940*4 R93h v*2 53-40634
Runciman
History of the Crusades
A HISTORY OF
THE CRUSADES
VOLUME I
THE FIRST CRUSADE
AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE
KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM
PLATE I
TEMPLAR KNIGHTS FIGHTING THE SARACENS
A HISTORY OF
THE CRUSADES
VOLUME II
THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM
and the Prankish East
1100-1187
BY
STEVEN *NIMAN
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1952
PUBLISHED BY
THE SYNDICS OF THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London Office : Bentley House, N.W.I
American Branch : New York
Agents for Canada, India, and Pakistan: MacmUlan
Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge
(Brooke CrutMey, University Printer]
74^,4-
93>L
v. z To
RUTH BOVILL
CONTENTS
List of Plates page ix
List of Maps x
Preface xi
BOOK I
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
KINGDOM
Chapter I Outremer and its Neighbours 3
_ ~JI The Crusades of 1 101 18
III The Norman Princes of Antioch 32
IV Toulouse and Tripoli 56
V King Baldwin I 71
VI Equilibrium in the North 107
BOOK n
THE ZENITH
Chapter I King Baldwin II 143
II The Second Generation 187
III The Claims of the Emperor 206
IV TheFallofEdessa 225
BOOK 10
THE SECOND CRUSADE
Chapter^ The Gathering of the Kings 247
II Christian Discord 264
III Fiasco 278
vii
Contents
BOOK IV
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
Chapter I Life in Outremer page 291
II The Rise of Nur ed-Din 3^5
IE The Return of the Emperor 345
IV The Lure of Egypt 3<&
BOOK V
THE TRIUMPH OF ISLAM
Chapter I Moslem Unity 403
II The Horns of Hattin 436
Appendix I Principal Sources for the History of the 475
Latin East, 1100-1187
II The Battle of Hattin 486
III Genealogical Trees
1. The Royal House of Jerusalem, the
Counts of Edessa and the Lords of
Sidon and Caesarea
2. The Princes of Antioch and the Kings
of Sicily
3. The Counts of Tripoli and the Princes
of Galilee
4. The Lords of Toron, Oultrejourdain,
Nablus and Ramleh
5. The Ortoqid Princes
6. The House of Zengi
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I ORIGINAL SOURCES 493
II MODERN WORKS 497
Index 50I
viii
LIST OF PLATES
I Templar knights fighting the Saracens frontispiece
(From the 1 2th century frescoes of Cressac, Charente.
Photograph by the Muse*e des Monuments frangais)
II Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives facing p. 10
(From Syria, Illustrated, Vol. Ill by Bartlett, Allom, etc.,
London, 1838)
III Tripoli 60
(From Syria, Illustrated, Vol. I by Bartlett, Purser, etc.
London, 1836)
IV The Emperor John Comnenus 208
(From a mosaic in Agia Sophia, Constantinople, repro
duced in Whittcmore: The Mosaics of Haghia Sophia
at Istanbul, Oxford, 1942)
V Damascus 282
(From Syria, Illustrated, Vol. I)
VI Seals of Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem: 308
Bohemond III, Prince of Antioch : Pons,
Count of Tripoli : William of Bures,
Prince of Galilee
(From designs by Amigo, published in Schlumberger :
Sigillographie de I* Orient Latin, Paris, 1943)
VII The Emperor Manuel Comnenus and his 360
wife, Maria of Antioch
(Codex Vaticanus Graecus, 1176)
VIII Aleppo 410
(From Maundrell: A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem,,
Oxford, 1731)
IX
LIST OF MAPS
I Northern Syria in the twelfth century page 109
II Southern Syria in the twelfth century 145
III The Kingdom of Jerusalem in the twelfth century 1 89
IV Jerusalem under the Latin Kings 293
V Egypt in the twelfth century 363
VI Galilee 43 8
PREFACE
In this volume I have attempted to tell the story of the Prankish
states of Outremer from the accession of King Baldwin I to the
reconquest of Jerusalem by Saladin. It is a story that has been told
before by European writers, notably with German thoroughness
by Rohricht and with French elegance and ingenuity by Ren
Grousset, and, too briefly, in English by W. B. Stevenson. I have
covered the same ground and used the same principal sources as
these writers, but have ventured to give to the evidence an inter
pretation that sometimes differs from my predecessors . The nar
rative cannot always be simple. In particular, the politics of the
Moslem world in the early twelfth century defy a straightforward
analysis; but they must be understood if we are to understand the
establishment of the Crusader states and the later causes of the
recovery of Islam.
The twelfth, century experienced none of the great racial
migrations that characterized the eleventh century and were to
recur in the thirteenth, to complicate the story of the later
Crusades and the decline and fall of Outremer. For the moment
we can concentrate our main attention on Outremer itself. But we
must always keep in view the wider background of western
European politics, of the religious wars of the Spanish and Sicilian
rulers and of the preoccupation of Byzantium and of the eastern
Caliphate. The preaching of Saint Bernard, the arrival of the
English fleet at Lisbon, the palace-intrigues at Constantinople and
Baghdad are all episodes in the drama, though its climax was
reached on a bare hill in Galilee.
The main theme in this volume is warfare; and in dwelling on
the many campaigns and raids I have followed the example of the
old chroniclers, who knew their business; for war was the back
ground to life in Outremer, and the hazards of the battlefield often
xi
Preface
decided its destiny. But I have included in this volume a chapter
on the life and organization of the Prankish East. I hope to give
an account of its artistic and economic developments in my next
volume. Both of those aspects of the Crusading movement
reached fuller importance in the thirteenth century*
In the Preface to my first volume I mentioned some of the great
historians whose writings have helped me. Here I must pay
special tribute to the work of John La Monte, whose early death
has been a cruel blow to Crusading historiography. We owe to
him, above all others, our specialized knowledge of the govern
mental system in the Prankish East. I wish also to acknowledge
my debt to Professor Ckude Cahen of Strasbourg, whose great
monograph on Northern Syria and whose various articles are of
supreme importance to our subject.
I owe gratitude to the many friends who have helped me on
my journeys to the East and in particular to the Departments of
Antiquities of Jordan and of Lebanon and to the Iraq Petroleum
Company.
My thanks are again due to the Syndics of the Cambridge
University Press for their kindness and patience.
STEVEN RUNCIMAN
LONDON 1952
BOOK I
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF
THE KINGDOM
CHAPTER I
OUTREMER AND ITS
NEIGHBOURS
* Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy
nations! EZEKIEL xxxvi, 13
When the Prankish armies entered Jerusalem, the First Crusade
attained its goal. But if the Holy City were to remain in Christian
hands and if the way thither were to be made easy for pilgrims,
a stable government must be set up there, with reliable defences
^nd sure communications with Europe. The Crusaders that
planned to settle in the East were well aware of their needs. The
brief reign of Duke Godfrey saw the beginnings of a Christian
kingdom. But Godfrey, for all his estimable qualities, was a weak,
foolish man. Qjit of jealousy he quarrelled with his colleagues;
out of genuine piety he yielded far too much power into the hands
of the Church. His death and his replacement by his brother
Baldwin saved the young kingdom. For Baldwin possessed the
wisdom, the foresight and die toughness of a statesman. But the
task that lay before him was formidable; and he had few helpers
on whom he could rely. The great warriors of the First Crusade
itad all gone northward or returned to their homes. Of the leading
Actors of the movement only the most ineffectual remained in
Palestine, Peter the Hermit, of whose obscure life there we know
nothing, and who himself went back to Europe in ijoi. 1 The
princes had taken their armies with them. Baldwin himself,
to, landless younger son, had not brought to the East any vassals of
3iis own, but had borrowed men from his brothers. He was now
1 Hagenmeyer, Pierre I Hermite, pp. 330-44. Peter died at an advanced age
in 1115 (ibid. p. 34?)-
Outremer and its Neighbours
dependent upon a handful of devout warriors who had vowed
before they left Europe to remain in die Holy Land, and of
adventurers, many of them younger sons like himself, who hoped
to find estates there and to enrich themselves.
At the time of Baldwin s accession the Franks maintained a
precarious hold over the greater part of Palestine. It was most
secure along the mountainous backbone of the province, from
Bethlehem northward to the plain of Jezreel. Many of the villages
there had always been Christian; and most of the Moslems of the
district had abandoned their homes on the appearance of the
Prankish armies, even deserting their favourite city of Nablus,
which they called the Litde Damascus. This was an easy district to
defend. On the east it was protected by the valley of the Jordan.
Between Jericho and Beisan there was no ford across the river and
only one track led up from the valley into the mountains. It was
almost equally hard of access from the west. Fardier north was the
principality of Galilee, which Tancred had conquered for Christen
dom. This included the plain of Esdraelon and the hills from
Nazareth to Lake Huleh. Its borders were more vulnerable; it
was easily entered from the Mediterranean coast by Acre and from
the east along roads to the north and to the south of the Sea of
Galilee. But, from there too, much of the Moslem population had
emigrated, and only Christians remained, apart from small Jewish
colonies in the towns, especially in Safed, long the chief home of
the Talmudic tradition. But most of the Jews, after the massacre
of their co-religionists at Jerusalem and at Tiberias and their op
position to the Christians at Haifa, preferred to follow the Moslems
into exile. 1 The central, ridge and Galilee were die core of the
kingdom ; but tentacles were stretching out into the more Moslem
districts around. The principality of Galilee had recently been
given an outlet to the sea at Haifa. In the south the Negeb was
dominated by the Prankish garrison at Hebron. But the Castle of
Saint Abraham, as it was called by the Franks, was little more than
an island in a Moslem ocean.* The Franks had no control over the
1 For the Jews, see below, p. 295. * See above, vol. I, pp. 304, 316.
The Land of Palestine
tracks that led from Arabia, round the southern end of the Dead
Sea, along the course of the old Spice Road of the Byzantines; by
which the Bedouin could infiltrate into the Negeb and link up with
the Egyptian garrisons at Gaza and Ascalon on the coast. Jerusalem
itself had access to the sea down a corridor running through
Ramleh and Lydda to Jaffa; but the road was unsafe except for
military convoys. Raiding parties from the Egyptian cities,
Moslem refugees from the uplands and Bedouins from the desert
wandered over the country and lay in wait for unwary travellers.
The Norse pilgrim, Saewulf, who went up to Jerusalem in 1102,
after Baldwin had strengthened the defences of the kingdom, was
horrified by the dangers of the journey. 1 Between Jaffa and Haifa
were the Moslem cities of Arsuf and Caesarea, whose emirs had
announced themselves the vassals of Godfrey but kept all the while
in touch by sea with Egypt. North of Haifa the whole coast was
in Moslem hands for some two hundred miles, up to the outskirts
of Lattakieh, where the Countess of Toulouse was living with her
husband s household, under the protection of the Byzantine
governor. 2
Palestine was a poor country. Its prosperity in Roman times
had not outlasted the Persian invasions; and constant wars since
the coming of the Turks had interrupted its partial recovery under
the Caliphs. The land was better wooded than in modern times.
Despite the devastations of the Persians and the slow destruction
by peasants and by goats, there were still great forests in Galilee
and along die ridge of Carmel and round Samaria, and a pine-
forest by the coast, south of Caesarea. They brought moisture to
a countryside naturally short of water. Cornfields flourished in
the plain of Esdraelon. The tropical valley of the Jordan produced
bananas and other exotic fruits. But for the recent wars, the
coastal plain, with its crops and its gardens where vegetables and
the bitter orange were grown, would have been prosperous; and
many of the mountain villages were surrounded with olive-groves
1 Pilgrimage of Saewulf (m P.T.T.S. vol. iv), pp. 8-^9.
a See above, vol. I, pp. 318-19.
Outremer and its Neighbours
and fruit orchards. But in the main the country was arid and the
soil shallow and poor, especially round Jerusalem. There was no
big industry in any of its towns. Even when the kingdom was at
its zenith, its kings never were as rich as the Counts of Tripoli or
the Princes of Antioch. 1 The main source of wealth came from
tolls; for the fertile lands across the Jordan, Moab and the Jaulan,
found their natural outlet in the ports of the Palestine coast.
Merchandise travelling from Syria to Egypt passed along Pales
tinian roads; and caravans laden with spices from southern Arabia
had, down the ages, travelled through the Negeb to the Mediter
ranean Sea. But to ensure this source it was necessary to block all
other outlets. The whole frontier from the Gulf of Akaba to
Mount Hermon, and even from the Lebanon to the Euphrates,
must be controlled by the Franks.
Palestine was, moreover, an insalubrious country. Jerusalem,
with its mountain air and its Roman sanitation, was healthy enough,
except when the khamsin blew, sultry and dust-laden from the
south. But the warmer plains, whose fertility attracted the in
vaders, were the homes of disease, with their stagnant waters, their
mosquitoes and their flies. Malaria, typhoid and dysentery
flourished there. Epidemics such as cholera and the plague spread
rapidly through the crowded insanitary villages. Lepers abounded.
The western knights and soldiers, with their unsuitable clothes,
their heavy appetites and their ignorance of personal hygiene,
easily succumbed to these diseases. The rate of mortality was even
* higher among the children that they bred there, especially amongst
their sons. The cruel prank of nature that makes baby girls tougher
than their brothers was in future generations to present a constant
political problem to the Prankish kingdom. Later, as the colonists
learned to follow native customs, their chances of a long life
improved; but the death-rate remained formidable among their
infants. It was soon obvious that if the Prankish population of
Palestine was to be kept at a sufficient strength to dominate the
1 A good brief account of Palestine is given in Munro, The Kingdom of the
Crusaders, pp. 3-9.
Need for a Seaport
country, there must be continuous and ample immigration from
Europe.
