Alberada of Buonalbergo
Alberada of Buonalbergo was the first wife of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, whom she married in 1051 or 1052, when he was still just a robber baron in Calabria. As her dowry, she brought Robert Guiscard two hundred knights and she bore Guiscard two children, a daughter, mother of Tancred, Prince of Galilee, and a son, Prince Bohemond I of Antioch. Nevertheless, the split was amicable and Alberada showed no ill will. She was alive at the death of Bohemond in March 1111 and died very old and she was buried near the Hauteville family mausoleum in the Abbey of Holy Trinity at Venosa. Her tomb is the one remaining intact today. The Normans in the South 1016-1130
Cecile of France
Cecile of France was a daughter of Philip I of France and Bertrade de Montfort. Her parentage is recorded by William of Tyre, who records her marriages and her first marriage was arranged while Bohemond I of Antioch was visiting the French court seeking support against Alexios I Komnenos. She sailed for Antioch at the end of 1106 and became Lady of Tarsus and Mamistra, Cecile married firstly Tancred, Prince of Galilee, Regent of Antioch, who succeeded in 1111 as Prince of Antioch. While dying in 1112, Tancred made Pons of Tripoli, promise to marry her, and Tancred gave her the fortresses of Arcicanum and Rugia as a dowry. In 1133, Pons was besieged at his castle of Montferrand by Imad ad-Din Zengi, atabeg of Mosul, in 1133, Zengi abandoned the siege, but during a second siege in 1137, Pons was captured and killed. He was succeeded by his son with Cecile, Raymond II, Raymond II, Count of Tripoli Philip. Agnes wife of Renaud II, Lord of Margat
Mopsuestia
Mopsuestia, is an ancient city in Cilicia Campestris on the Pyramus River located approximately 20 km east of ancient Antiochia in Cilicia. From the city’s harbour the river is navigable to the Mediterranean Sea, the founding of this city is attributed in legend to the soothsayer, who lived before the Trojan war, although it is scarcely mentioned before the Christian era. Pliny the Elder calls it the city of Mopsos, but the ordinary name is Mopsuestia, as found in Stephanus of Byzantium. Constantius II built there a magnificent bridge over the Pyramus afterwards restored by Justinian and has been restored again recently, christianity seems to have been introduced very early into Mopsuestia and during the 3rd century there is mention of a bishop, the adversary of Paul of Samosata. Other famous residents of the early Christian period in the city’s history include Saint Auxentius, and Theodore, bishop from 392–428, the bishopric is included in the Catholic Churchs list of titular sees. Along with much of Cilicia, the region was wrested from Roman control by the Arabs in the late 630s, Mopsuestia numbered 200,000 inhabitants, some of whom were Muslim, and the Byzantines made efforts to re-Christianize the city.
It suffered much from internecine war between Crusaders and Greeks who lost it and recaptured it, notably in 1106,1132, finally in 1151-52 the Armenian Baron T’oros II captured the city and defeated the Greek counter attack led by Andronikos I Komnenos. Thereafter it remained a possession of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, but was captured and plundered by the Mamluks in 1266,1275. The Venetians and Genoese were licensed by the Armenians to maintain warehouses near the harbour to store goods brought from India, the Armenians were permanently evicted by the Mamluks in 1347. The city was the site of church councils and possessed four Armenian churches. In 1432 the Frenchman Bertrandon reported that he city was ruled by the Muslims and was largely destroyed, in 1515 Mopsuestia, and the whole of Cilica, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Selim I. Since it has declined and became the small village of Misis. Misis was renamed Yakapınar in the 1960s, only fragments of the medieval fortifications survive today.
However, an etching of the walls and towers was made in the mid-19th century. The Misis Mosaic Museum was founded in 1959 to exhibit the mosaics found in the area, including the famous “Samson Mosaic. ”Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Band 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Charles. Article on modern Yakapınar in the Turkish Wikipedia Pictures of the bridge
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and of the brief Latin, and the Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth and influence grew.
In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew.
A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
Baldwin II of Jerusalem
Baldwin II was the second count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and the third ruler of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death. Baldwin was the son of Hugh I, Count of Rethel and he had two older brothers and Manasses, and two sisters Matilda and Hodierna. Baldwin was called a cousin of the brothers Eustace III of Boulogne, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Baldwin of Boulogne, some books have claimed a fictitious Ida of Boulogne as grandmother to Baldwin II in order to force the relationship. While Ida of Boulogne did exist, neither of Baldwins parents were her descendants and he left his own family behind to follow his cousins on the First Crusade in 1096 as part of the army of Godfrey of Bouillon. Baldwin of Bourcq became regent of the Principality, when Bohemund was taken prisoner by the Danishmends in 1100 and that year, Baldwin of Boulogne was elected king of Jerusalem upon the death of Godfrey, and Baldwin of Bourcq was appointed count of Edessa in his stead. As count, in 1101 Baldwin married Morphia of Melitene, the daughter of the Armenian prince Gabriel of Melitene and he helped ransom Bohemund from the Danishmends, preferring Bohemund to his nephew Tancred, who was now regent.
In 1102 Baldwin and Tancred assisted King Baldwin against the Egyptians at Ascalon, in 1104 the Seljuk Turks invaded Edessa. With help from Antioch, Count Baldwin met them at the Battle of Harran, the battle was disastrous and Count Baldwin was captured, Tancred became regent of Edessa in his absence. Tancred refused to restore Edessa to him, but with the support of the Kurds, Byzantines, in 1109, after reconciling with Tancred, the two participated in the capture of Tripoli. Baldwin of Edessa accepted and was crowned king of Jerusalem as Baldwin II on Easter Sunday,14 April 1118, in 1119, the crusader Principality of Antioch was invaded, and Baldwin hurried north with the army of Jerusalem. Roger of Salerno, prince of Antioch, would not wait for Baldwins reinforcements, although it was a crushing blow, Baldwin helped Antioch recover and drove out the Seljuks that year. Around this time, the second of three orders were created. Baldwin called the Council of Nablus in 1120, where he established the first written laws for the kingdom.
King Baldwin allowed Hugues de Payens to set up quarters in a wing of the royal palace, in 1122 Joscelin, who had been appointed count of Edessa when Baldwin became king, was captured in battle against Belek Ghazi. Baldwin returned to the north to take over the regency of the county, but he too was taken captive by Belek in a battle near the castle Gargar in 1123, and was held captive with Joscelin. Eustace Grenier acted as regent in Jerusalem, and at the Battle of Yibneh defeated an Egyptian invasion hoping to take advantage of the kings absence, in 1124, Joscelin escaped from captivity with help from the Georgians. But Baldwin was recaptured and ransomed for Joscelins son, the future Joscelin II and Baldwins daughter, the crusaders besieged and captured Tyre, with help from a Venetian fleet. In 1125 Baldwin assembled the knights from all the crusader territories, although the Seljuk army was much larger, the crusaders were victorious, and they restored much of the influence they had lost after the Ager Sanguinis
Anazarbus
Anazarbus was an ancient Cilician city and bishopric, which remains a Latin Catholic Titular See. It was situated in Anatolia in modern Turkey, in the present Çukurova about 15 km west of the stream of the present Ceyhan River. A lofty isolated ridge formed its acropolis, under the early Roman empire the place was known as Caesarea, and was the Metropolis of Late Roman province Cilicia Secunda. It was the home of the poet Oppian and it had been rebuilt by Harun al-Rashid in 796, refortified at great expense by the Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla and again destroyed in 962 by Nikephoros II Phokas. In late 1097 or early 1098 it was captured by the armies of the First Crusade and was incorporated into Bohemond’s Principality of Antioch, the Crusaders are probably responsible for the construction of an impressive donjon atop the center of the outcrop. The site briefly exchanged hands between the Greeks and Armenians, until it was part of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Within the fortress are two Armenian chapels and the magnificent three-aisle church built by T‛oros I to celebrate his conquests, the church was once surrounded by a continuous, well-executed dedicatory inscription in Armenian.
The Mamluk Empire of Egypt finally destroyed the city in 1374, the present wall of the lower city is of late construction. It encloses a mass of ruins conspicuous in which are a triumphal arch. A stadium and a theatre lie outside the walls to the south, the remains of the acropolis fortifications are very interesting, including roads and ditches hewn in the rock. There are no notable structures in the upper town, for picturesqueness the site is not equaled in Cilicia, and it is worthwhile to trace the three fine aqueducts to their sources. A necropolis on the escarpment to the south of the wall can be seen complete with signs of illegal modern excavations. A visit in December 2002 showed that the three mentioned above have been nearly completely destroyed. Only small, isolated sections are left standing with the largest portion lying in a pile of rubble that stretches the length of where the aqueducts once stood, a powerful earthquake that struck the area in 1945 is thought to be responsible for the destruction.
