A History of the Crusades-Vol 2 (27 page)

1137:
John
prepares to invade Syria

For the next few years John was unable to
intervene in Anatolia. These years saw an alarming growth in the power of the
Danishmends. In 1124, when Toghrul of Melitene’s stepfather, Balak the Ortoqid,
was killed fighting in the Jezireh, the emir Ghazi invaded Melitene and annexed
it, to the delight of the native Christians there, who found his rule mild and
just. Next, he turned westward and took Ankara, Gangra and Kastamuni from the
Byzantines and extended his power down to the Black Sea coast. Constantine
Gabras, thus cut off by land from Constantinople, took advantage of his
isolation to declare himself independent ruler of Trebizond. In 1129, on the
death of the Roupenian Prince Thoros, Ghazi turned his attention to the south;
and next year, in alliance with the Armenians, he slew Prince Bohemond II of
Antioch on the banks of the Jihan. Whatever views John might hold about
Antioch, he had no wish for it to pass into the possession of a powerful Moslem
prince. His prompt invasion of Paphlagonia kept Ghazi from following up his
victory. Fortunately during these years the Anatolian Seldjuks were
incapacitated by family disputes. In 1125 the Sultan Mas’ud was displaced by
his brother, Arab. Mas’ud fled to Constantinople, where the Emperor received
him with every honour. He then went on to his father-in-law, the Danishmend
Ghazi, whose help enabled him, after a struggle of four years, to recover his
throne. Arab in his turn sought refuge at Constantinople, where he died.

Yearly from 1130 to 1135 John campaigned
against the Danishmends. Twice his work was interrupted by the intrigues of his
brother, the Sebastocrator Isaac, who fled from the Court in 1130 and spent the
next nine years plotting with various Moslem and Armenian princes; and in 1134
the sudden death of the Empress recalled him from the wars. By September 1134,
when the death of the emir Ghazi eased the situation, he had reconquered all
the lost territory except for the town of Gangra, which he recaptured next
spring. Ghazi’s son and successor, Mohammed, harassed by family squabbles,
could not afford to be aggressive; and Mas’ud, deprived of Danishmend help,
came to terms with the Emperor.

With the Anatolian Turks cowed, John was ready
to intervene in Syria. But first he had to protect his rear. In 1135 a
Byzantine embassy arrived in Germany at the Court of the western Emperor
Lothair. On John’s behalf it offered Lothair large financial subsidies if he
would attack Roger of Sicily. The negotiations lasted some months. Eventually
Lothair agreed to attack Roger in the spring of 1137. The Hungarians had been
defeated in 1128 and the Serbians reduced to submission by a campaign in 1129.
The defences on the lower Danube were secure. The Pisans had been detached from
their Norman alliance by the treaty of 1126; and the Empire was now on good
terms with both Venice and Genoa.

In the spring of 1137 the imperial army, with
the Emperor and his sons at its head, assembled at Attalia and advanced
eastward into Cilicia. The imperial fleet guarded its flank. The Armenians and
the Franks were equally taken by surprise at the news of its approach. Leo the
Roupenian, master now of the east Cilician plain, moved up in an attempt to
check its progress by taking the Byzantine frontier fortress of Seleucia, but
was forced to retire. The Emperor swept on, past Mersin, Tarsus, Adana and
Mamistra, which all yielded to him at once. The Armenian prince relied on the
great fortifications of Anazarbus to hold him up. Its garrison resisted for
thirty-seven days; but the siege-engines of the Byzantines battered down its
walls, and the city was forced to surrender. Leo retreated into the high
Taurus, where the Emperor did not trouble now to follow him. After mopping up
several Armenian castles in the neighbourhood, he led his forces south-ward
past Issus and Alexandretta, and over the Syrian Gates into the plain of
Antioch. On 29 August he appeared before the walls of the city and encamped on
the north bank of the Orontes.

Antioch was without its prince. Raymond of
Poitiers had gone to rescue King Fulk from Montferrand; and Joscelin of Edessa
was with him. They reached the Buqaia to find the King released. Fulk had
intended himself to go to Antioch to meet the Byzantines, but after his recent
experiences he preferred now to return to Jerusalem. Raymond hastened back to
Antioch to find that the Emperor’s siege had begun, but the investiture of the
city was not yet complete. He was able to slip in with his bodyguard through
the Iron Gate close under the citadel.

