The Siege of Antioch

In the crusader camp, the hardships of the siege were beginning to expose the problem of a lack of unified leadership. In particular, Raymond of Toulouse and Bohemund emerged as bitter rivals. Hearing that a Turkish army was on the way to relieve the siege, Bohemund suggested an incentive to speed up the city's capture; whoever was able to enter the city first, would keep it. (This conveniently ignored their earlier promise to hand over conquered territory to the emperor Alexius). Bohemund neglected to tell the other leaders that he had already been doing some espionage, and had found a disaffected commander named Firoz (who may have been an Armenian, and therefore no friend of the Turks) who was willing to open the gates of the city to Bohemund's army. This ruse succeeded, and the Crusaders captured the city, but not the impregnable citadel(pictured), on 3 June 1098.

This was not the end of their troubles, however. Bohemund's treachery had further angered Raymond, and the Turkish army led by Kerboga, the atabeg of Mosul, arrived and laid siege to Antioch; the crusader besiegers were now the besieged. With a Turkish garrison also holding the citadel, things were looking grim for the crusaders - they needed a miracle.

And they got one. A footsoldier in Raymond's southern French army, named Peter Bartholomew, had a vision, in which it was revealed to him that the Holy Lance with which Christ's side was pierced during the crucifixion was buried in Antioch cathedral. The crusaders got digging, and found a bit of old metal which, looked at in the right light, just might be the Holy Lance. Many historians suspect this was a deliberate 'stunt' designed to boost morale. Even Adhemar, the papal legate, was sceptical as to the veracity of this holy relic, but he kept quiet, understanding the propaganda value of such a find. Whether miracle or fraud, the incident had the right effect; buoyed up by this sign of divine favour, the crusade army marched out of the city and defeated Kerbogha's army.

So all ended well for the crusaders? Not for Peter Bartholomew, the hero of the hour. Bohemund's men, jealous of the attention being paid to a man from Raymond's army, declared Peter a fraud, and demanded he put his holiness to the test by walking barefoot across red-hot coals. The good news is that Peter walked the coals. The bad news is

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