A modest Turkish farming village lies to the southwest of the ancient city, a small outdoor museum with some of the artifacts collected in the area can be viewed for a small fee. Also nearby are some beautiful mosaics discovered in a farmers field, inquire at the museum for a viewing. Anazarbus/Anavarsa was one of a chain of Armenian fortifications stretching through Cilicia, the castle of Sis lies to the north while Tumlu Castle and Yilankale are to the south, and the fortresses of Amouda and Sarvandikar are to the east. Anazarbus was the capital and so from 553 the metropolitan see of the Late Roman province of Cilicia Secunda, a 6th century Notitia Episcopatuum indicates that it had as suffragan sees Epiphania, Alexandria Minor, Flavias and Aegeae
Orontes River
The Orontes or Asi is a northward-flowing river which begins in Lebanon and flows through Syria and Turkey before entering the Mediterranean Sea. In ancient times, it was the river of the Levant region. The modern name ‘Āṣī is derived from the ancient Axius, the word coincidentally means rebel in Arabic, which folk etymology ascribes to the fact that the river flows from the south to the north unlike the rest of the rivers in the region. In the 9th century BC, the ancient Assyrians referred to the river as Arantu, the etymology of the name is unknown. Arantu gradually became Orontes in Greek, in contrast, Macedonian settlers in Apamea named it the Axius, after a Macedonian river god. The Arabic name Asi was derived from Axius, the Greek geographer Strabo refers to the river in the Geographica. He writes that the river was renamed Orontes when a man named Orontes built a bridge on it, the Ain ez Zarqa is one such major spring. Leaving this gorge, it expands into the Lake of Homs in Syria, below is the district of Hamah and the meadows of Amykes, containing the sites of ancient Apamea and Larissa.
To the west is the Coastal Mountain Range and this central section ends at the rocky barrier of Jisr al-Hadid, where the river turns west into the plain of Antioch in Turkey. Two large tributaries from the north, the southward flowing Afrin on the west and Karasu on the east join it through the former Lake of Antioch, which is now drained through an artificial channel. The Orontes is not easily navigable and the valley derives its historical importance as a road for traffic, from Antioch south to Homs. On the Orontes was fought the major Battle of Kadesh between the Egyptian army of Ramesses II from the south and the Hittite army of Muwatalli II from the north. The river was the site of the Battle of Qarqar fought in 853 BCE, in 637 CE the Battle of Iron bridge was fought between the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire near the Iron bridge on the river made by Romans. The Orontes has long been a boundary marker, for the Egyptians it marked the northern extremity of Amurru, east of Phoenicia.
For the Crusaders in the 12th century, the Orontes River became the permanent boundary between the Principality of Antioch and that of Aleppo, the French writer Maurice Barrès wrote about the river in his Un Jardin sur lOronte. Pop-up map of the Orontes River available at, Trace elements concentration in sediments of Orontes River using PIXE technique, nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B, Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos, was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power, the basis for this recovery were various reforms initiated by Alexios. His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Turks were the catalyst that contributed to the convoking of the Crusades. Alexios was the son of the Domestic of the Schools John Komnenos and Anna Dalassena, Alexios father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was thus succeeded by four emperors of other families between 1059 and 1081. Under one of these emperors, Romanos IV Diogenes, Alexios served with distinction against the Seljuq Turks. Under Michael VII Doukas Parapinakes and Nikephoros III Botaneiates, he was employed, along with his elder brother Isaac, against rebels in Asia Minor, Thrace. In 1074, western mercenaries led by Roussel de Bailleul rebelled in Asia Minor, in 1078, he was appointed commander of the field army in the West by Nikephoros III.
Alexios was ordered to march against his brother-in-law Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor and this did not, lead to a demotion, as Alexios was needed to counter the expected invasion of the Normans of Southern Italy, led by Robert Guiscard. While Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, the Doukas faction at court approached Alexios, the mother of Alexios, Anna Dalassena, was to play a prominent role in this coup détat of 1081, along with the current empress, Maria of Alania. First married to Michael VII Doukas and secondly to Nikephoros III Botaneiates, she was preoccupied with the future of her son by Michael VII, furthermore, to aid the conspiracy Maria had adopted Alexios as her son, though she was only five years older than he. Maria was persuaded to do so on the advice of her own Alans and her eunuchs, given Annas tight hold on her family, Alexios must have been adopted with her implicit approval. As a result and Constantine, Marias son, were now adoptive brothers, by secretly giving inside information to the Komnenoi, Maria was an invaluable ally.
