The Siege of Nicaea 1097
Terror and Tactic
Alexius's first goal was to recapture Nicaea, a city that lay on the shores of Lake Askania, southeast of Constantinople. The Seljuk Turks had captured this city and their Sultan, Kilij Arslan brazenly declared Nicaea his capital. They posed the greatest threat to Byzantium because of Nicaea's close proximity to Constantinople. For that reason, it wouldn't take much effort for the Turks to march north and invade Constantinople.
Determined and ferocious, the Turks resisted every Byzantine attempt to re-conquer Nicaea. But now, Alexius had an immense Latin army at his disposal and he was prepared to unleash them, confident that they would drive the Turks out of Nicaea for good.
Since summer was fast approaching, Alexius was anxious to move the Franks along and the Franks themselves were growing impatient.
It was a perfect time for them to lay siege to Nicaea because Kilij Arslan was embroiled in conflict with the Danishmend princes over the suzerainty of Melitene on his eastern frontier. His easy defeat of Peter the Hermit's army taught Kilij Arslan that the Franks were nothing more than a bunch of unskilled, rabble-rousers, so he did not fear them.
Just as he was the first prince to arrive in Constantinople, Godfrey of Bouillon was the first to march on Nicaea. He left Pelecanum sometime the end of April, his army joined by that of Bohemond's which was commanded by Tancred, as well as Peter the Hermit and what remained of his following. Bohemond stayed in Constantinople and arranged with the emperor provisions for his armies: siege engines, food, armor and Byzantine soldiers.
Godfrey and Tancred's combined forces arrived at Nicaea in early May, followed by those of Robert of Normany, Raymond of Toulouse, the Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy and Stephen of Blois one month later.
The Franks saw almost right away that, to conquer Nicaea would be no easy feat. It was heavily fortified: encircling the city was a 10 meter (33 foot) tall wall that was nearly 5 kilometers (3 miles) long in circumference. The wall boasted 114 towers from which warriors kept watch for enemy advancement, and the western wall rose almost right out of Askanian Lake.
The only way to attack the city at its west end was by boat, but the Franks had no boats; neither did the 2,000 Byzantine infantry -- commanded by General Tatikios -- who accompanied them. So, the one and only option to lay siege was to encircle the south, north and east walls, cutting Nicaea off from the outside world.
Godfrey's army blockaded the northern wall; Tancred positioned his troops outside the eastern wall; Raymond of Toulouse and the remaining princes took the southern wall.
When Kilij Arslan learnt that the Franks had besieged Nicaea, he was caught off guard. He hastened back to his army and then marched on Nicaea with the intention to launch a surprise attack on the south wall. Kilij Arslan hid his army in the thickly wooded hills close to the city and, when he thought he could take the enemy by surprise, Kilij ordered his troops to attack.
But the Franks were not to be fooled: they were fully prepared to engage the Turks in battle. Before the Turkish ambush, they had caught a Turkish spy in their camp and tortured him until the Turk revealed Kilij Arslan’s plans and promised to abandon his sultan. For that reason alone, the Franks were able to force Kilij Arslan to retreat and abandon his Turkish garrison. It was a small victory for the Franks, but one that was not to be taken for granted.
“Our men hurled the heads of the killed far into the city, that they (the Turks) might be the more terrified thereat,” the Gesta Account recorded. To the Christian warriors, catapulting heads of their enemy’s dead wasn’t enough: they placed some of those heads on spikes and paraded them around the walls in effort to strike greater terror into the hearts of the Turkish garrison.
However, the Turks were not willing to submit: they put up a fierce resistance against the Franks. In retaliation, they strung up dead Christian warriors along the wall and left them there to rot.
Sources Used
Asbridge, Thomas. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of The War For The Holy Land. New York; Ecco, 2011.
Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades: The First Crusade. Vol.1. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1951.
Stark, Rita M. Knights of the Cross: The Epic of the Crusades. Bloomington; iUniverse, 2008.