Crusade of Kings, revenge in Eskişehir taken by Turks

Reasons for the expedition

When İmadeddin Zengi (1127-1146) conquered Urfa (1098-1244), where the Crusaders ruled for forty-six years on December 24, 1144, the first Crusader County of Urfa, which was established in the First Crusade, was destroyed. This conquest caused great joy in the Islamic world and great fear and panic in Europe.

The Crusaders immediately contacted Antioch and sent Hugue, the bishop of Gibele, as an emissary to request the Pope to initiate a Crusade. The bishop of Gibele, who reached Rome in the autumn of 1145 due to the difficulties of the travel conditions, informed the Pope and expressed the necessity of a new crusade. After that, Hugue continued his call for the Crusade, leaving Rome and traveling into France and Germany.

The Call for a Second Crusade in Europe

Pope III. Eugenius issued an edict and called for a new Crusade. The Pope sent preachers all over Europe. The most able of these preachers was Archpriest Bernard de Clairvaux (1090-1153). German King III, who lingered to accept the cross. He persuaded the king by preaching to Konrad during a service, as if he were speaking from the mouth of Jesus, "Is there any good that I have not done for you, man?" To this call, the German King III. Konrad (1138-1152) and his nephew Friedrich I Barbarossa (1155-1190), who would join the Third Crusade as emperor after him, and King VII of France. Louis (1120-1180) also gave a positive answer.

King of France VII. Louis accepts the cross

King VII, who was the first to accept the cross at the Crusader council gathered in Vezelay, located in Central-North France, on March 31, 1146, and announced that he would participate in the expedition. Louis, later the German King III. Konrad followed. In this development, they thought that the Second Crusade was more comprehensive than the first, and that a larger and more successful Crusade would be made under the command of kings, not nobles.

A group of crusaders, consisting of English, Flemish and Friesler, who set out from England, landed in the spring of 1147 when they were caught in a storm off Spain and besieged Lisbon with the Portuguese King Alfonso I (1128-1185). After a fierce siege, the city was captured, looted from all sides, and the Muslims were brutally murdered. These victories of the Crusaders were the only success of the Second Crusade.

Eskisehir war

Sultan Mesut, on the other hand, realized this great danger and ordered his orders to gather soldiers, make the necessary preparations and dominate the steep passes. Sultan Mesut took every precaution by learning the necessary lesson from the heavy defeats of his father Kılıçaslan I in Iznik and Eskişehir. He also signed a non-aggression pact with the Eastern Roman Emperor Manuel. The news that the Seljuks and Eastern Rome had made a peace agreement was also heard among the Crusaders, and this news was met with horror, ridicule and deep distrust. Those who gave the strongest reaction to this peace agreement were the Catholic clergy in the army. They went so far as to propose an attack on Constantinople. However, King of France VII. Louis opposed this extreme and extreme idea. About fifty-five years after this event, Constantinople would be captured and plundered by the crusaders in the Fourth Crusade.

German King III. Conrad and King of France VII. After Louis decided that the armies should go separately, Konrad set out first. His nephew Friedrich von Schwaben (Barbarossa) provided the discipline of his army. With the help of the Emperor's men, who met Konrad in Hungary, the Germans crossed the Eastern Roman territory by making a bridge with ships on the Danube River. The Roman historian Kinnamos states in his "Historia" that they could not count the rest after counting the people crossing the road to 900,000. Interestingly, the Crusader chronicler gives the same figure and number in Odo de Deuil, the private chaplain of the King of France. The exposure of the German Crusaders, who settled in the Thrace plain, to flooding around Küçükçekmece, gave great casualties to the German army. As many soldiers drowned in the flooded German camp, the army's supplies were also destroyed. The date was September 10, 1147 when the German army finally reached Istanbul in a desolate condition. The German Crusaders crossed the strait with Eastern Roman assistance and some coercion. When the Germans arrived in Iznik, they were divided into two, some of them going south along the Aegean coast, while the other part began to advance towards Eskişehir, as in the First Crusade.

Due to his regular intelligence, Sultan Mesud took the necessary precautions with the support of his father-in-law from Danishmend and placed his army on the Eskişehir road route. Lying in ambush, the Seljuk troops almost completely destroyed a German detachment near Akşehir, giving the Crusaders a great intimidation. The Germans, who could not cope with the swift and rapid attacks of the Turkish cavalry, were defeated and tried to advance towards Eskişehir, but they could not cope with the hunger as well as their losses and some of them had to return.

