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The Battle of Dorylaeum, 1097

In 1095 Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade to bring aid to recapture the Holy Land from the Turks. Bohemond was inspired by the religious zeal of the crusaders, but also saw the chance to win new lands for himself in the east.
By 1097, the army of the First Crusade was marching across the arid territory of Anatolia. To deal with the logistics of feeding an army of 70,000, the Crusade’s leaders divided their force in two: one contingent under Bohemond and Robert Curthose of Normandy marching ahead, and another contingent under Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond IV of Toulouse marching a few days behind. They planned to rendezvous later at the abandoned town of Dorylaeum.
At first Bohemond and Robert’s march was uneventful. However, on July 1st, they were attacked by a Seljuk Turkish cavalry under Sultan Kilij Arslan.
The Seljuk Turks were mounted archers – something unheard of in the West – who could sweep in on their swift mares and pepper their enemy with arrows, rushing away as rapidly, then wheeling back for another attack.
In the face of this maddening whirlwind ambush, Bohemond and Robert Curthose kept their cool. They saw immediately the danger of their heavily armed knights being picked off if they tried to charge after the faster light Turkish horsemen. Instead, Bohemond ordered the knights to dismount and form a protective shield screen around the horses, supplies, and non-combatant pilgrims. Suddenly, the pestering swift archery of the Turks was useless against a solid wall of crusader shields. Bohemond’s men held firm, until the arrival of the second crusader army under Godfrey and Raymond, which now delivered a devastating charge onto the Turks. In a panic, the Turks fled, and victory belonged to the Christians.
This was an early glimpse of Bohemond’s strategic brilliance. In the face of near disaster, he turned the advantages of the Turks against them, while using the defensive power of the heavily armored Frankish knight to its full effect with ingenious foresight and discipline.

Sources:

-Asbridge, Thomas - The First Crusade: A New History, (Oxford, 2004)
-Fulcher of Chartres - A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, 1095-1127, trans. Frances Rita Ryan, (University of Tennessee Press, 1973)
-Madden, Thomas - The New Concise History of the Crusades, (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006)
-Peters, Edward - The First Crusade: Fulcher of Chartres and Other Sources Materials, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998)
-Tyerman, Christopher - God’s War, (Harvard University Press, 2006)