A History of the Crusades-Vol 1 (20 page)

John Comnenus welcomed the Crusaders at
Dyrrhachium, where imperial envoys and a Petcheneg escort were waiting to
convey them along the Via Egnatia. Raymond sent an embassy ahead to
Constantinople to announce his arrival; and after a few days’ rest at
Dyrrhachium the army set out again. Adhemar’s brother, the Lord of Peyrins, was
left behind to recover from an illness caused by the hardships of the journey.
Raymond’s men were unruly and ill-disciplined. They resented the presence of
Petcheneg police watching them on every side; and their incorrigible taste for
marauding brought them into frequent conflict with their escort. Before many
days had passed two Provencal barons were killed in one of these skirmishes.
Soon afterwards the Bishop of Le Puy himself strayed from the road and was
wounded and captured by the Petchenegs before they realized who he was. He was
promptly returned to the army, and seems to have borne no resentment for the
incident; but the troops were deeply shocked. Their ill temper increased when
Raymond himself was attacked in similar circumstances near Edessa.

At Thessalonica the Bishop of Le Puy left the
army in order to receive proper treatment for his wounds. He remained there
till his brother was able to join him from Dyrrhachium. Without his restraining
influence the discipline of the army worsened; but there was no serious mishap
till it reached Roussa in Thrace. Bohemond’s men had been delighted with their
reception at this town a fortnight earlier; but, perhaps because the townsfolk
had no provisions left for sale, Raymond’s men took offence at something.
Crying ‘Toulouse, Toulouse’ they attacked the walls and forced an entrance and
pillaged all the houses. At Rodosto a few days later they were met by Raymond’s
ambassadors returning from Constantinople with an envoy from the Emperor and
cordial messages urging Raymond to hasten to the capital and adding that
Bohemond and Godfrey were eager for his presence. It was probably the latter
part of the message and the fear of being absent while important decisions were
made that induced Raymond to accept the invitation. He left his army and
hurried ahead to Constantinople where he arrived on 21 April.

With his departure there was no one to keep the
army in order. It began at once to raid the countryside. But now there was more
than a small Petcheneg escort to oppose it. Regiments of the Byzantine army,
stationed nearby, moved up to attack the raiders. In the battle that followed
Raymond’s men were thoroughly defeated and fled, leaving their arms and their
baggage in the hands of the Byzantines. The news of the disaster reached
Raymond just as he was setting out to interview the Emperor.

Raymond and the
Emperor

Raymond had been well received at
Constantinople. He was housed in a palace just outside the walls but was begged
to come as soon as possible to the palace, where it was suggested that he
should take the oath of allegiance. But the experiences of his journey and the
news that he had just received had put him in an ill temper; and he was puzzled
and displeased by the situation that he found in the palace. His everlasting
aim was to be recognized as military leader of the whole Crusading expedition.
But his authority, such as it was, came from the Pope and from his connection
with the papal representative, the Bishop of Le Puy. The bishop was absent.
Raymond lacked both the support and the advice that his presence would have
given. Without him he was unwilling to commit himself; the more so, as to take
the path of allegiance as the other Crusaders had done would mean the
abandonment of his special relation towards the Papacy. He would reduce himself
to the same level as the others. There was a further danger. He was intelligent
enough to see at once that Bohemond was his most dangerous rival. Bohemond
seemed to be enjoying the particular favours of the Emperor; and it was
rumoured that he was to be appointed to a high imperial command. To take the
oath might mean that not only would Raymond lose his priority but he might well
find himself under the jurisdiction of Bohemond as the Emperor’s
representative. He declared that he had come to the East to do God’s work and
that God was now his only suzerain, implying thereby that he was the lay
delegate of the Pope. But he added that if the Emperor were himself to lead the
united Christian forces, he would serve under him. The concession shows that it
was not the Emperor but Bohemond that he resented. The Emperor could only reply
that unfortunately the state of the Empire would not permit him to leave it. In
vain the other western leaders, fearing that the success of the whole campaign
was in jeopardy, begged Raymond to change his mind. Bohemond, hoping still for
the imperial command and eager to please the Emperor, went so far as to say
that he would support the Emperor should Raymond openly quarrel with him; while
even Godfrey pointed out the harm that his attitude was doing to the Christian
cause. Alexius himself kept apart from the discussions, though he withheld from
Raymond such gifts as he had given to the other princes. At last, on 26 April,
Raymond agreed to swear a modified oath, promising to respect the life and
honour of the Emperor and to see that nothing was done, by himself or by his
men, that would be to his hurt. This type of oath was not unusual for vassals
to take in southern France; and with it Alexius was satisfied.

