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Authors: Steven Runciman

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Peace was made by Count Raymond of Toulouse.
Raymond had been spending the winter as the guest of Alexius, whose complete
confidence he now enjoyed. As the senior of all the Crusading princes, the
friend of Pope Urban and of Bishop Adhemar, he still had a great reputation.
The Lombards listened to him; and on his advice they agreed to move across into
Asia. By the end of April they were established in a camp close to Nicomedia,
where they awaited newcomers from the West.

Stephen, Count of Blois, had never been allowed
to forget his flight from Antioch. He had not fulfilled his Crusading vows and
he had shown cowardice in the face of the enemy. His wife, the Countess Adela,
daughter of William the Conqueror, was deeply ashamed of him. Even in the
private intimacy of their bed-chamber she would nag at him to go and redeem his
reputation. He could not claim that he was needed at home; for his wife had
always been the real ruler of the county. So, wearily and with foreboding, he
set out again for the Holy Land in the spring of 1101.

 

1101: Lombards
and French at Constantinople

On the news of his expedition many other French
knights prepared to join him, under the leadership of Stephen, Count of
Burgundy, Hugh of Broyes, Baldwin of Grandpre and the Bishop of Soissons, Hugh
of Pierrefonds. They travelled down through Italy and across the Adriatic, and
reached Constantinople about the beginning of May. At some point on their
journey they were overtaken by a small German contingent, under Conrad,
Constable to the Emperor Henry IV.

The French Crusaders were delighted to find
Raymond at Constantinople, and were well satisfied by their reception by the
Emperor. Probably on the suggestion of Alexius, they decided that Raymond
should command the whole expedition; and the Lombards acquiesced. During the
last days of May the whole army, Frenchmen, Germans, Lombards, some Byzantines
under the General Tsitas, with whom were five hundred Turkish mercenaries,
probably Petcheneg, marched out from Nicomedia on the road to Dorylaeum.

The object of the Crusade was to reach the Holy
Land and on the way to reopen the route across Asia Minor, a secondary aim that
had the Emperor’s full support. Stephen of Blois therefore recommended that the
army should follow the road taken by the First Crusade, through Dorylaeum and
Konya. Raymond, in conformity with the instructions given him by Alexius,
agreed with him. But the Lombards, who formed the vast majority of the army,
held other views. Bohemond was their hero, the one warrior that they trusted to
carry them to victory. And Bohemond lay captive in the Danishmend Emir’s castle
of Niksar, far away to the north-east of Anatolia. They insisted that their
first task must be to rescue Bohemond. Raymond and Stephen protested in vain.
Raymond’s jealousy of Bohemond was too well known and, for all his qualities,
he had never shown himself to be a forceful leader; whilst Stephen’s influence
was damaged by memories of his past cowardice. The Count of Biandrate and the
Archbishop of Milan supported the Lombards, who had their way. On leaving
Nicomedia the army turned east and took the road to Ankara. The country was
largely held by the Byzantines; and the Crusaders were able to find food as
they went. Ankara itself now belonged to the Seldjuk Sultan, Kilij Arslan; but
when they arrived there on 23 June they found it poorly defended and took it by
assault. Very correctly they handed it over to representatives of the Emperor.

On leaving Ankara the Crusaders took a track
that led north-eastward to Gangra, in southern Paphlagonia, to join the main
road to Amasea and to Niksar. On the way to Gangra their troubles began. Kilij
Arslan retreated before them, devastating the country as he went, so that they
could find little to eat. Meanwhile Malik Ghazi the Danishmend had been
thoroughly alarmed. He hastened to renew his alliance with Kilij Arslan and induced
Ridwan of Aleppo to send reinforcements up from the south. Early in July the
Crusaders reached Gangra; but the Seldjuks were there in force. The fortress
proved to be impregnable. After ravaging the countryside and taking what food
they could find, the Crusaders were forced to move on. They were weary and
hungry; and on the Anatolian tableland the July heat was hard to bear. In their
disappointment they listened to Count Raymond, who advised that they should
march northward to Kastamuni and from there to some Byzantine city on the Black
Sea coast. Such a course would save the army from certain destruction; and no
doubt Raymond thought that the Emperor would forgive him his disobedience if he
returned having recaptured for the Empire two great fortresses, Ankara and
Kastamuni, the latter the
Castra Comnenon
that had been the home of the
imperial dynasty.

