ADHEMAR OF MONTEIL, bishop of Le Puy. Papal legate on crusade; close associate of Urban II 1095–6; travelled in Raymond of Toulouse’s Provençal army; as adept at military command as at prayer, diplomacy and reconciling the factious crusade leaders. Died 1 August 1098 at Antioch.
AL-AFDAL, Armenian mercenary and vizier of Egypt at the time of the First Crusade; conquered Jerusalem 1098; defeated at Ascalon in his attempt to recapture it in August 1099.
ALEXIUS I COMNENUS, Byzantine emperor, usurped imperial throne 1081; invited western help against the Muslims in 1095.
BALDWIN OF BOULOGNE, younger brother of Godfrey of Bouillon and Eustace III, count of Boulogne. Initially trained for Church, his career of single-minded, acquisitive adventurism brought him the county of Edessa (1098) and the crown of Jerusalem (1100–18); thrice married, once bigamously, probably a homosexual.
BERKYARUK, son of Malik Shah, Seljuk sultan of Baghdad during the First Crusade.
BOHEMUND, prince of Taranto. Son of Robert Guiscard of Hauteville, who had made himself duke of Apulia in southern Italy. Failed in attempts to win himself a territory in the Balkans in 1080s. The crusade offered him a chance of acquiring a principality in his own right. The expedition’s best field commander. Ruler of Antioch 1098; led another failed assault on Byzantine Balkans 1107–8.
DUQAQ, son of Tutush, nephew of Malik Shah, Seljuk ruler of Damascus during the First Crusade.
EUSTACE III, count of Boulogne, elder brother of Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin of Boulogne; travelled separately; somewhat shadowy presence in the sources for the crusade; returned to the west with seemingly few eastern ambitions, although tempted to succeed Baldwin as king of Jerusalem in 1118.
GODFREY OF BOUILLON, duke of Lower Lorraine, a supporter of Henry IV against Gregory VII; campaigned against the papacy in Italy 1084; leader of army from Lorraine and Rhineland; probably had no intention of returning; surprise choice as ruler of conquered Jerusalem 1099–1100; his memory and legend were more glamorous than his career.
HUGH THE GREAT, count of Vermandois, younger brother of King Philip I of France. Led recruits from royal lands in northern France. First of the great secular lords to reach Constantinople, he was subsequently overshadowed by the wealthier or more militarily accomplished leaders; left Antioch on a diplomatic mission to Alexius I; returned east 1101 only to meet his death.
KERBOGA, Turkish military governor (atabeg) of Mosul; led major relief expedition against the crusaders at Antioch; defeated June 1098.
KILIJ ARSLAN I, Seljuk sultan of Rum (Anatolia) defeated by crusaders at Nicaea and Dorylaeum 1097.
MALIK SHAH, great Seljuk sultan of Baghdad whose death in 1092 precipitated political faction-fighting in Iraq and Syria that presented the First Crusade with a divided enemy.
PETER THE HERMIT, holy man from northern France; conducted his own successful preaching and recruiting tour of northern France, Lorraine and western Germany 1095–6; led substantial military force to Constantinople summer 1096 which was destroyed by Turks; later joined main expedition to Jerusalem. Some regarded him as having initiated the whole enterprise.
RAYMOND IV, count of Toulouse and St Gilles; oldest of crusade leaders with close contacts 1095–6 with Urban II; led Provençal and southern French army; thwarted of ambitions at Antioch and Jerusalem, he spent his last years trying to establish his power at Tripoli.
RIDWAN, son of Tutush, nephew of Malik Shah, ruler of Aleppo at time of First Crusade.
ROBERT II CURTHOSE, duke of Normandy 1087–1106, eldest son of William the Conqueror. Mortgaged duchy to younger brother William II Rufus to pay for his crusade. Unsuccessful ruler; deprived of duchy and imprisoned for life by youngest brother Henry I in 1106.
ROBERT II, count of Flanders. One of western Europe’s wealthiest rulers, his father Robert I had provided knights for Byzantium in early 1090s. Active on the crusade campaign; had no intention of staying in the east.
STEPHEN, count of Blois and Chartres, henpecked husband of the termagant Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror. Appointed ductor of the crusade army at Antioch March 1098; deserted June 1098; bullied by his ashamed wife to return; killed at Ramleh 1102. Father of King Stephen of England.
TANCRED, nephew of Bohemund; despite his relative youth, he quickly acquired a prominent position through his skills as a fighter and commander always eager to take responsibility, as in Cilicia in 1097 or at Bethlehem in June 1099; regent, then ruler, of Antioch after 1105.
TATICIUS, Turkish eunuch and experienced Byzantine general assigned to crusaders for the march from Nicaea to Antioch; his departure before the fall of Antioch allowed Bohemund a free hand in its capture and retention.
URBAN II, Odo of Lagery, former prior of the powerful Burgundian monastery of Cluny, pope 1088–99; inspiration and organiser of the First Crusade 1095–6.
WALTER of Poissy, lord of Boissy SansAvoir, nicknamed ‘Penniless’ (sans avoir); leader of early contingent of crusaders inspired in part by Peter the Hermit; first western commander to reach Constantinople July 1096; killed near Nicaea, October 1096.
YAGHI SAYAN, Turkish governor of Antioch in 1097, notorious for ruthless regime; murdered after fall of Antioch 1098.