It was when these negotiations were over that
Bohemond and his army crossed into Asia. Meanwhile, Raymond’s army had reassembled,
rather crestfallen, at Rodosto, where it awaited the arrival of the Bishop of
Le Puy who was to lead it on to Constantinople. Of Adhemar’s activities in the
capital we know nothing. Presumably he saw the chief Greek ecclesiastics; and
he certainly had an audience with the Emperor. These interviews were very
friendly. He may have helped to reconcile Raymond with Alexius; for their
relations quickly improved. But it is probable that Bohemond’s departure was of
greater assistance. The Emperor was able to see Raymond in private and to
explain to him that he too had no love for the Normans and that Bohemond would
in fact never receive an imperial command. Raymond took his army across the
Bosphorus two days after taking his oath, but returned to spend a fortnight at
the court. When he left he was on cordial terms with Alexius, in whom he knew
now that he had a powerful ally against Bohemond. His attitude towards the
Empire was altered.

Robert of
Normandy and Stephen of Blois

The fourth great western army to go on the
Crusade set out from northern France in October 1096, shortly after Raymond had
left his home. It was under the joint leadership of Robert, Duke of Normandy,
his brother-in-law Stephen, Count of Blois, and his cousin Robert II, Count of
Flanders. Robert of Normandy was the eldest son of William the Conqueror. He
was a man of forty, mild-mannered and somewhat ineffectual, but not without
personal courage and charm. Ever since his father’s death he had been carrying
on a desultory war with his brother, William Rufus of England, who had several
times invaded his duchy. Urban’s preaching of the Crusade had deeply moved him;
and he soon declared his adhesion. In return the Pope, while he was still in
northern France, arranged a reconciliation between him and his brother. But
Robert took several months to plan his Crusade and was eventually only able to
raise the money that he required by pledging his duchy to William for ten
thousand silver marks. The act confirming the pledge was signed in September
1096. A few days later Robert set out with his army for Pontarlier, where he
was joined by Stephen of Blois and Robert of Flanders. With him were Odo,
Bishop of Bayeux, Walter, Count of Saint-Valery, the heirs of the Counts of
Montgomery and Mortagne, Girard of Gounay, Hugh of Saint-Pol and the sons of
Hugh of Grant-Mesnil, and a number of knights and infantrymen not only from
Normandy but also from England, Scotland and Brittany; though the only English nobleman
to accompany the Crusade, Ralph Guader, Earl of Norfolk, was at the time an
exile, living on his mother’s estates in Brittany.

Stephen of Blois had no desire to join the
Crusade. But he had married Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror; and in their
household it was she who made the decisions. She wished him to go; and he went.
With him were his chief vassals, Everard of Le Puits, Guerin Gueronat, Caro
Asini, Geoffrey Guerin, and his chaplain Alexander. Amongst the party was the
cleric Fulcher of Chartres, the future historian. Stephen, who was one of the
wealthiest men in France, raised the money for his journey without great
difficulty. He left his lands in the competent management of his wife.

The Count of Flanders was a slightly younger
man but possessed a more formidable personality. His father, Robert I, had made
the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1086, and on his way back had taken service for
a while under the Emperor Alexius, with whom he remained in touch until his
death in 1093. It was therefore natural that Robert II should wish to carry on
his work against the infidel. His army was a little smaller than Raymond’s or
Godfrey’s but was of high quality. He was accompanied by troops from Brabant,
under Baldwin of Alost, Count of Ghent. His lands were to be administered in
his absence by his countess, dementia of Burgundy.

