, square-rigged broad-bellied merchantmen
0:43:39 > 0:43:41which carried her bulk trade.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45And slim, speedy galleys,
0:43:45 > 0:43:48driven by oars that maintained regular schedules
0:43:48 > 0:43:51and carried valuables like spices and gold.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56The galleys were built in the state dockyard, the arsenal.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00For they were also the most powerful of the state's fighting ships.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04These yards were the base of the navy
0:44:04 > 0:44:07that dominated the western Mediterranean.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11The fleet was essential to Venice's survival.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13The war between Christendom and Islam
0:44:13 > 0:44:16had not ended when the Crusaders had returned from the Holy Land.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18It was now being fought at sea.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21Turkish fleets were attacking Venice's eastern colonies.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24Moorish pirates, the Corsairs,
0:44:24 > 0:44:26were sailing from the North African coast
0:44:26 > 0:44:28and plundering her merchantmen.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31Eventually, this conflict came to a climax
0:44:31 > 0:44:35when the massed fleets Christendom met the might of Islam
0:44:35 > 0:44:38in a narrow strait in Greece called Lepanto.
0:44:41 > 0:44:43The battle lasted only one day.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48In that time, 44,000 men were killed or seriously wounded.
0:44:48 > 0:44:53Eventually, the Christians won and the westward expansion of Islam was stopped.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57For centuries to come, Lepanto was celebrated in paintings and poetry,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00as one of the great turning points of history.
0:45:02 > 0:45:08It was the last great battle in which oar-driven galleys played a decisive part.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12Developments in naval artillery and improvements sailing technique
0:45:12 > 0:45:14made them out of date.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17Since then, these craft have been studied in proud detail,
0:45:17 > 0:45:22and the galley that carried the Christian flag that day at the Lepanto, El Real,
0:45:22 > 0:45:25has been reconstructed as this full-sized replica.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34Whatever else this ship may show,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37it is appalling evidence of what men will do to other men.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41It was rowed by 236 slaves,
0:45:41 > 0:45:43prisoners of war or criminals,
0:45:43 > 0:45:45who were chained to their oars.
0:45:45 > 0:45:50They were fed from a kind of stew brewed in those great iron pots.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53They were cleaned simply by throwing buckets of water over them.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57And they remained permanently at their oars,
0:45:57 > 0:46:05rowing on command, until such time as their sentences were expired or they died.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08But this ship is also evidence of the great impact
0:46:08 > 0:46:11that these naval wars had on the forests of the Mediterranean.
0:46:11 > 0:46:18To build this one ship involved felling 59 beech trees for the oars alone.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20Over 300 pine and fir trees
0:46:20 > 0:46:23for the planking and the spars.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26And most important of all and in shortest supply,
0:46:26 > 0:46:32over 300 oak trees to build the ribs and the hull.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35Furthermore, the Christian fleet in the battle of Lepanto,
0:46:35 > 0:46:38has five more ships like this,
0:46:38 > 0:46:41together with over 200 smaller ships.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44The Turkish fleet was even bigger,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47274 fighting ships.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52So, in that one battle where many of these great ships were burnt or sunk
0:46:52 > 0:46:57they had to be felled over a quarter of a million mature trees.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01So it's little wonder that by the end of the 15th century,
0:47:01 > 0:47:07the Venetians were so short of timber that this ship, the Christian flagship,
0:47:07 > 0:47:09had to be built not in Italy,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12but here in Barcelona in Spain.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15And by the end of the next century
0:47:15 > 0:47:20the majority of ship-building had shifted away from the shores of the Mediterranean,
0:47:20 > 0:47:23up to northern Europe, where the shipwrights
0:47:23 > 0:47:26could get their timber from the great forests of the Baltic.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33On the deforested land the horse still ruled.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41Armies depended on their well-drilled cavalry
0:47:41 > 0:47:44and skills of horsemanship had reached extraordinary levels.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48The Spanish riding school in Vienna still preserves them.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42Breeding horses to produce the different kind of animals
0:49:42 > 0:49:45needed to for the many different purposes they served,
0:49:45 > 0:49:47had now become a highly expert business.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Those horses, like all thoroughbreds,
0:49:53 > 0:49:58can trace their ancestry back to just three stallions from the Middle East.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03Indeed 90% of thoroughbreds, can trace them back to just one.
0:50:03 > 0:50:08A horse that was imported by the British consul to Syria
0:50:08 > 0:50:11and traded in the markets of Aleppo, it's said, for a gun.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15It arrived here in 1704,
0:50:15 > 0:50:19and by that time the sport of horse racing was already well established.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22In the previous century, King Charles II
0:50:22 > 0:50:25had become a fanatical race horse enthusiast
0:50:25 > 0:50:29and he started the custom of bringing his whole court
0:50:29 > 0:50:34down to this heath and this town of Newmarket, to see the races.
0:50:36 > 0:50:41The famous winners, then as now, became the idols of the public.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44Their portraits painted to show them to their best advantage
0:50:44 > 0:50:48and even perhaps like other portraits to flatter them a little,
0:50:48 > 0:50:51gives some notion of the ideal horse that breeders had in their minds
0:50:51 > 0:50:54and which owed so much to the horses
0:50:54 > 0:50:57that were ridden by the nomads in the Middle East.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08The characteristics that go to make a really great race horse,
0:51:08 > 0:51:13are of course a matter of experience in judgment and opinion.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18But, in general, the animal should have a deep chest here
0:51:18 > 0:51:21so there's plenty of room for a big heart and lungs.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25Legs that are well boned so that they support the body,
0:51:25 > 0:51:29but are also lissom and long to give it speed.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33A back that neither too long nor too short
0:51:33 > 0:51:36and big, powerful hind quarters
0:51:36 > 0:51:39because its from here that you get the speed.
0:51:39 > 0:51:45But whether you're looking at a wonderfully bred, aristocratic athlete,
0:51:45 > 0:51:48like this one, or indeed a wild horse,
0:51:48 > 0:51:52surely the horse is one of the loveliest of animals.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20After 5,000 years of serving humanity,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23carrying him on his travels and his sports,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26on his business and into his battles,
0:52:26 > 0:52:32the horse had now been replaced by the internal combustion engine.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36But it still retains a unique place in human affections
0:52:36 > 0:52:38and in human history.