Field of Blood

June 28, 1119

Prince Roger of Antioch, refusing to wait for reinforcements, rode out to meet Ilghazi of Mardin near Sarmada and was annihilated. Roger himself fell with a sword through his face. Crusader heads were stacked on Aleppo's walls, and the northern Frankish principalities never fully recovered. The disaster left the principality of Antioch so weakened that it depended on the king of Jerusalem for military protection for years afterward.