Bohemond I of Antioch: Difference between revisions

Bohemond I of Antioch (c. 1058 – March 3 1111), prince of Taranto and afterwards prince of Antioch, was one of the leaders of the First Crusade. The name is also spelled Bohemund in some sources.

Bohemond was born in San Marco Argentano [Calabria] as the eldest son of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and his first wife Alberada of Buonalbergo. He was christened "Mark" but came to be known as Bohemond, after a legendary giant of that name.

Bohemond served under his father in the great attack on the Byzantine Empire (1080–1085) and commanded the Normans during Guiscard's absence (1082–1084), penetrating into Thessaly as far as Larissa, but being eventually repulsed by Alexius I Comnenus. This early hostility to Alexius had a great influence in determining the course and policy of the emperor's reign from time of Bohemond (whom his father had destined for the throne of Constantinople) to that of Roger II of Sicily.

It seems that Guiscard left his son with orders to continue the advance into the Byzantine west and perhaps as far as possible, even to Constantinople. Accordingly, in Spring 1082, Bohemond left Kastoria and besieged Joannina. In the region around Joannina were settled Vlach foederati of the empire and Bohemond made peace with them, probably garnering their military support, for he left behind him many fortified places still in the hands of the Greeks. Alexius met Bohemond in battle in the environs of Joannina, which the Norman had been ravaging. Both generals altered their strategies in light of prior engagements, but Bohemond was victorious and again near Arta a short while later. These defeats deeply hurt Byzantine prestige in the region and even Ochrid, seat of the Bulgarian archbishopric, submitted to the Normans. Bohemond stayed at Ochrid, though he could not take the citadel, and from there began organising the defence of his conquests. Alexius responded to Bohemond's ascendance by sowing dissension among his top officers. Bohemond then advanced on Larissa, where he intended to winter. The siege lasted six months until Alexius forced the Normans to retreat in the spring. Bohemond returned to Kastoria and was there besieged until the city fell in October or November 1083. In 1084, Guiscard and his other sons, Roger Borsa and Guy, arrived with a new army in Greece. In winter, Bohemond was ill and returned to Italy.

When Robert Guiscard died on 17 July 1085, Bohemond inherited his father's Adriatic possessions, which were soon lost to the Byzantines, while his younger half-brother Roger inherited Apulia and the Italian possessions. Happily for him, Bohemond was in Salerno at the time of the Guiscard's death while Roger was still in Greece. Roger and his mother Sichelgaita quickly returned to the peninsula. According to Orderic Vitalis, Bohemond fled to Capua in fear that Sichelgaita, who was rumoured to have poisoned Guiscard, would poison him. A better suggestion is that he wished to ally himself with Prince Jordan I of Capua in light of the alliance between Roger and his uncle, Count Roger I of Sicily, who had secured his nephew's recognition as duke in September. Bohemond, with Capuan support, rebelled against his brother and took Oria, Otranto, and Taranto. The brothers, however, made peace in March 1086 and acted as effective co-rulers. In late Summer 1087, Bohemond renewed the war with the support of some of his brother's vassals. He surprised and defeated Roger at Fragneto and retook Taranto.

The war was finally resolved by the mediation of Pope Urban II and the award of Taranto and other possessions to Bohemond. Though Bohemond received a small principality (an allodial possession) for himself in the heel of southern Italy, as compensation from Sichelgaita after renouncing his rights to the Duchy, he sought a greater status for himself. The chronicler Romoald of Salerno said of Bohemond that "he was always seeking the impossible."

In 1096, Bohemond, along with his uncle Roger I of Sicily the great count of Sicily, was attacking Amalfi, which had revolted against Duke Roger, when bands of crusaders began to pass, on their way through Italy to Constantinople. The zeal of the crusader came upon Bohemond: it is possible however, that he saw in the First Crusade nothing more than a chance to carve for himself an eastern principality. Geoffrey Malaterra bluntly states that Bohemond took the Cross with the intention of plundering and conquering Greek lands.

He gathered a Norman army, perhaps one of the finest in the crusading host, at the head of which he crossed the Adriatic Sea, and penetrated to Constantinople along the route he had tried to follow in 1082–1084. He was careful to observe a "correct" attitude towards Alexius, and when he arrived at Constantinople in April 1097 he did homage to the emperor. He may have negotiated with Alexius about a principality at Antioch; if he did so, he had little encouragement. From Constantinople to Antioch, Bohemond was the real leader of the First Crusade; and it says much for his leadership that the First Crusade succeeded in crossing Asia Minor, which the Crusade of 1101, the Second Crusade in 1147, and the Third Crusade in 1189 failed to accomplish.