King Baldwin s first task must be to secure the defence of his
kingdom. This would involve offensive action. Arsuf and
Caesarea must be taken and their territories absorbed. Ascalon,
lost to the Christians in 1099 owing to Godfrey s jealousy of
Count Raymond, 1 must be annexed and the Egyptian frontier
pushed to the south if the access from Jerusalem to the coast were
to be made safe. Advance posts must be established in Transjordan
and to the south of the Dead Sea. He must try to link up his king
dom with the Christian states to the north, to open the road for
pilgrims and more immigrants ; he must advance as far as possible
himself along the coast and must encourage the formation of other
Christian states in Syria. He must also secure for his kingdom
a better seaport than either Jaffa or Haifa. For Jaffa was an open
roadstead, too shallow for larger ships to come close inshore.
Landings were made in small ferry-boats, and were full of danger
if any wind were blowing. If the wind were strong, the ships
themselves were in danger. The day after Saewulf landed there in
1102, he witnessed the wrecking of more than twenty ships of the
flotilla with which he had voyaged, and the drowning of over
a thousand pilgrims. 2 The roadstead at Haifa was deeper and was
protected from the south and west winds by the rampart of Mount
Carmel, but was dangerously exposed to the north wind. The only
port on the Palestinian coast that was safe in all weathers was Acre.
For commercial as well as strategical reasons the conquest of Acre
must be achieved.
For his internal government Baldwin s chief need was for men
and money. He could not hope to build up his kingdom if he
were not rich and powerful enough to control his vassals. Man
power could only be obtained by welcoming immigration and by
inducing the native Christians to co-operate with him. Money
could be obtained by encouraging commerce with the neigh
bouring countries and by taking full advantage of the pious
1 See above, vol i, p. 297. a Pilgrimage of Saewulf, pp. 6-8,
Outremer and its Neighbours
desires of the faithful in Europe to subsidize and endow establish
ments in the Holy Land. But such endowments would be made in
favour of the Church. To ensure that they would be used to the
advantage of the whole kingdom he must be master of the Church.
The Franks* greatest asset was the disunity of the Moslem world,
It was owing to the jealousies of the Moslem leaders and their
refusal to work together that the First Crusade had achieved its
object. The Shia Moslems, headed by the Fatimid Caliph of Egypt,
loathed the Sunni Turks and the Caliph of Baghdad quite as much
as they loathed the Christians. Amongst the Turks there was
perpetual rivalry between the Seldjuks and the Danishmends,
between the Ortoqids and the house of Tutush, and between the
two sons of Tutush themselves. Individual atabegs, such as
Kerbogha, added to the confusion of their personal ambitions,
while minor Arab dynasties, such as the Banu Ammar of Tripoli
and the Munqidhites of Shaizar profited by the disorder to
maintain a precarious independence. The success of the Crusade
only added to this ineffectual chaos. Despondency and mutual
recrimination made it still harder for the Moslem princes to
co-operate. 1 {
The Christians had taken advantage of the discomfiture o|
Islam. In the north Byzantium, directed by the supple genius o
the Emperor Alexius, had utilized the Crusade to recover control
of western Asia Minor; and the Byzantine fleet had recently
brought die whole coast-line of the peninsula back into the!
Emperor s power. Even the Syrian port of Lattakieh was, owing;
to the help of Raymond of Toulouse, once more an imperial
possession. 2 The Armenian principalities of the Taurus and Anti-
Taurus mountains, which had been threatened with extinction by
the Turks, could now feel hopeful of survival. And the Crusade
had given birth to two Frankish principalities, which drove *
wedge into the Moslem world.
_ I An excellent brief account of the Moslem world at this time is given in die
introduction to Gibb s The Damascus Chronicle (Ibn al-Oalanisi).
See above, p. vol. I, pp. 318-19.
The Principality of Antioch
Of these the wealthier and more secure was the principality of
Antioch, founded by the Norman Bohemond, in spite of the
opposition of his leading Crusader colleague, Raymond of
Toulouse, and of his own sworn obligations to the Emperor
Alexius. It did not cover a large area; it consisted of the lower
Orontes valley, the plain of Antioch and the Amanus range, with
the two seaports of Alexandretta and Saint Symeon. But Antioch
itself, despite its recent vicissitudes, was a very rich city. Its
factories produced silk cloths and carpets, glass and pottery and
soap. Caravans from Aleppo and Mesopotamia ignored the wars
between Moslem and Christian to pass through its gates on their
way to the sea. The population of the principality was almost
entirely Christian, Greeks and Orthodox Syrians, Syrian Jacobites
and a few Nestorians, and Armenians, all of them so jealous of each
other that it was easy for the Normans to control them. 1 The chief
external danger came less from the Moslems than from Byzantium.
The Emperor considered that he had been cheated over the pos
session of Antioch; and now, with the Cilician ports and Lat-
takieh under his control and his navy based on Cyprus, he awaited
an opportunity to reassert his rights. The Orthodox within the
principality were eager to see Byzantine rule restored; but the
Normans could play off against them the Armenians and the
Jacobites. Antioch had suffered a severe blow in the summer of
1 1 oo, when Bohemond led his expedition to the upper Euphrates,
and his army was destroyed by the Danishmend emir and he him
self taken into captivity. But apart from the loss of man-power,
the disaster had not done lasting harm to the principality. The
prompt action of King Baldwin, who was then still Count of
Edessa, had prevented the Turks from following up their victory;
and a few months later Tancred came up from Palestine to take
over the regency during his uncle s imprisonment. In Tancred
the Normans found a leader as energetic and unscrupulous as
Bohemond. z
1 For Antioch, see Cahen, La Syrie du Nord, pp. 127 ft.
a See above, vol. i, pp. 320-1 ; and. below, chapter m.
Outremer and its Neighbours
The second Prankish state, the county of Edessa, served as a
buffer to protect Antioch from the Moslems. The county, now
ruled by Baldwin s cousin and namesake, Baldwin of Le Bourg,
was larger than the principality. It sprawled on either side of the
Euphrates, from Ravendel and Aintab to a vague frontier in
the Jezireh, to the east of the city of Edessa. It lacked natural
boundaries and a homogeneous population; for though it was
mainly occupied by Christians, Syrian Jacobites and Armenians, it
included Moslem towns such as Saruj. The Franks could not hope
to set up a centralized government. Instead, they ruled by gar
risoning a few strong fortresses from which they could levy taxes
and tribute on the surrounding villages and could embark on
profitable raids across the border. The whole district had always
been border-country, subject to unending warfare, but it con
tained fertile land and many prosperous towns. From his taxes
and his raids the Count of Edessa could raise an adequate revenue.
Baldwin I was comparatively far wealthier as Count of Edessa
than as King of Jerusalem. 1
The chief need of the two states was man-power; and even here
their need was less than that of Jerusalem. In Palestine the
Christian population had been forbidden to bear arms sitice first
the Moslems had invaded the land. There were no native soldiers
on whom the new rulers could rely. But Antioch and Edessa lay
within the old frontiers of Byzantium. There were Christians there
with a long tradition of military prowess, notably the Armenians.
If the Armenians would work in with the Prankish prince, ha
would have an army ready-made. Both Bohemond and Tancred:
at Antioch and Baldwin I and Baldwin II at Edessa, tried at first to-
conciliate the Armenians. But they proved themselves to be tuir
reliable and treacherous. They could not be given places of trust
The rulers of Antioch and of Edessa needed western-born knightsj
to lead their regiments and to command their castles, and western!
born clerics to administer their government. But while AntiocJ
offered to immigrants the prospect of a fairly secure existence,
1 Cahen, op. cit. pp. no ff.
10
PLATE II
Moslem Cities on the Coast
Edessa could only attract adventurers ready to lead the life of a
brigand-chief.
Jerusalem was divided from these two northern Prankish states
by a long stretch of territory ruled by a number of jealous Moslem
potentates. The coast immediately to the north of the kingdom
was held by four rich seaports, Acre, Tyre, Sidon and Beirut, each
owing an allegiance to Egypt that waxed and waned according to
the proximity of the Egyptian fleet. 1 North of Beirut was the
emirate of the Banu Ammar, with their capital at Tripoli. The
emir of Tripoli had recently profited by the departure of the
Crusaders to the south to extend his dominion as far as Tortosa. 2
Jabala, between Tortosa and Lattakieh, was in the hands of a local
magnate, the Qadi ibn Sulaiha, who in the summer of 1 101 handed
it over to Toghtekin, the atabeg of Duqaq of Damascus, from
whom it passed to the Banu Ammar. 3 In the Nosairi mountains,
behind Tortosa and Jabala, were the small emirates of the Banu
Muhris of Marqab and Qadmus and the Banu Amrun of Kahf. 4
The upper Orontes valley was divided between the adventurer
Khalaf ibn Mula ib of Apamca, a Shiite who therefore acknow
ledged Fatimid suzerainty, the Munqidhites of Shaizar, the most
important of these petty dynasties, and Janah ad-Daulah of Horns,
a former atabeg of Ridwan of Aleppo, who had quarrelled with
his master and enjoyed virtual independence. 5 Aleppo was still in
the hands of Ridwan, who as a member of the Seldjuk ruling
family bore the title of Malik, or King. The Jezireh, to the east,
was mainly occupied by members of the Ortoqid dynasty, who
had retired there on the Fatimid reconquest of Jerusalem in 1097,
and who were considered to be the vassals of Duqaq of Damascus.
Duqaq, a Malik like his brother Ridwan, ruled in Damasciis. 6
1 Gibb, op. cit. pp. 15-18 ; Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, pp. 342-52.
a For the Banu Ammar, see Sobernheim s article * Ibn Ammar , in the Encyclo
paedia of Islam. 3 Ibn al-Qalanisi (The Damascus Chronicle), pp. 51-2.
4 Cahen, op. cit. p. 180.
5 See Honigman, article * Shaizar \ and Sobernheim, article * Horns , mEncyclo-
paedia of Islam; also introduction to Hitti, An Arab-Syrian Gentleman, pp. 5-6.
6 See Gibb, op. cit. pp. 22-4.
II
Outremer and its Neighbours
These political divisions were made more unstable by the
divergent elements in the population of Syria. The Turks formed
a sparse feudal aristocracy; but the smaller emirs were almost all
Arabs. In northern Syria and in Damascene territory the urban
population was largely Christian, Syrians of the Jacobite church,
with Nestorians in the eastern districts and Armenians infiltrating
o
from the north. The territory of the Banu Ammar was largely
peopled by the Monothelete sect of the Maronites. In the
Nosairi mountains there was the tribe of the Nosairi, a Shiite sect
from whom Khalaf ibn Mula ib drew his strength. On the slopes
of the southern Lebanon there were the Druzes, Shiites who
accepted the divinity of the Caliph Hakim, and who hated all their
Moslem neighbours but who hated the Christians more. The
situation was further complicated by the steady immigration into
the cultivated lands of Arabs from the desert and of Kurds from
the northern mountains, and by the presence of Turcoman com
panies, ready to hire themselves out to any warring chieftain that
would pay them. 1
Of Syria s Moslem neighbours the most powerful were the
Fatimid rulers of Egypt. The Nile valley and the Delta formed the
most thickly populated area in the medieval world. Cairo and
Alexandria were great industrial cities whose factories produced
glass, pottery and metalwork, as well as linens and brocades. The
cultivated districts grew vast quantities of corn; and there were
huge sugar-plantations in the Delta. Egypt controlled the trade of
the Sudan, with its gold and its gum-arabic, its ostrich feathers and
ivory. The Far Eastern trade was now carried by ships using the
Red Sea route and therefore reached the Mediterranean through
Egyptian ports. The Egyptian government could put enormous
armies into the field; and, though the Egyptians themselves en
joyed a poor reputation as soldiers, it could afford to hire as many
mercenaries as it pleased. Moreover, alone of the Moslem powers,
it possessed a considerable navy. The Fatimid Caliph himself as
a Shia was the natural protector of the Shia of Syria. But he was
1 See Gibb, op. cit. pp. 27-9.
12
The Rival Caliphs
traditionally tolerant; and many of the Sunni Arabs who feared
Turkish domination were ready to acknowledge his suzerainty.
The Turkish invasions had curtailed die empire of the Fatimids in
Syria; and the Prankish capture of Jerusalem and victory over the
Egyptian relieving force at Ascalon had damaged their prestige.
But Egypt could afford to lose an army. It was clear that Vizier
al-Afdal, who ruled Egypt in the name of the young Caliph
al-Amir and was himself an Armenian born at Acre, would seek
as soon as possible to avenge the defeat and recover Palestine. In
the meantime the Egyptian fleet kept in touch with the Moslem
cities of the coast. 1
The rival Caliph, the Abbasid al-Mustazhir, was a shadowy
youth, who reigned at Baghdad by the grace of the Seldjuk Sultan.
But the Sultan himself, Barkiyarok, the eldest son of the great
Malik Shah, lacked his father s power and ability. His brothers
continually revolted against him. He had been obliged to enfeoff
the youngest, Sanjar, with Khorassan, and from 1099 onwards he
was at war with another brother, Mohammed, who eventually
secured the province of Iraq. These preoccupations made him a
useless ally in the struggle against the Christians.
The head of the youngest branch of the Seldjuk dynasty, the
Anatolian Malik Kilij Arslan, self-styled Sultan, was at the moment
little better placed than his cousin. The First Crusade had deprived
him of his capital, Nicaea, and of most of his treasure, lost on the
battlefield of Dorylaeum. Much of the land that he had controlled
had passed back into Byzantine hands. He was on bad terms with
the Seldjuks of the East, whose supremacy he refused to admit.
But Turcoman immigrants into Anatolia gave him the means for
rebuilding his army and a population that would crowd out the
Christians. 2 More effective was the Danishmend emirate, firmly
established at Sivas and dominating the north-east of the peninsula.
The emir, Gumushtekin, had recently won renown by his capture
of Bohemond. He was the first Moslem leader to win a victory
1 See Wiet, UEgypte Musulman, pp. 260 ff.
a See articles, * Seldjuks and Kilij Arslan , in Encyclopaedia of Islam.
