Battle of Dorylaeum (1147)
| date | October 25, 1147 |
|---|---|
| place | Dorylaion |
| output | Victory of the Rum Seljuks |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 20,000 | unknown |
| losses | |
|
approx.17,500 |
unknown but minor |
The second Battle of Dorylaum was a battle between an army of crusaders under Conrad III. and an army of the Rum Seljuks in 1147 during the Second Crusade and ended with an easily fought victory for the Seljuks.
prehistory
At the end of May 1147, Conrad III. set out from Regensburg with his army of crusaders . The army consisted of about 20,000 men, including many unarmed pilgrims. In the wake of Konrad, Vladislav II Duke (from 1158 King) of Bohemia and Boleslaw I Duke of Silesia also went with them. At the head of the German nobility was Konrad's nephew and heir, Friedrich Duke of Swabia (later Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa ) and Konrad's half-brother, Heinrich II. Jasomirgott , Margrave of Austria and Duke of Bavaria . The troops from Lorraine were under the direction of Stephen von Bar , Bishop of Metz (1120–1162), and Henry I of Lorraine , Bishop of Toul (1127–1167).
Even before the train reached Byzantium , there were disputes with Manuel I , the emperor of the Byzantine Empire , who feared that Konrad would turn against him too. Manuel agreed in a secret treaty on an armistice with the Seljuks. However, his wife Bertha was able to mediate between the crusaders and himself. Against Manuel's advice, Konrad went through the middle of Asia Minor , like the First Crusade some 50 years earlier .
The battle
Konrad's army was insufficiently prepared for the march through the rugged highlands. Progress in the mountains was so slow that provisions and water ran out earlier than planned. The exhausted and thirsty crusaders were then caught in a well-prepared ambush by the Seljuks near Dorylaion . The Seljuk mounted archers succeeded in persuading the Christian knights to pursue them. Scattered and far from their own infantry, they became easy prey for the Seljuk cavalry. The Christian infantry was now completely taken by surprise and had to withdraw with catastrophic losses.
The survivors initially withdrew in an orderly manner and were constantly harassed by Seljuk persecutors. The need to get provisions in the surrounding area slowed their progress. When the Seljuks succeeded in overpowering the rearguard of the crusaders and killing their commander, Count Bernhard von Plötzkau , panic broke out in the crusader army and the Seljuks slaughtered the disorganized fleeing people unhindered.
Konrad only reached safe Nicaea at the beginning of November , by then he had lost most of his armed forces. Many of the survivors were wounded, including Konrad.
consequences
With the scant rest of his troops, Konrad met with the train of Louis VII at Lopadium on the Rhyndakos , and the two marched together along the coast. In Ephesus, Konrad fell ill and stayed behind. The army suffered from rainy winter weather, was poorly supplied by the allied Byzantines and repeatedly attacked by the Seljuks. Few of them reached Palestine .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. DTV-Verlag Munich, 2nd edition of the translation 1997, p. 563
literature
- Reinhard Barth / Uwe Birnstein / Ralph Ludwig / Michael Solka: The Chronicle of the Crusades , Chronik Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 2003. ISBN 3-577-14609-5
- Marshall W. Baldwin: A History of the Crusades , The first hundred years , University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1969. pp. 495-497