The First Crusade by Steven Runciman

Author:Steven Runciman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Armenian interlude

Trust ye not in a friend.

Micah VII, 5

The Armenian migration to the southwest, begun when the Seldjuk invasions made life in the Araxes valley and by Lake Van no longer secure, continued throughout the last years of the eleventh century. When the Crusaders arrived in eastern Asia Minor there was a series of small Armenian principalities stretching from beyond the middle Euphrates to the heart of the Taurus mountains. The ephemeral state that the Armenian Philaretus had founded had crumbled even before his death in 1090. But Thoros still held Edessa, where he had recently managed to eject the Turkish garrison from the citadel; and his father-in-law, Gabriel, still held Melitene. At Marash the leading Christian citizen, Thatoul, was recognized as governor by the Byzantine authorities to whom the Crusaders restored the town. At Raban and Kaisun, between Marash and the Euphrates, an Armenian called Kogh Vasil, Vasil the Robber, had set up a small principality. Thoros and Gabriel, and probably Thatoul also, had been lieutenants of Philaretus and like him had started their public careers in the Byzantine administrative service. Not only did they belong to the Orthodox Church, and not to the separated Armenian Church, but they continued to use the titles that they had received long ago from the Emperor; and, whenever possible, they reestablished relations with the Court at Constantinople, reaffirming their allegiance. Thoros had, indeed, received from Alexius the high title of curopalates. This imperial connection gave to their government a certain legitimacy; but a more solid base was provided by their readiness to accept the suzerainty of neighboring Turkish chieftains. Thoros played off these potential suzerains one against the other with surprising agility; while Gabriel had sent his wife on a mission to Baghdad to obtain recognition from the highest Moslem authorities. But all these princes were in a precarious position. With the exception of Kogh Vasil, they were separated by their religion from most of their compatriots and hated by the Syrian Christians who still were plentiful in their territories; and all were distrusted by the Turks, whose disunion alone enabled them to survive.

The Armenians in the Taurus were less exposed to danger; for the territory in which they were settled was hard of access and easy to defend. Oshin, son of Hethoum, now controlled the mountains to the west of the Cilician Gates, with his headquarters at the impregnable castle of Lampron on a high spur overlooking Tarsus and the Cilician plain. He kept up a fitful connection with Constantinople and had been given by the Emperor the title of stratopedarch of Cilicia. Though not, it seems, a member of the Orthodox Church, he had served under Alexius in the past; and it was probably with the Emperor’s approval that he had taken over Lampron from its unconquered Byzantine garrison. He made frequent excursions into the Cilician plain; and in 1097 he took advantage of the Turkish pre-occupation with the advance of the Crusaders to capture part of the town of Adana.

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