Crusaders besiege Nicaea

May 6, 1097

The main Crusader armies united with Byzantine forces and laid siege to the Seljuk capital of Nicaea in Bithynia. Kilij Arslan's attempts to relieve the city failed. Alexios I negotiated a secret surrender so that his Byzantine troops entered the gates first, denying the Crusaders their expected plunder. The resulting bitterness between Latin and Greek allies set a pattern of mutual suspicion that would poison Crusader-Byzantine relations.