The Battle of Civetot was fought between the forces of 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. In 1095, after the head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Urban II started to urge faith ...

and of the

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turks, Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate society, Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persi ...

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

on 21 October 1096. The battle brought an end to the People's Crusade; some of the survivors joined the Princes' Crusade.

Background

The People's Crusade, consisting of soldiers, peasants and priests, set over to Anatolia in the beginning of August 1096. Once there, however, the leadership of the group fell apart and the Crusaders split along ethnic lines. A German detachment, which had captured the castle of Xerigordos (location unknown), was destroyed in the siege of Xerigordos in September. Thereafter, two Turkish spies spread a rumor among the Crusaders that this group of Germans had also taken

Nicaea Nicaea (also spelled Nicæa or Nicea, ; ), also known as Nikaia (, Attic: , Koine: ), was an ancient Greek city in the north-western Anatolian region of Bithynia. It was the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and seve ...

; this made the main camp of Crusaders in Civetot eager to share in the looting of that city as soon as possible. Turkish forces waited on the road to Nicaea.

Peter the Hermit Peter the Hermit ( 1050 – 8 July 1115 or 1131), also known as Little Peter, Peter of Amiens (French language, fr. ''Pierre d'Amiens'') or Peter of Achères (French language, fr. ''Pierre d'Achères''), was a Roman Catholic priest of Amiens and ...

, the nominal leader of the crusade, had gone back to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

to arrange for supplies and was due back soon, and most of the remaining leaders argued that it would be better 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 that they should move against the Turks right away. His will prevailed and, on the morning of 21 October, 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 was waiting. When approaching the valley, the Crusaders marched noisily and were quickly 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), including women, children and other non-combatants; only young girls,

nuns A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of Evangelical counsels, poverty, chastity, and obedience in the Enclosed religious orders, enclosure of a monastery or convent.' ...

and boys that could be sold as slaves were taken alive (the princes' crusade later liberated some of these close to

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

). 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. After regrouping in Constantinople, the survivors joined with the "Princes" toward

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

to take part in 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 Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...

, with Peter the Hermit taking a more subordinate position in the new army.Barker, Ernest (1911). "

". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 21. (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press. pp. 294–295.

References

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