Bohemond, Marc

Bohemond, Marc, one of the leaders of the Crusades, was born about 1056. He was the eldest son of Robert Guiscard, a Norman, who had obtained by conquest the dukedom of Apulia and Calabria. From 1081 to 1085 he served under his father in a war against the Byzantine emperor Alexils Comnenus. At the death of his father, in 1085, he became involved in a war with his younger brother over the division of his dominions, but, he was speedily diverted from this strife by the Crusades. Accompanied by his cousin Tancred, he led an army of 10,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry, with which he would have besieged Constantinople had he been able to persuade Godfrey of Bouillon to join him. In 1098 he besieged and took Antioch, of which he assumed the principality. In 1101 he was defeated and taken prisoner by the Turks. After a captivity of two years he was released, and he returned to Europe to raise troops. He levied an army in France, with which he renewed the war with Alexius, but was unsuccessful, and was obliged to conclude a peace in 1108. He died at Canossa, in Apulia, in 1111. See Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 58, 60; Michaud, Histoire des Croisades.