Bohemund I of Antioch
Bohemund 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.
Bohemund was the eldest son of
Robert Guiscard,
Duke of Apulia and Calabria, by his first marriage (which was later annulled) to
Alberada of Buonalbergo. He was christened "Mark" but came to be known as Bohemund, after a legendary giant of that name.
Bohemund 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 Bohemund (whom his father had destined for the throne of
Constantinople) to that of
King Roger.
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, Bohemund left
Kastoria and besieged
Joannina. In the region around Joannina were settled
Vlach foederati of the empire and Bohemund 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 Bohemund in battled in the environs of Joannina, which the Norman had been ravaging. Both generals altered there strategies in light of prior engagements, but Bohemund was victorious and again so 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. Bohemund staid at Ochrid, though he could not take the citadel, and from there began organising the defence of his conquests. Alexius responded to Bohemund's ascendance by sowing dissension among his top officers. Bohemund then advanced on Larissa, where he intended to winter. The siege lasted six months until Alexius forced the Normans to retreat in the spring. Bohemund 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 an new army in Greece. In winter, Bohemund was ill and returned to Italy.
When Robert Guiscard died on
17 July 1085, Bohemund inherited his father's Adriatic possessions, which were soon lost to the Greeks, while his younger half-brother Roger inherited Apulia and the Italian possessions. Happily for him, Bohemund 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, Bohemund 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. Bohemund, 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 Bohemund. Though Bohemund 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 Bohemund that "he was always seeking the impossible."
In
1096, Bohemund, 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 Bohemund: 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 Bohemund took the Cross with the intention of plundering and conquering Greek lands.
He gathered a fine Norman army (perhaps the finest division 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 Bohemund 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 Bohemund, she wrote:
A politique, Bohemund was resolved to engineer the enthusiasm of the crusaders to his own ends; and when his nephew
Tancred left the main army at
Heraclea, and attempted to establish a footing in
Cilicia, the movement may have been already intended as a preparation for Bohemund's eastern principality. Bohemund 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 Bohemund 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 Bohemund 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 the generosity of the Armenian prince
Kogh Vasil, Bohemund 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 Bohemund had contemplated. It was followed by a Greek attack on Cilicia; and despairing of his own resources, Bohemund 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:
Dazzled by his success, Bohemund 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 Bohemund 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 Bohemund 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 Bohemund'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.
