The Armenians are shown to mislead the Crusaders, but in reality Armenians have been instrumental for the Crusades. Pope Gregory XIII in his Ecclesia Romana says: "Among the good deeds which the Armenian people has done towards the church and the Christian world, it should especially be stressed that, in those times when the Christian princes and the warriors went to retake the Holy Land, no people or nation, with the same enthusiasm, joy and faith came to their aid as the Armenians did, who supplied the Crusaders with horses, provision and guidance. The Armenians assisted these warriors with their utter courage and loyalty during the Holy wars."
Roland the Norman, upon meeting Andrew's army for the first time, says that the Crusaders had been fighting for three years before Andrew's army arrived. By the spring of 1099, the Crusaders were in much better condition than the one depicted in the film because of the capture of Edessa and Antioch the previous year.
Roland the Norman is a composite figure of several Crusader leaders at the time such as Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond of St. Gilles.
During the 7 ½ - month siege of Antioch that started on 21 October 1097, Peter Bartholomew, a soldier and mystic, had visions of St. Andrew and the location of the Holy Lance within Antioch. However, in the movie he is first encountered inspiring the Crusaders to attack Jerusalem to recover the True Cross. The Crusaders apparently aren't sure what to make of him. But by April of 1099, Bartholomew would have been a well-known figure in the Crusader camp with the camp split on his authenticity.
The film opens with a Saracen raid in southern Italy where the Saracens meet very light resistance. This was probably around 1075 during the reign of the ineffectual Roger Borsa, Duke of Apulia and the son of Robert Guiscard, the Norman conqueror of southern Italy and Sicily.