A History of the Crusades-Vol 1 (31 page)

Frayed Tempers

It was probably due to Adhemar’s influence that
Hugh of Vermandois was sent to explain the situation to Alexius. Now that
Antioch was secure, Hugh wished to return home and to travel by way of
Constantinople. The Crusaders still believed that Alexius was on his way across
Asia Minor. News of his retreat after his interview with Stephen of Blois had
not yet reached them. Adhemar and Raymond hoped that Hugh’s mission would cause
Alexius to hurry on to them. At the same time it was resolved that the Crusade
should wait at Antioch till 1 November, before it attempted to march on to
Jerusalem. It was a natural decision; for the army was tired, and to advance in
the full heat of the Syrian summer, along little-known roads where water might
be scarce, would be an act of folly. Moreover the question of Antioch must
first be settled; and Adhemar doubtless hoped that the Emperor would have come
by then. Hugh set out early in July, accompanied by Baldwin of Hainault. On the
road through Asia Minor his party was attacked and severely mauled by the
Turks. The Count of Hainault disappeared and his fate was never known. It was
already autumn before Hugh arrived at Constantinople and could see the Emperor
to tell him the full story of Antioch. By then the season was too late for a
campaign across the Anatolian mountains. It was not feasible for Alexius to
reach Antioch before the coming spring.

Meanwhile in Antioch tempers grew frayed. At
first the citadel had been occupied jointly by Bohemond, Raymond, Godfrey and
Robert of Flanders, but Bohemond retained the chief towers in his control. Now
he succeeded in ejecting his colleagues’ troops, probably with the consent of
Godfrey and Robert, so that Raymond’s objections were overruled. Raymond was
furious, and in reply kept sole control of the fortified bridge and the palace
of Yaghi-Siyan. But Raymond was still too ill to be active; and now Adhemar
fell ill. With their two leaders in retirement, the southern French found
themselves maltreated by the other troops, particularly by the Normans; and
many of them longed for Raymond to be reconciled with Bohemond. Bohemond
behaved as though he were already master of the city. Many Genoese had hastened
to Antioch as soon as Kerbogha’s defeat was known, eager to be the first to
capture its trade. On 14 July Bohemond gave them a charter, allowing them a
market, a church and thirty houses. Henceforward the Genoese would advocate his
claims; and he could count on their assistance to keep open his communications
with Italy. They agreed to support him in Antioch against all comers, except
only the Count of Toulouse. In such a combat they would remain neutral.

While Raymond and Bohemond warily watched each
other, the lesser nobles rode off to join Baldwin at Edessa or made expeditions
to capture plunder or even to set up fiefs in the country around. The most
ambitious of these raids was conducted by a Limousin in Raymond’s army, called
Raymond Pilet, who set out on 17 July across the Orontes to the east, and three
days later occupied the town of Tel-Mannas, whose Syrian population received
him gladly. After capturing a Turkish castle in the neighbourhood he moved on
to attack the larger town of Maarat an-Numan, with an army composed mainly of
native Christians. But they were unused to bearing arms; and when they met the
troops sent by Ridwan of Aleppo to save the town they turned and fled. But
Ridwan was unable to eject Raymond Pilet from Tel-Mannas.

In the course of July a serious epidemic broke
out in Antioch. We cannot tell its precise nature, but it was probably typhoid,
due to the effect of the sieges and battles of the last month and the Crusaders’
ignorance of the sanitary precautions necessary in the East. Adhemar of Le Puy,
whose health had for some time been failing, was its first distinguished
victim. He died on 1 August.

