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Siege of Antioch

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                       Siege of Antioch
   Part of the First Crusade
   The Siege of Antioch, from a medieval miniature painting

     Date   20 October 1097 - 28 June 1098
   Location Antioch
    Result  Crusader victory
                          Combatants
   Crusaders           Seljuk Turks
                          Commanders
   Raymond of Toulouse
   Godfrey of Bouillon
   Bohemund of Taranto Yaghi-Siyan
                       Kerbogha
                           Strength
   Unknown             Unknown
                          Casualties
   Unknown             Unknown
                     First Crusade
   Nicaea – Dorylaeum – Antioch – Jerusalem – Ascalon

          The "Siege of Antioch" may also refer to the battle in 1268 when
          Baibars captured Antioch from the Crusader States; see Siege of
          Antioch (1268).

   The Siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade in 1097 and
   1098. The first siege, by the crusaders against the Muslim city, lasted
   from October 21, 1097, to June 2, 1098. The second siege, against the
   crusaders who had occupied it, lasted from June 7 to June 28, 1098.

Background

   Antioch had been captured from the Byzantine Empire by the Seljuks only
   very recently, in 1085. The Byzantine fortifications dated from the
   time of Justinian I and they had recently been rebuilt and
   strengthened; the Seljuks had taken the city through treachery and the
   walls remained intact. Since 1088, its Seljuk governor had been
   Yaghi-Siyan. Yaghi-Siyan was well aware of the crusader army as it
   marched through Anatolia in 1097, and he appealed for help from
   neighbouring Muslim states, but to no avail. To prepare for their
   arrival, he imprisoned the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, John the
   Oxite, and exiled the Greek and Armenian Orthodox population, although
   the Syrian Orthodox citizens were permitted to stay.

Arrival of the crusaders

   The crusaders arrived at the Orontes River outside Antioch on October
   20, 1097. The three major leaders of the crusade at this point, Godfrey
   of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, and Raymond IV of Toulouse initially
   disagreed over what to do next: Raymond wanted to make a direct
   assault, while Godfrey and Bohemund preferred to set siege to the city.
   Raymond reluctantly acquiesced and the crusaders partially encircled
   the city on October 21. The city's Byzantine fortifications were strong
   enough to resist a direct attack, although Yaghi-Siyan may not have had
   enough men to adequately defend the city, and he was relieved and
   emboldened when the crusaders did not attack immediately. Bohemund
   encamped on the northeast corner of the city at the Gate of St. Paul,
   Raymond set his camp further to the west at the Gate of the Dog, and
   Godfrey placed his troops at the Gate of the Duke, also further to the
   west, where a bridge of boats was built across the Orontes to the
   village of Talenki. To the south was the Tower of the Two Sisters and
   at the northwest corner the Gate of St. George, which was not blockaded
   by the crusaders, and were used throughout the siege to supply
   Yaghi-Sian with food. On the southern and western side of the city was
   the hilly area known as Mt. Silpius, where the citadel and the Iron
   Gate were located.

First siege

   By mid-November Bohemund's nephew Tancred had arrived with
   reinforcements, and a Genoese fleet had sailed into the port at St.
   Symeon, bringing extra food and supplies. The siege dragged on, and in
   December Godfrey fell ill and food supplies that had been plentiful
   were running out with the approaching winter. At the end of the month
   Bohemund and Robert of Flanders took about 20,000 men and went foraging
   for food to the south, but while they were gone, Yaghi-Siyan made a
   sortie out of the Gate of St. George on December 29 and attacked
   Raymond's encampment across the river at Talenki. Raymond was able to
   turn him back but was not able to capture the city itself. Meanwhile,
   Bohemund and Robert were attacked by an army under Duqaq of Damascus,
   which had marched north to come to Antioch's aid. Although the
   crusaders were victorious here as well, they were forced to retreat to
   Antioch with little food. The month ended inauspiciously for both
   sides: there was an earthquake on December 30, and the aurora borealis
   the next night, and the following weeks saw such unseasonably bad rain
   and cold weather that Duqaq had to return home without further engaging
   the crusaders.

