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Battle of Iconium (1190)

Coordinates:37°52′00″N32°29′00″E/ 37.8667°N 32.4833°E/37.8667; 32.4833
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Battle of Iconium
Part of theThird Crusade

Barbarossa and Crusaders on the Third Crusade
Liber ad honorem Augusti, 1195
Date18 May 1190
Location
Iconium(modern dayKonya,Turkey)
37°52′00″N32°29′00″E/ 37.8667°N 32.4833°E/37.8667; 32.4833
Result
  • Main Seljuk army routed
  • Sultanate of Rûm's capital city sacked; Crusaders take a massive amount of loot
  • Qutb al-Din replaced by his father, who agrees to let the Germans pass through and sends them hostages
Belligerents
Holy Roman Empire
Kingdom of Hungary		 Sultanate of Rûm
Commanders and leaders
Géza
Prince of Hungary		 Qutb al-Din
Strength
2,000[5]		 Larger than the Crusaders[1][a]
Casualties and losses
800 Field army:
3,000 killed[6]
Garrison:
all killed or captured
20 nobles taken hostage

TheBattle of Iconium(sometimes referred as theBattle of Konya) took place on May 18, 1190, during theThird Crusade,in the expedition ofFrederick Barbarossato theHoly Land.As a result,Iconium,the capital city of theSultanate of RûmunderKilij Arslan II,fell to theImperialforces.

Background

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After the disastrousBattle of Hattinand theSiege of Jerusalemin 1187, much of theCrusader stateshad been seized bySaladin's forces. PopeGregory VIIIcalled for theThird Crusadeto restore the city to Christian hands and help the remaining crusader strongholds.Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperorresponded to the call after setting his affairs of state in order and urgingPhilip Augustusto join as well.[7]He took up the Cross atan imperial dietinMainz Cathedralon 27 March 1188 and was the first to set out for the Holy Land in May 1189 with an army of 30,000–600,000 men, including 15,000–20,000 knights, according to contemporary accounts.[3][8][9]However, most historians think the higher troop estimates are exaggerated and propose 12,000–20,000 men, including 4,000 knights.[3][4]He was also joined by a contingent of 2,000 men from the Hungarian prince Géza, the younger brother of the king,Béla III of Hungary.

Crusader army

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Primary source Year Frederick's troop strength Citation
Gesta Federici I Imperatoris in Expeditione Sacra 1190–1200 90,000 [3]
Annales Reicherspergenses 1194 80,000 [10]
Chronica regia Coloniensis 1220 30,000, including 15,000 knights [3]
Chronicon Montis Sereni 1225–1230 100,000, including 20,000 knights [3]
Annales Stadenses 1232–1264 600,000 [3]
Modern author Year Frederick's troop strength Citation
Ekkehard Eickhoff 1977 12,000–15,000 [3]
Rudolf Hiestand 1992 13,000, including 4,000 knights [3]
Bernard and David Bachrach 2016 20,000 [4]

Prelude

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After passing through today'sHungary,Serbia,Bulgariaand theByzantine Empire,the forces arrived inAnatolia,held by theSeljuk Sultanate of Rûm.The Seljuk continuously harassed the Crusader forces, laying ambushes and using hit-and-run tactics. The Crusaders, in turn, launched attacks against whatever Seljuk forces they could find. On 7 May, a 10,000-strong Seljuk army was destroyed by a 2,000-strong mixedinfantry-cavalryCrusaders detachment underFrederick VI, Duke of Swabiaand the Duke of Dalmatia nearPhilomelium,resulting in 4,174–5,000 deaths for the Seljuks according to the Seljuks' own body count and loss estimates.[11][12]On 9–10 May, the Crusaders killed 64 Seljuk soldiers.[13]On 12 May, the Crusaders crossed a narrow bridge that left them highly vulnerable, but the Seljuks interfered only minimally, with 20 Seljuks slain that day.[13]More important than the battles was the logistical situation; supplies were running out, and morale was very low. Desertion was frequent among the foot soldiers, as was death from dehydration. Despite this, the crusaders continued their march until they reached the Seljuk capital city ofIconiumon 13 May.

On 14 May, the Crusaders found and defeated the main Seljuk army, putting it to rout.[14]Seljuk records attribute the Crusader victory to a devastating heavy cavalry charge which supposedly consisted of 7,000 lancers in white clothing and mounted on snow-white horses.[14][15]On 15 May, the Crusaders replenished their surviving horses at a bog, but the next day, 60 Crusaders were killed in a Seljuk attack.[16]That same day, the Seljuks offered to let Barbarossa and his army pass through their territory for the price of 300 pounds of gold and "the lands of the Armenians" (theArmenian Kingdom of Cilicia). Barbarossa refused, supposedly saying "Rather than making a royal highway with gold and silver, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose knights we are, the road will have to be opened with iron".[12][16]

Battle

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While some German commanders advised heading directly through Cilician Armenia to theLevant,Emperor Frederick insisted on taking Iconium to assure his army's food and horse shortage, so on 17 May the Crusaders camped in the "garden and pleasure ground of the sultan" outside the city, where they found plenty of water.[17][12]Meanwhile, Qutb al-Din regrouped and rebuilt his forces after the first defeat, and retaliated on 18 May. Barbarossa divided his forces into two: one commanded by his son the Duke Frederick of Swabia leading the assault to the city, and the other commanded by himself facing the Turkish field army.[1]The city fell easily; Duke Frederick was able to assault and take the walls with little resistance, and the garrison failed to put up much of a fight before surrendering altogether.[18]The Germans proceeded to massacre the citizenry.[18]