On October 26, 1147, he suffered a heavy defeat by the great army gathered by the Seljuk Sultan Mesud I (1116-1156) in Dorylaion, near Bathys (Sarısu) Stream. Almost all of his army was destroyed. German King III. Konrad barely escaped with his life.

Sultan Mesud, who had a great defeat of the German Crusaders, thus took revenge for the battle in which his father Kılıçarslan I was defeated against the First Crusader army on 1 July 1097 in the same place.

The German King, who could not find what he was looking for on the Eskişehir line, united with the French Crusaders, who crossed the strait, in a last effort to restore his deteriorated reputation in Iznik. Although the French forces managed to advance as far as the old Roman city of Ephesus, Konrad fell ill here and realized that he could not continue on his way. Konrad entrusted his army to Louis with the invitation he received from Istanbul and went to Manuel and his sister-in-law, who was the wife of the emperor.

Kazikbeli Victory of Seljuks

About a month after the Germans, on October 4, 1147, a smaller number of French armies arrived in front of Istanbul. Everard de Barre, grand master of the Templier knight sect, King VII. He was in charge of maintaining the order of the army as well as advising Louis.

Emperor Manuel VII. He greeted Louis warmly, promising to honor his wishes. In return, Louis swore, with unexpected docility, that he would return the lands he seized.

When the French came to Iznik in early November, they encountered the Germans who had fled their defeat. Konrad and Louis began to continue on their way south.

While the French army and the Germans with them continued to advance in such an irregular way along the Menderes valley, the Seljuk Turks did not sit idle and continued to harass them. The Crusaders arrived in Denizli on January 4, 1148. After taking food for a few days here, they continued on their way again.

While crossing the Kazıkbeli Pass of the Crusaders, they suffered a great defeat against the Seljuks. Many of the elite royal guards clamped around the king of France fell dead under the Seljuk swords in this confusion. Odo tells that King Louis climbed a rock by holding on to the roots of a tree, and narrowly avoided being captured because he was not recognized. The fact that Louis sees their escape from disaster as a blessing from God expresses their desperation.

King VII. Louis's rescue by climbing a tree during the raid between Denizli and Antalya

King Louis was able to pass to Antalya with what was left of his army. When King Louis took action to go to Antakya with the ships he could find, the soldiers who could not go applied to the King and asked how they could go to Antakya on foot without food, water, money or horses. King Louis, on the other hand, provided a detachment for guidance and protection by the Byzantine governor, giving each of them five hundred marks. The king and his entourage went to Antakya on the ships they could find. The remaining soldiers set out for Antakya by road. Some entered Roman service, some died of starvation or disease, some were captured or died in the attacks of the Turks.

When King Louis took action to go to Antakya with the ships he could find, the soldiers who could not go applied to the King and asked how they could go to Antakya on foot without food, water, money or horses. King Louis, on the other hand, provided a detachment for guidance and protection by the Byzantine governor, giving each of them five hundred marks. The king and his entourage went to Antakya on the ships they could find. The remaining soldiers set out for Antakya by road. Some entered Roman service, some died of starvation or disease, some were captured or died in the attacks of the Turks. However, few of them were able to reach Antakya in a devastated state.

All along the way, the Turks took pity on the hungry, the poor and the sick and took care of them and fed them. In the face of this warm interest and unusually good behavior, more than three thousand converted to Islam. Odo de Deuil sadly describes this situation as follows: “O mercy, which is more cruel than treason! Muslims bought the religion of the Christians by giving them bread (they did not force anyone to reject their faith, although the Turks were certainly satisfied with the service they received)”.

The siege of Damascus, which the two kings embarked on with the army of Jerusalem, lasted only four days, on the fifth day they had to end the siege. Crusader reputation and the legend of the invincible knight were shattered. Konrad's nephew, the future Emperor, young Barbarossa, was putting all the blame for the defeat on the Eastern Roman Emperor. Konrad and his nephew returned to their country empty-handed after a while, in February 1149 and Louis.

By establishing the Anatolian unity, Sultan Mesud had destroyed two great Crusader armies like his father, Kılıçarslan I, with his powerful intelligence.

References

Odo of Deuil, “De profectione Ludovici VII in orientem The Journey of Louis VII to the East. Edited, with an English Translationby Virginia Gingerick Berry”, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948)

Historia (1118-1176) by Ioannes Kinnamos, Edited by Prof. Dr. Işın Demirkent, (Ankara: TTK Press, 2001), 151-152.