The Crusade of 1101, also known as the Crusade of the Faint-Hearted, was launched in the aftermath of the First Crusade with calls for reinforcements from the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem and to rescue the famous Bohemond of Taranto from Muslim captivity. Pope Paschal II, successor to Urban II (who died before learning of the outcome of the crusade that he had called), urged a new expedition. He especially urged those who had taken the crusade vow but had never departed and those who had turned back while on the march. The crusade was a resounding defeat of the West by the Seljuk Turks.
Cause of Crusade
Dagobert's Arrival
The First Crusade was over and many of the Crusaders who participated returned to Europe. They had just taken over the Holy City of Jerusalem and had defeated the Fatimid counterattack at the Battle of Ascalon. Leaders Robert Curthose of Normandy, Robert II of Flanders and Raymond IV of Toulouse left Godfrey of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem to defend the city with only 300 men.
Following the return of all these Crusaders, who shared their heroic adventures, stories, and exploits of the journey, many more Europeans wanted to take the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of these people was the Archbishop of Pisa, Dagobert of Pisa, who saw opportunity in the Levant. He realized the need to expand Pisa's influence east, a move already done by the Republic of Venice and Genoa. So he was made legate by Pope Paschal II, which was a pretext to set off for the Levant with a fleet of 120 ships which, on their way, made successful raids on Byzantine owned islands of Cephalonia and Corfu. After hearing about this news, Eastern Roman Emperor Alexios I Komnenos dispatched the Byzantine navy which skirmished with the Pisans who, after few skirmishes, left for the Outremer.
Despite his conflict with Alexios, Dagobert of Pisa reached the Levant in the September of 1099. One of the Crusader leaders, the Prince of Antioch, Bohemond of Taranto, was besieging the port of Laodicea,which was held by the Byzantines, and Dagobert and the Pisans agreed to help by blockading the port from the sea. However, Robert of Normandy, Robert of Flanders, and Raymond of Toulouse, arrived at Laodicea with the intention of using it as a port to sail back to Europe but were outraged to see Bohemond attacking the port. They saw the necessity for cooperation with the Byzantine Emperor and eastern Christians and they were still bound to their oath to Alexios, which they took when they left from Constantinople to Jerusalem in the Crusade. The Crusader leaders were able to persuade Dagobert to call off the blockade. Bohemond was forced to abandon the siege, and accompanied Dagobert to Jerusalem with a group of pilgrims from Antioch in order to fulfill his crusader oath. Bohemond had quickly become a supporter of Dagobert as both wanted to see the power of the King of Jerusalem decrease in the favor of their own, papal power for Dagobert and Antiochene power for Bohemond.
While the two Roberts left Laodicea for Northern France, Raymond took over the city of Laodicea which was held by Bohemond, and garrisoned it with loyal crusaders. He stayed back in the Levant in order to guard his new territorial gains before leaving for Constantinople in the May of 1100 in order to form an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, one of Bohemond's worst enemies, for help against Bohemond and in carving out his own kingdom around the Arab-controlled Levantine city of Tripoli.
Meanwhile, Baldwin I of Edessa was busy consolidating his new County of Edessa. As he was doing so, he heard the news of Jerusalem's fall and his brother, Godfrey of Bouillon's crowning as King of Jerusalem. Hearing this, Baldwin decided to complete his pilgrimage and left Edessa for Jerusalem in November. On his way he joined Bohemond and Dagobert and the group of pilgrims at Buluniyas. Although they faced attacks by Muslims, fatigue, and diseases, which all caused heavy casualties during the journey, most of the pilgrims reached Jerusalem on 21 December.
As all these events were unfolding, Godfrey of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem, was busy expanding the borders of his kingdom. His campaigns would culminate in the First Siege of Arsuf. Previously, Godfrey had signed a treaty with the city where Arsuf would pay him tribute while both sides would exchange each other's hostages. However, the Muslim hostages escaped so Arsuf broke their treaty with Jerusalem, leading to Godfrey besieging the city on the October of 1099. Godfrey began the siege by spending six weeks to build stone throwers which would support two siege towers. Unfortunately for Godfrey, he was severely limited in numbers as the majority of his men left for Europe via Laodicea with the two Roberts. The Fatimid defenders of the city eventually capitulated, offering the surrender to Raymond IV of Toulouse as he had previously been able to restrain his Crusaders from looting cities he conquered. Insulted, Godfrey refused their offer and continued the siege. Hearing of this state of affairs from Laodicea, Raymond supported and encouraged the Fatimid defenders to hold out against Godfrey, citing his so-called weakness. Raymond's efforts came to vain as after the two Crusader assaults made on Arsuf were defeated, the garrison set the siege towers on fire, forcing Godfrey to end the siege. Although the siege was a defeat for Godfrey, by the end of 1100, Godfrey of Bouillon, the King of Jerusalem, had managed to make the Levantine cities of Acre, Jaffa, Caesarea Maritima, Ascalon, and Arsuf tributaries.
Immediately after Christmas, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Arnulf of Chocques, was deposed on the ground that his election had been uncanonical, and with Bohemond's support, Dagobert was elected in his place. Public opinion had always held that the Holy Land should be the patrimony of the church, but Arnulf had been too weak to establish supremacy. Dagobert's position was stronger, as he was papal legate and had the support of the Pisan fleet. Immediately after his enthronement, Godfrey of Bouillon knelt before him and was invested with the territory of Jerusalem, and Bohemond did the same for Antioch. The new patriarch confirmed Godfrey and Bohemond in the possession of their lands, but no similar ceremony was recorded in connection with Baldwin, Count of Edessa, who did not give homage to him due to tense relations. This connection with Pisa now meant that the Crusaders had a line of communication with Western Europe and now did not need to rely on Eastern Roman supply shipments. Baldwin and Bohemond left Jerusalem on 1 January 1100. Duqaq, the Seljuk ruler of Damascus, sent forces to attack them, but the crusaders routed the Seljuk troops near Baalbek. Baldwin arrived back in Edessa in February.
Bohemond's Capture
In the May of the year 1100, the Armenian warlord Gabriel of Melitene took the city of Melitene from the Anatolian Turkic Beylik of the Danishmendids. When he received reports that the Danishmendid Bey Gazi Gümüshtigin of Sebastea was preparing an expedition to recapture Melitene he sought help from Bohemond and even offered his daughter, Morphia, in marriage.
Before the First Crusade, Alexios I Komnenos, the Eastern Roman Emperor, had made Bohemond of Taranto promise to give all land he conquered east of Antioch back to him, citing the prior possession of those lands by Constantinople before they were taken over by Turks. However, after the Crusaders took Antioch from the Seljuk Empire, Bohemond took the city for himself, founding the Principality of Antioch with himself as its prince, thus breaking his oath to Alexios. Hostilities began between the two powers, starting another war between the Normans of Southern Italy and Antioch and Constantinople that would end at Bohemond's disastrous crusade of Dyrrhachium.
One of the first actions of the war was when, like mentioned before, he besieged the port of Laodicea which was held by the Byzantines. Then, at around the same time as Bohemond received the cry of help from the Armenians of Melitene, Alexios pressured Bohemond to fulfill his oath and to surrender Antioch to him. Bohemond obviously refused to surrender his powerbase so the Byzantine navy took the important Cilician ports of Seleucia Trachea and Corycos from him. In response, Bohemond replaced the Greek patriarch of Antioch, John the Oxite, with the Latin Peter of Narbonne. Alexios, by taking over lands around Antioch, was squeezing Bohemond's powerbase into extinction, forcing the prince to expand his base by helping the Armenians in Melitene.
Bohemond amassed his army and ventured out to Melitene to fight the Danishmendids. But at the Battle of Melitene in the August of 1100, the Danishmendids under Gazi Gümüshtigin ambushed the expedition, having "most of the Crusaders were killed." Bohemond was captured along with Richard of Salerno while the Armenian bishops of Marash and Antioch were killed. Bohemond's followers who were captured in the battle were killed while Bohemond and Richard of Salerno were imprisoned at Neocaesarea, modern-day Niksar. The Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos offered Gümüshtigin 260,000 bezants for Bohemond so that he could imprison him in Constantinople, but the offer fell flat because the Seljuk sultan of Rum Kilij Arslan I was denied a share, starting a conflict between the Danishmendids and the Seljuks of Rum.
Coronation of Baldwin I
After Dagobert's arrival to Jerusalem, a Venetian expedition to the Crusader States would arrive in 1100 in order to help the Crusaders consolidate their control of the Levant. After defeating a part of the Pisan fleet off Rhodes and then stealing the relics of Saint Nicholas from the Byzantine Greek Orthodox bishop of Myra in Lycia, the Venetians had continued east to the Levant. Off Cyprus they encountered Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, who was sailing to Constantinople to meet with Emperor Alexios I. From there they reached Jaffa by 24 June with a fleet of 200 ships led by Enrico Contarini. Godfrey made a deal with the Venetians to help conquer coastal cities in exchange for a third of all booty captured (in the case of Tripoli, half of the booty), a Venetian trading quarter in any city captured, an exemption from taxes on commerce and from right of shipwreck for all Venetian shipping. As part of this agreement, the Venetians assisted in the Siege of Haifa.
Joining the Venetians in Jaffa was Dagobert of Pisa. He was anxious to establish his power as Patriarch of Jerusalem and demanded Godfrey for power over the city. Dagobert envisaged turning Jerusalem into a fiefdom of the pope, and according to William of Tyre, he forced Godfrey to concede Jerusalem and Jaffa to him. Dagobert's schemes, however, came to naught. Along with him was Tancred of Galilee, the nephew of Dagobert’s ally, Bohemond, and who was also a supporter of Dagobert’s schemes. While they all planned a campaign to take Haifa, news came that changed everything.
After visiting Caesarea in June 1100, Albert of Aix and Ekkehard of Aura suggest that Godfrey had fallen ill and after being ill for a month and a half, he died in Jerusalem on 18 July 1100. Being at Jaffa at the time of Godfrey's death, Dagobert and Tancred could do nothing to stop Warner of Grez, Godfrey's most influential retainer, from immediately taking possession of the Tower of David in Jerusalem while other Godfrey loyalists took other towers in order to prevent him from entering and annexing the Holy City for the Papal States. Although Warner soon died, two other members of Godfrey’s faction, Geldemar Carpenel and Arnulf of Chocques, sent a delegation to Godfrey's brother, Baldwin I of Edessa, urging him to come to Jerusalem and become king.