A History of the Crusades-Vol 1 (37 page)

By the end of August Raymond and the two
Roberts had decided to leave Palestine. Both the Duke of Normandy and the Count
of Flanders were now eager to return home. They had done their Christian duty
and could consider that their vows had been fulfilled. In spite of the recent
quarrels Godfrey’s heart sank to see them go. At their farewell interview with
him he besought them when they reached Europe to do everything possible to urge
soldiers to come out east to fight for the Cross, reminding them how precarious
was the position of those that were staying in the Holy Land. Early in
September they began their journey north-ward up the coast. Raymond accompanied
them. But in his case the departure was not so definite; for he had sworn to
remain in the East. He had lost Jerusalem; but there was no reason why he
should not now copy the examples of Bohemond and of Baldwin and found his own
principality. The territory that could offer him most scope was central Syria,
safely distant from both the Turks and the Egyptians, and mainly in the hands
of the unwarlike Banu ‘Ammar. He could hope, too, to have the support of
Byzantium.

Daimbert of Pisa

With Raymond and the Roberts marched most of
their men. A few stayed behind from each army, to settle in Palestine. But, to
balance them, a number of Godfrey’s men, including Baldwin of Le Bourg,
returned northward under the banner of the Count of Flanders. Tancred and his
small following remained in Palestine.

The journey northward was achieved without
difficulty. The Moslem governors of the coastal cities hastened to supply the
army with provisions as it passed by. In mid-September it reached Tortosa,
which was still held by a garrison of Raymond’s men, and moved on to Jabala.
There the leaders heard news that greatly shocked and disquieted them.

Shortly before his death Pope Urban had appointed
a legate to take the place of Adhemar in Palestine. His choice fell upon
Daimbert, Archbishop of Pisa. Urban knew his fellow-Frenchmen well, but with
the Italians he made mistakes. Daimbert had been an energetic archbishop and
was known to be interested in the holy war. The Pope had therefore sent him in
1098 to be his legate at the court of King Alfonso VI of Castile. There
Daimbert had shown himself full of zeal and competent in his efforts to
organize the Church in the lands conquered from the Moors. But there were
rumours that his administration had not been free of corruption, and in
particular he had kept for himself a large proportion of the treasure sent by
King Alfonso to the Pope. In spite of his vigour it was clear that he was vain,
ambitious and dishonest. In appointing him legate in the East Urban went far to
undo his own policy.

Daimbert set out from Italy before the end of
1098. He was accompanied by a Pisan fleet, equipped by the municipality of
Pisa. No doubt he hoped, by his influence over the Pisans, to use them to
establish his own position, while they on their side saw how useful his help
would be to obtain them concessions. They formed a lawless company. On their
way eastward they indulged in profitable raids on the islands of the
Heptannese, Corfu, Leucas, Cephalonia and Zante. News of their outrages soon
reached Constantinople; and the Emperor sent out against them a fleet commanded
by Taticius, who had not been back for many months from Antioch, and the
Italian-born sailor, Landulf. The Byzantines attempted to intercept the Pisans
as they sailed past Samos, but arrived too late, and failed also to catch them
up off Cos. Eventually the fleets came into sight of each other off Rhodes. The
Byzantines tried to force an action, and captured a Pisan ship, with a kinsman
of Bohemond on board; but a sudden storm blew up and enabled the Pisans to slip
away. Next, the Pisans tried to make a landing on the Cypriot coast, but were
driven off with some loss by the Byzantine governor, Philocales. They then
sailed across to the Syrian coast, while the Byzantine fleet put into Cyprus.

Since the departure of his colleagues to
Jerusalem, Bohemond had been occupied in consolidating himself in Antioch. He
had little to fear from the Turks at present. His main occupation was with the
Byzantines. The Emperor, he knew, would never forgive him; and so long as the
Emperor possessed the best fleet in eastern waters and the port of Lattakieh,
just to the south of his territory, he could not feel secure. About the end of
August he decided to bring matters to a head and marched to attack Lattakieh.
But without sea-power he could do nothing. The fortifications were strong; and
the garrison could be supplied and reinforced from Cyprus. The arrival off the
coast of a Pisan fleet which had no cause to like the Byzantines was therefore
very timely; and he hastened to come to terms with Daimbert and the Pisan
captains, who promised him every assistance.

