Antioch, 1097–1098

The battle, stage by stage

1. 20 October – November 1097

   Before the walls

   After crossing Anatolia, the armies of the First Crusade force the Iron Bridge over the Orontes and reach Antioch on 20–21 October 1097 — by modern estimates perhaps 40,000 people, non-combatants included. The city's Justinianic walls run from the river up over Mount Silpius and Mount Staurin, with the citadel on the summit about 450 meters above sea level, and the Seljuk governor Yaghi-Siyan holds them with a garrison put at about 5,000 by some modern estimates (Raymond of Aguilers gives far more). The crusaders camp on the plain along the north side: Bohemond opposite St Paul's Gate, the northern French on his right, Raymond of Toulouse and Bishop Adhemar opposite the Dog Gate, Godfrey opposite the Duke's Gate, squeezed between wall and river. The Bridge Gate, the mountain walls, the Iron Gate and St George's Gate in the south stay open. By late November a siege fort, Malregard, rises on the hill outside St Paul's Gate. Gate sites are approximate.

2. December 1097 – 9 February 1098

   Famine and the battle of the Lake

   Winter brings rain and famine; by Runciman's reading about one man in seven dies of hunger, and the horses die too. On 29 December Yaghi-Siyan sorties over the bridge against Raymond's camp; on 31 December Bohemond and Robert of Flanders, foraging far to the south, beat off a Damascene relief army under Duqaq. In February Ridwan of Aleppo comes on from Harim with an army of about 12,000 by the letters of Stephen of Blois and Anselm of Ribemont, a figure modern historians generally accept (Albert of Aachen says 30,000). On the night of 8–9 February the crusaders' last 700 or so mounted knights ride out and meet him where the Orontes and the Lake of Antioch close in near the Iron Bridge, so that his horse archers cannot spread round them; their charges break his army, while the foot soldiers left behind hold the camps against a sortie. The exact battlefield is not known; it is drawn here schematically.

3. March – April 1098

   Closing the ring

   Early in March ships put into the port of St Symeon with supplies and building materials. On 6 March Turks from the Bridge Gate ambush a convoy on the road up from the coast; the crusaders recover and cut down many of the garrison at the bridge. With the stone the army then builds La Mahomerie, a fort at a mosque by the Muslim cemetery facing the Bridge Gate, held by Raymond's men; in April Tancred, paid by the princes, fortifies a monastery outside St George's Gate. Tatikios and the Byzantines have left the army in February. The city is now closed except over the mountain. Inside, an officer the Gesta calls Pirus (Firuz; Ibn al-Athir calls him Ruzbah, an armorer), who holds three towers (placed by Runciman on the southern wall, opposite Tancred's fort), is in secret contact with Bohemond.

4. Night of 2–3 June 1098

   The Tower of the Two Sisters

   With Kerbogha's great relief army days away, the princes agree that whoever takes Antioch may keep it. At dusk on 2 June Bohemond's force marches off east, as if to meet Kerbogha (Runciman) or to raid (Gesta), then doubles back in the dark to the wall below Firuz's towers. A leather ladder goes up; by the Gesta about 60 men climb before it breaks, and Ibn al-Athir says more than 500 came up on ropes to a tower 'with a window overlooking the valley'. They seize the towers, open a postern and then the gates, and the army pours in. Joined by many of the Christian townspeople, the crusaders massacre the Muslim inhabitants they find, garrison and civilians alike, taking no prisoners (Raymond of Aguilers); by the Gesta, the squares were full of corpses. Only those who reach the citadel survive. Yaghi-Siyan rides out with about 30 men and is killed outside by Armenian peasants, who bring his head to Bohemond. Bohemond's banner is raised on a hill facing the citadel (Gesta). Neither the tower's exact place nor Bohemond's route to it is known; the tower is drawn on the southern wall, opposite Tancred's fort.

5. 4–12 June 1098

   The besiegers besieged

   Kerbogha, atabeg of Mosul, with contingents from much of Syria and Mesopotamia — by modern estimates about 40,000 or more (HistoryNet; Britannica 75,000), chroniclers' figures far higher — reaches the Iron Bridge on 5 June and sets his camp, by Raymond of Aguilers, about two miles from the city. The citadel never fell: Yaghi-Siyan's son Shams ad-Daulah still holds it, and Kerbogha puts his own officer, Ahmad ibn Marwan, in command. From the mountain his troops attack down into the city; the crusaders throw up a wall and ditch facing the citadel and beat back the assaults of 9–12 June. They are now the ones besieged, starving in the city they have stripped bare; some, the Gesta's 'rope-dancers', let themselves down from the walls at night and flee.

6. 14–27 June 1098

   The Holy Lance

   A poor Provençal pilgrim, Peter Bartholomew, says Saint Andrew has shown him in visions where the lance that pierced Christ lies buried. On 14 June, after a day's digging in the Cathedral of St Peter, a piece of iron is found; Raymond of Aguilers, who was there, says he kissed it while it still lay in the earth. Bishop Adhemar is reportedly doubtful, and later chroniclers question it, but the find and further reported visions lift the army's spirits. The princes put Bohemond in overall command, and on 27 June Peter the Hermit and Herluin go to Kerbogha (the Gesta), and are told he will accept only surrender (Runciman); by Ibn al-Athir the Franks asked for terms and were refused. The cathedral's site is not known; it is marked here schematically.

7. 28 June 1098, morning

   Out by the Bridge Gate

   After three days of fasting the army goes out 'by the gate before the mosque' — the Bridge Gate — in six lines (the Gesta): Hugh of Vermandois and Robert of Flanders, Godfrey, Robert of Normandy, Adhemar with Raymond's Provençals and the Lance, Tancred, and Bohemond in the rear. Raymond, ill, stays behind with about 200 men to watch the citadel. Across the bridge the lines wheel right, the right on the river, and extend 'from the river to the mountain, about two miles'. Most of the knights fight on foot; only a few hundred horses are left. Kerbogha, by Ibn al-Athir, lets them come out unhindered so as to destroy them all at once. When a Turkish force swings round from the west, a seventh line under Rainald of Toul, formed from Godfrey's and Robert of Normandy's men (Gesta), faces it. The positions on the plain are schematic.

8. 28 June 1098, midday

   Kerbogha's rout

   The crusaders press on, and Kerbogha's coalition comes apart: Duqaq of Damascus and other emirs, already at odds with him, leave the field, and the rest follow. Ibn al-Athir writes that the Muslims fled 'without any of them striking a single blow'; Raymond of Aguilers that few of their horsemen fell but scarcely any of their foot escaped. The crusaders take the camp and pursue toward the Iron Bridge. The citadel garrison surrenders that day to Bohemond, who will hold Antioch as his principality; disease follows, and Adhemar dies on 1 August. The army does not march on for Jerusalem until January 1099.