| Crusade of 1101 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theCrusades | |||||||
 A map of westernAnatolia, showing the routes taken by Christian armies | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Anselm IV of Milan † Stephen of Blois † Stephen of Burgundy Eudes of Burgundy Constable Conrad Girard I of Roussillon Raymond IV of Toulouse GeneralTzitas William II of Nevers William IX of Aquitaine Hugh of Vermandois † Welf of Bavaria Ida of Austria † | Kilij Arslan | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| High | Relatively low | ||||||
TheCrusade of 1101, also known as theCrusade of the Faint-Hearted, was launched in the aftermath of theFirst Crusade with calls for reinforcements from the newly establishedKingdom of Jerusalem and to rescue the famousBohemond of Taranto from Muslim captivity.Pope Paschal II, successor toUrban II (who died before learning of the outcome of the crusade that he had called), urged a new expedition. He especially urged those who had taken thecrusade vow but had never departed, and those who had turned back while on the march. The crusade was a resounding defeat of the West by theSeljuk Turks.[1]
As in the First Crusade, the pilgrims and soldiers did not leave as a part of one large army, but rather in several groups from various different regions from across Western Europe. In September 1100, a large group ofLombards left fromMilan. These were mostly untrained peasants, led byAnselm IV, Archbishop of Milan. When they reached the territory of theByzantine Empire, they pillaged it recklessly, andByzantine emperorAlexios I escorted them to a camp outsideConstantinople. This did not satisfy them, and they made their way inside the city where they pillaged theBlachernae palace, even killing Alexios' pet lion. The Lombards were quickly ferried across theBosporus and made their camp atNicomedia, to wait for reinforcements.
At Nicomedia they were joined in May 1101 by a smaller but stronger contingent ofFrench,Burgundians, andGermans, under Stephen of Blois,Stephen I, Count of Burgundy,Eudes I, Duke of Burgundy, and Conrad,constable ofHenry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Joining them at Nicomedia wasRaymond IV of Toulouse, one of the leaders of the First Crusade who was now in the service of the emperor. He was appointed overall leader, and a Byzantine force ofPechenegmercenaries was sent out with them under the command of General Tzitas. This group marched out at the end of May, towardsDorylaeum, following the route taken by Raymond and Stephen in 1097 during the First Crusade. They planned to continue towardsIconium but the Lombards, whose rabble outnumbered all the other contingents, were determined to march north to Neocaesarea whereBohemond I of Antioch was being held captive by theDanishmends. After capturingAncyra on 23 June 1101 and returning it to Alexios, the crusaders turned north. They briefly besieged the heavily garrisoned city ofGangra, and then continued north to attempt to capture the Turkish-controlled city ofKastamonu (Kastamone). However, they came under attack from theSeljuq Turks who harassed them for weeks, and a foraging party was destroyed in July.
At this point, under the threats of the Lombards, the entire army turned away from the possible safety of the Black Sea coast and again moved east, towardDanishmend territory and the rescue of Bohemond. However, the Seljuqs, underKilij Arslan I, realizing that disunity was the cause of their inability to stop the First Crusade, had now allied with both the Danishmends andRidwan of Aleppo. In early August the crusaders met this combined Muslim army atMersivan (Mersifon).[2]
At theBattle of Mersivan, the crusaders were organized into five divisions: theBurgundians, Raymond and theByzantines, theGermans, theFrench, and theLombards. The Turks nearly destroyed the crusaders’ army near the mountains ofPaphlagonia atMersivan (Mersifon). The land was well-suited to the Turks—dry and inhospitable for their enemy, it was open, with plenty of space for their cavalry units. The Turks had been troublesome to the Latins for some days, at last making certain that they went whereKilij Arslan I wanted them to be and making sure that they only found a small amount of supplies.
The battle took place over several days. On the first day, the Turks cut off the crusading armies’ advances and surrounded them. The next day, Conrad led his Germans in a raid that failed miserably. Not only did they fail to open the Turkish lines, they were unable to return to the main crusader army and had to take refuge in a nearby stronghold. This meant that they were cut off from supplies, aid, and communication for an attack that may have taken place had the Germans been able to provide their own military strength.
