Siege of Antioch (1097-1098): The First Crusade's Ordeal

The siege of Antioch, from October 1097 to June 1098, was the longest and most dangerous episode of the First Crusade. The crusaders spent more than seven months outside one of the strongest cities in the Near East, captured it by treachery on 3 June 1098, and were then trapped inside by a huge relief army. Their unexpected victory on 28 June made the march to Jerusalem possible and created the Principality of Antioch.

Background: a great Roman city

Antioch on the Orontes, today Antakya in southern Turkey, had been one of the great cities of the Roman Empire and an early centre of Christianity. Its walls, largely rebuilt under Justinian in the sixth century, ran for several kilometres up the steep slopes of Mount Silpius, with a citadel at the summit and hundreds of towers.

The Byzantines had recovered Antioch in 969, but the Seljuk Turks took it in 1084. In 1097 it was governed by the Turkish emir Yaghi-Siyan. After the crusaders’ victory at Dorylaeum, he expected them and prepared the city for a siege, expelling many of its Christian inhabitants.

The first siege: famine and relief armies

The crusaders arrived on 20–21 October 1097. They were too few to surround the whole circuit of walls, so they blockaded the gates on the northern and western sides. Neither side could break the other, and the city could still bring in some supplies through the mountain side.

By winter the besiegers were starving. Foraging parties ranged ever further, and many people and horses died. In late December Bohemond and Robert of Flanders led a large raid and fought off a relief army under Duqaq of Damascus. On 9 February 1098 a second relief army under Ridwan of Aleppo was defeated by a small force of mounted knights.

The Byzantine representative Tatikios left the camp in February 1098. In March an English-manned fleet arrived at the port of St Symeon with supplies and materials, and the crusaders built a fortified tower facing the Bridge Gate, tightening the blockade.

Betrayal and capture

Bohemond secretly made contact with Firuz, a commander of one of the towers, who agreed to let the crusaders in. Bohemond then persuaded the other leaders that whoever took the city should keep it, unless the Byzantine emperor came in person.

On the night of 2–3 June 1098, a group of Bohemond’s men climbed a ladder into Firuz’s tower and opened a gate. The crusaders poured in and massacred many of the inhabitants. Yaghi-Siyan fled and was killed by local Armenians, but his son held out in the citadel. The same week, Stephen of Blois deserted and later told Emperor Alexios that the crusaders were doomed, persuading him to turn back.

Besieged by Kerbogha

On 7 June 1098 Kerbogha, atabeg of Mosul, arrived with a large coalition army that included the forces of Duqaq of Damascus and other emirs. He had wasted three weeks trying to take Edessa on the way, which gave the crusaders time to enter Antioch. Now they were besieged themselves, short of food and facing attacks from the citadel inside the walls.

On 14 June, after a poor pilgrim named Peter Bartholomew reported visions of St Andrew, an iron spearhead was dug up beneath the floor of the Cathedral of St Peter. It was hailed as the Holy Lance that had pierced Christ’s side. The papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy was reportedly sceptical, but morale revived.

The battle of 28 June 1098

On 28 June the crusaders marched out of the Bridge Gate in several divisions under the overall direction of Bohemond. Many knights fought on foot because so few horses had survived. Kerbogha let them deploy, perhaps hoping to destroy them all at once.

His coalition, however, was divided by mistrust, and several contingents withdrew from the fight. The Turkish army broke and fled, and the citadel surrendered the same day. Chroniclers attributed the victory to divine help; modern historians stress the crusaders’ discipline and their opponents’ divisions.

Key people

• Bohemond of Taranto (c. 1054–1111): Norman leader from southern Italy who arranged the betrayal of the city, commanded the decisive sortie and became the first prince of Antioch.
• Yaghi-Siyan (died 1098): Turkish governor of Antioch, who defended the city for over seven months and was killed while fleeing.
• Kerbogha (died 1102): atabeg of Mosul and commander of the relief army; his defeat damaged his prestige but he kept his position in Mosul.
• Raymond IV of Toulouse (c. 1041–1105): Bohemond’s chief rival, who championed the Holy Lance and refused for months to yield his share of the city.
• Adhemar of Le Puy (died 1098): papal legate and the crusade’s spiritual leader, whose death removed a mediator between the princes.
• Firuz: the tower commander, described in Latin sources as an Armenian convert to Islam and in Arab sources as an armourer, who opened the city to Bohemond.

Sources and memory

The siege is unusually well documented. The main eyewitness Latin sources are the anonymous Gesta Francorum, written by a knight in Bohemond’s following; the history of Raymond of Aguilers, chaplain to Raymond of Toulouse and a firm believer in the Holy Lance; and letters sent home by crusaders such as Stephen of Blois and Anselm of Ribemont.

On the Muslim side, the Damascus chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi wrote within living memory, and the thirteenth-century historian Ibn al-Athir gave a fuller account, blaming the defeat on Kerbogha’s arrogance and the disunity of the emirs. The episode passed quickly into legend in Europe, and Old French epic poems such as the Chanson d’Antioche retold it for knightly audiences.

Consequences

Disease, probably typhoid, swept through Antioch in the summer of 1098, killing Adhemar of Le Puy on 1 August. The leaders quarrelled for months over the city, above all Bohemond and Raymond of Toulouse, who held part of it. Bohemond eventually kept Antioch, founding the Principality of Antioch and breaking with Byzantium.

Alexios regarded this as a betrayal of the oaths sworn at Constantinople. The quarrel led to open war, and in 1108 a defeated Bohemond was forced to accept the Treaty of Devol, recognising Byzantine overlordship, though his successors largely ignored it.

The army resumed its march south in January 1099 and reached Jerusalem that June. Peter Bartholomew underwent an ordeal by fire in April 1099 to prove that the lance was genuine and died some days later. The Principality of Antioch survived until the Mamluk sultan Baybars captured the city in 1268.

Timeline

• 1097, 20–21 October: The crusaders arrive and begin the siege.
• 1097, 31 December: Bohemond and Robert of Flanders defeat Duqaq’s relief army.
• 1098, 9 February: Defeat of Ridwan of Aleppo’s relief army.
• 1098, March: A fleet arrives at St Symeon; a siege fort is built before the Bridge Gate.
• 1098, 2–3 June: Firuz lets Bohemond’s men into the city.
• 1098, 7 June: Kerbogha’s army arrives and besieges the crusaders.
• 1098, 14 June: The Holy Lance is found.
• 1098, 28 June: Kerbogha is defeated; the citadel surrenders.
• 1098, 1 August: Adhemar of Le Puy dies.

Why it matters

Antioch was the turning point of the First Crusade. The crusaders came close to annihilation, and their survival encouraged the belief that God was on their side. The city became the core of a crusader state for 170 years, and the dispute over it poisoned relations between the crusaders and Byzantium. The road to Jerusalem lay open.