Famine

   Due to lack of food there was a famine in the crusader camp, killing
   both men and horses, one in seven men was dying of starvation and only
   700 horses remained. Supposedly some of the poorer soldiers, the
   remnants of the People's Crusade led by Peter the Hermit and called
   Tafurs, turned cannibal, eating the bodies of dead Turks. Others ate
   horses, although some knights preferred to starve. Local Christians, as
   well as the exiled Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Simeon, now living
   on Cyprus, attempted to send food but this did not relieve the famine.
   Some knights and soldiers began to desert in January of 1098, including
   Peter the Hermit, although he was quickly found and brought back to the
   camp by Tancred, his prestige tarnished.

Taticius departs

   In February, the Byzantine general and legate Taticius, who had
   remained with the crusaders as an advisor and a representative of
   Emperor Alexius I, suddenly left the crusader army. According to Anna
   Comnena, who presumably spoke with Taticius personally, the crusaders
   refused to listen to his advice and Bohemund had informed him that the
   other leaders were planning to kill him, as they believed Alexius was
   secretly encouraging the Turks. Bohemund, on the other hand, claimed
   that this was treachery or cowardice, reason enough to break any
   obligations to return Antioch to the Byzantines, and he too would leave
   unless he was allowed to keep Antioch for himself when it was captured.
   Knowing fully that Bohemund had designs on taking the city for himself,
   and that he had probably engineered Taticius' departure in order to
   facilitate this, Godfrey and Raymond did not give in to his blackmail,
   but the minor knights and soldiers wanted to recognize his demands and
   he gained their sympathies. During these events, Yaghi-Siyan continued
   to seek help from his neighbours, and an army under Ridwan arrived at
   Antioch from Aleppo. Like Duqaq before him, he too was defeated, at
   Harim outside Antioch, on February 9.

English reinforcements

   In March an English fleet led by Edgar Atheling arrived at St. Simeon
   from Constantinople, where Edgar was living in exile. They brought with
   them raw materials for constructing siege engines, but these were
   almost lost on March 6 when Raymond and Bohemund (neither of whom
   trusted the other enough to deliver the material alone) were attacked
   on the road back to Antioch by a detachment of Yaghi-Siyan's garrison.
   With Godfrey's help, however, the detachment was defeated and the
   materials were recovered. Although Edgar had been given his fleet and
   the siege materials by emperor Alexius, the crusaders did not consider
   this to be direct Byzantine assistance. The crusaders set to work
   building siege engines, as well as a fort, called La Mahomerie, to
   block the Bridge Gate and prevent Yaghi-Siyan attacking the Crusader
   supply line from the ports of Saint Simon and Alexandretta, whilst also
   repairing the abandoned monastery to the west of the Gate of Saint
   George, which was still being used to deliver food to the city. Tancred
   garrisoned the monastery, referred to in the chronicles as Tancred's
   Fort, for 400 silver marks, whilst Count Raymond of Toulouse took
   control of La Mahomerie. Finally the crusader siege was able to have
   some effect on the well-defended city. Food conditions improved for the
   crusaders as spring approached and the city was sealed off from
   raiders.

Fatimid embassy

   In April a Fatimid embassy from Egypt arrived at the crusader camp,
   hoping to establish a peace with the Christians, who were, after all,
   the enemy of their own enemies, the Seljuks. Peter the Hermit, who was
   fluent in Arabic, was sent to negotiate. These negotiations came to
   nothing. The Fatimids, assuming the crusaders were simply mercenary
   representatives of the Byzantines, were prepared to let the crusaders
   keep Syria if they agreed not to attack Fatimid Palestine, a state of
   affairs perfectly acceptable between Egypt and Byzantine before the
   Turkish invasions. But the crusaders could not accept any settlement
   that did not give them Jerusalem. Nevertheless the Fatimids were
   treated hospitably and were given many gifts, plundered from the Turks
   who had been defeated in March, and no definitive agreement was
   reached.

Capture of Antioch

   The Massacre of Antioch, by Gustave Dore
   Enlarge
   The Massacre of Antioch, by Gustave Dore

   The siege continued, and at the end of May 1098 a Muslim army from
   Mosul under the command of Kerbogha approached Antioch. This army was
   much larger than the previous attempts to relieve the siege. Kerbogha
   had joined with Ridwan and Duqaq and his army also included troops from
   Persia and from the Ortuqids of Mesopotamia. The crusaders were luckily
   granted time to prepare for their arrival, as Kerbogha had first made a
   three-week long excursion to Edessa, which he was unable to recapture
   from Baldwin of Boulogne, who had taken it earlier in 1098.

