Principality of Antioch: Encyclopedia II - Principality of Antioch - Early history

Principality of Antioch - Early history

Bohemond was captured in battle with the Danishmends in 1100, and his nephew Tancred became regent. Tancred expanded the borders of the Principality, taking the cities of Tarsus and Latakia from the Byzantine Empire. Bohemund was released in 1103, but left Tancred as regent again when he went to Italy to raise more troops in 1105. He used these troops to attack the Byzantines in 1107, and when he was defeated at Dyrrhachium in 1108 he was forced by Alexius I to sign the Treaty of Devol, which would make Antioch a vassal state of the Byzantine Empire upon Bohemund's death; Bohemund had actually promised to return any land that was reconquered when the Crusaders passed through Constantinople in 1097. Bohemund also fought Aleppo with Baldwin and Joscelin of the County of Edessa; when Baldwin and Joscelin were captured, Tancred became regent in Edessa as well. Bohemund left Tancred as regent once more and returned to Italy, where he died in 1111.

Alexius wanted Tancred to return the Principality entirely to Byzantium, but Tancred was supported by the County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem; Tancred, in fact, had been the only Crusade leader who did not swear to return conquered land to Alexius (though none of the other leaders, including Bohemund, kept their oaths anyway). Tancred died in 1112 and was succeeded by Bohemund II, under the regency of Tancred's nephew Roger of Salerno, who defeated a Seljuk attack in 1113.

However, on June 27, 1119, Roger was killed at the Ager Sanguinis (the Field of Blood), and Antioch became a vassal state of Jerusalem with King Baldwin II as regent until 1126 (although Baldwin spent much of this time in captivity in Aleppo). Bohemund II, who married Baldwin's daughter Alice, ruled for only four short years, and the Principality was inherited by his young daughter Constance; Baldwin II acted as regent again until his death in 1131, when Fulk of Jerusalem took power. In 1136 Constance, still only 10 years old, married Raymond of Poitiers, who was 36.

Raymond, like his predecessors, attacked the Byzantine province of Cilicia. This time, however, Emperor John II Comnenus fought back. He arrived in Antioch in 1138 and forced Raymond to swear fealty to him, but a riot instigated by Joscelin II of Edessa forced him to leave. John had plans to reconquer all the Crusader states, but he died in 1142.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Early history", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki