Bohemond (c.1050-1111) was the nickname, meaning ‘Giant’, of Marc, eldest son of Robert Guiscard who disinherited him after a second marriage. Bohemond served in Guiscard's expedition against Byzantium in 1083-5. His participation in the First Crusade has been seen as the act of a frustrated man but he enjoyed a strong position in southern Italy. The only leader of the Crusade to have commanded a major army, he distinguished himself militarily, fighting well at Dorylaeum on 1 July 1097, ensuring the defeat of a Damascene relief army in December 1097, and commanding at the Lake battle on 2 February 1098. He entered Antioch by treachery on 1-2 June 1098 and led the crusaders to victory over Kerbogah on 28 July 1098. Because he kept Antioch, contrary to the oath of all the leaders to return it to Byzantium, and did not go on to Jerusalem, he has been seen as a cynical exploiter of the crusade, yet he visited Jerusalem at Christmas 1099.
In 1100 he was captured by the Turks. Released in 1103, he faced Byzantine efforts to regain Antioch, so he raised a crusade in the West which attacked Byzantium in 1107. He was defeated and forced to peace by the Treaty of Devol in September 1108, though Antioch remained under his nephew Tancred. He died in southern Italy.
Bibliography
- Yewdale, R., Bohemond I Prince of Antioch (Princeton, 1917)
— John France