The Emperor's daughter, Anna Comnena, leaves a good portrait of him in her Alexiad; she met him for the first time when she was fourteen, and was quite fascinated by him. She left no similar portrait of any other Crusader prince. Of Bohemond, she wrote:

Now [Bohemond] was such as, to put it briefly, had never before been seen in the land of the Romans[Byzantines], be he either of the barbarians or of the Greeks (for he was a marvel for the eyes to behold, and his reputation was terrifying). Let me describe the barbarian's appearance more particularly -- he was so tall in stature that he overtopped the tallest by nearly one cubit, narrow in the waist and loins, with broad shoulders and a deep chest and powerful arms. And in the whole build of the body he was neither too slender nor overweighted with flesh, but perfectly proportioned and, one might say, built in conformity with the canon of Polycleitus... His skin all over his body was very white, and in his face the white was tempered with red. His hair was yellowish, but did not hang down to his waist like that of the other barbarians; for the man was not inordinately vain of his hair, but had it cut short to the ears. Whether his beard was reddish, or any other colour I cannot say, for the razor had passed over it very closely and left a surface smoother than chalk... His blue eyes indicated both a high spirit and dignity; and his nose and nostrils breathed in the air freely; his chest corresponded to his nostrils and by his nostrils...the breadth of his chest. For by his nostrils nature had given free passage for the high spirit which bubbled up from his heart. A certain charm hung about this man but was partly marred by a general air of the horrible... He was so made in mind and body that both courage and passion reared their crests within him and both inclined to war. His wit was manifold and crafty and able to find a way of escape in every emergency. In conversation he was well informed, and the answers he gave were quite irrefutable. This man who was of such a size and such a character was inferior to the Emperor alone in fortune and eloquence and in other gifts of nature.

A politique, Bohemond was resolved to engineer the enthusiasm of the crusaders to his own ends; and when his nephew Tancred left the main army at Heraclea Cybistra, and attempted to establish a footing in Cilicia, the movement may have been already intended as a preparation for Bohemond's eastern principality. Bohemond was the first to get into position before Antioch (October 1097), and he took a great part in the siege of the city, beating off the Muslim attempts at relief from the east, and connecting the besiegers on the west with the port of St Simeon and the Genoese ships which lay there.

The capture of Antioch was due to his connection with Firuz, one of the commanders in the city; but he would not bring matters to an issue until the possession of the city was assured him (May 1098), under the terror of the approach of Kerbogha with a great army of relief, and with a reservation in favour of Alexius, if Alexius should fulfill his promise to aid the crusaders. But Bohemond was not secure in the possession of Antioch, even after its surrender and the defeat of Kerbogha; he had to make good his claims against Raymond of Toulouse, who championed the rights of Alexius. He obtained full possession in January 1099, and stayed in the neighbourhood of Antioch to secure his position, while the other crusaders moved southward to the capture of Jerusalem.

He came to Jerusalem at Christmas 1099, and had Dagobert of Pisa elected as Patriarch, perhaps in order to check the growth of a strong Lotharingian power in the city. It might seem that Bohemond was destined to found a great principality in Antioch, which would dwarf Jerusalem; he had a fine territory, a good strategic position and a strong army. But he had to face two great forces--the Byzantine Empire, which claimed the whole of his territories and was supported in its claim by Raymond of Toulouse, and the strong Muslim principalities in the north-east of Syria. Against these two forces he failed.

In 1100, he was captured by Danishmend of Sivas, and he languished in prison until 1103. Tancred took his place; but meanwhile Raymond established himself with the aid of Alexius in Tripoli, and was able to check the expansion of Antioch to the south.

Ransomed in 1103 by Baldwin of Le Bourcq, Bohemond made it his first object to attack the neighbouring Muslim powers in order to gain supplies. But in heading an attack on Harran, in 1104, he was severely defeated at Balak, near Rakka on the Euphrates (see Battle of Harran). The defeat was decisive; it made impossible the great eastern principality which Bohemond had contemplated. It was followed by a Greek attack on Cilicia; and despairing of his own resources, Bohemond returned to Europe for reinforcements in order to defend his position. His attractive personality won him the hand of Constance, the daughter of the French king, Philip I, and he collected a large army. Of this marriage wrote Abbot Suger:

Bohemond came to France to seek by any means he could the hand of the Lord Louis' sister Constance, a young lady of excellent breeding, elegant appearance and beautiful face. So great was the reputation for valour of the French kingdom and of the Lord Louis that even the Saracens were terrified by the prospect of that marriage. She was not engaged since she had broken off her agreement to wed Hugh, count of Troyes, and wished to avoid another unsuitable match. The prince of Antioch was experienced and rich both in gifts and promises; he fully deserved the marriage, which was celebrated with great pomp by the bishop of Chartres in the presence of the king, the Lord Louis, and many archbishops, bishops and noblemen of the realm.

Dazzled by his success, Bohemond resolved to use his army not to defend Antioch against the Greeks, but to attack Alexius. He did so; but Alexius, aided by the Venetians, proved too strong, and Bohemond had to submit to a humiliating peace (the Treaty of Devol, 1108), by which he became the vassal of Alexius, consented to receive his pay, with the title of Sebastos, and promised to cede disputed territories and to admit a Greek patriarch into Antioch. Henceforth Bohemond was a broken man. He died without returning to the East, and was buried at Canosa in Apulia, in 1111.

The anonymous Gesta Francorum (edited by H Hagenmeyer) is written by one of Bohemond's followers; and The Alexiad of Anna Comnena is a primary authority for the whole of his life. His career is discussed by B von Kugler, Bohemund und Tancred (Tubingen, 1862); while L von Heinemann, Geschichte der Norniannen in Sicilien und Unteritalien (Leipzig, 1894), and R Rohricht, Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzuges (Innsbruck, 1901), and Geschichte das Königreichs Jerusalem (Innsbruck, 1898), may also be consulted for his history.

Count Bohemund (Alfred Duggan) is an historical novel concerning the life of Bohemund and its events up to the fall of Jerusalem to the crusaders. Bohemund also appears in the fantastical novel Pilgermann by Russell Hoban and the historical novel Silver Leopard by F. Van Wyck Mason.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)