The Battle of Civetot in 1096 brought an end to the

People's Crusade The People's Crusade was the beginning phase of the First Crusade whose objective was to retake the Holy Land, and Jerusalem in particular, from Islamic rule. After in 1095 the head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Urban II started to urge faith ...

, which was a poorly-armed movement of lower-class pilgrims of the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...

distinct from the subsequent and much more well-known Princes' Crusade.

Background

After the disastrous defeat for the Crusaders in the siege of Xerigordos, two Turkish spies spread a rumor that the German element of the People's Crusade, which had taken Xerigordon, had also taken

Nicaea Nicaea, also known as Nicea or Nikaia (; ; grc-gre, Νίκαια, ) was an ancient Greek city in Bithynia, where located in northwestern Anatolia and is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and s ...

. This had the effect of causing excitement among the main camp of Crusaders to share in the looting of the city as soon as possible. The Turks were waiting on the road to Nicaea. Peter the Hermit, the nominal leader of the crusade, had gone back to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

to arrange for supplies and was due back soon, and most of the leaders argued to wait for him to return (which he never did). However, Geoffrey Burel, who had taken command, argued that it would be cowardly to wait, and they should move against the Turks right away. His will prevailed and, on the morning of October 21, the entire army of over 20,000 marched out toward Nicaea, leaving women, children, the old and the sick behind at the camp.

Battle and aftermath

Three miles from the camp, where the road entered a narrow, wooded valley near the village of Dracon, the Turkish army of

Kilij Arslan I Kilij Arslan ibn Suleiman ( 1ca, قِلِج اَرسلان; fa, , Qilij Arslān; tr, I. Kılıç Arslan or ''Kılıcarslan'', "Sword Lion") (‎1079–1107) was the Seljuq Sultan of Rum from 1092 until his death in 1107. He ruled the Sultan ...

was waiting. When approaching the valley, the Crusaders marched noisily and were immediately subjected to a hail of arrows. Panic set in immediately and within minutes, the army was in full rout back to the camp. Most of the Crusaders were slaughtered (upwards of 60,000 by some accounts); however, women, children, and those who surrendered were spared. One of the leaders of the crusade, the knight Walter Sans Avoir, was killed in the thick of the action. Three thousand, including Geoffrey Burel, were able to obtain refuge in an abandoned castle. Eventually, the Byzantines under Constantine Katakalon sailed over and raised the siege; these few thousand returned to Constantinople, the only survivors of the People's Crusade.

References

{{Reflist Civetot Civetot 1096 in Asia 1090s in the Byzantine Empire Civetot