Bohemond+of+Taranto

plan- intro Early Life Actions in Asia Minor Seige of Antioch Bohemund and the Principality of Antioch Bohemund's last war against the Emperor and his death ( Focus on Obsession with Antioch and Quotes)

__Introduction and brief overview__ - The chronicler Romald of Salerno said of Bohemond that "he was always seeking the impossible." Bohemond was the eldest son of a powerfull Norman nobleman. He was born in Southern Italy in 1058 and spent his early years fighting alongside or for his father against the Byzantine empire, by 1096 his father had died and he had become the most powerfull man in Southern Italy along with his uncle Roger 1 of Sicily. When Bohemund saw bands of crusaders passing throgh Italy he decided to join them, his motivations almoast certainly being power and wealth instead of religion Anna Commena described his reputation as being "terrifying". He was careful to do nothing to greatly offend Alexius, and when he arrived at Constantinople in April 1097 he did homage to the emperor. He was one of the leading Princes during the Crusader's journey through Asia Minor and the Seige of Antioch. The capture of Antioch was due to his connection with Firouz, one of the commanders in the city and once the threat of Kerbogah had been seen off he became obsessed with controling Antioch. When the Crusade left for Jerusalem, Bohemund remained in Antioch as its leader. His attempts to found a successful principality in Antioch were ultimatly unsuccssfull and he returned to Europe to pursue an unsuccesfull war against the Emperor, dieing in March 1111.[EF]

__Actions in Asia Minor__- Bohemond, and the other Crusaders, were unable to enter Nicaea as Alexius prevented this from happening. Bohemond and the main Crusading force, minus Baldwin of Boulogne who had split to chase his ambition of capturing Edessa, finally reached Antioch in October 1097 after a long and arduous crossing of the mountainous terrain of Asia Minor, and particularly of Anatolia (modern day Turkey). This journey was perhaps made a little easier for the Crusaders mentally as it directly followed their defeat of the Muslims at Dorylaeum, in which Bohemond was significantly involved. Previous to the battle at Dorylaeum, the Crusading forces had split with Bohemond becoming the leader of the weaker side. He had noticed that his army was being shadowed by Turkish scouts and made camp near Dorylaeum. On July 1, Bohemund's force was surrounded outside Dorylaeum by Kilij Arslan. The Turkish attacked and took Bohemond completely by surprise. However, Godfrey eventually arrived with much needed reinforcements. At the cost of the huge loss of Crusader life, Kilij Arslan was defeated and the Turks fled. The Crusaders became rich ,as a result, and they were thus allowed to pass straight through to Antioch, virtually unchallenged.[AC]

On arival to the great city the crusaders installed themselves outside the south-east corner of its walls. Bohemund had been the first to arrive and took up charge of the sector opposite the gate of St Paul. Raymond of Toulouse had advised an immediate siege however Bohemund opposed these suggestions, having his own private reasons for this. His amibitions were now well set on the possesion of city for himeself. Now successfully delaying the siege Bohemund went about his scheming his possession of Antioch. Divisions between the leading princes were now becoming more evident as where Bohemunds plans: for instance after accussing Tacticius of abandoning the forces he himself openely announces contemplating leaving the army, announcing he had obligations at home and could no longer whitness the suffering of his forces outside Antioch. Knowing himeself that he was a key part of any military operation and that the overall view by many would be of severe worry on his departure he used this suggestion to allow it to be understood that if he were given the lordship of Antioch it would compensate him for any losses that he might suffer owing to his absence from Italy. (EC)

After the crusaders took Antioch, Bohemond and Raymond spent weeks attempting to outmanoeuvre the other and keep Antioch for themselves. Eventually when it became clear that Bohemond was not going to leave Antioch, and that he was only interested in Antioch not the crusade, Raymond was offered the title of commander in chief of the crusade and head south to Jerusalem with the rest of the crusade.This left Bohemond to rule over Antioch he had now proven he did not care about the oath he had given to Alexius. Bohemond showed here that his intentions on the crusade were to expand his teritory not fight for christianity. As he was a norman he was used to fighting and there were no more cities to capture in his homeland so he clearly saw antioch as a great target. Within two years of the founding of the principality, Bohemond I was captured by the Danishmend emir. Bohemond eventually returned in 1107 and decided to go to war with Constantinople, reapeating what he had done many years earlier. [SS]

Bohemond resolved to use his army of 34,000 men, not to defend Antioch against the Greeks, but to attack Alexius. He did so; but Alexius, aided by the Venitians, proved too strong, and Bohemond had to submit to a humiliating peace, 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 in Apulia, in 1111. [EF]