13
Outremer and its Neighbours
ovex an army of Prankish knights. He too was being continually
strengthened by Turcoman immigration. 1
Between the Turks of Anatolia and the Prankish states of
northern Syria was a group of Armenian principalities. There
was Oshin, who controlled the central Taurus mountains, and
to the east of him the princes of the house of Roupan. There
was Kogh Vasil in the Anti-Taurus, Thatoul at Marash and
Gabriel at Melitene. Thatoul and Gabriel belonged to the
Orthodox Church and were therefore inclined to co-operate with
Byzantium. They and Oshin based their juridical position on
titles conferred on them by the Emperor. But the Roupenians,
who alone of these Armenians succeeded in founding an enduring
state, were traditionally hostile both to Byzantium and the
Orthodox Church. 2
The external Christian power most concerned with Syrian
affairs was Byzantium. There the Emperor Alexius had been on
the throne for nearly twenty years. He had found the Empire at
its nadir ; but by his diplomacy and his thrift, his judicious handling
of his subjects and his rivals, both at home and abroad, he had
re-established it on solid foundations. He had used the Crusading
movement to recover western Asia Minor from the Turks; and
his reorganized fleet gave him control of the coasts. Even at its
lowest ebb, Byzantium enjoyed great traditional prestige through
out the East. It was the Roman Empire, with a thousand years of
history behind it; and its Emperor was the acknowledged head of
Christendom, however much his fellow-Christians might dislike
his policy or even his greed. Constantinople, with its innumerable,
busy inhabitants, its vast wealth and its formidable fortifications,
was the most impressive city in the world. The armed forces of the
Empire were the best equipped of their time. The imperial coinage
had long been the only sure currency. International exchange was
1 For the Danishmends, see Mukrimin Halil, article Danifmend , in Islam
AnsiklopedisL
2 For the Armenian background, see Tournebize, Histoire Politique et
Rttigieuse d Armtnie, pp. 168-70; also above, vol. i, pp. 195 ff.
14
Byzantium
calculated in terms of the hyperpyron, often called the besant, the
gold solidus whose value had been fixed by Constantine the Great.
Byzantium was to play a dominant role in Oriental politics for
almost a century to come; but in fact its successes were due more
to the brilliance of its statesmen and the prestige of its Roman name
than to its real strength. The Turkish invasions had destroyed the
social and economic organization of Anatolia, from whence of old
the Empire had derived the greater part of its soldiers and its food ;
and though territory might be recovered, it was almost impossible
to restore the former organization. The army was now almost
entirely mercenary, and therefore both expensive and unreliable.
Turkish mercenaries such as the Petchenegs might be safely
employed against the Franks or the Slavs, but they could not be
trusted against the Turks in Asia. Prankish mercenaries would not
willingly fight against fellow-Franks. Early in his reign Alexius
had been obliged to buy Venetian help by giving commercial
concessions to the Venetians* to the detriment of his own subjects;
and these were followed by concessions to the other maritime
dries, Genoa and Pisa, The trade of the Empire thus began to pass
into alien hands* A little later, in his need for ready-money,
Alexius tampered with the coinage, issuing gold pieces that lacked
their proper gold content. Confidence in the besant began to
diminish; and soon the clients of the Empire insisted on being
paid in Michaels*, the currency minted under the Emperor
Michael VII, the last that was known to be trustworthy.
The Emperor s chief concern was the welfare of his Empire.
He had welcomed the First Crusade and had been ready to co
operate with its leaders; but Bohemond s ambition and perfidy at
Antioch had shocked and angered him. His first desire was to
recapture Antioch and to control the roads that led there across
Asia Minor. When the Crusaders moved southwards into Palestine
his active co-operation ended. The traditional Byzantine policy
had been for the past century an alliance with the Fatimids of
Egypt against the Sunni Abbasids and the Turks. Except under
the mad Caliph Hakim the Fatimids had treated the eastern
15
Outremer and its Neighbours
Christians with kindly forbearance; and Alexius had no reason to
suppose that Prankish rule would be more agreeable to them. He
had therefore dissociated himself from the Prankish march on
Jerusalem. But at the same time, as patron of the Orthodox, he
could not be indifferent to the fate of Jerusalem. If the Prankish
kingdom seemed likely to endure, he would have to take steps to
see that his rights were recognized. He was ready to show the
Franks in Palestine signs of good-will; but his active help would
be restricted to co-operation in opening up the routes across Asia
Minor. For the Normans at Antioch he felt nothing but hostility
and was to prove a dangerous enemy. He seems to have enter
tained no ambition for the recovery of Edessa. Probably he
recognized the value of the Prankish county there as an outpost
against the Moslem world. 1
A new factor had recently been introduced into Oriental politics
by the intervention of the Italian merchant-cities. They had at
first been diffident of joining in the Crusade till they saw that it
promised to be successful. Then Pisa, Venice and Genoa all sent
fleets to the East, promising help in return for establishments in any
city in whose conquest they shared. The Crusaders welcomed
them; for they offered the sea-power without which it would
be impossible to reduce the Moslem coastal cities; and their
ships provided a swifter and safer route of communication
with western Europe than the long journey overland. But the
concessions that they demanded and obtained meant that the
Prankish governments in the East lost much of their potential
revenue. 2
The complexities of the international situation around him
did not give Bang Baldwin much cause for optimism. His allies
were either half-hearted or rapacious, and concerned with their
selfish interests. The disunity of his enemies was helpful; but
1 For the position of Byzantium and the policy of Alexius, see above,
vol. I passim.
2 The best summary of the part played by the Italians is in Heyd, Histoire du
Commerce du Levant, vol. I, pp. 131 ff.
16
Baldwin s Problems
were the Moslem world to find a leader who could bind it
together, there was little chance that the Prankish states in the East *
would survive, In die meantime he was placed with far too few
supporters in a land with a deadly climate, that had been down
the centuries the battlefield of nations. It was with pleasant
expectation that he learnt of new Crusading expeditions setting
out from the West*
CHAPTER II
THE CRUSADES OF 1101
But they said, We will not hearken." JEREMIAH vi, 17
The news that the Christians had recovered Jerusalem reached
western Europe during the late summer of 1099. It was received
with enthusiasm and rejoicing. Everywhere chroniclers inter
rupted their story of local happenings to record the great instance
of God s mercy. Pope Urban himself had died before he could
learn of it; but his friends and helpers throughout the Church
praised God for the success of his policy. During the winter that
followed, many of the Crusading leaders returned home with their
men. As is the wont of returning soldiers, the Crusaders no doubt
exaggerated both the hardships of their journey and the splendours
of die land to which they had penetrated; and they made much
of the miracles with which they had been encouraged by Heaven.
But they all declared that warriors and colonists were needed
in the East, to carry on God s work, and that welltE^aSSTgreat
estates lay there to be occupied by the adventurous. They urged
a new Crusade to which the preachers of the Church gave their
blessing. 1
It was not until the early autumn of noo that^the next expedi
tion could start out. The winter months were unsuitable for
travel; and then the harvest had to be gathered. But in September
1 100 a Crusade of Lombards left Italy for the East. At its head was
the greatest personage in Lombardy, jhe Archbishop of Milan,
Anselm of Buis. With him were AjKert, Count 64" BiMtett;
1 E.g. Pope Paschal s letter in Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. dxra, cols. 42 ff.
It was thought in the East that if reinforcements did not arrive, the conquered
lands might have to be evacuated (De Translation S. Nicolai in R.H.C., Hist.
Occ., vol. v, p. 271).
18
iioo : The Lombards Assemble
Count Guibert of Parma and Hugh of Montebello. The Lombards
had played an undistinguished part in the First Crusade. Many of
them had journeyed East during its early months and had joined
up with Peter the Hermit, and, by intriguing with his German
followers against the French, had helped to wreck his expedition.
The survivors had then taken service under Bohemond. In conse
quence, of the Crusading leaders it was Bohemond who enjoyed
the highest prestige in Lombardy. The present expedition was
little better organized. It included very few trained soldiers and
was mainly composed of a rabble drawn from the slums of the
Lombard cities, men whose Eves had been disorganized by the
growing industrialism of the province. With them were large
numbers of clerics and women and children. It was a large com
pany; though Albert of Aix s estimate of two hundred thousand
souls should be divided by at least ten. Neither the Archbishop
nor the Count of Biandrate, who was regarded as the military
leader, was able to keep it in control. 1
During the autumn of iioo the Lombards made their leisurely
way across Carniola and down the valley of the Save, through
the territory of the King of Hungary, and entered the Byzantine
Empire at Belgrade. Alexius was ready to deal with them. His
troops escorted them across the Balkans. Then, as they were too
numerous to be provisioned and policed in one camp, they were
divided into three companies. One was to spend the winter in
a camp outside Philippopolis, the second outside Adrianople and
the third outside Rodosto. But even so they were too disorderly to
be kept under control. Each company began to raid the district
outside its camp, pillaging the villages, breaking into the grain-
stores and even robbing the churches. At last, in March, the
Emperor brought them all to a camp outside the walls of Con
stantinople, intending to transport them as soon as possible across
into Asia. But they had heard by now that other Crusaders had
set out to join them. They refused to cross the Bosphorus until
1 Albert of Aix, vm, i, p. 559; Anna Comnena, xi, viii, i, vol. in, p. 36,
calling them Normans under the command of two brothers called QAdvTpoc$.
19 2-2
The Crusades ofnoi
these reinforcements arrived. To oblige them to move, the
imperial authorities cut off their supplies; whereupon they at once
attacked the city walls and forced their way through into the
courtyard of the imperial palace of Blachernae. There they killed
one of the Emperor s pet lions, and tried to open die palace gates.
The Archbishop of Milan and the Count of Biandrate, who had
been well received by the Emperor, were horrified. They rushed
out into the midst of the rioting crowds and succeeded at last in
persuading them to return to the camp. They then had to face the
task of pacifying the Emperor. 1
Peace was made by Count Raymond of Toulouse. Raymond
had been spending the winter as the guest of Alexius, whose
complete confidence he now enjoyed. As the senior of all the
Crusading princes, the friend of Pope Urban and of Bishop
Adhemar, he still had a great reputation. The Lombards listened
to him; and on his advice they agreed to move across into Asia.
By the end of April they were established in a camp close to
Nicomedia, where they awaited newcomers from the West. 2
Stephen, Count of Blois, had never been allowed to forget his
flight from Antioch. He had not fulfilled his Crusading vows and
he had shown cowardice in the face of the enemy. His wife, the
Countess Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, was deeply
ashamed of him. Even in the private intimacy of their bed
chamber she would nag at him to go and redeem his reputation.
He could not claim that he was needed at home; for his wife had
always been the real ruler of the county. So, wearily and with fore
boding, he set out again for the Holy Land in the spring of noi. 3
On the news of his expedition many other French knights
prepared to join him, under the leadership of Stephen, Count of
Burgundy, Hugh of Broyes, Baldwin of Grandpr6 and the Bishop
1 Albert of Aix, vra, 2-5, pp. 559-62; Orderic Vitalis, x, 19, vol. iv, p. 120,
who muddles the story and says that die Emperor used lions against the Crusaders.
2 Albert of Aix, vm, 7, p. 563 ; Anna Comnena, xi, viii, 2, vol. in, pp. 36-7.
It was said that Raymond had the so-called Holy Lance with ham. See
Runciman, The Holy Lance found at Antioch , in Anakcta Bollandiana,
voL Lxvm, pp. 205-6. 3 Orderic Vitalis, x, 19, vol. iv, p. 119.
20
iioi : Lombards and French at Constantinople
of Soissons, Hugh of Pierrefonds. They travelled down through
Italy and across the Adriatic, and reached Constantinople about
the beginning of May. At some point on their journey they were
overtaken by a small German contingent, under Conrad, Constable
to the Emperor Henry IV. 1
The French Crusaders were delighted to find Raymond at
Constantinople, and were well satisfied by their reception by the
Emperor. Probably on the suggestion of Alexius, they decided
that Raymond should command the whole expedition; and the
Lombards acquiesced. During the last days of May the whole
army, Frenchmen, Germans, Lombards, some Byzantines under
the General Tsitas, with whom were five hundred Turkish
mercenaries, probably Petcheneg, marched out from Nicomedia
on the road to Dorylaeum.
c^^
e Emperor s full support "Stephen of Blois therefore
reTonSaendecTtEaf the army should follow the road taken by the
First Crusade, through Dorylaeum and Konya. Raymond, in
conformity with the instructions given him by Alexius, agreed
with him. But the Lombards, who formed the vast majority of
the army, held other views. Bohemond was their hero, the one
warrior that they trusted to carry them to victory. And Bohemond
lay captive in the Danishmend Emir s castle of Niksar, far away
to the north-east of Anatolia. They insisted that their first task
must be to rescue Bohemond. Raymond and Stephen protested in
vain. Raymond s jealousy of Bohemond was too well known and,
for all his qualities, he had never shown himself to be a forceful
leader; whilst Stephen s influence was damaged by memories of
his past cowardice. The Count of Biandrate and the Archbishop
of Milan supported the Lombards, who had their way. 2 On
1 Albert of Aix, vin, 6, pp. 562-3 ; Orderic Vitalis, loc. dt.
* Albert of Aix, vm, 7, pp. 5*3-4, saying that the decision to inarch east was
the Lombards ; Anna, loc. dt. She says that the Emperor hoped that Raymond
and Tsitas would alter this decision.
21
The Crusades ofnoi
leaving Nicomedia the army turned east and took the road to
Ankara. The country was largely held by the Byzantines; and the
Crusaders were able to find food as they went. Ankara itself now
belonged to the Seldjuk Sultan, Kilij Arslan; but when they
arrived there on 23 June they found it poorly defended and took
it by assault. Very correctly they handed it over to representatives
of the Emperor.