 

1101: The Battle
of Mersivan

The journey to Kastamuni was slow and painful.
Water was short, and the Turks had destroyed the crops. The Turks themselves
moved quickly along parallel tracks, harassing the Crusaders sometimes in the
van and sometimes in the rear. They had not gone far before the advance-guard,
composed of seven hundred Lombards, was suddenly attacked. The Lombard knights
fled in panic, leaving the infantry to be massacred. It was with difficulty
that Stephen of Burgundy was able to rally the van and drive off the enemy.
During the next days Raymond, in command of the rear, was engaged in continual
combat with the Turks. Soon the army was obliged to move in a compact mass,
from which it was impossible to send out foraging parties or scouts. By the
time that it reached the neighbourhood of Kastamuni it was clear to the leaders
that the only chance of safety lay in breaking through as directly as possible
to the coast. But once again the Lombards refused to listen to reason. Perhaps
they blamed Raymond’s choice of the road to Kastamuni for their present
troubles; perhaps they thought that when they passed out of Seldjuk territory
into Danishmend territory everything would be easier. In their obstinate folly
they insisted on turning once more to the east. The princes had to accept this
decision; for their small contingents could hardly hope to survive if they left
the main army. The Crusade moved on across the river Halys, into the land of
the Danishmend emir. After wantonly sacking a Christian village on the way they
reached the town of Mersivan, halfway between the river and Amasea. There the
Constable Conrad was lured into an ambush and lost several hundred of his
German troops. It was clear now that the Danishmends and their allies were
massing for a serious attack; and Raymond drew up the Christian army ready for
battle.

When the battle began the Turks employed their
favourite tactics. Their archers swooped down and discharged their arrows, then
swiftly retreated again, and others would appear from a different direction.
The Crusaders were never given the chance of a hand-to-hand combat, in which
their greater physical strength and better arms would have been of advantage.
Before long the Lombards’ nerves gave out. With their leader the Count of
Biandrate at their head, they fled in panic, leaving their women and their
priests behind them. Soon the Petcheneg mercenaries followed, seeing no reason
to await certain death. Raymond, who was fighting with them, found himself
deserted. He managed to retreat with his bodyguard to a small rocky hill, where
he held out till Stephen of Blois and Stephen of Burgundy could rescue him.
Throughout the afternoon the French knights and Conrad the German fought
bravely, falling back upon the camp; but by nightfall Raymond had had enough.
Under cover of the darkness he fled with his Provencal bodyguard and his
Byzantine escort towards the coast. When they learnt that he had fled, his
colleagues gave up the fight. Before morning dawned the remnants of the army
were in full flight, leaving the camp and the non-combatants in the hands of
the Turks.

The Turks paused to butcher the men and old
women in the camp, then followed in full cry after the fugitives. Only the
knights on horseback were able to escape. The infantry was overtaken and
slaughtered almost to a man. The Lombards, whose obstinacy had caused the
disaster, were annihilated except for their leaders. The losses were estimated
at four-fifths of the whole army. A vast amount of treasure and of arms fell
into Turkish hands; and the harems and slave-markets of the East were filled by
the younger women and children captured on that day.

Raymond and his escort managed to reach the
little Byzantine port of Bafra, at the mouth of the river Halys. There they
found a ship to take them to Constantinople. The other knights fought their way
back across the river and arrived at the coast at Sinope. From there they
travelled slowly by the coast road, through Byzantine territory, to the
Bosphorus. They reassembled at Constantinople early in the autumn.

 

1101: The
Results of Mersivan

Public opinion amongst the Crusaders, seeking
to find a scapegoat, laid the blame for the disaster upon the Byzantines. Count
Raymond, it was said, was obeying the Emperor’s instructions when he led the
army out of its course to perish in a prearranged Turkish ambush. But in fact
Alexius was furious with Raymond and his colleagues. He received them politely
but icily and made no secret of his displeasure. Had the Crusade won for him
Kastamuni and the Paphlagonian interior, he might have forgiven it; but he was
far more anxious to secure the direct road to Syria, to safeguard his
reconquests in the south-west of Asia Minor, and to enable him to intervene in
Syrian affairs. Moreover, he had not wished to embroil himself in war with the
Danishmend emir, with whom he had opened negotiations to buy the person of
Bohemond. The folly of the Lombards ruined his scheme. But the disaster had
more serious effects. The Christian victories during the First Crusade had
damaged both the reputation and the self-confidence of the Turks. Now both were
gloriously recovered. The Seldjuk Sultan was able to restore his domination
over central Anatolia, and soon he was to establish his capital at Konya, right
on the main road from Constantinople to Syria; while Malik Ghazi the Danishmend
continued his conquest of the Euphrates valley, to the borders of the County of
Edessa. The land-route from Europe into Syria was blocked again both for the
Crusaders and for the Byzantines. Moreover, relations between the Crusaders and
Byzantium had worsened. The Crusaders insisted upon considering the Emperor as
the author of their woes, while the Byzantines were shocked and angered by the
stupidity, the ingratitude and the dishonesty of the Crusaders.