The third day was somewhat quiet, with little or no serious fighting taking place, but on the fourth day, the crusaders made an intensive effort to free themselves from the trap that they were in. The crusaders inflicted heavy losses on the Turks, but the attack was a failure by the end of the day. Kilij Arslan was joined byRidwan of Aleppo and other powerfulDanishmend princes.
The Lombards, in the vanguard, were defeated, thePechenegs deserted, and the French and Germans were also forced to fall back. Raymond was trapped on a rock and was rescued by Stephen and Conrad. The battle continued into the next day, when the crusader camp was captured and the knights fled, leaving women, children, and priests behind to be killed or enslaved. Most of the Lombards, who had no horses, were soon found and killed or enslaved by the Turks. Raymond, Stephen of Blois, and Stephen of Burgundy fled north toSinope, and returned to Constantinople by ship.[3]
Soon after the Lombard contingent had left Nicomedia, a separate force underWilliam II of Nevers arrived at Constantinople. He had crossed into Byzantine territory over theAdriatic Sea fromBari, and the march to Constantinople was free of incident, an unusual occurrence for a crusade army. He quickly marched out to meet the others, but in fact never caught up with them, although the two armies must have been close to each other on numerous occasions. William briefly besieged Iconium (Konya) but could not take it, and he was soon ambushed atHeraclea Cybistra by Kilij Arslan, who had just defeated the Lombards at Mersivan and was eager to stamp out these new armies as soon as possible. At Heraclea almost the entire contingent from Nevers was wiped out, except for the count himself and a few of his men.[4]
As soon as William II left Constantinople, a third army arrived, led byWilliam IX of Aquitaine,Hugh of Vermandois (one of those who had not fulfilled his vow on the First Crusade), andWelf I, Duke of Bavaria; accompanying them wasIda of Austria, mother ofLeopold III of Austria. They had pillaged Byzantine territory on the way to Constantinople and had almost come into conflict with the Pecheneg mercenaries sent to stop them, until William and Welf intervened.
From Constantinople, the Aquitanian-Bavarian army split in two, with one half travelling directly toJaffa by ship;[5] among them was the chroniclerEkkehard of Aura. The rest, travelling by land, reached Heraclea in September, and, like the previous army, were ambushed and massacred by Kilij Arslan. William and Welf escaped, but Hugh was mortally wounded; the survivors eventually arrived atTarsus, where Hugh died on 18 October.[6] Ida disappeared during this ambush and was presumably killed, but according to later legend she was taken into captivity and became the mother ofZengi, a great enemy of the crusaders in the 1140s, which - however - is impossible due to chronological factors.[6]
William of Nevers also escaped to Tarsus and joined the rest of the survivors there as did Raymond of Toulouse. Under Raymond's command they capturedTortosa (Tartous), with help from aGenoese fleet. By now the crusade was more of apilgrimage. The survivors arrived atAntioch at the end of 1101, and atEaster in 1102 arrived inJerusalem. Afterwards, many of them simply went home, their vow having been fulfilled, although some remained behind to help KingBaldwin I defend against anEgyptianinvasion at Ramla.Stephen, Count of Blois, father ofStephen, the future King of England, was killed during this battle, as wasHugh VI of Lusignan, ancestor of the futureLusignan dynasty of Jerusalem andCyprus.Joscelin of Courtenay also stayed behind, and survived to becomeCount of Edessa in 1118.
The defeat of the crusaders allowed Kilij Arslan to establish his capital atIconium, and also proved to the Muslim world that the crusaders were not invincible, as they appeared to be during the First Crusade. The crusaders and Byzantines each blamed the other for the defeat, and neither of them were able to ensure a safe route throughAnatolia now that Kilij Arslan had strengthened his position. The only open route to theHoly Land was the sea route, which benefitted theItalian maritime republics. The lack of a safe land route from Constantinople also benefitted thePrincipality of Antioch, whereTancred, ruling for his uncle Bohemond, was able to consolidate his power without Byzantine interference.
Both theSecond andThird Crusades suffered similar difficulties when attempting to cross Anatolia.
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