Bohemond and
Daimbert at Lattakieh

The Emperor had ordered his admiral to punish
acts of piracy committed by the Latins, but he wished to avoid an open breach.
Taticius was uncertain how he should deal with this new development. After
consulting with the governor of Cyprus, he asked the Byzantine general
Butumites, who was in Cyprus, probably in order that he might act as an
ambassador-at-large in the East, to cross to Antioch and interview Bohemond.
But Bohemond was intransigent; and the embassy achieved nothing. Butumites
returned to Cyprus and set sail with Taticius and the main fleet for
Constantinople, to report on the situation and receive further instructions.
Off Syce, on the west Cilician coast, many of the Byzantine ships were wrecked
in a fierce tempest; but the admiral’s own squadron was able to proceed on the
voyage. The Pisan ships then moved into position to blockade Lattakieh from the
sea.

At this point Raymond and the two Roberts
arrived at Jabala. That Raymond should be horrified by the events at Lattakieh
was natural. He disliked anything that Bohemond might do; and his policy was
one of alliance with Byzantium. But his colleagues were equally distressed.
However much they had deplored some of the Emperor’s actions, they realized the
necessity for some collaboration between eastern and western Christians; and
they were faced with the problem of conveying their armies back to Europe, a
task that would be almost impossible without Byzantine help. It was also
particularly unsuitable that the new papal legate to the East should start his
legature by an action that the bulk of the eastern Christians would bitterly
resent. Daimbert was summoned to the camp at Jabala. Faced by the angry
remonstrances of the leaders, he saw his mistake and called off the Pisan
fleet. Without its help and with his colleagues angry against him, Bohemond was
forced to abandon the siege. Raymond then entered Lattakieh, accompanied by the
two Roberts, with the full consent of the inhabitants, and hoisted his standard
on the citadel, side by side with that of the Emperor. The governor of Cyprus,
informed of these developments, announced his approval and offered to provide
free transport to take Robert of Flanders and Robert of Normandy to
Constantinople, on the first stage of their homeward voyage. The offer was
gratefully accepted. The two Roberts sailed safely to Constantinople, where
they were well received by the Emperor. They refused his suggestion that they
should stay on in the East in his service; and after a short visit they
continued their journey to the West. We do not know how many of their men sailed
with them. Some may have taken passages in Genoese ships direct for Italy.
Raymond remained at Lattakieh.

Meanwhile Daimbert had rejoined Bohemond at
Antioch. Bohemond knew his man and very soon recovered his influence over him.
The legate was anxious to move on to Jerusalem; and Bohemond decided to
accompany him. Along with the other Crusaders, Bohemond had taken the vow to
worship at the Holy Sepulchre; and his failure to fulfil it was damaging his
prestige. The opportunity to make the pilgrimage with Daimbert and thus to
ensure his alliance was too good to be missed. There was also the future of
Jerusalem to consider. Godfrey was without a natural heir and his health was
poor. The papal legate might well control the succession; and it would anyhow
be wise to have some personal knowledge of the situation there. It was
announced that Daimbert and Bohemond would leave Antioch in the late autumn, in
order to be at the Holy City for Christmas.

On hearing the news, Baldwin sent from Edessa
to say that he would accompany the pilgrimage. He too needed to fulfil his vow;
he felt that he could leave Edessa for a while; and it was obviously in the
general interest that the party should be as strong as possible. But he, too,
was interested in the succession. He was Godfrey’s brother and next of kin in
the East — for Eustace of Boulogne had probably left Palestine in the wake of
Robert of Flanders — and he was as ambitious as Bohemond. Bohemond may later
have regretted his company. With Bohemond and Baldwin came all their men that
could be spared from the defence of their territories and a great number of
women. According to Fulcher of Chartres they numbered twenty-five thousand.