 

1101: The
Nivernais and Aquitanian Crusades

It was not long before the results of the
disaster were apparent. A few days after the Lombards had set out from
Nicomedia, a French army arrived at Constantinople, led by William II, Count of
Nevers. He had left his home in February and, travelling through Italy, he had
crossed the Adriatic from Brindisi to Avlona. His army gave an excellent
impression as it marched through Macedonia owing to the strictness of its
discipline. The Count was cordially received by Alexius; but he decided not to
linger at Constantinople. He had probably expected to join forces there with
the Duke of Burgundy, whose neighbour he was at home, so hurried on as quickly
as possible in the hope of overtaking him. When he reached Nicomedia he learnt
that the Crusade had gone on to Ankara, where he arrived towards the end of
July. But at Ankara no one knew the whereabouts of the Franco-Lombard army.
William therefore turned back, to take the road to Konya. In spite of the
difficulties of the journey through country that had not recovered from
devastations at the time of the First Crusade, his army advanced in perfect
order. Konya was now held by a strong Seldjuk garrison; and William’s attempt
to take the city by assault was a failure. He realized that it would be unwise
to delay there and moved on. But meanwhile Kilij Arslan and Malik Ghazi learnt
of the appearance of this new enemy. Hot from their triumph over the Lombards
they hurried southward, probably through Caesarea-Mazacha and Nigde, and
reached Heraclea before him. The Nivernais troops marched slowly eastward from
Konya. Food was short; the wells by the road had been blocked by the Turks. As
they approached Heraclea, weary and weakened, they were ambushed and surrounded
by the whole Turkish army, which outnumbered them by far. After a short battle
their resistance was broken. The entire French force fell on the field, with the
exception of Count William himself and a few mounted knights, who broke through
the Turkish lines and after several days of wandering in the Taurus mountains
arrived at the Byzantine fortress of Germanicopolis, north-west of Isaurian
Seleucia. There the Byzantine governor seems to have offered them an escort of
twelve Petcheneg mercenaries to convey them to the Syrian border. A few weeks
later Count William and his companions entered Antioch, half-naked and unarmed.
They said that the Petchenegs had despoiled them and abandoned them in the
desert through which they were passing; but what really happened is unknown.

The Count of Nevers had hardly crossed the
Bosphorus before another larger army, composed of Frenchmen and of Germans,
arrived at Constantinople. The French contingent was led by William IX, Duke of
Aquitaine, who was the most famous troubadour of his time and who was
politically the bitter rival of Raymond of Toulouse; for his wife, the Duchess
Philippa, was the daughter of Raymond’s elder brother and should have inherited
his County. With him came Hugh of Vermandois, who had left the First Crusade
after the capture of Antioch and was anxious to fulfil his vow to go to
Jerusalem. The Aquitanian army set out from France in March and travelled overland,
through southern Germany and Hungary. On its way it was joined by Duke Welf of
Bavaria, who after a long and illustrious career in Germany planned to spend
his declining years fighting for the Cross in Palestine. He brought with him a
well-equipped army of German knights and infantry; and he was accompanied by
Thiemo, Archbishop of Salzburg, and by the Dowager Margravine Ida of Austria,
one of the great beauties of her day, who, now that her youth was over, sought
the pious excitement of a Crusade. Their united armies marched together down
the Danube to Belgrade and on by the high road across the Balkans. They were an
unruly crowd; and by the time that they reached Adrianople their behaviour was
so bad that the Byzantine authorities sent Petcheneg and Polovtsian troops to
block their further progress. A regular battle began; and it was only when Duke
William and Welf intervened in person and guaranteed the future good conduct of
their troops that they were allowed to proceed. A strong escort accompanied
them to Constantinople. There William and Welf and the Margravine were
cordially received by Alexius, who provided men to transport their men as soon
as possible across the Bosphorus. Some of the civilian pilgrims, including the
historian Ekkehard of Aura, took ship direct for Palestine, where they arrived
after a six weeks’ voyage.

BOOK: A History of the Crusades-Vol 2
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