On leaving Ankara the Crusaders took a track that led north
eastward to Gangra, in southern Paphlagonia, to join the main,
road to Amasea and to Niksar. On the way to Gangra their
troubles began. Kilij Arslan retreated before them, devastating
the country as he went, so that they could find little to eat.
Meanwhile Malik Ghazi the Danishmend had been thoroughly
alarmed. He hastened to renew his alliance with Kilij Arslan and
induced Ridwan of Aleppo to send reinforcements up from the
south. Early in July the Crusaders reached Gangra; but the
Seldjuks were there in force. The fortress proved to be im
pregnable. After ravaging the countryside and taking what food
they could find, the Crusaders were forced to move on. They
were weary and hungry; and on the Anatolian tableland the July
heat was hard to bear. In their disappointment they listened to
Count Raymond, who advised that they should march northward
to Kastamuni and from there to some Byzantine city on the Black
Sea coast. Such a course would save the army from certain destruc
tion; and no doubt Raymond thought that the Emperor would
forgive him his disobedience if he returned having recaptured for
the Empire two great fortresses, Ankara and Kastamuni, the latter
the Castra Comnenon that had been the home of the imperial
dynasty.
The journey to Kastamuni was slow and painful. Water was
short, and the Turks had destroyed the crops. The Turks them
selves moved quickly along parallel tracks, harassing the Crusaders
sometimes in the van and sometimes in the rear. They had not
gone far before the advance-guard, composed of seven hundred
Lombards, was suddenly attacked. The Lombard knights fled in
22
iioi : The Battle ofMersivan
panic, leaving the infantry to be massacred. It was with difficulty
that Stephen of Burgundy was able to rally the van and drive off
the enemy. During the next days Raymond, in command of the
rear, was engaged in continual combat with the Turks. Soon the
army was obliged to move in a compact mass, from which it was
impossible to send out foraging parties or scouts. By the time that
it reached the neighbourhood of Kastamuni it was clear to the
leaders that the only chance of safety lay in breaking through as
directly as possible to the coast. But once again the Lombards
refused to listen to reason. Perhaps they blamed Raymond s
choice of the road to Kastamuni for their present troubles ; perhaps
they thought that when they passed out of Seldjuk territory into
Danishmend territory everything would be easier. In their
obstinate folly they insisted on turning once more to the east. The
princes had to accept this decision; for their small contingents could
hardly hope to survive if they left the main army. The Crusade
moved on across the river Halys, into the land of the Danish-
mend emir. After wantonly sacking a Christian village on the way
they reached the town of Mersivan, halfway between the river and
Amasea. There the Constable Conrad was lured into an ambush
and lost several hundred of his German troops. It was clear now
that the Danishmends and their allies were massing for a serious
attack ; and Raymond drew up the Christian army ready for battle. 1
When the battle began die Turks employed their favourite
tactics. Their archers swooped down and discharged their arrows,
then swiftly retreated again, and others would appear from a
different direction. The Crusaders were never given the chance of
a hand-to-hand combat, in which their greater physical strength
1 Albert of Aix, vm, 8-14, pp. 564-7. He says that Raymond was bribed by
the Turks to lead die army to Kastamuni. This is unconvincing. Anna, loc. tit.,
mentions the sacking of die Christian village. Grousset, Histoire des Croisades,
vol. n, p. 326 n. 2, is clearly right to reject Tomaschak s identification of
Albert s Maresch with Amasea (Topographic vonKleinasien, p. 88) and to revert
to Michaud s identification as Merzifun or Mersivan. Mersivan could easily
be changed by an ignorant Frenchman into Maresiam or Marescam, a French
form of Marash, but it is difficult to see how an V could intrude into Amasya,
the Turkish name for Amasea, or Masa, the Arabic.
23
The Crusades ofnoi
and better arms would have been of advantage. Before long the
Lombards nerves gave out. With their leader die Count of
Biandrate at their head, they fled in panic, leaving their women
and their priests behind them. Soon the Petcheneg mercenaries
followed, seeing no reason to await certain death. Raymond, who
was fighting with them, found himself deserted. He managed to
retreat with his bodyguard to a small rocky hill, where he held out
till Stephen of Blois and Stephen of Burgundy could rescue him.
Throughout the afternoon the French knights and Conrad the
German fought bravely, falling back upon the camp; but by
nightfall Raymond had had enough. Under cover of the darkness
he fled with his Provencal bodyguard and his Byzantine escort
towards the coast. When they learnt that he had fled, his colleagues
gave up the fight. Before morning dawned the remnants of the
army were in full flight, leaving the camp and the non-combatants
in the hands of the Turks.
The Turks paused to butcher the men and old women in the
camp, then followed in full cry after the fugitives. Only the
knights on horseback were able to escape. The infantry was over
taken and slaughtered almost to a man. The Lombards, whose
obstinacy had caused the disaster, were annihilated except for their
leaders. The losses were estimated at four-fifths of the whole army.
A vast amount of treasure and of arms fell into Turkish hands ; and
the harems and slave-markets of the East were filled by the younger
women and children captured on that day. 1
Raymond and his escort managed to reach the little Byzantine
port of Bafra, at the mouth of the river Halys. There they found
a ship to take them to Constantinople. The other knights fought
their way back across the river and arrived at the coast at Sinope.
From there they travelled slowly by the coast road, through
Byzantine territory, to the Bosphorus. They reassembled at
Constantinople early in the autumn. 2
Albert of Aix, vm, 14-23, pp. 5^7-73, whose account is consistent with the
briefer account of Anna (xi, viii, 3, vol. nr, pp. 37-8).
* Albert of Aix, vni, 24, p. 274.
24
iioi : The Results ofMersivan
Public opinion amongst the Crusaders, seeking to find a scape
goat, laid the blame for the r d^^ter upon the Byzantin^ Count
Raymond, it was said, was obeying the Emperor s instructions
when he led the army out of its course to perish in a prearranged
Turkish ambush. But in fact Alexius was furious with Raymond
and his colleagues. He received them politely but icily and made
no secret of his displeasure. 1 Had the Crusade won for him
Kastamuni and the Paphlagonian interior, he might have forgiven
it; but he was far more anxious to secure the direct road to Syria,
to safeguard his reconquests in the south-west of Asia Minor, and
to enable him to intervene in Syrian affairs. Moreover, he had not
wished to embroil himself in war with the Danishmend emir, with
whom he had opened negotiations to buy the person of Bohemond.
The folly of the Lombards ruined his scheme. But the disaster had
more serious effects. The Christian victories during the First
Crusade had damaged both the reputation and the self-confidence
of the Turks. Now both were gloriously recovered. The Seldjuk
Sultan was able to restore his domination over central Anatolia,
and soon he was to establish his capital at Konya, right on the main
road from Constantinople to Syria; while Malik Ghazi the
Danishmend continued his conquest of the Euphrates valley, to
the borders of the County of Edessa. 2 The land-route from Europe
into Syria was blocked again both for the Crusaders and for the
Byzantines. Moreover, relations between the Crusaders and
Byzantium had worsened. The Crusaders insisted upon considering
the Emperor as the author of their woes, while the Byzantines
were shocked and angered by the stupidity, the ingratitude and the
dishonesty of the Crusaders.
It was not long before the results of the disaster were apparent.
A few days after the Lombards had set out from Nicomedia, a
French army arrived at Constantinople, led by William II, Count
of Nevers. He had left his home in February and, travelling
1 Ibid., he. dt. He says that Raymond soothed the Emperor s indignation.
2 Michael the Syrian, m, pp. 189-91. See Cahen, La Syrie du Nord,
p. 232.
25
The Crusades ofnoi
through Italy, he had crossed the Adriatic from Brindisi to Avlona.
His army gave an excellent impression as it marched through
Macedonia owing to the strictness of its discipline. The Count was
cordially received by Alexius; but he decided not to linger at
Constantinople. He had probably expected to join forces there
with the Duke of Burgundy, whose neighbour he was at home,
so hurried on as quickly as possible in the hope of overtaking him.
When he reached Nicomedia he learnt that the Crusade had gone
on to Ankara, where he arrived towards the end of July. But at
Ankara no one knew the whereabouts of the Franco-Lombard
army. William therefore turned back, to take the road to Konya.
In spite of the difficulties of the journey through country that had
not recovered from devastations at the time of the First Crusade,
his army advanced in perfect order. Konya was now held by a
strong Seldjuk garrison; and William s attempt to take the city
by assault was a failure. He realized that it would be unwise to
delay there and moved on. But meanwhile Kilij Arslan and Malik
Ghazi learnt of the appearance of this new enemy. Hot from their
triumph over the Lombards they hurried southward, probably
through Caesarea-Mazacha and Nigde, and reached Heraclea
before him. The Nivernais troops marched slowly eastward from
Konya. Food was short; the wells by the road had been blocked
by the Turks. As they approached Heraclea, weary and weakened,
they were ambushed and surrounded by the whole Turkish army,
which outnumbered them by far. After a short battle their
resistance was broken. The entire French force fell on the field,
with the exception of Count William himself and a few mounted
knights, who broke through the Turkish lines and after several
days of wandering in the Taurus mountains arrived at the
Byzantine fortress of Germanicopolis, north-west of Isaurian
Seleucia. There the Byzantine governor seems to have offered
them an, escort of twelve Petcheneg mercenaries to convey them
to the Syrian border. A few weeks later Count William and his
companions entered Antioch, half-naked and unarmed. They said
that the Petchenegs had despoiled them and abandoned them in
26
lioi : The Nivernais and Aquitanian Crusades
the desert through which they were passing; but what really
happened is unknown. 1
The Count of Nevers had hardly crossed the Bosphorus before
another larger army, composed of Frenchmen and of Germans,
arrived at Constantinople. The French contingent was led by
William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, who was the most famous
troubadour of his time and who was politically the bitter rival of
Raymond of Toulouse; for his wife, the Duchess Philippa, was the
daughter of Raymond s elder brother and should have inherited
his County. With him came Hugh of Vermandois, who had left
the First Crusade after the capture of Antioch and was anxious to
fulfil his vow to go to Jerusalem. The Aquitanian army set out
from France in March and travelled overland, through southern
Germany and Hungary. On its way it was joined by Duke Welf
of Bavaria, who after a long and illustrious career in Germany
planned to spend his declining years fighting for the Cross in
Palestine. He brought with him a well-equipped army of German
knights and infantry; and he was accompanied by Thiemo,
Archbishop of Salzburg, and by the Dowager Margravine Ida of
Austria, one of the great beauties of her day, who, now that her
youth was over, sought the pious excitement of a Crusade. Their
united armies marched together down the Danube to Belgrade
and on by the high road across the Balkans. They were an unruly
crowd; and by the time that they reached Adrianople their
behaviour was so bad that the Byzantine authorities sent Petcheneg
and Polovtsian troops to block their further progress. A regular
battle began; and it was only when Duke William and Welf
intervened in person and guaranteed the future good conduct of
their troops that they were allowed to proceed. A strong escort
accompanied them to Constantinople. There William and Welf
and the Margravine were cordially received by Alexius, who
1 Albert of Aix, vm, 25-33, pp- 57<5-8. He is the sole source for this expedi
tion. Hagenmeyer, Chronologic du Royaume de Jerusalem, pp. 438-9, 449>
459-60, dates the arrival of the Nivernais at Constantinople in mid-June, their
departure from Ankara on about 25 July and from Konya in mid-August.
27
The Crusades ofnoi
provided men to transport their men as soon as possible across the
Bosphorus. Some of the civilian pilgrims, including die historian
Ekkehard of Aura, took ship direct for Palestine, where they
arrived after a six weeks voyage.
It should have been possible for the two Dukes to have caught
up with the Count of Nevers and have strengthened their army
by the inclusion of his forces. But the Count of Nevers wished to
unite with the Count of Burgundy, and Duke William could not
be expected to combine with an army led by his old enemy,
the Count of Toulouse, while Welf of Bavaria, an old enemy
of the Emperor Henry IV, probably had little liking for Henry s
Constable, Conrad. The Count of Nevers hastened ahead to
Ankara, while the Aquitano-Bavarian army waited for five weeks
by the Bosphorus, then moved slowly along the main road to
Dorylaeum and Konya. By the time that it reached Dorylaeum
the Nivernais army had already passed through the town on its
return journey and was well on the way to Konya. The passage of
another army along the road a few days previously did not make
things easier for the Aquitanians and the Bavarians. The small
available supplies of food had already been taken; for which,
characteristically, the Crusaders blamed the Byzantines. Like the
Nivernais, they found the wells dry or blocked. Philomelium was
deserted, and they pillaged it. The Turkish garrison at Konya,
which had withstood the Nivernais, abandoned the city before
this larger army; but before they left they collected and took
with them all the foodstuffs there and stripped bare the orchards
and gardens in the suburbs. The Crusaders found little to refresh
them. It was about this moment that a hundred miles ahead Kilij
Arslan and Malik Ghazi were massacring the men of Nevers.
The Crusaders struggled on from Konya, hungry and thirsty,
through the desert towards Heraclea. Turkish horsemen now
appeared on their flank, firing arrows into their midst and cutting
off foraging parties and stragglers. Early in September they
entered Heraclea, which they found deserted as Konya had been.
Just beyond the town flowed the river, one of the few Anatolian
28
no i: The Battle ofHeracka
streams to flow abundantly throughout die summer. The Christian
warriors, half-mad from thirst, broke their ranks to rush to the
welcoming water. But the Turkish army lay concealed in the
thickets on the river banks. As the Crusaders surged on in dis
order, the Turks sprang out on them and surrounded them. There
was no time to reform ranks. Panic spread through the Christian
army. Horsemen and infantry were mixed in a dreadful stampede ;
and as they stumbled in their attempt to flee they were slaughtered
by the enemy. The Duke of Aquitaine, followed by one of his
grooms, cut his way out and rode into the mountains. After many
days of wandering through the passes he found his way to Tarsus.