   The crusaders knew they would have to take the city before Kerbogha
   arrived if they had any chance of survival. Bohemund secretly
   established contact with Firouz, an Armenian guard who controlled the
   Tower of the Two Sisters but had a grudge with Yaghi-Siyan, and bribed
   him to open the gates. He then approached the other crusaders and
   offered to let them in, through Firouz, if they would agree to let him
   have the city. Raymond was furious and argued that the city should be
   handed over to Alexius, as they had agreed when they left
   Constantinople in 1097, but Godfrey, Tancred, Robert, and the other
   leaders, faced with a desperate situation, gave in to his demands.

   Despite this, on June 2, Stephen of Blois and some of the other
   crusaders deserted the army. Later on the same day, Firouz instructed
   Bohemund to feign a march out to meet Kerbogha, and then to march back
   to the city at night and scale the walls. This was done. Firouz opened
   the gates and a massacre followed. The remaining Christians in the city
   opened the other gates and participated in the massacre themselves,
   killing as much of the hated Turkish garrison as they could. The
   crusaders, however, killed some of the Christians along with the
   Muslims, including Firouz's own brother. Yaghi-Siyan fled but was
   captured by some Syrian Christians outside the city. He was decapitated
   and his head was brought to Bohemund.

Second siege

   The ramparts of Antioch climbing Mons Silpius during the Crusades
   Enlarge
   The ramparts of Antioch climbing Mons Silpius during the Crusades

   By the end of the day on June 3, the crusaders controlled most of the
   city, except for the citadel, which remained in hands of Yaghi-Siyan's
   son Shams ad-Daulah. John the Oxite was reinstated as patriarch by
   Adhemar of Le Puy, the papal legate, who wished to keep good relations
   with the Byzantines, especially as Bohemund was clearly planning to
   claim the city for himself. However, the city was now short on food,
   and Kerbogha's army was still on its way. Kerbogha arrived only two
   days later, on June 5. He tried, and failed, to storm the city on June
   7, and by June 9 he had established his own siege around the city.

   More crusaders had deserted before Kerbogha arrived, and they joined
   Stephen of Blois in Tarsus. Stephen had seen Kerbogha's army encamped
   near Antioch and assumed all hope was lost; the deserters confirmed his
   fears. On the way back to Constantinople, Stephen and the other
   deserters met Alexius, who was on his way to assist the crusaders, and
   did not know they had taken the city and were now under siege
   themselves. Stephen convinced him that the rest of the crusaders were
   as good as dead, and Alexius heard from his reconnaissance that there
   was another Seljuk army nearby in Anatolia. He therefore decided to
   return to Constantinople rather than risking battle.

Discovery of the Holy Lance

   Meanwhile in Antioch, on June 10 an otherwise poor and insignificant
   monk by the name of Peter Bartholomew came forward claiming to have had
   visions of St. Andrew, who told him that the Holy Lance was inside the
   city. The starving crusaders were prone to visions and hallucinations,
   and another monk named Stephen of Valence reported visions of Christ
   and the Virgin Mary. On June 14 a meteor was seen landing in the enemy
   camp, interpreted as a good omen. Although Adhemar was suspicious, as
   he had seen a relic of the Holy Lance in Constantinople, Raymond
   believed Peter. Raymond, Raymond of Aguilers, William, Bishop of
   Orange, and others began to dig in the cathedral of St. Peter on June
   15, and when they came up empty, Peter went into the pit, reached down,
   and produced a spear point. Raymond took this as a divine sign that
   they would survive and thus prepared for a final fight rather than
   surrender. Peter then reported another vision, in which St. Andrew
   instructed the crusader army to fast for five days (although they were
   already starving), after which they would be victorious.

