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Authors: Steven Runciman
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that he had no
option.
1108: The Treaty
of Devol
The text of the treaty is preserved in full in
the pages of Anna Comnena. In it Bohemond first was made to express contrition
for the breach of his former oath to the Emperor. Then he swore with the utmost
solemnity to become the vassal and liege-man of the Emperor and of the Emperor’s
heir, the Porphyrogennete John; and he would oblige all his men to do likewise.
That there might be no mistake the Latin term for liege was employed, and the
duties of a vassal were enumerated. He was to remain Prince of Antioch, which
he would govern under the Emperor’s suzerainty. His territory would include
Antioch itself and its port of Saint Symeon, and the districts to the
north-east, as far as Marash, together with the lands that he might conquer
from the Moslem princes of Aleppo and other inland Syrian states; but the
Cilician cities and the coast round Lattakieh were to be restored to the
Emperor’s direct rule, and the territory of the Roupenian princes was not to be
touched. An appendix was added to the treaty carefully listing the towns that
were to constitute Bohemond’s dominion. Within his dominion Bohemond was to
exercise the civil authority, but the Latin Patriarch was to be deposed and
replaced by a Greek. There were special provisions that if Tancred, or any
other of Bohemond’s men, refused to comply with the demands of the treaty,
Bohemond was to force them into obedience.
The Treaty of Devol is of interest because it
reveals the solution that Alexius now contemplated for the Crusader question.
He was prepared to allow frontier districts and even Antioch itself to pass
into the autonomous control of a Latin prince, so long as the prince was bound
to him by ties of vassalage according to the Latin custom, and so long as
Byzantium kept indirect control through the Church. Alexius, moreover, felt
himself to be responsible for the welfare of the eastern Christians, and even
wished to safeguard the rights of his unsatisfactory Armenian vassals, the
Roupenians. The treaty remained a paper agreement. But it broke Bohemond; who
never dared show himself again in the East. He retired humble and discredited
to his lands in Apulia, and died there in 1111, an obscure Italian princeling,
leaving two infant sons by his French marriage to inherit his rights to
Antioch. He had been a gallant soldier, a bold and wily general and a hero to
his followers; and his personality had outshone all his colleagues’ on the
First Crusade. But the vastness of his unscrupulous ambition was his downfall.
The time had not yet come for the Crusaders to destroy the bulwark of eastern
Christendom.
As Alexius well realized, the Treaty of Devol
required the co-operation of Tancred; and Tancred, who was not sorry to see his
uncle eliminated from eastern affairs, had no intention of becoming the Emperor’s
vassal. His ambition was less extensive than Bohemond’s, but it was for the
creation of a strong independent principality. His prospects were unhopeful.
Bohemond had left him with few men and quite without ready money. Nevertheless
he decided to take the offensive. A forced loan from the wealthy merchants of
Antioch replenished his funds and enabled him to hire local mercenaries; and he
summoned all the knights and cavalrymen that could be spared from Edessa and
Turbessel as well as from Antiochene territory. In the spring of 1105 he
marched out to recover Artah. Ridwan of Aleppo had been preparing to go to the
assistance of the Banu Ammar in their struggle against the Franks farther to
the south; but on the news of Tancred’s advance he turned to defend Artah. The
two armies met on 20 April, at the village of Tizin near Artah, on a desolate
plain strewn with boulders. Alarmed by the size of the Turkish host, Tancred
suggested a parley with Ridwan, who would have agreed, had not his cavalry
commander, Sabawa, persuaded him to attack without delay. The terrain prevented
the Turks from using
option.
1108: The Treaty
of Devol
The text of the treaty is preserved in full in
the pages of Anna Comnena. In it Bohemond first was made to express contrition
for the breach of his former oath to the Emperor. Then he swore with the utmost
solemnity to become the vassal and liege-man of the Emperor and of the Emperor’s
heir, the Porphyrogennete John; and he would oblige all his men to do likewise.
That there might be no mistake the Latin term for liege was employed, and the
duties of a vassal were enumerated. He was to remain Prince of Antioch, which
he would govern under the Emperor’s suzerainty. His territory would include
Antioch itself and its port of Saint Symeon, and the districts to the
north-east, as far as Marash, together with the lands that he might conquer
from the Moslem princes of Aleppo and other inland Syrian states; but the
Cilician cities and the coast round Lattakieh were to be restored to the
Emperor’s direct rule, and the territory of the Roupenian princes was not to be
touched. An appendix was added to the treaty carefully listing the towns that
were to constitute Bohemond’s dominion. Within his dominion Bohemond was to
exercise the civil authority, but the Latin Patriarch was to be deposed and
replaced by a Greek. There were special provisions that if Tancred, or any
other of Bohemond’s men, refused to comply with the demands of the treaty,
Bohemond was to force them into obedience.
The Treaty of Devol is of interest because it
reveals the solution that Alexius now contemplated for the Crusader question.
He was prepared to allow frontier districts and even Antioch itself to pass
into the autonomous control of a Latin prince, so long as the prince was bound
to him by ties of vassalage according to the Latin custom, and so long as
Byzantium kept indirect control through the Church. Alexius, moreover, felt
himself to be responsible for the welfare of the eastern Christians, and even
wished to safeguard the rights of his unsatisfactory Armenian vassals, the
Roupenians. The treaty remained a paper agreement. But it broke Bohemond; who
never dared show himself again in the East. He retired humble and discredited
to his lands in Apulia, and died there in 1111, an obscure Italian princeling,
leaving two infant sons by his French marriage to inherit his rights to
Antioch. He had been a gallant soldier, a bold and wily general and a hero to
his followers; and his personality had outshone all his colleagues’ on the
First Crusade. But the vastness of his unscrupulous ambition was his downfall.
The time had not yet come for the Crusaders to destroy the bulwark of eastern
Christendom.
As Alexius well realized, the Treaty of Devol
required the co-operation of Tancred; and Tancred, who was not sorry to see his
uncle eliminated from eastern affairs, had no intention of becoming the Emperor’s
vassal. His ambition was less extensive than Bohemond’s, but it was for the
creation of a strong independent principality. His prospects were unhopeful.
Bohemond had left him with few men and quite without ready money. Nevertheless
he decided to take the offensive. A forced loan from the wealthy merchants of
Antioch replenished his funds and enabled him to hire local mercenaries; and he
summoned all the knights and cavalrymen that could be spared from Edessa and
Turbessel as well as from Antiochene territory. In the spring of 1105 he
marched out to recover Artah. Ridwan of Aleppo had been preparing to go to the
assistance of the Banu Ammar in their struggle against the Franks farther to
the south; but on the news of Tancred’s advance he turned to defend Artah. The
two armies met on 20 April, at the village of Tizin near Artah, on a desolate
plain strewn with boulders. Alarmed by the size of the Turkish host, Tancred
suggested a parley with Ridwan, who would have agreed, had not his cavalry
commander, Sabawa, persuaded him to attack without delay. The terrain prevented
the Turks from using
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