Part 37

With the intent of slowing down the Crusaders' progress, Kilij Arslan resorted to a gradual withdrawal ahead of the Crusader forces, following a Bedouin-style method of destroying the land as he withdrew, burning everything that could be of benefit to the Crusaders, especially food supplies. At the same time, Turkish forces started gathering in a new alliance to confront the Crusader menace. Gumiishtigin Ahmad the Danishmend renewed his alliance with Kilij Arslan, and urged Radwan the ruler of Aleppo to send a number of troops.197 The Crusaders reached £ankr where they found the Turks present in full force and were unable to capture the city because of its strong fortifications. They were forced to march on, after plundering neighbouring villages. They grew exhausted because of the lack of food supplies, extreme heat and pressure from the Turks. In order to avoid imminent destruction, Raymond suggested that the army should head north-east, towards Kastamonu, and thence towards one of the Byzantine cities on the Black Sea coast. The journey towards Kastamonu was very slow and hard, because of the lack of food, as the Turks had destroyed all crops and filled in the wells, and because the Crusaders were exposed to sudden Turkish attacks, so they scattered, not caring about anything, before Raymond could bring them back together. When they reached the outskirts of Kastamonu, Raymond had to find a route among the masses of Turkish troops to the coast, but the Lombards again insisted on heading towards the East, and he gave in to them.198 The Crusader army crossed the Halys river into the Danishmend lands, and some of them reached the city of Merzifon, located halfway between the river and Amasya.199 When the Turks realized that the Crusader forces had become exhausted, they attacked them and it was not long before the Crusaders collapsed and fled the battlefield, under the pressure of the fighting, leaving behind their women and the monks. Raymond fled to a small hill where he hid until the French and Germans rescued him; he then fled during the night after having despaired of achieving any victory, leaving behind the Crusader camp and the non-combatants in it to fall into the hands of the Turks as booty.200 The battle was followed by a chase in which no one escaped except the knights, and the Crusaders' losses amounted to four-fifths of the army.201 The Turks seized a large amount of weapons and a great number of prisoners, whom they sold into slavery. Raymond soon reached Bafra, the small Byzantine port on the Black Sea, near Sinop. From there he was taken by a Byzantine ship to Constantinople.202 The Latin historian Albeit of Aix points out that Raymond received a bribe from the Turks to lead the army to Kastamonu, but this is unlikely, because anyone who studies the course of the campaign and the events that accompanied it will see how much effort Raymond put into trying to convince the Lombards not to head towards the lands of the Danishmend first of all, then how he tried to save the army from the dilemma into which he had fallen, and how he only chose the route to Kastamonu because of the troubles to which his army had been exposed. As for his flight from the battlefield, that was the result of his realization that there was no point in continuing after the Lombards had turned tail and fled, followed by the Pecheneg mercenaries.203 The first battle of Heraclea The disaster that befell the Crusaders at Merzifon erased the fame that they had acquired as the result of their victory at Dorylaeum. What made it worse was that this was not the last disaster. At the same time as the Lombards left Nicomedia, a French army of fifteen thousand knights and foot soldiers, led by William Count of Nevers, arrived in Constantinople. William was eager to join the Lombards quickly, so he left Constantinople, heading for Nicomedia, where he found out that the Crusader hordes had left, heading for Ankara. He travelled to that city, which he reached easily, but no one knew in which direction those hordes had gone. All the count could do was head for Konya; when he reached it he besieged it, but a group of Seljuk Turkish troops defended it. All his attempts to capture it failed, so he left it.204 During the same period, the Seljuks and their allies finished destroying the Lombard army, and Kilij Arslan and Giimushtigin Ahmad the Danishmend learned of the approach of a new enemy whilst they were still savouring their victory. They headed south and beat William to Heraclea. William's troops travelled slowly from Konya, heading East, and when they came to place near Heraclea, utterly exhausted, the Turks attacked them. Their resistance collapsed after a battle which did not last long, and the entire French army met its end, apart from William and six of his followers.205 The second battle of Heraclea At the same time as William's campaign was marching through Asia Minor, the final group of these Crusaders, consisting of French and Germans led by William DC Duke of Aquitaine and Welf IV Duke of Bavaria, reached Constantinople. The number of their troops was sixty thousand. This horde set out from Constantinople, heading for Konya, following the same route that Bohemond had taken before.