The siege of Jerusalem (7 June – 15 July 1099) was waged by European forces of the First Crusade, resulting in the capture of the Holy City of Jerusalem from the Muslim Fatimid Caliphate, and laying the foundation for the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, which lasted almost two centuries. The capture of Jerusalem was the final major battle of the first of the Crusades to occupy the Holy Land begun in 1095. A number of eyewitness accounts of the siege were recorded, the most quoted being that from the anonymous Gesta Francorum. Upon the declaration of the secular state, Godfrey of Bouillon, prominent among the leaders of the crusades, was elected ruler, eschewing the title "king." The siege led to the mass slaughter of thousands of Muslims and Jews and to the conversion of Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount into Christian shrines. Background At the Council of Piacenza in 1095, Pope Urban II received envoys from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I asking Western Christians for assistance in liberating large parts of the Eastern Roman Empire from the Seljuk Turks who had conquered large parts of the region since 1070. The Seljuk Atsiz ibn Uwaq had conquered Jerusalem from the Fatimids in 1073, making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem more difficult and suppressing a revolt of the city in 1077 in bloodbath. Responding to the call, Urban gave a sermon at the Council of Clermont in November 1095 which included a rousing call to arms for the conquest of the Holy Land and the return of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to Christian hands. His appeal marked the beginning of the Crusades, a holy war for God, in which he guaranteed participants a place in heaven. After the successful siege of Antioch in June 1098, the Crusaders remained in the area for the rest of the year. The papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy had died, and Bohemond of Taranto had claimed Antioch for himself. Baldwin of Boulogne remained in Edessa, captured earlier in 1098. There was dissent among the princes over what to do next; Raymond of Toulouse, frustrated, left Antioch to capture the fortress at Ma'arrat al-Numan in the siege of Maarat. By the end of the year, the minor knights and infantry were threatening to march to Jerusalem without them. Eventually, on January 13, 1099, Raymond began the march south, down the coast of the