1137: Raymond
pays Homage to the Emperor

For several days the Byzantine machines pounded
at the fortifications. Raymond could hope for no help from outside; and he was
uncertain of the temper of the population within the walls. There were many
even of his barons who began to see the wisdom of Alice’s thwarted policy. It
was not long before Raymond sent a message to the Emperor offering to recognize
him as suzerain if he might keep the principality as Imperial Vicar. John in
answer demanded unconditional surrender. Raymond then said that he must consult
King Fulk; and letters were sent post-haste to Jerusalem. But Fulk’s reply was
unhelpful. ‘We all know’, said the King, ‘and our elders have long taught us
that Antioch was part of the Empire of Constantinople till it was taken from
the Emperor by the Turks, who held it for fourteen years, and that the Emperor’s
claims about the treaties made by our ancestors are correct. Ought we then to
deny the truth and oppose what is right?’ When the King whom he regarded as his
overlord offered such advice, Raymond could not resist longer. His envoys found
the Emperor ready to make concessions. Raymond was to come to his camp and
swear a full oath of allegiance to him, becoming his man and giving him free
access into the city and citadel. Moreover, if the Byzantines with Frankish
help conquered Aleppo and the neighbouring towns, Raymond would hand back
Antioch to the Empire and receive instead a principality consisting of Aleppo,
Shaizar, Hama and Homs. Raymond acquiesced. He came and knelt before the
Emperor and paid him homage. John did not insist then on entering Antioch; but
the imperial standard was hoisted over the citadel.

The negotiations showed the uneasiness of the
Frankish attitude towards the Emperor. Fulk’s reply may have been dictated by
the immediate needs of the moment. He knew too well that Zengi was the great
enemy of the Frankish kingdom and he would not offend the only Christian power
capable of checking the Moslems; and it may be that Queen Melisende’s influence
was exerted in favour of a policy that would justify her sister Alice and would
humiliate the man that had tricked her. But his verdict was probably the
considered view of his lawyers. Despite all the propaganda of Bohemond I, the
more scrupulous Crusaders held that the treaty made between Alexius and their
fathers at Constantinople still was valid. Antioch should have been returned to
the Empire; and Bohemond and Tancred, by violating the oaths that they had
sworn, had forfeited any claims that they might have made. This was a more
extreme imperialist view than the Emperor himself held. The imperial government
was always realistic. It saw that it would be impracticable and unwise to try
to eject the Franks from Antioch without offering compensation. Moreover, it
liked to line the frontier with vassal-states whose general policy would be
controlled by the Emperor but who meanwhile would bear the brunt of enemy
attacks. The Emperor therefore based his claims not on the treaty made at
Constantinople but on the treaty made with Bohemond at Devol. He demanded the
unconditional surrender of Antioch as from a rebellious vassal; but he was
prepared to let Antioch continue as a vassal-state. His immediate need was that
it should co-operate in his campaigns against the Moslems.

1138: The
Christians lay siege to Shaizar

It was now too late in the year for a campaign;
so John, having asserted his authority, returned to Cilicia to finish off its
conquest. The Roupenian princes fled before him into the high Taurus. Three of
Leo’s sons, Mleh, Stephen and the blind Constantine, took refuge with their
cousin, Joscelin of Edessa. The family castle of Vahka held out for some weeks
under its valiant commander Constantine, whose personal combat with an officer
of the Macedonian regiment, Eustratius, impressed the whole imperial army. Soon
after its fall Leo and his elder sons, Roupen and Thoros, were captured. They were
sent to prison in Constantinople, where Roupen was soon put to death; but Leo
and Thoros gained the favour of the Emperor and were allowed to live under
surveillance at the Court. Leo died there four years later. Thoros eventually
escaped and returned to Cilicia. When the conquest of the province was
completed, John went into winter quarters in the Cilician plain, where Baldwin
of Marash came to pay him homage and to ask for protection against the Turks.
At the same time an imperial embassy was sent to Zengi, in order to give him
the impression that the Byzantines were unwilling to start upon an aggressive
adventure.