Hugh of Vermandois was badly wounded in the battle; but some
of his men rescued him and he too reached Tarsus. But he was
a dying man. His death took place on 18 October and they buried
him there in the Cathedral of St Paul. He never fulfilled his vow
to go to Jerusalem. Welf of Bavaria only escaped by throwing
away all his armour. After several weeks he arrived with two or
three attendants at Antioch. The Archbishop Thiemo was taken
prisoner and martyred for his faith. The fate of the Margravine of
Austria is unknown. Later legends said that she ended her days
a captive in a far-off harem, where she gave birth to the Moslem
hero Zengi. More probably she was thrown from her litter in the
panic and trampled to death. 1
The three Crusades of the year IIQI had come each of them to
a disastrous finish; and their disasteTTaffected the whole story of
the Crusading movement. The Turks had avenged their defeat at
Dorylaeum. They were not, after all, to be ejected from Anatolia.
1 Albert of Aix, vm, 34-40, pp. 579-82 (the only full source); Ekkehard,
xxrv-xxvi, pp. 30-2. He went by sea from Constantinople, and muddles the
land expeditions, as does Fulcher of Chartres, vn, xvi, 1-3, pp. 42*8-33- There
are three Passiones S. Thiemonis, describing the Archbishop s martyrdom but
giving no details of the expedition. Ida s conjectural fate is told in Historia
Welforum Weingartensis, in M.G.H.Ss., vol. xxi, p. 462. Ekkehard merely says
that she was killed. Several western chroniclers refer in passing to this expedi
tion. Hagenmeyer (op. cit. p. 457) dates the pillage of Philomelium on about
10 August and die battle on about 5 September.
29
The Crusades ofnoi
The road across the peninsula remained unsafe for Christian armies,
Prankish or Byzantine. When the Byzantines wished later to inter
vene in Syria, they had to operate at the end of communication
lines that were long and very vulnerable; while Prankish
immigrants from the west were afraid to travel overland through
Constantinople, except in vast armies. They could only come by
sea; and few of them could afford the fare. And instead of the
thousands of useful colonists that the year should have brought to
Syria and Palestine, only a small number of quarrelsome leaders
who had lost their armies and their reputations on the way pene
trated through to the Prankish states, where there was already a
sufficiency of quarrelsome leaders.
Not all the Christians, however, had cause to regret the disasters
of the year 1101. To the Italian maritime cities the failure to secure
the land-route across Ask Minor meant an increase in influence and
wealth. For they possessed the ships that provided an alternative
means of communication with the Prankish states of the East.
Their co-operation was all the more necessary; and they insisted
on payment in commercial concessions. The Armenians in the
Taurus mountains, particularly the Roupenian princes, welcomed
circumstances that made it difficult for Byzantium to re-establish
its Empire over the districts where they lived; though the
Armenians farther to the east had less cause for rejoicing. Their
chief foe was the Danishmend emir, whose triumph soon en
couraged him to attack them. And the Normans at Antioch, who,
like the Roupenians, feared the Byzantines more than the Turks,
were given a useful respite. Bohemond still languished in capti
vity; but his regent, Tancred, took full advantage of the situation
to consolidate the principality at the Emperor s expense. Fate soon
placed a trump-card in his hand.
The Duke of Aquitaine, the Count of Bavaria and the Count of
Nevers had already arrived with their few surviving comrades at
Antioch by the autumn of noi; but the leaders of the Franco-
Lombard Crusade were still at Constantinople. Alexius found it
hard to forgive them their follies. Even Raymond, on whom he
30
1102: The Arrest of Count Raymond
had built great hopes, had disappointed him. At the end of the
year the western princes decided to continue their pilgrimage, and
Rayttiond asked leave to rejoin his wife and his army at Lattakieh.
The Emperor willingly let them go and provided ships to convey
them, to Syria. About the new year Stephen of Blois, Stephen of
Burgundy, the Constable Conrad and Albert of Biandrate dis
embarked at Saint Symeon and hastened up to Antioch, where
Tancred gave them a warm welcome. But Count Raymond s ship
was separated from the others and put into the port of Tarsus. As
he stepped ashore, a knight called Bernard the Stranger came up
and arrested him for having betrayed Christendom by his flight
from the field of Mersivan. Raymond s small bodyguard was
powerless to rescue him. He was taken away under escort and was
handed over to Tancred. 1
1 Albert of Aix, vm, 42, pp. 582-3. Bernard the Stranger was in command at
Tarsus in September noi (see below, p. 33^. It is probable that as Radulph
of Caen (cxlv, p. 708), followed by Cahen (La Syrie du Nord, p. 232, n. 10),
suggests, Raymond landed at Longiniada, the port of Tarsus, and not at Saint
Symeon with the other Crusaders as Albert implies. Matthew of Edessa,
ckxii, p. 242, says that Raymond was imprisoned at Sarouantavi*, i.e.
Sarventikar, in the Taurus. This seems improbable.
CHAPTER III
THE NORMAN PRINCES OF
ANTIOCH
These all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar. 9 ACTS xvii, 7
Bohemond s defeat and capture
alarming though it had seemed aftKe time, had not
its compensations for the Prankish princes. Antioch was in need
of a regent; and Tancred was the obvious candidate to take his
uncle s place. King Baldwin was thus enabled to rid himself of his
most dangerous vassal in Palestine; while Tancred was glad to
extricate himself from a position that was embarrassing and in
secure and to move to a sphere that offered greater scope and
independence. Tancred left Palestine in March noi, only stipu
lating that if his uncle returned from captivity within three years
and Antioch needed him no more, his fief of Galilee should be
restored to him. It was therefore to Baldwin s interest as well as
to Tancred s that Bohemond should not be released from his
prison too soon. No attempt was made to negotiate with his
captor. 1
Tancred was a correct regent. He did not assume the title of
Prince of Antioch. Though he struck coins, the legend, written in
bad Greek, merely entitled him *the servant of God ; and at times
he called himself the * Grand Emir . It is probable that public
opinion in Antioch would have restrained him had his ambitions
carried him farther. The Normans still regarded Bohemond as
their leader; and Bohemond had a loyal friend in the Patriarch
whom he had appointed just before his captivity, the Latin
1 Fulcher of Chartres, vn, i, pp. 390-3 ; Albert of Aix, vn, 44-5, pp. 537-8.
32
1 ioi : Tancred and Byzantium
Bernard of Valence, in whose favour he had ejected the Greek,
John the Oxite. Tancred s policy was the same as Bohemond s,
internally to consolidate the administration of the principality and
to Latinize the Church, and externally to enrich himself at the
expense of the Byzantines and of the neighbouring Moslem
princes. But his ambitions were more local and less world-wide
than his uncle s. 1
His first preoccupation was to guard himself against any attack
from Byzantium. The disastrous Crusades of noi greatly helped
him; for the resurgence of the Anatolian Turks meant that the
Emperor could not venture for some time to send an army right
across the peninsula to the far south-east. Tancred believed that
attack was the best defence. So, in the summer of I ioi, probably
as soon as the news of the battle at Mersivan reached him, he sent
troops into Cilicia to recapture Mamistra, Adana and Tarsus,
which the Byzantines had reoccupied three years before. The local
Byzantine forces were not strong enough to oppose him. When
William of Aquitaine and Hugh of Vermandois arrived as fugitives
at Tarsus at the end of September they found Tancred s lieutenant,
Bernard the Stranger, in command of the city. 2
Next, Tancred turned his attention to Lattakieh, the Byzantine
port that the Normans had long coveted. It was more formidable ;
for its Byzantine garrison was reinforced by Raymond s Provencal
troops and was protected by a squadron of the Byzantine navy.
Before he dared attack, Tancred negotiated to secure the aid of
Genoese ships. 3 Meanwhile he occupied the hinterland, and at
tempted to capture Jabala, to the south. Bohemond had sent a
1 Schlumberger, Les Prindpautts francjues du Levant, pp. 14-15, discusses
Tancred s coins, which, show him in imperial robes but wearing a kejieh on his
head. The legend says in Greek, * Tancred, Servant of God*, with a cross and
1C XP NIKA (as on Byzantine coins) on the reverse. According to Historia
Belli Sacri, p. 228, he was not admitted as ruler until he had taken an oath of
fidelity to Bohemond. He was vested with the regency by the papal legate,
Maurice of Porto.
a Radulph of Caen, cxliii, p. 706; Albert of Aix, vm, 40, p. 582; Orderic
Vitalis, xxra, p. 140.
3 Caffaro, Liberatio, p. 59; Ughelli, Italia Sacra, iv, pp. 847-8.
RC 33 3
The Norman Princes of Antioch
small unsuccessful expedition against Jabala in the summer of 1 100,
in the course of which his Constable had been taken prisoner.
Tancred s expedition in the summer of 1101 was equally ineffec
tive. But it induced Ibn Sulaiha, the qadi of Jabala, to hand the
city over to the atabeg of Damascus; and he himself retired to
Damascus to enjoy a quiet old age. The atabeg, Toghtekin, sent
his son Buri as Governor. But Buri was an unpopular ruler; and
the citizens of Jabala after a few months ejected him and put them
selves under the protection of the Banu Ammar of Tripoli.
Tancred then withdrew his troops from the district. 1
His capture of Raymond s person enabled Tancred to resume
his scheme against Lattakieh. He had incarcerated Raymond at
Antioch; but the Patriarch Bernard and Raymond s Crusading
colleagues were shocked by his behaviour. At their request he set
him free; but Raymond had first to swear an oath that he would
never again interfere in northern Syrian affairs. a On his release
Raymond marched southward, to attack Tortosa. In conformity
with his oath, as he passed by Lattakieh he gave orders to his troops
and to his Countess to evacuate the town and join him. The
Byzantine garrison was left without Provensal support. Then, in
the early spring of 1102 Tancred advanced on Lattakieh. But its
walls were strong and the garrison fought well, while units of the
imperial navy ensured their supplies. The siege lasted for nearly
a year; but during the first weeks of 1103 Tancred, who had by
now hired ships from the Genoese with which to interrupt com
munications between Lattakieh and Cyprus, lured the men of
the garrison by a stratagem outside the city walls and there
fell on them and made them prisoners. The city then capitulated
to him. 3
1 Ibn al-Qalanisi, Damascus Chronicle, pp. 51-2.
3 Albert of Aix (vm, 42, pp. 582-3) says that Raymond swore to attempt
no conquest in Syria north of Acre, but as no objection was made to his attack
on Tprtosa, his oath was probably limited to the country from Lattakieh
northward.
3 Radulph of Caen, cxliv, cxlvi, pp. 708-9; Anna Comnena, ix, vii, 7,
vol. m, p. 36.
34
1102: The Malevolence of Bishop Manasses
Such actions did not please the Emperor Alexius. He had
already been angered by the exile of the Greek Patriarch of
Anrioch, John the Oxite, and by the news that all the higher Greek
clergy were now being dismissed and replaced by Latins. Early
in 1 102 he received a letter from King Baldwin, who had heard
the rumour that Byzantine non-co-operation had helped to wreck
the Crusades of noi, and who wrote to beg the Emperor to give
his full support to any subsequent Crusade. The letter was con
veyed by a Bishop called Manasses, who had gone to Palestine
with Ekkehard in noi and was returning from Jerusalem. It
seems to have been courteously worded and was accompanied by
gifts; and Alexius therefore thought that he could talk frankly to
the Bishop and tell him all his grievances. But herein he mis
judged his man. The Bishop was a better Latin than Christian, and
had no sympathy with the Greeks. At the Emperor s request he
went on to Italy and reported to the Pope everything that had been
said to him; but he did so in such terms that the Pope s fury was
roused against Byzantium. Had Pope Urban II still been alive, no
harm would have been done; for Urban had large views and no
wish to- quarrel with eastern Christendom. But his successor,
Paschal II, was a smaller man, short-sighted and easily influenced.
He readily fell in with the vulgar Prankish view that the Emperor
was an enemy. Alexius obtained no redress. 1
Tancred next attempted to interfere in the affairs of the kingdom
of Jerusalem. King Baldwin banished the Patriarch Daimbert in
iioi. Tancred at once welcomed him to Antioch, where he put
1 Albert of Aix, vm, 41, 47-8, pp. 582, 584-5. Albert calls Manasses Bishop
of Barzenona or Barcinona , which, is usually taken to mean Barcelona
(Chalandon, Regne d Alexis I" Comnene, p. 237; Leib, Rome, Kiev et Byzance,
pp. 273-4; Norden, Das Papsttum und Byzanz, p. 70). But the Bishop of
Barcelona at this time was Berengar II, an aged man who never left his diocese
(BaudriUart, Dictionnaire d Histoire et de Gfographie EccUsiastique, article
Barcelone ). It is more probable that the Bishop was an Italian, but it is
impossible to identify his see. His complaint was probably made at the Synod
which Paschal II is known at have held at Benevento in 1102 (Annales Bene-
ventani, ad ann. 1102, in M.G.H. Ss., vol. in, p. 183). Albert of Aax says that he
met the Pope at Benevento.
35 3 2
The Norman Princes ofAntioch
the Church of St George at his disposal. When, a few months later,
Baldwin was defeated by the Saracens at Ramleh and asked for
help from the princes in the north, Tancred refused to come unless
Daimbert were reinstated at Jerusalem. Baldwin agreed; and
Tancred s reputation was thereby enhanced. But it fell when
Daimbert was condemned by a council and exiled once more.
Tancred again offered him hospitality but did not continue to
press his cause. 1
Tancred s activities were not altogether to the liking of his
neighbour at Edessa, Baldwin of Le Bourg. Baldwin s father,
Count Hugh I of Rethel, was the son of a princess of Boulogne,
aunt to Godfrey of Lorraine and King Baldwin ; and Baldwin, who
was a younger son, came out to the East with his cousins. When
Baldwin I established himself at Edessa he had stayed behind with
Bohemond and served as intermediary between the two princes.