As stated in the Alexiad and Alexios left Constantinople in mid-February 1081 to raise an army against Botaneiates, when the time came, Anna quickly and surreptitiously mobilized the remainder of the family and took refuge in the Hagia Sophia. From there she negotiated with the emperor for the safety of family members left in the capital, the tutor discovered they were missing and eventually found them on the palace grounds, but Anna was able to convince him that they would return to the palace shortly. However, before they were to gain entry into the sanctuary and she refused to go with them and demanded that they allow her to pray to the Mother of God for protection. This request was granted and Anna manifested her true theatrical and manipulative capabilities, Nikephoros III Botaneiates was forced into a public vow that he would grant protection to the family. Straboromanos tried to give Anna his cross, but for her it was not sufficiently enough for all bystanders to witness the oath. She demanded that the cross be personally sent by Botaneiates as a vow of his good faith and he obliged, sending a complete assurance for the family with his own cross
Church of Saint Peter
The Church of Saint Peter near Antakya, Turkey, is composed of a cave carved into the mountainside on Mount Starius with a depth of 13 m, a width of 9.5 m and a height of 7 m. This cave, which some believe was used by the very first Christians, is one of Christianitys oldest churches and they worked for one year with the nascent Christian community, and there the converts were called Christians for the first time in history. The oldest surviving parts of the building date from at least the 4th or 5th century. These include some pieces of mosaics, and traces of frescoes on the right side of the altar. It is thought that the tunnel inside which opens to the side served the Christians to evacuate the church in case of sudden raids. Water that seeps from the rocks was gathered inside for drinking purposes. The collection of water, which visitors drank and collected to give to those who were ill, has lessened as a result of recent earthquakes. Crusaders of the First Crusade who captured Antakya in 1098 lengthened the church by a few metres and this facade was rebuilt in 1863 by the Capuchin Friars who restored the church on the orders of Pope Pius IX.
French Emperor Napoleon III contributed to the restoration, the remains on the left hand side of the church entrance belong to colonnades that formerly stood in front of the church facade. The marble statue of Saint Peter on top of the altar was placed there in 1932, the garden of the church has been used as a cemetery for hundreds of years. Graves and burials have located inside the church, especially around the altar. The church is one of the three final resting places of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, after his death on the Third Crusade. Oldest churches in the world Cave Church of St. Pierre Church of Antioch Antiochian Patriarchate All About Turkey, Hatay Catholic Encyclopedia, Saint Peter, Prince of Apostles
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance.
It is extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights.
In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
Principality of Antioch
The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem and it had roughly 20,000 inhabitants in the 12th century, most of whom were Armenians and Greek Orthodox Christians, with a few Muslims outside the city itself. Few of the inhabitants apart from the Crusaders were Roman Catholic even though the city was turned into a Latin Patriarchate in 1100. While Baldwin of Boulogne and Tancred headed east from Asia Minor to set up the County of Edessa, Bohemond of Taranto commanded the siege which commenced in October 1097. With over four hundred towers, the defenses were formidable. Bohemond convinced a guard in one of the towers, an Armenian and former Christian named Firouz, only four days later, a Muslim army from Mosul, led by Kerbogha, arrived to besiege the Crusaders themselves. Alexius I Comnenus, the Byzantine emperor, was on his way to assist the Crusaders, the Crusaders withstood the siege, with help from a mystic named Peter Bartholomew.
Peter claimed he had visited by St. Andrew, who told him that the Holy Lance. The cathedral of St. Peter was excavated, and the Lance was discovered by Peter himself, although Peter most likely planted it there himself, it helped raise the spirits of the Crusaders. There was a dispute over who should control the city. Bohemond and the Italian Normans eventually won, and Bohemond named himself prince, meanwhile, an unknown epidemic spread throughout the Crusader camp, Adhemar of Le Puy was one of the victims. Following Bohemonds capture in battle with the Danishmends in 1100, his nephew Tancred became regent, Tancred expanded the borders of the Principality, seizing the cities of Tarsus and Latakia from the Byzantine Empire. However those newly captured cities along with other territory were lost after the Battle of Harran when Baldwin II of Edessa was captured, Bohemond was released in 1103 and went to Italy to raise more troops in 1104, during which time Tancred remained regent of Antioch. Bohemond used the troops he raised to attack the Byzantines in 1107, Bohemond was defeated at Dyrrhachium in 1108 and was forced by Alexius I to sign the Treaty of Devol, making Antioch a vassal state of the Byzantine Empire upon Bohemonds death.
Bohemond had promised to any land that was seized from the Muslims when the Crusaders passed through Constantinople in 1097. Bohemond fought at Aleppo with Baldwin and Joscelin of the County of Edessa, Bohemond left Tancred as regent once more and returned to Italy, where he died in 1111. Alexius wanted Tancred to return the Principality in its entirety to Byzantium, but Tancred was supported by the County of Tripoli, Tancred, in fact, had been the only Crusade leader who did not swear to return conquered land to Alexius. Tancred died in 1112 and was succeeded by Bohemond II, under the regency of Tancreds nephew Roger of Salerno, on June 27,1119, Roger was killed at the Ager Sanguinis, and Antioch became a vassal state of Jerusalem with King Baldwin II as regent until 1126
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