Next February, by orders from the Emperor, the
authorities in Antioch suddenly arrested all the merchants and travellers from
Aleppo and the neighbouring Moslem towns, lest they might report to their homes
of the military preparations that they had seen. Towards the end of March the
imperial army moved up to Antioch and was joined there by the troops of the
Prince of Antioch and the Count of Edessa, together with a contingent of
Templars. On 1 April the allies crossed into enemy territory and occupied
Balat. On the 3rd they appeared before Biza’a, which held out under its
commander’s wife for five days. Another week was spent in rounding up the
Moslem soldiers in the district, most of whom took refuge in the grottoes of
el-Baba, from whence they were smoked out by the Byzantines. Zengi was with his
army before Hama from which he was trying to expel the Damascene garrison when
scouts told him of the Christian invasions. He hastily sent troops under Sawar
to reinforce the garrison of Aleppo. John had hoped to surprise Aleppo; but
when he arrived before the walls on 20 April and launched an attack he found it
strongly defended. He decided not to undertake the ardours of a siege, but
turned southward. On the 22nd he occupied Athareb, on the 25th Maarat an-Numan
and on the 27th Kafartab. On 28 April his army was at the gates of Shaizar.

Shaizar belonged to the Munqidhite emir, Abu’l
Asakir Sultan, who had managed to preserve his independence from Zengi. Perhaps
John hoped that Zengi would not therefore concern himself with the city’s fate.
But its possession would give the Christians control of the middle Orontes and
would hinder Zengi’s farther advance into Syria. The Byzantines began the siege
with great vigour. Part of the lower town was soon occupied; and the Emperor
brought up his great mangonels to bombard the upper town on its precipitous
hill over the Orontes. Latin and Moslem sources alike tell of the Emperor’s
personal courage and energy and of the efficiency of his bombardment. He seemed
to be everywhere at once, in his golden helmet, inspecting the machines,
encouraging the assailants and consoling the wounded. The emir’s nephew Usama
saw the terrible damage done by the Greek catapults. Whole houses were
destroyed by a single ball, while the iron staff on which the emir’s flag was
fixed came crashing down piercing and killing a man in the street below. But
while the Emperor and his engineers were indefatigable, the Franks held back.
Raymond feared that if Shaizar were captured he might be obliged to live there
in the front line of Christendom and to abandon the comforts of Antioch; while
Joscelin, who privately hated Raymond, had no wish to see him installed in
Shaizar and perhaps later in Aleppo. His whispering encouraged Raymond’s
natural indolence and his mistrust of the Byzantines. Instead of joining in the
combat, the two Latin princes spent their days in their tents playing at dice.
The Emperor’s reproaches could only goad them into perfunctory and short-lived
activity. Meanwhile Zengi gave up the siege of Hama and moved towards Shaizar.
His envoys hurried to Baghdad, where at first the Sultan would not offer help,
till a popular riot, crying for a Holy War, forced him to send an expedition.
The Ortoqid prince Dawud promised an army of fifty thousand Turcomans from the
Jezireh. Letters were also sent to the Danishmend emir, requesting him to make
a diversion in Anatolia. Zengi was also well aware of the dissensions between
the Byzantines and the Franks. His agents in the Christian army fanned the
Latin princes resentment against the Emperor.

1138: Johns
Entry into Antioch

Despite all John’s vigour the great cliffs of
Shaizar, the courage of its defenders and the apathy of the Franks defeated
him. Some of his allies suggested that he should go out to meet Zengi, whose
army was smaller than the Christian. But he could not afford to leave his
siege-machinery unguarded nor could he now trust the Franks. The risk was too
great. He managed to take the whole of the lower city; then, on about 20 May,
the emir of Shaizar sent to him offering to pay him a large indemnity and to
present him with his best horses and silken robes and his two most precious
treasures, a table studded with jewels and a cross set with rubies that had
been taken from the Emperor Romanus Diogenes at Manzikert, sixty-seven years
before. He agreed further to recognize the Emperor as his overlord and to pay
him a yearly tribute. John, disgusted by his Latin allies, accepted the terms,
and on 21 May he raised the siege. As the great imperial army moved back
towards Antioch, Zengi came up towards Shaizar; but, apart from a few light
skirmishes, he did not venture to interfere with the retreat.

