1091 1092 1093 1094 1095 1096 1097 1098 1099 1100
Scotland's Celtic, anti-English king Donald Bane is deposed by England's William II Rufus, who replaces him with Donald's nephew Edgar, a son of the late Malcolm III MacDuncan. Edgar has been a vassal of the English king and will reign until his death early in 1107 (he has another uncle, also named Edgar, who at age 47 leads an expedition to Scotland but will soon join the First Crusade).
Hungary's king Coloman (Kálmán) overthrows Croatia's king Petar Svacic and gives his country an outlet to the sea. By 1102 the Hungarians will control most of the Dalmatian coast, bringing them into conflict with the interests of other major powers in the province.
Berenguer Ramon II of Barcelona loses a trial by combat designed to decide the issue of whether or not he murdered his late brother in 1082. He gives up his throne, goes off on crusade to Jerusalem, and is succeeded by his 15-year-old nephew, who will reign until 1131 as Ramon Berenguer III, fighting off Almoravid Muslims and helping Catalonia to expand into a major power.
The First Crusaders arrive at Constantinople en route to Jerusalem and are received by the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus, who obtains pledges from Bohemond of Otranto and many of the other leaders before helping them to cross the Bosphorus with promises of aid if they will return to Byzantine sovereignty the territories that they recapture from the Muslims.
The Battle of Nicaea June 30 ends in defeat for a Muslim army at the hands of a combined force of Crusaders and Byzantine Greeks, who take the Seljuk Turks' capital. The French knight Walter the Penniless (Gautier sans avoir) is killed after having led hordes through Europe and Asia in what will be called the Peasants' Crusade. The Crusaders number about 50,000 and continue their march toward Antioch July 1, but mounted Turkish archers and infantrymen, led by Kilij Arslan, sultan of Rum, push back the 15,000-man northern column, headed by Bohemond of Otranto, and begin plundering Bohemond's camp, whereupon the 50,000-man Turkish force is attacked by the 15,000-man southern column, commanded by Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond of Toulouse, and driven off. The Crusaders sustain some 4,000 casualties in this Battle of Dorylaeum, the Turks 3,000. The Crusaders lay siege to Antioch in October (see 1098).
Half the knights of France will set off in the next 30 years either for the Levant or for Islamic lands in northern Spain, but the First Crusade has been inspired as much by population pressures (a product of the new agriculture) as by religious zeal or desire for plunder. Nearly one third of all the land in Europe is owned by the Church.
