The Battle of Antioch (1098)
The Battle of Antioch is the central military engagement of the First Crusade. The city of Antioch, one of the great urban centers of the ancient and medieval world, was besieged by the Crusader army from October 1097 to June 1098. After an eight-month siege, complicated by a relief force sent by Kerbogha of Mosul, the Crusaders captured the city on 3 June 1098 and defeated a large Seljuk relief force five days later. The discovery of the Holy Lance — the spear that, according to tradition, had pierced the side of Christ on the cross — in the floor of the Church of Saint Peter in Antioch in mid-1098, almost certainly a fabrication, was the episode that made the victory a religious event as well as a military one. The battle was decisive: it secured the Crusader line of communication and opened the road to Jerusalem.
For the broader campaign, see the main article on the First Crusade. For the final stage of the expedition, see the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099. For the broader story, see the Timeline of the Crusades.
The City of Antioch
Antioch, modern Antakya in southern Turkey, was one of the great cities of antiquity. Founded by Seleucus I Nicator around 300 BC, it had been a major center of early Christianity: it was here that the followers of Christ were first called Christians, and it had been home to a succession of early church fathers. By the 11th century, the city was under Seljuk Turkish control, having been captured by the Seljuks in 1084. The population was a mixture of Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Christians, and Muslim Arabs, with a small Latin Christian community.
Antioch was strategically vital. It sat on the Orontes River in a fertile plain, surrounded by mountains. It controlled the road from Anatolia into Syria and was the gateway to the Holy Land. The Byzantines had long dreamed of recapturing the city, and the Crusaders’ arrival in 1097 offered the opportunity.
The Arrival of the Crusaders
The main army of the First Crusade arrived before Antioch on 20 October 1097. The city was heavily fortified, with walls of black basalt rising above the river. The garrison was commanded by Yaghi-Siyan, a Seljuk Turkish officer who had reason to be cautious. He had some 5,000 to 10,000 troops under his command, and he had stockpiled supplies. The Crusaders had perhaps 12,000 to 20,000 effective combatants, but they were short of supplies and arrived in the middle of autumn, when the weather was turning cold.
The Crusaders decided on a blockade rather than a direct assault. They surrounded the city on the north, west, and south, while the Orontes River protected the east. They built siege towers and attempted to storm the walls several times, but the city’s defenses held. Yaghi-Siyan launched numerous sallies, and the fighting was heavy on both sides.
The siege was complicated by the arrival of a relief force. On 20 December 1097, a Seljuk army under Duqaq of Damascus arrived from the south. The Crusaders marched out to meet them and won a sharp engagement at the Battle of Harim, but Duqaq escaped and the city was not relieved.
The Crisis of Spring 1098
By spring 1098, the situation was desperate. The Crusaders were starving. They had expected a quick capture of the city, but the siege had dragged on for months. The army was suffering from hunger, disease, and the desertion of soldiers who had lost patience. Most seriously, the Byzantine relief force that the Crusaders had been promised by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos had turned back in the face of Seljuk pressure, leaving the Crusaders without a clear line of retreat or reinforcement.
In early June 1098, a force of some 35,000 to 40,000 Seljuk troops under Kerbogha of Mosul arrived to relieve the city. Yaghi-Siyan’s garrison, sensing that relief was at hand, prepared to sally against the Crusader camp. The Crusader position was almost hopeless.
It was at this moment of crisis that the famous “discovery” of the Holy Lance took place. A Provençal priest named Peter Bartholomew claimed to have had a vision in which the apostle Andrew revealed the location of the lance that had pierced the side of Christ on the cross. After a remarkable excavation in the floor of the Church of Saint Peter, a lance head was found. The discovery electrified the army. The bishop of Le Puy, Adhémar of Le Puy, accepted the relic, but the Greek Patriarch of Antioch, John the Oxite, was skeptical. The dispute would have political consequences.
The Capture of Antioch
On 2 June 1098, the Crusader commanders made the decision to act. While Kerbogha’s army was still approaching, the Crusaders launched a preemptive assault on the city. Several of the city’s defenders had been bribed or had been won over to the Latin cause; they opened the gates to the Crusaders. The city fell on 3 June 1098. Yaghi-Siyan tried to escape but was caught and killed by Armenian peasants.
The capture of Antioch did not, however, solve the Crusaders’ problem. They were now inside a heavily fortified city, surrounded by Kerbogha’s army, and low on supplies. The situation was so desperate that Bohemond of Taranto, who claimed the city as his own, faced a serious revolt among his own troops. Several Crusader leaders, including Robert of Flanders and Stephen of Blois, abandoned the city. The chronicler Raymond of Aguilers records that the situation was so bad that some Crusaders were considering abandoning the expedition entirely.
The Battle of Antioch
The decisive moment came on 28 June 1098. Kerbogha’s army, perhaps 35,000 strong, surrounded the city. The Crusaders, perhaps 12,000 effective combatants, sallied from the city gates and attacked. The battle was long and hard, but the Crusaders won. Several factors contributed to the victory. The Franks had chosen their ground carefully. The Muslim emirs in Kerbogha’s coalition had reason to resent his authority, and several of them withdrew from the battle at critical moments. The psychological impact of the Holy Lance, whatever one thinks of its authenticity, was real. The weather, according to some sources, was also an issue, with strong winds blowing dust into the faces of the Muslim army.
The Battle of Antioch was decisive. Kerbogha was forced to retreat, and Antioch remained in Crusader hands. The victory has been the subject of intense historical analysis, with modern scholars like Thomas Asbridge and Jonathan Riley-Smith debating the role of the Holy Lance and the contribution of the various Crusader leaders. The battle, and the events surrounding it, also had profound religious consequences, which are discussed below.
The Aftermath of Antioch
The victory was followed by a massacre. The Crusaders, determined to avenge the Muslim atrocities that had been committed during the earlier failed sallies, killed many of the Muslim population of the city. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, John the Oxite, was expelled. Bohemond of Taranto claimed the city for himself, in violation of the earlier oaths to Alexios. The relationship between the Crusaders and the Byzantine Empire was seriously damaged by the events of 1098.
In religious terms, the victory had a profound impact. The army now believed that God had visibly supported the Crusade, and the discovery of the Holy Lance, even if it was a fabrication, gave the expedition a sacred character. The chronicler Raymond of Aguilers, who was present at the excavation of the Lance, recorded the events in great detail. Modern historians are divided on the question of the Lance’s authenticity, but its importance for the medieval Crusaders is not in doubt.
The Battle of Antioch was also the moment when the political character of the Crusading movement began to change. The capture of a major city, and the establishment of the Principality of Antioch, gave the Crusade a permanent territorial stake in the East. The Crusader States that emerged from the First Crusade, including the Kingdom of Jerusalem, would define the history of the Eastern Mediterranean for the next two centuries.