When the army reached Antioch, John insisted on
making a ceremonial entry into the city. He rode on horseback, with the Prince
of Antioch and the Count of Edessa walking as his grooms on either side. The
Patriarch and all the clergy met him at the gate and led him through streets
hung with bunting to the Cathedral for a solemn mass, and on to the palace
where he took up his residence. There he summoned Raymond and, hinting that the
Prince had recently failed in his duties as vassal, he demanded that his army
should be allowed to enter the city and that the citadel should be handed over
to him. The future campaigns against the Moslems must, he said, be planned at
Antioch, and he needed the citadel to store his treasure and his war-material.
The Franks were horrified. While Raymond asked for time to consider the
request, Joscelin slipped out of the palace. Once outside he told his soldiers
to spread a rumour round the Latin population of the city that the Emperor was
demanding their immediate expulsion, and to incite them to attack the Greek
population. Once the rioting was started, he rushed back to the palace and
cried to John that he had come at the risk of his life to warn him of the
danger that he ran. There was certainly tumult in the streets, and unwary
Greeks were being massacred. In the East there is no telling where a riot may
end. John wished neither that the Greeks in the city should suffer nor that he
himself should be cut off in the palace with only his bodyguard, and his main
army on the far banks of the Orontes. Moreover he had learnt that, thanks to
Zengi’s diplomacy, the Anatolian Seldjuks had invaded Cilicia and raided Adana.
He saw through Joscelin’s trickery; but before he could risk an open breach
with the Latins he must be absolutely sure of his communications. He sent for
Raymond and Joscelin and said that for the moment he would ask for no more than
a renewal of their oath of vassaldom and that he must return now to
Constantinople. He left the palace to rejoin the army; and at once the princes
stilled the riot. But they were still nervous and very anxious to recapture the
Emperor’s goodwill. Raymond even offered to admit imperial functionaries into
the city, guessing rightly that John would not accept so insincere an offer.
Shortly afterwards John said good-bye to Raymond and Joscelin with an outward
show of friendship and complete mutual mistrust. He then led his army back into
Cilicia.

1139-40:
John
in Anatolia

It is remarkable that during all John’s
negotiations over Antioch nothing was said about the Church. By the treaty of
Devol the Patriarchate was to be given back to the Greek line; and it is clear
that the Latin church authorities feared that the Emperor might insist on that
clause; for, in March 1138 almost certainly in answer to an appeal from
Antioch, Pope Innocent II issued an order forbidding any member of his Church
to remain with the Byzantine army should it take any action against the Latin
authorities in Antioch. John must have been unwilling to stir up any religious
trouble till he was politically and strategically on surer ground. Had he
succeeded in providing Raymond with a principality in lieu of Antioch, then he
would have reintroduced a Greek Patriarch into the city. But in the meantime he
publicly condoned the presence of a Latin when on his solemn entry Radulph of
Domfront came to greet him and conducted him to mass at the cathedral.

John journeyed slowly back to Constantinople,
after sending part of his army to punish the Seldjuk Mas’ud for his raid into Cilicia.
Mas’ud asked for peace and paid an indemnity. During 1139 and into 1140 the
Emperor was occupied with the Danishmend emir, who was a far more dangerous
enemy than the Seldjuk. In 1139 Mohammed not only invaded upper Cilicia and
took the castle of Vahka, but he also led an expedition westward as far as the
Sangarius river. His alliance with Constantine Gabras, the rebel Duke of
Trebizond, guarded his northern flank. During the summer of 1139 John drove the
Danishmends out of Bithynia and Paphlagonia, and in the autumn he marched
eastwards along the Black Sea coast. Constantine Gabras made his submission;
and the imperial army turned inland to besiege the Danishmend fortress of
Niksar. It was a difficult undertaking. The fortress was naturally strong and
well defended; and in that wild mountainous country it was difficult to keep
communications open. John was depressed by the heavy losses suffered by his
troops and by the desertion to the enemy of his nephew John, his brother Isaac’s
son, who became a Moslem and married Mas’ud’s daughter. The Ottoman Sultans
claimed to be descended from him. In the autumn of 1140 John abandoned the
campaign and brought his army back to Constantinople, intending to recommence
next year. But next year the emir Mohammed died, and the Danishmend power was
temporarily put out of action by civil war between his heirs. John could revert
to his larger schemes and turn his attention again to Syria.