The Death of
Adhemar of Le Puy

Adhemar’s death was one of the greatest
tragedies of the Crusade. In the chroniclers’ pages he is rather a shadowy
figure; but they show him to have wielded greater personal influence than any
other Crusader. He commanded respect as the Pope’s representative; and his own
character won him the affection of the whole army. He was charitable and cared
for the poor and the sick. He was modest and never aggressive; but he was
always ready to give wise advice, even on military matters; as a general he was
both courageous and shrewd. The victory at Dorylaeum had been largely due to
his strategy; and he presided over many of the army councils during the siege
of Antioch. Politically he worked for a good understanding with the Christians
of the East, both with Byzantium and with the Orthodox churches of Syria. He
had been in Pope Urban’s confidence and knew his views. While he lived, the
racial and religious intolerance of the Franks could be kept in check, and the
selfish ambitions and quarrels of the princes restrained from doing irreparable
harm to the Crusade. Though he had been careful never to attempt to dominate
the movement, he was considered, as the priest Stephen reported to Christ in
his vision, to be the leader of the Crusade. After his death there was no one
that possessed any overriding authority. The Count of Toulouse, who had also
long ago discussed Crusading policy with Pope Urban, inherited his views. But
Raymond was not so able a man, and he could only argue with Bohemond as an
equal, not as the spokesman of the Church. And none of the princes, in his
absence, had sufficient breadth of outlook to see to the preservation of the
unity of Christendom. Adhemar’s charity, his wisdom and his integrity were
never questioned by his comrades, even by those whose ambitions he opposed.
Bohemond’s followers mourned his loss as sincerely as did his own men from
France; and Bohemond himself swore to carry his body to Jerusalem. The whole
army was moved and disquieted by his death.

There was, however, one man that felt no
sorrow. Peter Bartholomew had never forgiven the legate for showing disbelief
in his visions. Two days later he took his revenge. He announced that he had
been visited again by Saint Andrew who was on this occasion accompanied by
Adhemar. Adhemar announced that, as punishment for his incredulity, he had
spent the intervening hours since his death in hell, from which he had only
been rescued by the prayers of his colleagues and especially of Bohemond, and
by his gift of a few coins for the upkeep of the Lance. He was forgiven now,
and asked that his body should remain in St Peter’s Cathedral at Antioch. Then
Saint Andrew delivered himself of advice to Count Raymond. Antioch, he said,
should be given to its present claimant, if he were proved to be a righteous
man. A Patriarch of the Latin rite should be elected to decide on his righteousness.
The Crusaders should repent of their sins and march on to Jerusalem, which was
only at ten days’ distance; but the journey would take ten years if they did
not return to godlier habits. That is to say, Peter Bartholomew and his friends
among the Provencals considered that Bohemond should be allowed to have
Antioch, so long as he undertook to help the Crusade further; that the army
should set out soon for Jerusalem; and that there should be no truck with the
Byzantines and the local Orthodox churches.

These revelations were embarrassing to Raymond.
He honestly believed in the Holy Lance; and its possession by his troops gave
him prestige. For though many might say that the battle against Kerbogha was
won by Bohemond’s strategy, many others gave the credit of the victory to the
relic, and so indirectly to Raymond. But Raymond’s other main source of
authority sprang from his long association with Adhemar. If the divine
messenger who had revealed the position of the Lance were now to question
Adhemar’s judgement and to repudiate the policy which Raymond had inherited
from him and which fitted with Raymond’s own views, one or other of Raymond’s
props must be discarded. He temporized. While remaining loyal to his belief in
the Lance, he indicated that he doubted whether Peter Bartholomew’s visions
continued to be genuine. For, in spite of Saint Andrew’s words, he, and others
with him, still maintained that Antioch should be given to the Emperor. He
found himself in consequence in opposition to most of his troops.

Among the army in general the posthumous attack
on Adhemar made a bad impression. Publicizing as it did the legate’s disbelief
in the relic, it revived the doubt that many had originally felt. In
particular, the Normans and the northern French, who had always disliked the
Provencals, began to decry the relic and to use the scandal of the forgery to
discredit Count Raymond and his plans. In defending Adhemar’s reputation they
were thus enabled to work against the policy that he had advocated. We may
assume that Bohemond enjoyed the situation.

The Question of
Lattakieh

As the epidemic spread through Antioch, the
leading Crusaders sought refuge in the country. Bohemond crossed the Amanus
mountains into Cilicia, where he strengthened the garrisons left there by
Tancred the previous autumn and received their homage. He intended that his
principality of Antioch should include the Cilician province. Godfrey went
northward, to the towns of Turbessel and Ravendel, which his brother Baldwin
handed over to him. Godfrey was jealous of his brother’s success; and, as all
the princes were seeking territory near Antioch, he wished to have his share.
He probably undertook to return the towns to Baldwin, if the army marched on to
Palestine. Raymond’s movements are uncertain; while Robert of Normandy went to
Lattakieh.

