Bohemond I of Antioch

Bohemond of Taranto (also: Bohemund, Bohemond, Bohemond I, Bohemond of Antioch, etc. ) (* 1051/52; † March 7, 1111 ) from the Norman nobility Hauteville was from 1085 Prince of Taranto, from 1096 one of the leaders of the first Crusade from 1098 and Prince of Antioch.

Life

Bohemond was the eldest son of Robert Guiscard and his first wife Alberada of Buonalbergo ( Aubrée de Bonauberge ). He was probably born in San Marco Argentano in Calabria. Actually, given the name Marcus, his father gave him, after he had heard a story about a giant Buamundus, the birth of giant baby's name Bohemond.

He participated in the Greek campaign of his father (1080-1085) against Alexius I part, and led the Normans during his father's return to Southern Italy (1082-1084) up to Thessaly, where he was eventually defeated by Alexios.

Principality of Taranto

After his father's death ( 1085 ) Bohemond was invested with Taranto, but not with the more lucrative Apulia, which was his half-brother Roger Borsa.

First crusade

1096 attacked Bohemond and his uncle Roger I. Amalfi, which had risen, as groups of crusaders moved on the way to Constantinople by Opel Italy. Bohemond joined them with its own quota, sat on the Adriatic Sea in present-day Albania and crossed the ancient Via Egnatia to the east. He was born on April 9, 1097 in Constantine Opel and was then at the crossing of Asia Minor and the Battle of Dorylaeum the de facto leader of the First Crusade.

Anna Comnena, the daughter of the emperor, in the Alexiade gives a description of Bohemond as the sole of the Crusaders; she met him for the first time, when she was 14 years old and was fascinated by him:

" Now [ Bohemond ] was, in short, like no one had ever seen before in the land of the Romans, neither of the barbarians even by the Greeks (because it was like a miracle for the eyes to see, and his reputation scary ). Let me describe in more detail the appearance of the barbarians: his stature was so great that he towered over the biggest nearly one cubit, narrow in the waist and hip, with broad shoulders, a large chest and powerful arms. And on the whole, the body was proportioned neither too slim nor too bulky, but perfect and you can tell, built in accordance with the canon of Polykleitos ... His skin was very white all over the body, and in his face the white was tempered with red. His hair was yellowish, but did not hang up on her hips down as the other barbarians; because the man was not overly proud of his hair, he wore it cut short to the ears. Whether his beard was reddish, or in a different color, I can not say, because the razor was very tight down over it and left a surface smoother than chalk ... His blue eyes indicated both a high spirit and dignity; his nose and nostrils breathed free air; his chest corresponded to his nostrils, and his nostrils ... the breadth of his chest. The nature of his nostrils gave the high sense which gushes from his heart, free passage. A certain charm surrounded this man but was partly marred by a general impression of the terrible ... It was made in mind and body so that courage and passion in him their climax desired and longed for the war. His wit was manifold and crafty and able to find out any emergency a way out. In conversation he was well informed, and the answers he gave were quite irrefutable. This one of such a size and such a character was the only emperor in fate, in the eloquence and other gifts of nature inferior. "

Prince of Antioch

As a politician, Bohemond was resolved to harness the enthusiasm of the Crusaders for his own goals. He was the first who took a position ( in October 1097 ) before Antioch and played a big part in the siege of the city. Through treachery succeeded on June 2, 1098 the conquest of Antioch, but not until the victory over Kerbogas large Ensatzheer in a subsequent second siege 'possession of the city, which Bohemond asserted against Raymond IV of Toulouse in the following as a separate principality. Bohemond remained in Antioch, while the remaining Crusaders made their way south, to the siege of Jerusalem.

Only at the end of the year 1099 he went on pilgrimage along with Baldwin of Boulogne to Jerusalem and thus fulfilled his crusading vow. In December 1099 he became officially invested by the papal legates and the patriarch of Jerusalem Daimbert of Pisa with the Principality of Antioch.

After the death of Godfrey of Bouillon on July 18, 1100 Bohemond was offered the crown of Jerusalem. However, the assumption it was impossible, since he still got the same year in the imprisonment of the Danishmends - Danishmend Emir Ghazi, from which he could only redeem in 1103 thanks to the generosity of an Armenian prince. After an unsuccessful expedition against Harran (see Battle of Harran ), which thwarted his plans to extend his territory to the east, Bohemond returned again in 1104 to Italy to gather an army.

Marriage

. During his trip through Europe in 1106, he won the hand of Constance, the daughter of the French King Philip I Abbot Suger of Saint- Denis described the wedding as follows:

With Konstanze he had two sons. The older man, Bohemund II (* 1108, † 1130), his heir and successor. The younger Johann ( * before 1111 † 1115/1120 ), died young in Puglia.

Fight against Byzantium

Blinded by this success, Bohemond his army not decided, for the defense of Antioch against the Greeks, who had attacked him after Harran of Cilicia, but rather for the direct attack on them to use. He turned against Epirus, besieged Durazzo, but Alexius I, supported by Venice, proved to be too strong, so that Bohemond had to submit to the 1108 humiliating Treaty of Devol himself, in which he recognized the Byzantine emperors as lords.

Bohemond died in 1111 without returning to the East, and was buried at Canosa in Apulia.