Siege of Nicaea

The Siege of Nicaea took place from May 14 to June 19, 1097, during the First Crusade.

Background

Nicaea, located on the eastern shore of Lake Ascanius, had been captured from the Byzantine Empire by the Seljuk Turks in 1077, and formed the capital of the Sultanate of Rüm. In 1096 the People's Crusade, the first stage of the First Crusade, had plundered the land surrounding the city, before being destroyed by the Turks. As a result, Sultan Kilij Arslan I initially felt that the second wave of crusaders were not a threat. He left his family and his treasury behind in Nicaea and went east to fight the Danishmends for control of the Melitene.

Crusader siege

The crusaders began to leave Constantinople at the end of April, 1097. Godfrey of Bouillon was the first to arrive at Nicaea, with Bohemund of Taranto, Bohemund's nephew Tancred, Raymond IV of Toulouse, and Robert II of Flanders following him, along with Peter the Hermit and some of the survivors of the People's Crusade, and a small Byzantine force under Manuel Boutoumites. They arrived on May 6, severely short on food, but Bohemund arranged for food to be brought by land and by sea. They put the city to siege beginning on May 14, assigning their forces to different sections of the walls, which were well-defended with 200 towers. Bohemund camped on the north side of the city, Godfrey on the east, and Raymond and Adhemar of Le Puy on the south.

Defeat of Kilij Arslan

On May 16 the Turkish defenders sallied out to attack them, but they were defeated in a skirmish with the loss of 200 men. The Turks sent messages to Kilij Arslan begging him to return, and when he realized the strength of the crusaders he quickly turned back. An advance party was defeated by troops under Raymond and Robert of Flanders on May 20, and on May 21 the crusader army defeated Kilij in a pitched battle which lasted long into the night. Losses were heavy on both sides but in the end the sultan retreated, despite the pleas of the Nicaean Turks. The rest of the crusaders arrived throughout the rest of May, with Robert Curthose (accompanied by Ralph de Guader) and Stephen of Blois arriving at the beginning of June. Meanwhile Raymond and Adhemar built a large siege engine, which was rolled up to the Gonatas Tower in order to engage the defenders on the walls while sappers mined the tower from below. The tower was damaged but no further progress was made.

Byzantine arrival

Byzantine emperor Alexius I chose not to accompany the crusaders, but marched out behind them and made his camp at nearby Pelecanum. From there, he sent boats, rolled over the land, to help the crusaders blockade Lake Ascanius, which had up to this point been used by the Turks to supply Nicaea with food. The boats, filled with Turcopoles, arrived on June 17, under the command of Manuel Boutoumites. The generals Taticius and Tzitas were also sent, with 2000 peltasts. The Turkish inhabitants of Nicaea had already written to Alexius requesting his help when Kilij Arslan retreated, and Alexius had instructed Boutoumites to secretly negotiate the surrender of the city without the crusaders' knowledge. Taticius was instructed to join with the crusaders and make a direct assault on the walls, while Boutoumites would pretend to do the same to make it look as if the Byzantines had captured the city in battle. This was done, and on June 19 the Turks surrendered to Boutoumites.

When the crusaders' discovered what Alexius had done, they were quite angry, as they had hoped to plunder the city for money and supplies. Boutoumites, however, was named dux of Nicaea and forbade the crusaders from entering in groups larger than 10 men at a time. Boutoumites also expelled the Turkish generals, whom he considered just as untrustworthy (and indeed, these men tried to take their Byzantine guides hostage on their way to meet with the emperor). Kilij Arslan's family went to Constantinople and were eventually released without ransom. Alexius gave the crusaders money, horses, and other gifts, but the crusaders were not pleased with this, believing they could have had even more if they had captured Nicaea themselves. Boutoumites would not permit them to leave until they had all sworn an oath of vassalage to Alexius, if they had not yet done so in Constantinople. As he had in Constantinople, Tancred at first refused, but at last he and Bohemund were both persuaded to swear the oath.

Aftermath

The crusaders left Nicaea on June 26, in two contingents: Bohemund, Tancred, Robert Curthose, Robert of Flanders, and Taticius in the vanguard, and Godfrey, his brother Baldwin of Boulogne, Stephen, and Hugh of Vermandois in the rear. Taticius was instructed to ensure the return of captured cities to the empire. Their spirits were high, and Stephen wrote to his wife Adela that they expected to be in Jerusalem in five weeks. On July 1 they defeated Kilij at the Battle of Dorylaeum, and by October they reached Antioch; they would not reach Jerusalem until two years after leaving Nicaea.

Sources

Anna Comnena, Alexiad
Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana
Gesta Francorum (anonymous)
Raymond of Aguilers, Historia francorum qui ceperunt Jerusalem
Hans E. Mayer, The Crusades. Oxford, 1965.
Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. Philadelphia, 1986.
Steven Runciman, The First Crusaders, 1095-1131. Cambridge University Press, 1951.
Kenneth Setton, ed., A History of the Crusades. Madison, 1969-1989 (available online).
Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, 1997.

1097 | Battles of the Crusades | Battles of the Byzantine Empire | Battles of the Seljuk Turks | Sieges