On Bohemond s imprisonment he had taken over the government
ofAntioch, until Baldwin of Edessa was summoned to Jerusalem.
Baldwin of Le Bourg was then enfeoffed with Edessa by his cousin,
to rule there autonomously, but under the suzerainty of Jerusalem.
It was not an easy position that he inherited. His lands had no
natural frontiers and were constantly liable to invasion. He could
only rule by garrisoning the principal towns and castles; and for
that he needed servants and comrades whom he could trust. Being
ill-provided with men of his own race he made it his business to
be on excellent terms with the native Christians. Almost his first
action as Count of Edessa was to marry a local princess, Morphia,
the young daughter of the ancient Gabriel, lord of Melitene, an
Armenian by race but an adherent of the Orthodox Church. At
the same time he wooed and won the support of the Armenians of
the separated Gregorian Church, whose great historian, Matthew
of Edessa, was full of praise for his amiable nature and the purity
of his private life, though he regretted bis ambition and avarice.
Baldwin particularly favoured the Armenians, because they could
Be used as soldiers; but he was kindly also towards his Syrian
1 See below, pp. 81-3.
36
1102: Baldwin II pledges his Beard
Jacobite subjects and even succeeded in healing a schism within
their Church. The only complaint against him was his rapacity.
He was perpetually in need of money and raised it wherever he
could. But his methods were less arbitrary and more gentle than
Baldwin Ts. His knights were particularly delighted when he
managed to extort 30,000 besants from his father-in-law by
declaring that he owed that sum to his men and had sworn to them
that if he could not pay them he would shave off his beard. The
Armenians, like the Greeks, considered a beard necessary to manly
dignity and were shocked at the shaven faces of so many Crusaders.
Gabriel thought that a beardless son-in-law would be damaging to
his prestige; and when Baldwin s men, entering into the comedy,
corroborated that their master had indeed sworn such an oath,
Gabriel hastened to hand over the necessary cash to prevent so
dreadful an humiliation, and made Baldwin swear a fresh oath that
never would he pledge his beard again. 1
Early in his reign Baldwin II had to face an attack from the
Ortoqids of Mardin. The emir Soqman led an army against Saruj,
a Moslem town which Baldwin I had captured and placed under
Fulcher of Chartres. Baldwin II hastened to help Fulcher; but in
the ensuing battle he was defeated and Fulcher slain. The town was
taken by the Moslems; but the citadel held out under Benedict,
Latin Archbishop of Edessa, while Baldwin hastened to Antioch to
hire troops to replenish his army. On his return he was more
fortunate. Soqman was driven out of the town with heavy losses.
The inhabitants that had had dealings with the Ortoqids were
massacred ; and many prisoners were made, whose ransom enriched
Baldwin s exchequer. 3
Soon afterwards Baldwin acquired a useful lieutenant in the
person of his cousin, Joscelin of Courtenay. Joscelin, whose
1 William of Tyre, x, 24, pp. 437-8, xi, II, pp. 469-72, tells the story of
Baldwin s marriage and his beard. Matthew of Edessa, ccxxv, p. 296, speaks
with respect but without afTection. for him.
a Matthew of Edessa, clxviii, pp. 232-3 ; Ibn al-Qalanisi, pp. 50-1; Al-Azimi,
p. 494.
37
The Norman Princes of Antioch
mother was Baldwin s aunt, was the younger and penniless son of
the lord of Courtenay and had probably come to the East with his
close neighbour, the Count of Nevers. On his arrival Baldwin
enfeoffed him with all the land of the county that lay to the west
of the Euphrates, with his headquarters at Turbessel. He proved
to be a valiant friend; but his loyalty was later to be questioned. 1
As time went on, Baldwin seems to have grown suspicious of
Tancred s ambitions, and desired Bohemond s restoration to
Antioch. Together with the Patriarch Bernard he began negotia
tions with the Danishmend emir to secure his release. Tancred
took no part in the transaction. The emir had already been offered
the large sum of 260,000 besants from the Emperor Alexius in
return for Bohemond s person, and would have accepted, had not
the Seldjuk Sultan, Kilij Arslan, come to hear of it. Kilij Arslan,
as official overlord of the Anatolian Turks, demanded half of any
ransom that the Danishmend might receive. The resultant quarrel
between the two Turkish princes prevented the immediate
acceptance of the Emperor s offer, but it served the useful purpose
of breaking their alliance. Bohemond, in his captivity, was aware
of these negotiations. He was still a handsome and glamorous
man ; and the ladies of the emir s household took an interest in him.
Perhaps with their assistance, he was able to persuade his captor
that a private arrangement with the Franks of Syria and the
promise of their alliance was preferable to a deal with the Emperor,
in which the Seldjuks intended to interfere. The emir agreed to
release Bohemond for the sum of 100,000 besants. 2
While the negotiations were continuing, the Danishmend army
1 William of Tyre, x, 24, pp. 437.
* Albert of Aix^ix, 33-6, pp. 610-12; Orderic Vitalis, x, 23, vol. iv, p. 144,
tells of Bohemond s love affair with, a daughter of the Danishmends, while the
Miracula S. Leonardi (Aa. Ss., Nov., vol. ra, pp. 160-8, 179-82) makes his lady
friend a Christian wife of the emir. Matthew of Edessa (clxxviii, p. 252) says
that Richard of the Principate was ransomed by Alexius ; but Richard was
already in Syria before Bohemond s release (Miracula S. Leonardi, p. 157).
Radulph of Caen says that Baldwin acted from dislike of Tancred (cxlvii,
p. 709). The quarrel between the Seldjuk and Danishmend rulers is reported by
Ibn al-Qalanisi, p. 59.
38
1103 : Bohemond s Release
attacked Melitene, Its ruler, Gabriel, must have appealed to his
son-in-law, Baldwin, for help ; but Baldwin did nothing, probably
because he was unwilling at this juncture to offend the emir.
Gabriel s subjects disliked him for his Orthodox faith. The
Syrians, in particular, had never forgiven him for having once put
one of their bishops to death for treason. He and his capital were
captured; but one of his castles held out. Gabriel was told by his
captors to order it to capitulate. When the garrison disobeyed him,
he was executed before its walls. 1
It was at Melitene, a few months later, in the spring of 1103,
that Bohemond was handed over to the Franks. His ransom
money had been raised by Baldwin and by the Patriarch Bernard,
with the help of the Armenian princeling, Kogh Vasil, and of
Bohemond s relatives in Italy. Tancred did not contribute to it.
Bohemond at once went to Antioch, where he was reinstated in
his authority. He publicly thanked Tancred for having admini
stered the principality during his absence, but privately there was
some friction between the uncle and the nephew, as Tancred did
not see why he should hand over to Bohemond the conquests that
he himself had made as regent. Public opinion forced him to give
way; and he was rewarded by a small fief within the principality.
He could legally have demanded the return of Galilee from
Baldwin I, but he did not think it worth his while?
The Franks celebrated Bohemond s return by a general offensive
against their neighbours. In the summer of 1 103 Bohemond, with
Joscelin of Courtenay, raided the territory of Aleppo. They cap
tured the town of Muslimiye, to the north of Aleppo itself, and
extracted a large tribute from the Moslems of the district, which
was used to repay the Franks who had lent money to Baldwin and
the Patriarch for Bohemond s ransom. 3 Next, they turned against
1 Michael the Syrian, m, pp. 185-9.
2 See above, p. 32. Fulcher (p. 460) says that Tancred was compe
tently rewarded, but Radulph says that he was only given two small towns
(loc. tit.).
3 Kemal ad-Din, p. 591; Ibn al-Athir (p. 212) adds that Bohemond extorted
money from Qinnasrin,
39
The Norman Princes ofAntioch
the Byzantines. Alexius, after writing to Bohemond to require
him to give back the Cilician cities, sent his general Butumites to
recover them. But Butumites s force was unreliable. He entered
Cilicia in the autumn of 1103 but soon decided that the task was
beyond him; and he learnt that the Franks were planning to
expand northward against Marash, which the Armenian Thatoul
held for the Emperor. He hastened there himself, and, probably,
by so doing, he saved Thatoul for the moment. But he was
recalled to Constantinople. Early next spring Bohemond and
Joscelin marched on Marash. Thatoul was powerless. The Byzan
tine army was far away. The Danishmend Turks were now on
good terms with the Franks. He surrendered his city to Joscelin,
who allowed him to retire to Constantinople; while Bohemond
took the town of Albistan, to the north of Marash. 1
The Franks now felt secure from attacks from Anatolia. They
could turn against the Moslems of the east. In March 1104
Bohemond reinvaded the lands of Ridwan of Aleppo and took the
town of Basarfut, on the road from Antioch to Aleppo; but his
attempt against Kafarlata, to the south, failed owing to the re
sistance of the local tribe of the Banu Ulaim. Joscelin meanwhile
cut the communications between Aleppo and the Euphrates. 2
But, if the Moslems of Syria were to be effectively cut off from
the Moslems of Iraq and Persia, the great fortress of Harran,
situated between Edessa and the Euphrates, in the northern
Jezireh, would have to be occupied by the Christians. If they held
Harran, the Franks could even contemplate an expedition against
Mosul and into Mesopotamia. In the spring of 1104 conditions
seemed to be favourable. During 1103 the whole eastern Moslem
world had been torn by a civil war between the Seldjuk Sultan
Barkiyarok and his brother Mohammed. Peace was made be
tween them in January 1 104 by which the Sultan retained Baghdad
1 Anna Comnena, xi, ix, 1-4, vol. m, pp. 40-1 ; Matthew of Edessa, dbcxxvi,
p. 257; Radulph of Caen, wrongly places the capture of Marash after the battle
of Harran (p. 148).
2 Kemal ad-Din, pp. 59 1-2; Zettersteen Chronicle, p. 239.
40
1104: The Importance of Han on
and the western Iranian plateau. His third brother, Sanjar, already
had obtained Khorassan and eastern Iran; and Mohammed ob
tained northern Iraq and the Jezireh and the suzerainty rights over
Diarbekir and over all Syria. It was an uneasy arrangement. Each
of the brothers hoped soon to upset it and in the meantime in
trigued for allies amongst all the Turkish and Arab princes. In the
Jezireh itself the death in 1102 of the atabeg of Mosul, Kerbogha,
whom the Franks had defeated at Antioch, had provoked a civil
war. The Ortoqid prince of Mardin, Soqman, had failed to secure
the succession for his candidate and was at war with the new atabeg,
Jekermish, appointed by the Seldjuk Mohammed. Harran itself
had belonged to a Turkish general, Qaraja, who had been a
mameluke in Malik Shah s service; but his brutal behaviour had
caused the inhabitants to rise against him and to hand over the
government to a certain Mohammed of Isfahan. Mohammed in
his turn was murdered by a former page of Qaraja s, called Jawali,
with whom he had rashly become intimate. But Jawali s authority
was very insecure ; while Harran itself began to suffer severely from
raids by the Franks of Edessa, who devastated its fields and inter
rupted its trade. It was clear that they intended soon to go farther. 1
Both Soqman at Mardin and Jekermish at Mosul were alarmed.
Their common danger induced them to forget their quarrel and to
unite in an expedition against Edessa, to attack before they were
attacked. Early in May 1104 they marched together on Edessa;
Soqman with a considerable force of Turcoman light cavalry and
Jekermish with a slightly smaller force c6mposed of Seldjuk
Turks, Kurds and Arabs. Baldwin II heard that they were massing
at Ras al-Ain, some seventy miles from his capital. He sent for
help to Joscelin and to Bohemond, and suggested that they should
turn the attack by themselves making an attempt on Harran.
1 For the, background to the Harran campaign, see Cahen, La Syrie ctu
Nord, pp. 236-7, with references. Nicholson, in his thesis on Tancred,
pp. 138-42, emphasizes that the campaign was not part of a general policy
of expansion, but the response to a threat by the Moslems. But Harran was
certainly an ultimate objective of the Franks.
41
The Norman Princes ofAntioch
Leaving a small garrison at Edessa he made his way to Harran with
a small company of knights and of Armenian infantry levies. The
Archbishop of Edessa, Benedict, accompanied him. Close to
Harran he was joined by Joscelin, with the troops of his lands,
and by the Antiochene army under Bohemond, Tancred, the
Patriarch Bernard, and Daimbert, ex-Patriarch of Jerusalem. The
whole Prankish army numbered nearly three thousand knights
and perhaps three times that number of infantry. It represented
the full fighting force of the Franks of northern Syria, apart from
the garrisons of the fortresses.
The army assembled before Harran while the Moslem princes
were still at some distance to the north-east, marching on Edessa.
Had the Franks attempted to take the fortress by assault, Harran
would have been theirs ; but they were unwilling to damage the
fortifications, which they hoped to use later themselves. They
thought that the garrison could be frightened into surrender. It
was a reasonable hope. The Moslems within the town were weak;
almost at once they entered into negotiations. But thereupon
Baldwin and Bohemond quarrelled over the question, whose
standard should first be raised over the walls. The delay caused
their downfall. Before they had settled the quarrel the Turkish
army had swung southward and was upon them.
The battle took place on the banks of the river Balikh, close to
the ancient field of Carrhae, where, centuries before, Crassus and
the Roman legions had been annihilated by the Parthians. The
Prankish strategy was for the army of Edessa, on the left, to engage
the main enemy force, while the Antiochene army lay hidden
behind a low hill about a mile to the right, ready to intervene at
the decisive moment. But the Moslems made similar plans.