Before the Turkish invasions Lattakieh had been
the southern-most port of the Byzantine Empire. It had been taken by the Turks
about the year 1084 but had later passed under the suzerainty of the Arab Emir
of Shaizar. In the autumn of 1097 Guynemer of Boulogne descended upon the port
and captured it. His garrison remained in possession over the winter; but in
March the fleet commanded by Edgar Atheling, after unloading supplies for the
Crusaders at St Symeon, sailed on to Lattakieh. Guynemer’s men were driven out
and the town taken over in the name of the Emperor. But Edgar could only leave
a small detachment to guard the town; so an appeal was made to the Crusading
army to supplement the defence. Soon after the victory over Kerbogha Robert of
Normandy came in answer to the appeal; and Lattakieh was handed over to him in
trust for the Emperor. But Robert’s only idea of government was to extract as
much money as possible from the governed. So unpopular was his rule that after
a few weeks he was forced to retire from the town, which was now given a
garrison by the Byzantine governor of Cyprus, Eustathius Philocales.

In September the epidemic abated, and the
princes returned to Antioch. On the nth they met together to draft a letter to
Pope Urban to give him the details of the capture of Antioch and to announce
the death of his legate. Feeling the need of a supreme authority to overrule
the quarrelling factions, they urged him to come in person to the East.
Antioch, they pointed out, was a see founded by Saint Peter, and he as Saint
Peter’s heir should be enthroned there; and he should visit the Holy City
itself. They were ready to wait his arrival before marching on into Palestine.
Bohemond’s name headed the list of princes; and the letter was probably written
in his secretariat. The effect of Adhemar’s absence was shown by the implied
rejection of the rights of the Patriarch John and by a note of hostility
towards the native Christian sects, which were denounced as heretical. The
Crusaders can hardly have expected that the Pope would be able to journey to
the East; but the appeal enabled them to postpone once more the need to decide
upon the fate of Antioch; while the Pope would no doubt send a legate who could
be given the responsibility for the decision. It was clear by now that the
Emperor would not penetrate into Syria this season. Possibly his retreat from
Philomelium was already known.

Crusader Raids

Among the soldiers and pilgrims of the army
conditions were very bad. Owing to the fighting no crops had been harvested in
the plain of Antioch; and food was still short. Largely to secure supplies
Raymond began to organize a raid into Moslem territory. Before he had decided
upon his objective he was invited by Godfrey to come on a joint campaign to the
town of Azaz, on the main road from Edessa and Turbessel to Antioch. The Emir
of Azaz, Omar, was in revolt against his overlord, Ridwan of Aleppo, who was
marching to punish him. One of Omar’s generals had captured and fallen in love
with a Frankish lady, the widow of a Lorrainer knight; and it was on her
suggestion that Omar appealed for help to Godfrey. Godfrey responded gladly;
for it was inconvenient for him that Azaz should be in Ridwan’s hands. Raymond
accepted Godfrey’s invitation though he insisted that Omar’s son should be
handed over as a hostage; and Baldwin sent troops from Edessa. At the approach
of the Christian army Ridwan retired from Azaz; and Omar was confirmed by
Godfrey in its possession, and paid him homage. Raymond was able to collect
provisions in the neighbourhood, but suffered heavy losses from Turkish
ambushes on the return journey. The episode showed that not only were the
Moslem princes prepared now to use Frankish help in their own quarrels, but
that the Franks, modifying their militant faith, were prepared to accept Moslem
vassals.

In October, in spite of Peter Bartholomew’s
report that Saint Andrew had again demanded an early departure for Jerusalem,
Raymond set out on another raid to secure provisions. He had already occupied
Rugia on the Orontes, some thirty miles from Antioch. From there he attacked
the town of Albara, a little to the south-east. The inhabitants, who were all
Moslem, capitulated, but were either massacred or sold as slaves in Antioch;
and the town was repeopled with Christians. The mosque was converted into a
church. To the delight of his army Raymond then appointed one of his priests,
Peter of Narbonne, to be its bishop. The appointment was only made because
there was no Orthodox bishopric already established in the town. No one yet
conceived of a schism between the Greek and Latin churches that would involve a
duplication of bishoprics. The new bishop, Latin though he was, was consecrated
by the Greek Patriarch, John of Antioch. But Peter of Narbonne’s elevation
marked the beginning of a Latin church resident in the East, and encouraged
those of the Crusaders who, like Peter Bartholomew, were now anxious to see the
local Greek ecclesiastics replaced by Latins.