From Pontarlier the united army moved southward
across the Alps into Italy. Passing through Lucca in November it met Pope
Urban, who was staying there a few days on his way from Cremona to Rome. Urban
received the leaders in audience and gave them his special blessing. The army
went on to Rome, to visit the tomb of Saint Peter, but refused to interfere in
the struggle between Urban’s followers and the followers of the anti-Pope Guibert
which was troubling the city. From Rome it passed, by way of Monte Cassino,
into the Norman duchy in the south. There it was well received by the Duke of
Apulia, Roger Borsa, whose wife, Adela, the widowed queen of Denmark, was the
Count of Flanders’ sister, and who acknowledged the Duke of Normandy as the
head of his race. Roger offered his brother-in-law many costly gifts; but the
latter would only accept a present of holy relics, the hair of the Virgin and
the bones of Saint Matthew and Saint Nicholas, which he sent to his wife to
place in the abbey of Watten.

Baldwin of Alost

Robert of Normandy and Stephen of Blois decided
to spend the winter comfortably in Calabria. But Robert of Flanders moved on
almost at once to Bari with his men and crossed over into Epirus, early in
December. He reached Constantinople without any untoward incident about the
same time as Bohemond. But the Count of Alost, who had attempted to land near
Chimarra, further south than the accepted ports of disembarkation, found his
way blocked by a Byzantine squadron. There was a slight sea-battle, recounted
at length in Anna Comnena’s history, as its hero, Marianus Mavrocatacalon, the
son of the admiral, was a friend of hers. In spite of the prowess of a Latin
priest, whose warlike disregard of his cloth shocked the Byzantines, the
Brabancon ship was boarded and captured; and the Count and his men were landed
at Dyrrhachium. The Flemish party apparently made no difficulty about the oath
of allegiance to Alexius. Count Robert was among the princes that urged Raymond
to comply.

Robert of Normandy and Stephen of Blois
lingered on in southern Italy till the spring. Their lack of enthusiasm
affected their followers, many of whom began to wander back towards their
homes. At last, in March, the army moved to Brindisi, and on 5 April it
prepared to embark. Unfortunately, the first ship to set sail capsized and
foundered, losing some four hundred passengers, with their horses and mules and
many chests of money. The tactful discovery that the corpses washed up on the
shore were miraculously marked with crosses on their shoulder-blades, while it
edified the faithful, did not discourage many more timorous folk from
abandoning the expedition. But the bulk of the army safely embarked and after a
rough voyage of four days landed at Dyrrhachium. The Byzantine authorities
received them well and provided them with an escort to take them along the Via
Egnatia to Constantinople. Apart from an accident while the army was crossing a
stream in the Pindus, when a sudden flood swept away several pilgrims, the
journey passed pleasantly. After a delay of four days before the walls of
Thessalonica, Constantinople was reached early in May. A camp was provided for
the army just outside the walls; and parties of five or six at a time were
admitted daily into the city to see its sights and worship at its shrines. The
earlier Crusading armies had all by now been transferred across the Bosphorus;
and these latecomers found no malcontents to spoil their relations with the
Byzantines. They were struck with admiration at the beauty and splendour of the
city; they enjoyed the rest and comfort that it provided. They were grateful
for the Emperor’s distribution of coins and of silk garments and for the food
and the horses that he provided. Their leaders at once took the oath of
allegiance to the Emperor and were rewarded with magnificent presents. Stephen
of Blois, writing next month to his wife, to whom he was a dutiful
correspondent, was in ecstasies over his reception by the Emperor. He stayed
for ten days at the palace, where the Emperor treated him like a son, giving
him much good advice and many superb gifts and offering to educate his youngest
son. Stephen was particularly impressed by the Emperor’s generosity to all
ranks in the Crusading army and by his lavish and efficient organization of
supplies for the troops already in the field. ‘Your father, my love’, he wrote,
alluding to William the Conqueror, ‘made many great gifts, but he was almost
nothing compared to this man.’