The loss of Nicaea enraged the Turkish sultan, Kilij Arslan, who had been absent in the east. His army met that of the Christians at Dorylaeum in central Turkey. The battle could have gone either way; the crusaders marched in two columns, and the first column, coming under attack from the Turks, was nearly routed before the second arrived and won the day. A glorious triumph! Proof surely that God favoured the crusader cause?
There was much hard fighting and hard marching to be done in south-east Anatolia, but the crusader army arrived at Antioch in October. Antioch, a great Byzantine city now in Seljuk hands, was the key to Syria, and if it could be captured the road to Jerusalem would lie open. However, the events of the next few months would plunge the army into appalling hardships that would drive it nearly to breaking point.
Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article The First Crusade (2): The Road to Antioch - Page 2 in The Crusades is owned by . Permission to republish The First Crusade (2): The Road to Antioch - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