A portion of their army attacked the Prankish left, then turned and
fled. The Edessenes thought that they had won an easy victory and
hurried in pursuit, losing contact with their comrades on the
right. They crossed the river and fell straight into an ambush laid
by the main Moslem army. Many of them were slaughtered on
the spot; the remainder turned and fled. When Bohemond, who
42
1104: The Disaster at Harran
had driven off the small detachment opposed to him, prepared to
join in the battle, he only found a stream of fugitives pouring from
the distance and scrambling back across the river, where fresh
bands of Turks fell upon them. He saw that all was lost and moved
quickly away, rescuing only a few of the Edessenes. As the
combatants passed beneath the walls of Harran, the garrison fell
on them and in the confusion enthusiastically killed as many of
the Moslem pursuers as of the Turks. The army of Antioch
escaped without heavy losses ; but the troops of Edessa were almost
entirely captured or slain. The Patriarch Bernard was so frightened
that as he fled he cut off his horse s tail lest some Turk should catch
him by it, though by then none of the enemy was in sight.
Amongst the first to be taken prisoner was the Archbishop
Benedict. But, owing either to the compliance of his jailer, a
renegade Christian, or to an Antiochene counter-attack, he was
soon rescued. Baldwin and Joscelin fled together on horseback
but were overtaken in the river-bed. They were brought as
prisoners to Soqman s tent. 1
Righdy fearing that the Turks would next attack Edessa,
Bohemond and Tancred hastened there to organize its defence.
Once again the misfortune of a colleague turned to Tancred s
advantage. The knights remaining in Edessa, with the Archbishop
at their head, begged him to take over the regency till Baldwin
should be released from captivity. Tancred gladly accepted the offer ;
and Bohemond, like Baldwin I four years previously, was relieved
to see him go. Tancred stayed on in Edessa with the remnants of
the Edessene army and with such troops as Bohemond could spare,
while Bohemond himself moved back to Antioch, whose neigh
bours were preparing to take advantage of the Prankish disaster. 3
1 Albert of Aix, IX, 38-42, pp. 614-16; Radulph of Caen, cxlviii, pp. 710-11 ;
Fulcher of Chartres, n, xxvii, 1-13, pp. 468-7?; Ibn al-Qalanisi, pp. 60-1;
Ibn al-Athir, pp. 221-3, Sibt ibn al-Djauzi, p. 537; Matthew of Edessa, clxxxii,
pp. 254-5. Michael the Syrian, in, p. 195; Chron. Anon. Syr. pp. 78-80.
The accounts of the actual battle are somewhat conflicting.
2 Radulph of Caen, cxlviii, p. 712; Albert of Aix, loc. cit.; Matthew of
Edessa, clxxxii, p. 256.
43
The Norman Princes of Antioch
The battle of Harran was the complement to the Crusades of
noi. Together, they destroyed the legend of Prankish invinci
bility. The defeats of noi had meant that northern Syria was
deprived of the reinforcements from the West that were needed
if Prankish domination was to be firmly established there; and
Harran meant in the long run that the county of Edessa was
doomed and that Aleppo would never pass into Prankish hands.
The wedge that the Franks had intended to maintain between the
three Moslem centres of Anatolia, Iraq and Syria was insecurely
driven in. And not only the Moslems would benefit. The Emperor
was watching angrily in Byzantium and was not sorry to hear of
the Prankish discomfiture.
The immediate consequences were not as fatal as might have
been feared. The alliance between Soqman and Jekermish did not
long survive their victory. The former s Turcoman troops had
obtained most of the prisoners and the booty; and the latter was
jealous. His Seldjuk regiment attacked Soqman s tent and carried
off Baldwin. The Turcomans were furious; but Soqman showed
sufficient self-control to restrain them from counter-attacking. He
reconciled himself to the loss of his valuable prisoner; but, after
reducing a few small Christian frontier-forts by the simple ruse of
dressing up his soldiers in their Prankish victims clothes, he retired
to Mardin and took no further part in the war. 1 Jekermish fought
on. First, to secure himself against Soqman, he overwhelmed the
Prankish castles in the Shahbaqtan, to the east of Edessa, then
marched on the capital. Prankish delay .had saved Harran for
Islam. Now the Moslems delay saved Edessa for Christendom.
Tancred had time to repair the city s defences and was able to
resist Jekermish s first attack, thanks largely to the loyalty and
valour of the local Armenians. But he was so hard pressed that he
sent urgently to Bohemond for help. Bohemond had his own
problems ; but the threat to Edessa must be given precedence. He
marched at once to his nephew s assistance; but the poor condition
1 Ibn al-Athir, loc. dt. Soqman is reported to have said: I would rather lose
ray spoil than let the Christians vaunt us with folly.
44
1104 - Bohemond and Tancred leave Baldwin in Captivity
of die roads delayed him. Tancred, in despair, ordered a sortie of
bis garrison to take place before dawn. In the darkness his men
fell upon the sleeping and confident Turks; and their victory was
completed by Bohemond s arrival. Jekermish fled in panic,
abandoning the treasures of his camp. Harran was avenged, and
Edessa was preserved. 1
Amongst the prisoners that fell into Tancred s hands was a high
born Seldjuk princess from the Emir s household. So highly did
Jekermish value this kdy that he at once offered either to pay
15,000 besants to ransom her or else to exchange Count Baldwin
Hmselfforher. News of the offer reached Jerusalem; and King
Baldwin hastened to write to Bohemond to beg him not to lose
this opportunity for obtaining the Count s release. But Bohemond
and Tancred needed money, while Baldwin s return would have
thrown Tancred out of his present post back on his uncle s hands.
They answered that it would be undiplomatic to appear too eager
to accept the offer ; Jekermish might raise his price if they hesitated.
But meanwhile they arranged with the emir to have the money
payment; and Baldwin remained in captivity .*
Having thus enriched themselves by sacrificing their comrade,
Bohemond and Tancred turned to meet the enemies that were
pressing round them. Jekermish did not again attempt to attack
Edessa; and Tancred was able to repair the city s defences. But
Bohemond had at once to face an invasion by Ridwan of Aleppo
into the eastern districts of his principality. In June the Armenian
inhabitants of Artah handed over their town to the Moslems,
delighted to escape from Antiochene tyranny. The towns of
Maarrat, Misrin and Sarman on the frontier followed suit; and
the small Prankish garrisons of Maarat al-Numan, Albara and
Kafartab, who were thus isolated, withdrew back to Antioch.
Meanwhile Ridwan ravaged the principality as far as the Iron
Bridge. In the far north Bohemond s garrison at Albistan only
1 Albert of Aix, rx, 43, PP- 617-18; Ibn al-Athir, p. 223; Ibn al-Qalanisi,
pp. 69-70.
* Albert of Aix, EC, 46, pp. 619-20.
45
The Norman Princes of Antioch
maintained itself by imprisoning the leading local Armenians, who
were plotting with the Turks. The whole of Bohemond s state
might have been endangered had not Duqaq of Damascus died
towards the end of June 1104 whereupon Ridwan s attention was
taken up by the struggle for the succession between Duqaq s two
sons, Buri and Iltash. 1
Bohemond s failure to meet Ridwan s attack was due to his
preoccupation with Byzantine affairs. The Emperor Alexius was
now on good terms with the Prankish states farther to the south.
Raymond of Toulouse was still his close friend; and he had won
the good-will of King Baldwin by himself paying for the ransom
of many distinguished Franks who were held captive in Egypt.
His generosity had been wisely calculated. It was in striking con
trast to Bohemond and Tancred s behaviour over Baldwin of
Edessa; and it reminded the Franks that he had influence and
prestige that the Fatimids respected. When therefore he took action
against Antioch, its prince received no help from his colleagues.
Alexius had already fortified Corycos and Seleucia on the Cilician
coast, to prevent Antiochene aggression into western Cilicia. In
the summer of 1104 a Byzantine army, under the general Monas-
tras, reoccupied without difficulty the east Cilician cities, Tarsus,
Adana and Mamistra ; while a naval squadron under the Emperor s
admiral, Cantacuzenus, which had come to Cyprian waters in
pursuit of a Genoese raiding fleet, took advantage of Bohemond s
situation to sail on to Lattakieh, where his men captured the
harbour and the lower city. Bohemond hastened with the
Prankish troops that he could muster to reinforce the garrison in
the citadel and to replace its commander, whom he distrusted.
But, lacking sea-power, he did not try to expel the Byzantines
from their position. 3
By the autumn Bohemond felt desperate. In September he held
a council of his vassals at Antioch, to which he summoned Tancred.
1 Radulph of Caen, loc. cit.; Kemal ad-Din, pp. 592-3; Sibt ibn al-Djauzi,
p. 529; Ibn al-Qalardsi, pp. 62-5.
a Anna Comnena, xi, x, 9-xi, 7, vol. ni, pp. 45-9.
1104: Bohemond leaves for the West
There he told them frankly of the dangers that surrounded the
principality. The only solution was, he said, to secure reinforce
ments from Europe. He would go himself to France and use his
personal prestige to recruit the needed men. Tancred dutifully
offered to take on this task; but his uncle replied that he did not
command sufficient authority in the "West. He must remain
behind as Regent of Antioch. Arrangements were soon made
for Bohemond s departure. Late in the autumn he set sail from
Saint Symeon, taking with him all the gold and silver, jewels
and precious stuffs that were available, and copies of the Gesta
Francorum, the anonymous history of the First Crusade told from
the Norman point of view. In these copies Bohemond inserted
a passage suggesting that the Emperor had promised him the
lordship of Antioch. 1
Tancred then took over the government of Antioch, at the same
time taking an oath that he would restore Edessa to Baldwin
immediately on his release from captivity. Meanwhile, as Tancred
could not rule Edessa satisfactorily from Antioch, he appointed his
cousin and brother-in-law, Richard of Salerno, as his deputy
across the Euphrates.*
Bohemond reached his own lands in Apulia early in the new
year. He remained there till the following September, seeing to
his personal affairs, which needed his supervision after his nine
years absence, and organizing parties of Normans to join their
fellows in the East. Then he went to Rome, where he saw Pope
1 Anna Comnena, xi, xii, 1-3, vol. m, pp. 50-1, who says that he pretended
to be dead so as to embark unnoticed; Albert of Aix, ix, 47, p. 620; Fulcher of
Chartres, n, xxix, I, pp. 482-3; Radulph of Caen, dii, cliii, pp. 712-14;
Ibn al-Qalanisi, op. dt. p. 66; Matthew of Edessa, cboorii, pp. 255-6. For the
interpolation in the Gesta, see Krey, A neglected passage in the Gesta 1 , in The
Crusades and other Historical Essays, presented to D. C. Munro. Bohemond s
arrival in Italy is recorded in the Annales Barenses, p. 155.
2 Matthew of Edessa, clxxxix, p. 260; Michael the Syrian, m, p. 195;
Ibn al-Athir, pp. 262-3. Tancred in his charters henceforward calls himself
Tancredus Dux et Princeps Antiochenus (R6hricht,Ree5ta,p.ii). In charters
during his first regency he is called Princeps without a territorial designation
(ibid. p. 5). He was still titular Prince of Galilee.
47
The Norman Princes ofAntioch
Paschal. To him Bohemond emphasized that the great enemy of
the Latins in the East was the Emperor Alexius. Paschal had
already been prejudiced against Alexius by Bishop Manasses and
fell in readily with his views. When Bohemond went on into
France he was accompanied by the papal legate, Bruno, who was
instructed to preach a Holy War against Byzantium. It was a
turning-point in the history of the Crusades. The Norman policy,
which aimed to break the power of the eastern Empire, became the
official Crusading policy. The interests of Christendom as a whole
were to be sacrificed to the interests of Prankish adventurers. The
Pope was later to regret his indiscretion; but the harm was done.
The resentment of the western knights and populace against the
haughtiness of the Emperor, their jealousy of his wealth and their
suspicions of Christians who used a ritual that they could not
understand were all given official sanction by the western Church.
Henceforward, though the Pope might modify his views, they
felt justified in every hostile action against Byzantium. And the
Byzantines, on their side, found their worst suspicions realized.
The Crusade, with the Pope at its head, was not a movement for
the succour of Christendom, but a tool of unscrupulous western
vrgpp];jp1ktp. This unhappy agreement between Bohemond and
Pope Paschal did far more than all the controversy between
Cardinal Humbert and Michael Cerularius to ensure the separation
between the eastern and western Churches.
Bohemond was well received in France. He spent some time.at
the Court of King Philip, who gave him permission to recruit men
throughout the kingdom; and he enjoyed the active support of
that eager Crusader-by-proxy, Adela, Countess of Blois. Adela
not only introduced him to her brother, Henry I of England,
whom he saw in Normandy at Easter 1106, and who promised
to encourage his work, but she also arranged for him to make
an impressive marriage-alliance with King Philip s daughter,
Constance, the divorced Countess of Champagne. The wedding
took place in the late spring of 1106; and at the same time King
Philip agreed to offer the hand of his younger daughter, Cecilia,
48
: Bohemond invades the Empire
child of his adulterous union with Bertrada of Montfort, to Tan-
cred. Constance never went to the East. Her married life and
widowhood were spent in Italy. But Cecilia sailed for Antioch
about the end of the year. These royal connections added to the
prestige of the Norman princes. 1
Bohemond remained in France till late in 1106, when he
returned to Apulia. There he planned his new Crusade, which was
to begin uncompromisingly with an attack on the Byzantine
Empire. Cheered by the news that under Tancred s rule Antioch
was in no immediate peril, he did not hurry. On 9 October 1107
his army landed on the Epirote coast of the Empire at Avlona; and
four days later he appeared before the great fortress of Dyrrha-
chium, the key to the Balkan peninsula, which the Normans had
long coveted and had held for a while a quarter of a century before.
