Crusade of 1101was the answer to the calls for reinforcements from the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem, and Pope Paschal II. This Crusade was by three different armies. They invaded the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum seperately one after another. Because of their lack of coordination and bad logistics the Seljuk Sultan Kilij Arslan ambushed and destroyed them one by one. So this Crusade became remembered as the Worst. But What if they fought together with better logistics and destroyed the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum reconquering all of Anatolia for the Byzantine Empire restoring the Empire's eastern borders to that of the Isaurian dynasty ? POD is that Emperor Alexios Komnenos manages to bind them together and assist their logistics like he did with the First Crusade.
Crusade of 1101 conquers Seljuk Anatolia
- Thread starter Ohfshkssgb
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They won't manage to conquer all of Anatolia, the best they can do is conquer a part of the Sultanate of Rum and give it to the ERE.
Several crusades passed trough the area and historically they only took one city, gave it to the ERE and continued, to conquer all of the Rum Sultanate you would need decades of fighting in Anatolia; the Crusaders were only passing and wanted to go to the Holy Land, not conquer the Seljuks so they see little point in doing that.
They could forever cripple the Seljuks if they take Iconium taking the first crusade road, but all of Anatolia is a really big stretch. Even with that this would be really good for the empire, but also for the Danishmendid (it's not that bad, since they were always less centralized and weren't able to threaten the most important parts of the empire).
Alexios evacuated a lot of Christians from Turkish rule in central Anatolia, this wouldn't happen in this TL, which means this territories would be not that difficult to keep. In this scenario the campaigns of John would be way more effective without a central authority like the Seljuks (it could also allow him and his first son to live longer), and he could put more focus in Syria. By the time of the death of John the empire is likely to have consolidated the land route to the Holy Land, which would make pilgrimage much more common and safe, this is very profitable for the empire; it would also make crusades way easier.
I wonder what could this men do once they get to the Levant, as they were extremely overconfident and defeating the Turks would only increase this sentiment. Tancred, Raymond and Baldwin are all geniuses (Bohemond is a genius too, but he was imprisoned by the Danishmendid, he might or might not be ransomed) and could use these men in so many way; Aleppo and Ascalon are the most threatening cities to the Crusader States, but at this time they haven't even take Tyre, so what they could use them for is up for debate.
Alexios evacuated a lot of Christians from Turkish rule in central Anatolia, this wouldn't happen in this TL, which means this territories would be not that difficult to keep. In this scenario the campaigns of John would be way more effective without a central authority like the Seljuks (it could also allow him and his first son to live longer), and he could put more focus in Syria. By the time of the death of John the empire is likely to have consolidated the land route to the Holy Land, which would make pilgrimage much more common and safe, this is very profitable for the empire; it would also make crusades way easier.
I wonder what could this men do once they get to the Levant, as they were extremely overconfident and defeating the Turks would only increase this sentiment. Tancred, Raymond and Baldwin are all geniuses (Bohemond is a genius too, but he was imprisoned by the Danishmendid, he might or might not be ransomed) and could use these men in so many way; Aleppo and Ascalon are the most threatening cities to the Crusader States, but at this time they haven't even take Tyre, so what they could use them for is up for debate.
No the main objective of the Crusade was to defeat the Danishmendid and free Bohemond from their Captivity.
That was the objective of the Italians, not of all the crusaders. In this scenario you have Alexios managing to unite the waves of crusaders and he wanted Raymond to lead the crusaders to the Holy Land with the route of the first crusade, not to rescue Bohemond or fight the Danishmendids.
Yes, that was his long term goal, but not his short term goal during the Crusade of 1101.
The PoD would need to be earlier than that, since Alexios and the Crusaders began to feud after Tacticius left the Siege of Antioch. You'd probably need greater Byzantine support for the siege, which might butterfly away a lot of the crusade itself - cause imagine them giving Antioch to the Romans in exchange for keeping the loot, then the Crusaders focus their entire land gains on the rest of the Levant.
A second crusade could then be called to wipe out the remnants of the Seljuks in Anatolia to hit back on the Seljuk Empire and take pressure off the Crusader princes in the Levant
A second crusade could then be called to wipe out the remnants of the Seljuks in Anatolia to hit back on the Seljuk Empire and take pressure off the Crusader princes in the Levant
How about Central Anatolia? I highly doubt the Crusade of 1101 is going to take all of Anatolia right away, but it could be possible for crusaders to slowly nibble away at Seljuk territory in Anatolia.
His short term goal was the requisition of Antioch in order to complete the encirclement of the Anatolian Plateau (this would never be accomplished by him or his descendants). His goal in the lead up to the Crusade of 1101 was to secure the capture of Bohemond, the self-proclaimed ruler of Antioch to secure the transfer of the city back to Imperial hands. In this particular instance it wouldn't pan out as Bohemond would be able to secure his release from the Danishmendids with his own funds.
However, Alexios would be able to capture Bohemond after the latter made yet another attempt at capturing the Balkans and Alexios would secure a treaty with Bohemond wherein the Norman would return Antioch upon his death. The treaty was meant to go into effect upon Bohemond's return to Antioch, which he never did.
If you want to learn more about this and more about Eastern Rome, check out the History of Byzantium Podcast. It's really good!
But securing Bohemond necessitates defeated the Seljuks and the Danishmendids.
In reality something could be done to give the crusade a chance to achieve some success, that is to prevent Kilij Arslan from being able to face the first two crusader armies separately ( with the Lombards defeated and massacred at Mersivan and then the troops of William II of Nevers in a ambush at Heraclea Cybistra ) without forgetting that also the third army, led by William IX of Aquitaine, Hugh of Vermandois, Guelph I, Duke of Bavaria and Ida of Austria, once passed Constantinople, split in two ( taking one the road maritime, the other land, which put him at high risk of suffering a fatal ambush, which was partly successful ( again due to Kilij Arslan ) entirely near Heraclea, so I believe that better coordination or timing could preventing the Seljuks from facing the crusader armies individually, perhaps even avoiding dividing the already reduced forces against different objectives could help in the prospect of this crusade not becoming a total failure, I would suggest that the expedition after leaving Nicomedia, instead of entering the Anatolian hinterland, decide to use the coastal route previously used by the 1st Crusaders, aim to take Konya/Heraclea or at least defeat the Seljuks again in the open field and then move as much quickly towards the territories controlled by Armenian Cilicia, Bohemond can always be freed at a later time, perhaps fomenting a conflict between the Seljuks and Danishmends, after the latter have seen the weakness of the former
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