First Crusade: Battle of Dorylaeum

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The Turkish cavalry seemed to be everywhere at once as the Norman Crusader commander, Bohemond of Taranto, tried to form his disorganized and surprised troops into battle order. The Turkish attack had begun at dawn, as many of the Crusaders were just awakening, and the intense assault had caused thousands of Christian casualties as volleys of arrows arced into their crowded camp. Bohemond’s knights had quickly mounted, but their piecemeal attacks, while sporadically successful, did little to dissuade the Turkish warriors thirsting for total victory over the invaders.

Suddenly, the Turks were riding through the camp itself, killing noncombatants and foot soldiers unable to outrun their mounted opponents. Bohemond ordered his knights to dismount and form a defensive line, behind which the unarmored foot could find shelter. Hopefully, the messengers he had dispatched to Raymond of Toulouse’s wing of the Crusader army would bring help before it was too late. Grimly, the Normans sent their horses to the rear and faced the enemy cavalry, vowing to use their lives to buy time for their companions until help arrived…if it did at all.

In the 29-year period between 1066 and 1095, Western Europe endured serious expansionism not only from aggressive Normans, but also from the noble houses of France, Germany and Spain. In the midst of the wars that raged throughout Christendom, the power of the church was disputed by the powerful successors to Charlemagne, the Holy Roman emperors, who sought to expand both their spiritual and political influence.

Fledgling feudal rulers increasingly took sides in the escalating power struggles between emperor and pope. Caught in the middle of that confusing contest for loyalty was the warrior, who had to choose whether to fight for his military leader, as had been the soldier’s decision for thousands of years, or to ignore the secular leader and follow the spiritual head of the church. Pope Urban II’s call for a holy crusade in 1095 convinced great numbers of European warriors to transcend the interminable local warfare and, under God’s divine protection, march to the East. The soldiers of the First Crusade would fight not just for material wealth or power, but for the salvation of their souls. With God’s grace and their nobles to lead them, victory seemed assured.

Tales of pagan depredations had long roused bitter hatred among Western Europeans privy to the tales brought back by pilgrims. The Christians who sought to travel to Jerusalem were reportedly subjected to all manner of mutilation and torture if captured by local Muslim warlords. These reports and tales from survivors–most of which were exaggerations or outright lies–gave Pope Urban II the powerful ammunition he needed to persuade the proud princes of Europe to give up their personal vendettas and come together to fight the Infidel.

Religious warfare was not that new. The Muslims themselves had swept across the Middle East and North Africa through their own jihad, or holy war. As early as 1080, Pope Gregory VII had asked the Norman leader Robert Guiscard, whose holdings in Italy were extensive, to mount a military campaign against the East and return the rebellious area to Roman Christian rule. Robert turned toward the East all right, but ended up waging a stalemated war against the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, empire, while Pope Gregory became bogged down in controversies with the Holy Roman emperor, Henry IV, spending all his resources and energy defending Rome from his opportunistic German adversary.

By 1086, many European knights had taken up arms against the Muslim Moors in Spain, but the Spanish Christians fought among themselves as much as they did against the followers of Islam. In 1089, the Byzantine emperor had asked a knight returning from Jerusalem to take a message to Rome, asking for an expedition to help fight against the encroaching Seljuk Turks. The request was relayed to Rome and the church replied that it was more than willing to lend its support and turn the warlike tendencies of the Western knights toward the Muslims in the East. It would be another six years before concerted efforts would be made to implement the request.

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Tags: Ancient-Medieval, Historical Conflicts

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