77 Chapter 10: The Battle of Dorylaeum

“Avenge, Lord, our blood which has been shed for Thee, who are blessed and praiseworthy forever and ever. Amen.”

-The Gesta Francorum

“Nor ever in all of the events of war that preceded or followed this one was so much Latin blood shed by gentile swords.”

-The Gesta Tancredi

It is difficult to judge the mood of the many armed pilgrims following the capture of Nicaea. The sources are tainted by the prejudices of later events, notably the souring of relations between the Latins and the Greeks. The most incredulous story was the submission of Tancred. According to the clearly biased Gesta Tancredi, the young man stared down the Emperor. The source claims that when Alexios I asked Tancred what gift he would have in exchange for submission, Tancred replied that he would take the Emperor’s own tent, which was so large and elaborate that it needed 20 camels to carry it. Alexios I was outraged that a Western lord of no great rank would act as an emperor’s equal, saying, “I receive your anger and I do not perceive you as worthy of being either an enemy or a friend to me,” to which Tancred supposedly replied, “I deem you worthy of being my enemy, but not my friend.”

Exaggeration is ever the habit of scribes writing about the deeds of their patrons. Still, the events at Nicaea were both heartening and disillusioning. On the one hand, the Latins won a great victory, delivering a major city to their patron. On the other, the Greeks treated this war which was supposedly for the benefit of Christ and his salvation, as an opportunity for political power and material gain. Of course, not all of the armed pilgrims minded this lack of piety. Bohemond cared nothing at all for the deliverance of Jerusalem to Christian forces. So the giant, Tancred, Robert, Duke of Normandy and Tatikios sped eastward with a force of 10,000 towards Antioch on 28 June 1097. The rest of the armies marched behind them, separate so as to better forage for food.

For three days Bohemond’s host walked through territory largely unknown to them. Anatolia is a famously rugged region; while the army traveled through low valleys they were usually surrounded on multiple sides by hills and mountains, which inhibited scouting. Such hostile terrain meant that a large enemy force could be waiting nearby and the Crusaders would have little to no warning. Bohemond was aware of this, having campaigned in the similarly hilly country of Greece, and kept watch for enemies. Sure enough, as they neared the ruins of Dorylaeum the giant spotted mounted Turkish scouts watching them from the distance. The Crusaders knew that the sultan Kilij Arslan and his hosts were in the area, and so Bohemond sent riders back to inform his fellows of the Turkish presence. The vanguard force then pressed forward, trusting in their strength and the nearness of their allies. And so they fell victim to the Sword Lion’s trap.

On the morning of the 1 July, Bohemond’s force crossed the low river Thymbres and entered an open meadow. As they did, a Turkish army approached from the south. Kilij Arslan had returned from his campaign against the Danishmends with the Danishmends riding by his side! The two Turkish groups had put aside their inter-tribal disagreements to jointly annihilate the foreign threat. When Bohemond saw them he ordered his men to set up camp. Then he joined his cavalry and prepared for battle.

Picture the scene: to the west, running north and south, lay the river Thymbres. To the east the meadow stretched for miles until the land again turned to hills. To the north the landscape was flat and open, as it was to the south, where the Turks assembled. Bohemond positioned his camp along the river so at least one of his flanks did not require defending. Moreover, the mushy terrain was dangerous for horses to approach, as they could easily trip and become lame. Thus, the Norman planned to use the terrain to keep his infantry safe from any cavalry charges. Then he led his cavalry into the enemy host to buy his infantry time to prepare their defense.

And so this was how the Crusaders first met their foe on the open battle-plain. Thousands of Western lords wearing iron armor that gleamed in the sunlight urged their mounts to a gallop. In front of them between 6,000-8,000 mounted Turks approached. Unlike the Christians, this force wore lighter armor, mostly comprised of leather. Their weapons were recurve bows and light swords; stinging, piercing attacks against the thunderous strength of the Europeans. As the two armies of God approached their mounts broke into a sudden charge.

The Norman heavy cavalry entered the multitude with renowned fury. They cut down men with hardly any armor to protect them, even as the Turks struggled to kill their foe, their swords and arrows bouncing off their metal cuirasses. Bohemond’s sworn veterans enacted a deadly toll. Yet, it was not enough. The Turks simply outnumbered their foe. Their skilled riders deftly outmaneuvered the Normans. Bohemond’s forces skirmished for roughly an hour before the giant signaled the retreat. The knights kicked at their mounts, directing as much as pleading them to run for their lives. In the retreat still more knights fell to the launched arrows of their pursuers. To the west, across the river, hundreds of armed pilgrims who had trailed the army watched as cohorts of Turkish cavalry broke off from the pursuit and approached them. The Turks easily forded the river and butchered those Christians on the other side.

When the bulk of the Norman cavalry returned to camp Bohemond ordered that they dismount and assume defensive formations against the incoming foes. He hoped that the marshy terrain would impede the Turks and give the armed pilgrims enough time to hold out until another Crusader army could come to save them. Since no one knew where the other Christian forces were, they had no way of knowing when, or even if anyone was coming to save them.