   Bohemund was skeptical of the Holy Lance as well, but there is no
   question that its discovery increased the morale of the crusaders. It
   is also possible that Peter was reporting what Bohemund wanted, rather
   than what St. Andrew wanted, as Bohemund knew, from spies in Kerbogha's
   camp, that the various factions frequently argued with each other, and
   they would probably not work together as a cohesive unit in battle. On
   June 27 Peter the Hermit was sent by Bohemund to negotiate with
   Kerbogha, but this proved futile and battle with the Turks was thus
   unavoidable. Bohemund drew up six divisions: he commanded one himself,
   and the other five were led by Hugh of Vermandois and Robert of
   Flanders, Godfrey, Robert of Normandy, Adhemar, and Tancred and Gaston
   IV of Béarn. Raymond, who had fallen ill, remained inside to guard the
   citadel with 200 men, now held by Ahmed Ibn Merwan an agent of
   Kerbogha.

Battle of Antioch

   On Monday, June 28, the crusaders emerged from the city gate, with
   Raymond of Aguilers carrying the Holy Lance before them. Kerbogha
   hesitated against his generals' pleadings, hoping to attack them all at
   once rather than one division at a time, but he underestimated their
   size. He pretended to retreat to draw the crusaders to rougher terrain,
   while his archers continuously pelted the advancing crusaders with
   arrows. A detachment was dispatched to the crusader left wing, which
   was not protected by the river, but Bohemund quickly formed a seventh
   division and beat them back. The Turks were inflicting many casualties,
   including Adhemar's standard-bearer, and Kerbogha set fire to the grass
   between his position and the crusaders, but this did not deter them:
   they had visions of three saints riding along with them, led by St.
   George, St. Demetrius, and St. Maurice. The battle was short. When the
   crusaders reached Kerbogha's line, Duqaq deserted, and most of the
   other Turks panicked. Soon the whole Muslim army was in retreat.

Aftermath

   As Kerbogha fled, the citadel under command of Ahmed ibn Merwan finally
   surrendered, but only to Bohemund personally, rather than to Raymond;
   this seems to have been arranged beforehand without Raymond's
   knowledge. As expected, Bohemund claimed the city as his own, although
   Adhemar and Raymond disagreed. Hugh of Vermandois and Baldwin of
   Hainaut were sent to Constantinople, although Baldwin disappeared after
   an ambush on the way. Alexius, however, was uninterested in sending an
   expedition to claim the city this late in the summer. Back in Antioch
   Bohemund argued that Alexius had deserted the crusade and thus
   invalidated all of their oaths to him. Bohemund and Raymond occupied
   Yaghi-Siyan's palace, but Bohemund controlled most of the rest of the
   city and flew his standard from the citadel. It is a common assumption
   that the Franks of northern France, the Provencals of southern France,
   and the Normans of southern Italy considered themselves separate
   "nations" and that each wanted to increase its status. This may have
   had something to do with the disputes, but personal ambition is more
   likely the cause of the infighting.

   Soon an epidemic broke out, possibly of typhus, and on August 1 the
   legate Adhemar died. In September the leaders of the crusade wrote to
   Pope Urban II, asking him to take personal control of Antioch, but he
   declined. For the rest of 1098, they took control of the countryside
   surrounding Antioch, although there were now even fewer horses than
   before, and Muslim peasants refused to give them food. The minor
   knights and soldiers became restless and starvation began to set in and
   they threatened to continue to Jerusalem without their squabbling
   leaders. In November, Raymond finally gave into Bohemund for the sake
   of continuing the crusade in peace and to calm his mutinous starving
   troops. At the beginning of 1099 the march was renewed, leaving
   Bohemund behind as the first Prince of Antioch, and in the spring the
   Siege of Jerusalem began under the leadership of Raymond.

   The success at Antioch was too much for Peter's skeptics. Peter's
   visions were far too convenient and too martial, and he was openly
   accused of lying. Challenged, Peter offered to undergo ordeal by fire
   to prove that he was divinely guided. Being in Biblical lands, they
   chose a Biblical ordeal: Peter would pass through a fiery furnace and
   would be protected by an angel of God. The crusaders constructed a path
   between walls of flame; Peter would walk down the path between the
   flames. He did so, and was horribly burned. He died after suffering in
   agony for twelve days. There was no more said about the Holy Lance,
   although one faction continued to hold that Peter was genuine and that
   this was indeed the true Lance.

   The Siege of Antioch quickly became legendary, and in the 12th century
   it was the subject of the chanson d'Antioche, a chanson de geste in the
   Crusade cycle.
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