October 1097 – June 1098 · Syria Theater
October 1097 – June 1098
The great city of Antioch held the First Crusade at bay for eight grueling months, the besiegers themselves starving and dying outside its walls. The crusaders finally took the city through treachery in June 1098 — only to be immediately besieged in turn by a relief army under Kerbogha of Mosul. Half-starved and desperate, and inspired by the discovery of the Holy Lance, they sallied out and routed Kerbogha's far larger force.
Commanders