There the
benefits of his campaign against the Moslems in 1137 had been quickly lost.
Zengi had recovered Kafartab from the Franks in May 1137 and Maarat an-Numan,
Bizaa and Athareb in the autumn. During the next four years, when Zengi was
fully occupied in his attempt to conquer Damascus, the indolent Franks of the
north failed to take advantage of his difficulties. Every year Raymond and
Sawar of Aleppo exchanged raids into each others territories; but no major
engagement took place. The county of Edessa enjoyed a comparative peace, owing
to the internecine quarrels of the Moslem princes round the frontiers,
intensified by the death of the Danishmend Mohammed. To the Emperor John,
carefully watching events from Constantinople, it seemed clear that the Franks
of northern Syria were valueless as soldiers of Christendom.

1139
^:
The Patriarch Radulph deposed

Raymond’s apparent nonchalance was partly due
to shortage of man-power and partly to his quarrel with the Patriarch Radulph.
He had never intended to keep to his oath to obey the Patriarch in all things;
and Radulph’s arrogance enraged him. He found allies in the cathedral chapter,
led by the Archdeacon Lambert and a canon, Arnulf of Calabria. Encouraged by
Raymond they left for Rome towards the end of 1137 to complain of Radulph’s
uncanonical election. As they passed through King Roger II’s dominions, Arnulf,
who was born his subject, incited him against Radulph by pointing out that
Radulph had secured the throne of Antioch, which Roger coveted, for Raymond.
Radulph was obliged to follow them to Rome to justify himself. When he in his turn
arrived in southern Italy, Roger arrested him; but such was his charm of manner
and so persuasive his tongue that he soon won over the King to his side. He
proceeded to Rome, where once again his charm triumphed. He voluntarily laid
down his pallium on the altar of St Peter’s and received it back from the Pope.
When he journeyed back through southern Italy to resume his patriarchal throne,
King Roger treated him as an honoured guest. But when he arrived at Antioch his
clergy, backed by Raymond, refused to pay him the customary compliment of
meeting him at the city gates. Radulph, playing the part of a meek, injured
man, retired discreetly to a monastery near St Symeon; where he remained till
Joscelin of Edessa, always eager to embarrass Raymond, invited him to pay a
ceremonious visit to his capital, where the Archbishop was received as
spiritual overlord. Raymond soon decided that it was safer to have him back in
Antioch. When he returned he was greeted with all the honours that he could
desire.

But thanks to Raymond’s agitations, the inquiry
into his position was reopened at Rome. In the spring of 1139 Peter, Archbishop
of Lyons, was sent out to hear the case on the spot. Peter, who was very old,
went first to visit the Holy Places; and on his journey north he died at Acre.
His death discountenanced Radulph’s enemies; and even Arnulf of Calabria
offered his submission. But Radulph in his arrogance refused to accept it;
whereupon Arnulf, enraged, returned to Rome and persuaded the Pope to send out
another legate, Alberic, Bishop of Ostia. The new legate arrived in November
1139 and at once summoned a synod which was attended by all the Latin prelates
of the East, including the Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was clear that the
sympathy of the synod was with the Prince and the dissident clergy. Radulph
therefore refused to attend its sessions in the Cathedral of St Peter, while
his only supporter, Serlon, Archbishop of Apamea, when he attempted to defend
the Patriarch, was ejected from the assembly. After disobeying three summonses
to appear to answer the charges against him, Radulph was declared deposed. In
his place the synod elected Aimery of Limoges, the head of the chapter, a
gross, energetic and almost illiterate man who had owed his first advancement to
Radulph but had wisely made friends with Raymond. On his deposition the
ex-Patriarch was thrown into prison by Raymond. Later he escaped and made his
way to Rome, where once again he won the favour of the Pope and the Cardinals.
But before he could use their help to restore himself he died, it was thought
from poison, some time in 1142. The episode ensured for Raymond the loyal
co-operation of the Church of Antioch; but the high-handed treatment of the Patriarch
left behind an ugly impression, even amongst the ecclesiastics who had most
disliked him.