Bohemond’s
Pilgrimage to Jerusalem

The pilgrims set out early in November.
Bohemond and Daimbert followed the coast road, with the Pisan fleet guarding
their flank. As they passed by Lattakieh, Raymond refused to help them with
provisions. At Bulunyas, a little to the south, they paused to enable Baldwin
to catch them up; he had only arrived at Antioch after Bohemond’s departure,
but he had been better received by Raymond at Lattakieh. The inhabitants of
Bulunyas, Greek Christians who apparently acknowledged the Emperor’s authority,
did not welcome the pilgrims’ arrival and were apparently very unhelpful over
supplies. When the pilgrims moved on they soon suffered from hunger. Tortosa,
which they passed at the end of the month, had reverted into Moslem hands; and
the garrison attacked and massacred the stragglers in the rear of the
pilgrimage. No food was to be obtained there, nor much at Tripoli, where bread
was sold at so dear a price that only the rich could afford it. Some
nourishment was extracted from the sugar-cane growing in the neighbourhood of
Tripoli; but though it interested the pilgrims as a novelty it was insufficient
for their needs. December was unexpectedly cold; and the rain fell ceaselessly.
Mortality was high among the aged and the more delicate, and most of the
pack-animals perished. But they struggled on, stopping nowhere longer than was
essential. In mid-December they reached Caesarea, where they were able to buy
food; and on 21 December they arrived at Jerusalem.

Godfrey was glad to see them come. His need for
man-power was pressing; and he hoped to persuade many of them to remain in
Palestine and occupy the estates that he was now able to offer them. In this he
had some success. When Bohemond and Baldwin returned to the north, several
knights and their men stayed behind with him. The defeat of the Egyptians at
Ascalon had meant that, though the coastal cities, with the exception of Jaffa,
were still held by Fatimid governors, protected by the Egyptian fleet, the
uplands of Judaea and Samaria had passed right out of their control. The
villages there were mainly occupied by Christians, a passive population of
small cultivators, forbidden for generations to carry arms and exploited by
their Moslem lords whenever the central government was weak. They welcomed at
first the change of masters; and by the end of the summer Godfrey’s authority
stretched up to the plain of Jezreel on the north and beyond Hebron into the
Negeb in the south; though there, in southern Judaea, his control was less
complete; for the natives were mainly Moslems, and there was a continuous
infiltration of Bedouins from the desert. Hebron, which the Crusaders called St
Abraham, was strongly fortified in order to control the district.

Daimbert Becomes
Patriarch

Meanwhile Tancred, with a small company of
twenty-four knights and their men, had penetrated into Galilee. Galilee had
been recently disputed between the Fatimids and Duqaq of Damascus; but Duqaq
had not had time to occupy the province since the Fatimid defeat at Ascalon.
The local Moslems therefore made no resistance to Tancred. As his small army
approached Tiberias, their capital, they fled into Damascene territory. The
Christians, who had been in a minority in the town, received him gladly. The
Jews, who had a numerous colony there, were more sullen, remembering the fate
of their brethren at Jerusalem. Tancred fortified Tiberias, then moved on to
the Christian town of Nazareth and to Mount Tabor, and rounded off his conquest
by the capture and fortification of Beisan (Scythopolis), which commands the
pass from the plain of Jezreel to the Jordan. The Moslems in Galilee hastened
to leave the province; and Tancred followed up their departure with a series of
brilliant and swift raids, in the style of the Arabs, on the Moslem lands
around. These not only brought him and his followers copious booty but they
confirmed him in the possession of Galilee. The Christian state was thus
enlarged into a solid block of territory cutting off entirely the Fatimid
cities of the coast from the hinterland of Transjordan and the Hauran. With the
Egyptians unready as yet to take their revenge for Ascalon and with Duqaq of
Damascus too deeply involved in family quarrels to risk an aggressive war,
Godfrey had no immediate danger to face. It was as well; for with a fighting force
that William of Tyre, using the records of the time, estimated at three hundred
knights and two thousand infantrymen, he would not have been able to withstand
a serious counter-attack. It was, above all, the disunion of the Arabs that
permitted the small intrusive state to be established within their lands.