The pitched battle was a much harder fight, and required the presence of the Emperor to defeat the larger Turkish force.[1]He is reported to have said to his soldiers: "But why do we tarry, of what are we afraid? Christ reigns. Christ conquers. Christ commands".[19][20]Although the fighting was intense, the Germans managed to crush the Turks with relative ease.[21][b]The Seljuks were routed yet again, leaving the city at the mercy of the crusaders. The Germans did not pursue, partly because they had been weakened by a food shortage for the previous two weeks.[6]

Aftermath

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After the victory, the Crusaders took booty amounting to 100,000 marks in the city and renewed themselves and their horses with wheat and barley.[6]They rested for five days in the city and camped in the sultan's park on 23 May.[22][23]There they bought over 6,000 horses and mules at steep prices, as well as an unknown number of donkeys, and stocked themselves with bread, meat, butter and cheese.[22][23]They continued their march on 26 May, taking 20 high-ranking Turkish nobles as hostages to safeguard themselves.[22]The success of the Imperial army greatly alarmed Saladin, who was forced to weaken his army at theSiege of Acreand send detachments to the north to block the arrival of the Germans.[24]Saladin even dismantled the walls of the Syrian ports lest they be used by the crusaders against him.

But this proved unnecessary as, on 10 June, Barbarossa drowned while crossing theSalephriver. Much of his army disbanded and sailed home through the Cilician and Syrian ports. Barbarossa's son, Frederick VI of Swabia, carried on with the remnants of the German army, along with the Hungarian army under the command of prince Géza, with the aim of burying the emperor inJerusalem,but efforts to conserve his body in vinegar failed. Hence, his flesh was interred in theChurch of Saint PeterinAntioch,[25]his bones in thecathedral of Tyre,[25]and his heart and inner organs inSaint Paul's ChurchinTarsus.The German army was then struck with an onset of disease near Antioch and a large number of them died.[26]About 5,000 Imperials and Hungarians under Duke Frederick joined the siege of Acre in October.[27]

Casualties

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The Turks lost 3,000 killed at the field battle on 18 May according to the History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick (Historia de Expeditione Friderici Imperatoris), a contemporary German chronicle relying on eyewitness accounts from the participating Crusaders and completed by an Austrian cleric calledAnsbertno later than 1200.[28][6]

Notes

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  1. ^"After desperate fighting involving the Emperor himself, the Turks outside the city were defeated, apparently against numerical odds, leaving Iconium at the mercy of German pillaging and looting".[1]
  2. ^"Even an enfeebled and decimated German army had managed to dispose of [the Seljuks of Iconium] with comparative ease"[21]

References

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  1. ^abcdeTyerman 2006,p. 426.
  2. ^Phillips 2002,p. 140.
  3. ^abcdefghiLoud 2010,p. 19.
  4. ^abcBachrach & Bachrach 2017,p. 197.
  5. ^Konstam 2004,p. 124.
  6. ^abcdLoud 2010,p. 111.
  7. ^Freed 2016,p. 471.
  8. ^Loud 2010,p. 45.
  9. ^Tyerman 2006,p. 418.
  10. ^Loud 2010,p. 165.
  11. ^Loud 2010,p. 104.
  12. ^abcJohnson 1969,p. 112.
  13. ^abLoud 2010,p. 105.
  14. ^abLoud 2010,p. 107.
  15. ^Johnson 1969,p. 111.
  16. ^abLoud 2010,p. 108.
  17. ^Loud 2010,p. 109.
  18. ^abLoud 2010,p. 110.
  19. ^"Christus regnat. Christus vincit. Christus imperat"is the refrain of theLaudes imperiale,associated in the mediæval German mind with theimperial officeand particularly with the EmperorCharlemagne.Imperial propaganda had represented him as both asaintand a precursor to the Crusaders, as in theRolandsliedofConrad the Priest.
  20. ^Johnson 1969,p. 113.
  21. ^abJohnson 1969,p. 116.
  22. ^abcLoud 2010,p. 113.
  23. ^abLoud 2010,p. 162.
  24. ^Loud 2010,p. 64.
  25. ^abTyerman 2006,p. 428.
  26. ^Loud 2010,p. 181.
  27. ^Asbridge 2004,p. 422.
  28. ^Loud 2010,pp. 1–2.

Sources

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  • Asbridge, Thomas(2004).The First Crusade: A New History.Oxford.ISBN0-19-517823-8.
  • Bachrach, Bernard S.; Bachrach, David S. (2017).Warfare in Medieval Europe c.400 – c.1453.Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.ISBN978-1138887664.
  • Freed, John B. (2016).Frederick Barbarossa: a prince and the myth.New Haven. p. 471.ISBN978-0-300-22116-9.OCLC950613726.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Johnson, Edgar N. (1969). "The Crusades of Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI". In Setton, Kenneth M.; Wolff, Robert Lee; Hazard, Harry W. (eds.).A History of the Crusades.Vol. II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311. The University of Wisconsin Press.
  • Konstam, A. (2004).Historical Atlas of The Crusades.Mercury Books.
  • Loud, G. A. (2010).The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa: The History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick and Related Texts.Farnham, Surrey:Ashgate Publishing.ISBN9780754665755.
  • Phillips, Jonathan (2002).The Crusades 1095-1197.Routledge.
  • Tyerman, Christopher (2006).God's War: A New History of the Crusades.Harvard University Press.ISBN9780674023871.
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