The whole fate of the East seemed changed by the First Crusade. The Sultanate of Roum was hemmed up in the central and eastern parts of Asia Minor, while Nicæa and perhaps a third of Asia Minor went back to the rule of Alexius. The little Armenian lordships of the Taurus grew into a new Armenian kingdom in Cilicia, strong enough to keep Turks and Saracens at bay. The Christians predominated in Syria, whence they soon threatened both the Fatimites of Egypt and the Seljukian dynasty in Persia. The Latin lordship of Edessa crossed the Euphrates, and formed in the upper valley of that river a permanent check to the lords of Mosul. Despite national jealousies, and the still deeper ill-will of Catholic and Orthodox, Christianity had acted with wonderful unity of purpose, while Islam could not forget its petty feuds even in the face of the enemy. The exploits of Leo the Isaurian and Nicephorus Phocas were more than outdone by Alexius and his Western allies. Never since the days of Heraclius had the old limits of Rome’s power in the East been so nearly maintained.
[Sidenote: The early difficulties of the Frankish conquerors.]
It remained to provide for the government of the conquered provinces. All Syria was portioned among the victorious Latins. Godfrey of Boulogne accepted the government of Jerusalem; but he refused to wear a crown of gold in the city where Christ had worn a crown of thorns, and contented himself with the modest title of Baron and Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre. Bohemund, the Norman, ruled northern Syria as Prince of Antioch, and Baldwin, brother of Godfrey, became Count of Edessa. But these chieftains had at first so few followers that they held little more than the cities and castles that they garrisoned. Up to Godfrey’s death in 1100, the hold of the Christians on southern Syria was very slight. Jaffa was their only port, and the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem was beset with Saracen brigands, and marked by ruined villages and unburied bodies. At Antioch, Bohemund was in even worse straits. In 1100 he was taken prisoner by the Turks, who next year besieged Antioch, where Tancred with difficulty defended the Christian cause. Meanwhile a new crusade, mostly from Aquitaine, Germany, and Italy, had been almost annihilated in Asia Minor by long marches, thirst, hunger, and the arms of the Turks. With the remnants, Raymond of Toulouse conquered Tripoli, and established himself in middle Syria. Meanwhile Bohemund was released, on an Armenian prince paying his ransom. He then joined with Baldwin of Edessa on a distant expedition against Harran, but was badly beaten and forced in despair to return to Europe, where he again attacked his old enemy the Greek Emperor. Failing at a new siege of Durazzo, Bohemund was forced to become the vassal of the Eastern Basileus for Antioch. Baldwin of Edessa, a prisoner since the battle of Harran, made terms with the Ameer of Mosul, and joined with him in waging war against the Normans of Antioch. Yet, if the Crusaders were divided, the infidels were equally at cross-purposes. A constant stream of fresh pilgrims reinforced the scanty armies of the Latins, and their military superiority, both in pitched battles and in building and defending castles, stood them in good stead. Financial help came from the keen-witted Italian traders of Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, who found in the Latin conquests new outlets for their commerce, and who were now winning the trade of the Levant from the Greeks. Baldwin of Edessa, called after Godfrey’s death to succeed him at Jerusalem, did not share his scruple against bearing the title of king, and showed such skill, both as warrior and statesman, that he became in a very real sense the founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Bit by bit the Saracens were expelled from the open country, and within the generation succeeding the First Crusade, an ordered political system was set up among the Latin principalities of Syria.