A History of the Crusades-Vol 2 by Steven Runciman Read Free Book Online

as the news of the battle at Mersivan
reached him, he sent troops into Cilicia to recapture Mamistra, Adana and
Tarsus, which the Byzantines had reoccupied three years before. The local
Byzantine forces were not strong enough to oppose him. When William of
Aquitaine and Hugh of Vermandois arrived as fugitives at Tarsus at the end of
September they found Tancred’s lieutenant, Bernard the Stranger, in command of
the city.
    Next, Tancred turned his attention to
Lattakieh, the Byzantine port that the Normans had long coveted. It was more
formidable; for its Byzantine garrison was reinforced by Raymond’s Provencal
troops and was protected by a squadron of the Byzantine navy. Before he dared
attack, Tancred negotiated to secure the aid of Genoese ships. Meanwhile he
occupied the hinterland, and attempted to capture Jabala, to the south.
Bohemond had sent a small unsuccessful expedition against Jabala in the summer
of 1100, in the course of which his Constable had been taken prisoner. Tancred’s
expedition in the summer of 1101 was equally ineffective. But it induced Ibn
Sulaiha, the qadi of Jabala, to hand the city over to the atabeg of Damascus;
and he himself retired to Damascus to enjoy a quiet old age. The atabeg,
Toghtekin, sent his son Buri as Governor. But Buri was an unpopular ruler; and
the citizens of Jabala after a few months ejected him and put themselves under
the protection of the Banu Ammar of Tripoli. Tancred then withdrew his troops
from the district.
    His capture of Raymond’s person enabled Tancred
to resume his scheme against Lattakieh. He had incarcerated Raymond at Antioch;
but the Patriarch Bernard and Raymond’s Crusading colleagues were shocked by
his behaviour. At their request he set him free; but Raymond had first to swear
an oath that he would never again interfere in northern Syrian affairs. On his
release Raymond marched southward, to attack Tortosa. In conformity with his oath,
as he passed by Lattakieh he gave orders to his troops and to his Countess to
evacuate the town and join him. The Byzantine garrison was left without
Provencal support. Then, in the early spring of 1102 Tancred advanced on
Lattakieh. But its walls were strong and the garrison fought well, while units
of the imperial navy ensured their supplies. The siege lasted for nearly a
year; but during the first weeks of 1103 Tancred, who had by now hired ships
from the Genoese with which to interrupt communications between Lattakieh and
Cyprus, lured the men of the garrison by a stratagem outside the city walls and
there fell on them and made them prisoners. The city then capitulated to him.
     
    1102: The
Malevolence of Bishop Manasses
    Such actions did not please the Emperor
Alexius. He had already been angered by the exile of the Greek Patriarch of
Antioch, John the Oxite, and by the news that all the higher Greek clergy were
now being dismissed and replaced by Latins. Early in 1102 he received a letter
from King Baldwin, who had heard the rumour that Byzantine non-co-operation had
helped to wreck the Crusades of 1101, and who wrote to beg the Emperor to give
his full support to any subsequent Crusade. The letter was conveyed by a Bishop
called Manasses, who had gone to Palestine with Ekkehard in 1101 and was
returning from Jerusalem. It seems to have been courteously worded and was
accompanied by gifts; and Alexius therefore thought that he could talk frankly
to the Bishop and tell him all his grievances. But herein he misjudged his man.
The Bishop was a better Latin than Christian, and had no sympathy with the
Greeks. At the Emperor’s request he went on to Italy and reported to the Pope
everything that had been said to him; but he did so in such terms that the Pope’s
fury was roused against Byzantium. Had Pope Urban II still been alive, no harm
would have been done; for Urban had large views and no wish to quarrel with
eastern Christendom. But his successor, Paschal II, was a smaller man,
short-sighted and easily