Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The roots of victory
- 2 War in the West
- 3 Campaigns, generals and leadership
- 4 Preparations and prelude
- 5 The size of the crusader army
- 6 The first enemy: the Turks of Asia Minor
- 7 The second enemy: the siege of Antioch
- 8 The siege of Antioch: crisis and delivery
- 9 The siege of Antioch: victory
- 10 Divisions
- 11 Jerusalem: triumphant ending
- 12 Perspectives
- Appendix: A note on the sources
- Select bibliography
- Index
8 - The siege of Antioch: crisis and delivery
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The roots of victory
- 2 War in the West
- 3 Campaigns, generals and leadership
- 4 Preparations and prelude
- 5 The size of the crusader army
- 6 The first enemy: the Turks of Asia Minor
- 7 The second enemy: the siege of Antioch
- 8 The siege of Antioch: crisis and delivery
- 9 The siege of Antioch: victory
- 10 Divisions
- 11 Jerusalem: triumphant ending
- 12 Perspectives
- Appendix: A note on the sources
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
The siege was significantly tighter by December 1097 but by that time operations were running into a new phase for the sources arc unanimous – food was desperately short. This crisis of supply saw the crusade come desperately close to failure. Albert of Aachen says they had simply eaten up the resources of the countryside and the surrounding cities round about. Ralph of Caen speaks of shortage, stressing how food had to come from afar: Syria, Cilicia, Rhodes, Cyprus, Chios, Samos, Crete and Mytilene. It was a bitter winter, quite unexpectedly like home as Stephen of Blois would remark, and Ralph speaks of its harshness rotting the weapons of the army. Even Stephen of Blois, who was an incorrigible optimist, speaks of the suffering and starvation amongst the North French from which many were rescued only through God's aid and the wealth of the leaders. Anselm recalled that bitter winter: ‘Why recount the trials of many kinds, which, even if passed over in silence, are sufficiently evident in themselves – hunger, intemperate weather and the desertion of faint-hearted soldiers.’ Such hardship must have had a devastating effect on the army encamped in the plain outside Antioch and exposed to the worst of the weather.
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- Information
- Victory in the EastA Military History of the First Crusade, pp. 236 - 268Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994
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