Everything proceeded as the Sword Lion had planned. The river and marshy terrain slowed, but did not prohibit, his mounted cavalry, who encircled the camp. With great shouts the Turks fired arrows at the defenders. After launching their volleys the horsemen charged at their foes, cutting down any they could, then retreating before the Western infantry could catch them. One Crusader claimed, “We were all indeed huddled together like sheep in a fold, trembling and frightened, surrounded on all sides by enemies so that we could not turn in any direction. It was clear to us that this happened because of our sins . . . By now we had no hope of surviving.”

Even in their dire predicament, Bohemond’s veterans mounted a sturdy defense. They held against the repeated volley and charge attacks of their foes. Yet, it was not enough. The writer of the Gesta Tancredi recounts, “The carnage among them did not cease but just like the returning heads of the Hydra, where a few fell, countless others took their place. But the legion of the faithful suffered the same losses without having the same reinforcements.” While the men fought for their lives the women who had joined the armies out of piety or want of gold, served as the water-bearers, risking death to retrieve life-sustaining water from the river and return to camp.

The whoosh of projectiles and Turkish war chants mingled with the screams of dying men and horses in the camp. Driven by mad valor or panic, some soldiers disobeyed Bohemond’s orders and charged the enemy only to be ignominiously cut down in a hail of arrows. The Crusader army was an ever-shrinking circle. As the defenders were cut down women dragged their bodies into camp, while still-living men stepped into the role of the most recent fallen.

For five hours the Turks picked away at their foes, yet still they held. Kilij Arslan knew that another Crusader force was nearby and that his time to wipe out an enemy army was running out. Around midday he ordered his entire force to bear down on the camp. The Sword Lion employed a long-used tactic of wearing down the enemy with volleys then launching his army at them. If even one major section of the camp broke under the pressure the Turks could engulf their foes and cut them down freely.

Carnage ruled the day. European infantry welcomed their foes who for hours had fired on them from afar but now came within reach of spears and swords. Incoming horses, fell in the marsh, lamed, hurling their riders to the earth. Amidst the fighting Tancred’s elder brother Guillaume was killed, along with many other ranking nobles. Yet the lines did not break.

Then a bolt of lightning pierced the whirlwind. Mounted knights from the other armies had broken off from the main host and rushed into the melee. The sudden onslaught by the reinforcing Crusaders caught the Turks off-guard. The Gesta Tancredi recounts the arrival of Robert of Flanders by saying,

“The battle line of the [Turkish] archers was scattered and the bows were cast to the ground. The quivers were smashed and the bowstrings were trampled. Their small shields and the breastplates were as linen threads to the swords [of the Flemings]. They proved to be burdens rather than protection for the Turks bearing them. What fear the flame of Flanders caused. When the indomitable count [Robert] dominated the enemy, and dispersed their dense formations, he cut apart the dispersed troops, overwhelmed the cut-off groups, and trod these overwhelmed men under his feet.”

The other armies had arrived to save their brothers.

When Kilij Arslan realized what was happening he ordered a retreat so he could regroup his forces into a cohesive army. This gave the crusaders time to unite their own forces in turn. Then the two sides clashed. The crusaders and Turks fought to a standstill. Then smoke rose from the south. Adhémar of Le Puy and his knights had taken the mountain passes and arrived at the Turkish camp, which they pillaged. Then they crashed into the Turks from behind. The Gesta Francorum recounts that,

“The unbelieving Turks were surrounded on all sides. As soon as our knights arrived, the Turks, Arabs, Saracens, Angulans, and all the barbarian tribes speedily took flight through the byways of the mountains and plains…With extraordinary speed they fled to their tents but were unable to remain there long. Again they took flight and we followed, killing them as we went, for a whole day. We took many spoils: gold, silver, horses, donkeys, camels, sheep, cattle, and many other things of which we know not. Had the Lord not been with us in the battle and had he not suddenly sent us the other force, none of our men would have escaped, for the battle lasted from the third to the ninth hour.”

He concluded that, “If [the Turks] had believed [in Christ], it would have been impossible to find a people more powerful, more courageous, or more skilled in the art of war. By the grace of God, however, we defeated them.”

Victory had been hard-won. The Crusaders likely lost more men than their opponents. It is no wonder that the Christians granted a grudging admiration to the Turks. Their speed and maneuverability in combat, combined with skilled archery made them deadly foes. At the same time, the Turks gained respect for the Westerners, who they referred to as the ‘iron men’ for the heavy armor that the knights wore.

Triumph at the Battle of Dorylaeum opened up Anatolia for conquest. Kilij Arslan’s capital had already fallen; now his main army was defeated. He had scant resources left to fight the tens of thousands that marched through his lands. Anna Komnene wrote that following the battle, “the barbarian power collapsed; the survivors dispersed, one here, one there, leaving their wives and children behind them. As for the future they did not dare meet the Latins face to face, but tried to find safety for themselves in flight.” Laiden-down with the captured booty from the Sword Lion’s camp the Crusaders continued their trek towards the Holy Land.

Yet, they did not follow a straight route. Acting on behalf of his master, Tatikios led the Westerners on a tour of conquest to restore Byzantine authority throughout Anatolia.