But Alexius, too, had had time to make his preparations. To save
Dyrrhachium he was ready to sacrifice his south-eastern frontier;
and he made peace with the Seldjuk Sultan, Kilij Arslan, from
whom he hired mercenaries. Finding the fortress too strong and
too vigorously defended by its garrison to be taken by assault,
Bohemond settled down to besiege it. But, as in his earlier wars
against Byzantium, lack of sea-power was his ruin. Almost at once
the Byzantine navy cut on ins communications with Italy and
blockaded the coast. Then, early next spring, the main Byzantine
army closed in round him. As the summer came on, dysentery,
malaria and famine weakened the Normans; while Alexius broke
their morale by spreading rumours and sending forged letters to
1 Orderic Vitalis, xi, vol. rv, pp. 210-13; Suger, Vita Ludovici, pp. 29-30;
Chronicon S. Maxentii, p. 423; Chronicon Vindodnense, pp. 161-2; William of
Tyre, xi, i, p. 450; Anna Comnena, xn, i, I, vol. m, p. 53- The marriage
between Constance and Bohemond took place according to Luchaire, Louis VI
k Gros, p. 22, in April or May 1106. It was probably after that date that
Cecilia set out for the East. Her marriage therefore probably took place later
in 1106. Matthew of Edessa (loc. cit.) believed that Bohemond was obliged to
marry a rich lady, whom he calls the wife of Stephen Pol (apparently muddling
Hugh of Champagne with the Crusader Hugh of Saint Pol who was a friend
of Bohemond). She imprisoned him till he consented. He would have pre
ferred to return to the East.
RC 49 4
The Norman Princes of Antioch
their leaders, devices that his daughter Anna described with loving
admiration. By September Bohemond knew that he was beaten,
and he surrendered to the Emperor. It was a tremendous triumph
for Byzantium; for Bohemond was by now the most renowned
warrior in Christendom. The sight of this formidable hero,
towering personally over the Emperor yet suppliant before him
and obedient to his dictation, bore witness which no one could
forget to the invincible majesty of the Empire.
Alexius received Bohemond at his camp, at the entrance to the
ravines of the river Devol. He was courteous but cold to him, and
wasted no time in setting before him the peace treaty that he was
to sign. Bohemond hesitated at first; but Nicephorus Bryennius,
Anna Comnena s husband, who was in attendance on his father-
in-law, persuaded him that he had no option.
The text of the treaty is preserved in full in the pages of Anna
Comnena. In it Bohemond first was made to express contrition
for the breach of his former oath to the Emperor. Then he swore
with the utmost solemnity to become the vassal and liege-man of
the Emperor and of the Emperor s heir, the Porphyrogennete
John; and he would oblige all his men to do likewise. That there
might be no mistake the Latin term for liege was employed, and
the duties of a vassal were enumerated. He was to remain Prince of
Antioch, which he would govern under the Emperor s suzerainty.
His territory would include Antioch itself and its port of Saint
Symeon, and the districts to the north-east, as far as Marash,
together with the lands that he might conquer from the Moslem
princes of Aleppo and other inland Syrian states; but the Cilician
cities and the coast round Lattakieh were to be restored to the
Emperor s direct rule, and the territory of the Roupenian princes
was not to be touched. An appendix was added to the treaty care
fully listing the towns that were to constitute Bohemond s
dominion. Within his dominion Bohemond was to exercise the
civil authority, but the Latin Patriarch was to be deposed and
replaced by a Greek. There were special provisions that if Tancred,
or any other of Bohemond s men, refused to comply with the
50
no8: The Treaty ofDevol
demands of the treaty, Bohemond was to force them into
obedience. 1
The Treaty ofDevol is of interest because it reveals the solution
that Alexius now contemplated for the Crusader question. He was
prepared to allow frontier districts and even Antioch itself to pass
into the autonomous control of a Latin prince, so long as the prince
was bound to him by ties of vassalage according to the Latin
custom, and so long as Byzantium kept indirect control through
the Church, Alexius, moreover, felt himself to be responsible for
the welfare of the eastern Christians, and even wished to safeguard
the rights of his unsatisfactory Armenian vassals, the Roupenians.
The treaty remained a paper agreement. But it broke Bohemond ;
who never dared show himself again in the East. He retired
humble and discredited to his lands in Apulia, and died there in
mi, an obscure Italian princeling, leaving two infant sons by his
French marriage to inherit his rights to Antioch. He had been a
gallant soldier, a bold and wily general and a hero to his followers ;
and his personality had outshone all his colleagues on the First
Crusade. But the vastness of his unscrupulous ambition was his
downfall. The time had not yet come for the Crusaders to destroy
the bulwark of eastern Christendom.*
As Alexius well realized, the Treaty ofDevol required the co
operation of Tancred; and Tancred, who was not sorry to see his
uncle eliminated from eastern affairs, had no intention of becoming
the Emperor s vassal. His ambition was less extensive than
Bohemond s, but it was for the creation of a strong independent
principality. His prospects were unhopeful. Bohemond had left
him with few men and quite without ready money. Nevertheless
he decided to take the offensive. A forced loan from the wealthy
merchants of Antioch replenished his funds and enabled him to
1 Anna Cotnnena, XH, iv, 1-3, viii, i-ix, 7, xni, ii, i-xii, 28, vol. in, pp. 64-5,
77-^5, 91-139. See Chalandon, op. dt. pp. 237-50.
a The date of Bohemond s death is given differently in different chronicles.
But Rey (Histoire des Princes d Antioche, p. 334) and Hagenmeyer (op. dt.)
p. 298) both discuss it and give mi (6 March, according to the Ntcrologie de
I Abbaye de Molesme, quoted by Rey.)
51 4-2
The Norman Princes ofAntioch
hire local mercenaries; and he summoned all the knights and
cavalrymen that could be spared from Edessa and Turbessel as well
as from Antiochene territory. In the spring of 1105 he marched
out to recover Artah. Ridwan of Aleppo had been preparing to
go to the assistance of the Banu Ammar in their struggle against
the Franks farther to the south; but on the news of Tancred s
advance he turned to defend Artah. The two armies met on 20 April,
at the village of Tizin near Artah, on a desolate plain strewn with
boulders. Alarmed by the size of the Turkish host, Tancred sug
gested a parley with Ridwan, who would have agreed, had not his
cavaky commander, Sabawa, persuaded him to attack without
delay. The terrain prevented the Turks from using their usual
tactics. When their first cavalry onrush was driven back by the
Franks they retired to lure the enemy on; but they were unable
to re-form their ranks for a second charge, and meanwhile their
infantry was cut down by the Prankish knights. At the failure of
their plans they panicked. Ridwan and his bodyguard rode off in
flight to Aleppo, and most of his cavalry followed. The remainder
and the foot-soldiers were butchered on the battle-field.
The victory enabled Tancred to reoccupy all the territory
lost in the previous year. The Seldjuk garrison abandoned Artah
to him, while his troops pursued the fugitives to the walls of
Aleppo and plundered many of the civilian population as they
fled in terror from the city. Ridwan sued for peace. He agreed
to give up all his territory in the Orontes valley and to pay
a regular tribute to Tancred. By the end of 1105 Tancred s
dominion stretched once more as far south as Albara and Maarat
al-Numan. 1
In February 1106 the emir of Apamea, Khalaf ibn Mula ib, who
had been not unfriendly to the Franks, was assassinated by fanatics
from Aleppo. The murderers then quarrelled with, their chief ally
within the town, Abu l Path, who had assumed its government, and
now asked for help from Ridwan. Tancred, invited by the local
1 Radulph of Caen, cliv, pp. 714-15; Albert of Aix, ix, 47, pp. 620-1;
Kemal ad-Din, p. 593; Ibn al-Qalanisi, pp. 69-70; Ibn al-Athir, pp. 227-8.
52
no6: The Capture ofApamea
Armenians, judged it opportune to intervene. He marched south
and began to besiege the town. But Abul Path restored order;
and die emirs of Shaizar and Hama promised help. Tancred was
obliged to retire after three weeks, giving as his excuse that he
must succour the garrison at Lattakieh, which, after an eighteen
months blockade by the Byzantines, was faced with famine. He
revictualled it and returned to Antioch. A few months later one
of Khalaf s sons, Musbih ibn Mula ib, who had escaped his father s
fate, appeared at Antioch with a hundred followers and persuaded
Tancred to attack Apamea once again. With Musbih s help he
reinvested the town, digging a ditch all round to prevent ingress
or egress. None of the neighbouring emirs came to Abul Path s
assistance; and after a few weeks, on 14 September 1106, the
Moslems capitulated on the condition that their lives should be
spared. Tancred agreed to their terms and entered the town;
whereupon, to please Musbih, he put Abu l Path and three of his
companions to death. The other Apamean notables were taken to
Antioch, where they remained till Ridwan arranged for their
ransom. A Prankish governor was installed at Apamea; while
Musbih was enfeoffed with an estate near by. 1 Soon afterwards
the Franks reoccupied Kafartab. It was put into the charge of a
knight called Theophilus, who soon made himself the terror of the
Moslems of Shaizar. 3
With his eastern and southern frontiers thus secured, Tancred
could turn against the foe that he hated the most, Byzantium. In
die summer of 1107, when Bohemond s attack on the European
provinces was imminent, Alexius was obliged to remove troops
from the Syrian frontier in order to face what was a more serious
menace. Cantacuzenus was recalled with many of his men from
Lattakieh, and Monastras from Cilicia, which was put under the
control of the Armenian prince of Lampron, the Sbarabied Oshin.
1 Ibn al-Qalanisi, loc. dt.\ Zettersteen Chronicle, p. 240; Kemal ad-Din,
p. 694; Ibn al-Athir, p. 233 ; Albert of Aix, x, 17-23, pp. 639-42. He says that
Abu l Path, whom he calls Botherus , committed the murder of the emir.
2 Usama, ed. Hitti, p. 157; Ibn al-Qalanisi, p. 73 ; Kemal ad-Din, pp. 594-5.
53
The Norman Princes ofAntioch
In the winter of 1108, or early in 1109, soon after Bohemond s
humiliation in Epirus, Tancred invaded Cilicia. The Emperor s
judgment of men had failed him. Oshin came of high lineage and
had been famed in his youth for his courage; but now he had
become luxurious and lazy. The key to Cilicia was the fortress of
Mamistra, on the river Jihan. When Tancred s forces advanced
by land over the Amanus range and by water up the river to
besiege the town, Oshin did nothing to stop them. Mamistra fell
after a short siege; and it seems that during the next months
Tancred re-established his rule over Adana and Tarsus, though
western Cilicia remained in imperial hands. Oshin himself retired
to his lands in the Taurus. 1
Lattakieh had already been reconquered. Hitherto the Normans
had been hampered by lack of sea-power. But the Byzantine navy-
was now concentrated far away in the Adriatic; and Tancred was
able to purchase the aid of a Pisan squadron. The price that Pisa
demanded was a street in Antioch, and a quarter in Lattakieh, with
a church and a godown. Petzeas, who had succeeded Cantacu-
zenus as Byzantine commander there, was powerless to offer
resistance. Lattakieh was finally incorporated into the Antiochene
principality in the spring of 1108. Next year Tancred extended his
dominion farther to the south, taking Jabala, Buluniyas and the
castle of Marqab from the dissolving dominions of the Banu
Ammar. 3
Thus, when Bohemond surrendered to the Emperor and signed
away his independence, Tancred was reaching the height of his
power and was in no way disposed to obey the imperial decree.
From the Taurus to the Jezireh and central Syria his was the chief
authority. He was ruler ofAntioch and Edessa, only their regent,
it is true; but Prince Bohemond now lived discredited in Italy and
1 Anna Comnena, xn, ii, 1-7, vol. m, pp. 56-9; William of Tyre, x, 23,
pp. 635-6. (See also Rohricht, Regesta, p. n, and Muratori, Antiquitates
Italicae, n, pp. 905-6, for Tancred s treaty with the Pisans.)
* Dal Borgo, Diplomats. Pisana, pp. 85-94. See Heyd, Histoire du Commerce
du Uvant) vol. i, pp. 145-6.
54
1109: Tancred at the Height of his Power
would never return to the East, and Count Baldwin languished in
Turkish captivity, from which Tancred would make no effort to
rescue him. The Prince of Aleppo was his virtual vassal and none
of the neighbouring emirs would venture to attack him. And he
had triumphantly defied the heir of the Caesars at Constantinople.
When the Emperor s ambassadors came to Antioch to remind him
of his uncle s engagements, he dismissed them with arrogance. He
was, as he said, Ninus the great Assyrian, a giant whom no man
could resist 1
But arrogance has its limitations. For all his brilliance, Tancred
was distrusted and disliked. It was by his own Crusading colleagues
that his power was challenged and checked.
1 Anna Comnena, xiv, ii, 3-5, vol. m, pp. 14.7-8.
55
CHAPTER IV
TOULOUSE AND TRIPOLI
The glory of Lebanon shall come unto theeJ ISAIAH LX, 13
Of all die princes that set out in 1096 for the First Crusade, Ray
mond, Count of Toulouse, had been the wealthiest and the most
distinguished, the man whom many expected to be named as
leader of the movement. Five years later he was among the least
considered of the Crusaders. His troubles were of his own making.
Though he was no greedier and no more ambitious than most of
his colleagues, his vanity made his faults too clearly visible. His
policy of loyalty to the Emperor Alexius was genuinely based on
a sense of honour and a far-sighted statesmanship, but to his fellow-
Franks it seemed a treacherous ruse, and it won him small advan
tage; for the Emperor soon discovered him to be an incompetent
friend. His followers respected his piety; but he had no authority
over them. They had forced his hand over the march to Jerusalem
during die First Crusade; and the disasters of noi showed how
little fitted he was to direct an expedition. His lowest humiliation
had come when he was taken prisoner by his young colleague
Tancred. Though Tancred s action, breaking the rules of hos
pitality and honour, outraged public opinion, Raymond only
obtained release on signing away any claims to northern Syria and
incidentally destroying the basis of his agreement with the
Emperor. 1 But he had the virtue of tenacity. He had vowed to
remain in the East. He would keep his vow and would still carve
for himself a principality.
There was one area that must be conquered by the Christians if
their establishments in the East were to survive. A 
