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Books 10 And 11 Of Impulsed By Anna Comnena

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Marley Seet 1 HUM 102 Shoemaker March 1 2023 Paper Three The main themes one can gather from books 10 and 11 of Anna Comnena’s “Alexiad” contain the first crusade (1097-1104) and an elaborate series of religious conflict. Anna works hard in her writings to provide readers an understanding of her fathers, Alexios Komnenos, rule by presenting the Crusades from a Byzantine point of view. The First Crusade's inception is mentioned in book ten of "The Alexiad," which is also where the conflict against the Cumans is described. The First Crusade was the initial crusade to make an effort to retake the Holy Land. "The Cumans, like all barbarians, being fickle and inconsistent by nature, were persuaded by his arguments and reached Adrianopolis," …show more content…

As her father was in power the empire was on its decline and was being threatened from all sides. The Turks were attacking in the East, the Normans from the West, and the Sithian raiders from up North. Anna speaks of all the harsh battles her dad worked diligently through in an attempt to gain the empire back, in the process forming a very rocky alliance with the crusaders. In terms of their religious status the Byzantine people identified themselves as Christians as much as they identified themselves as Romans, the faith these people had was deep and intense. In this time period church and state were linked to an extreme degree, and being heavily involved in the church was the most essential part of their lives. These intense wars were being fought of heated religious disagreements (ultimately what caused The Great Schism); the use of unleavened bread for the sacrament of communion was one of the many matters of theological contention between the western (Roman) and eastern (Byzantine) branches of the church. How much Anna understood about the warriors who served her own Empire is unclear. She is amazed at the crossbows used by the Crusaders, despite …show more content…

At this time in the Crusades, their mail and helmets did sparkle. But, her emperor father was more concerned than impressed. Should Bohemond or any other Crusader commander assault the Byzantines, he prepared his own strategy. Alexios had the good fortune that the Crusaders had no desire to battle the Byzantines. Constantinople served as only a staging area for the many forces to assemble and replenish; their objective was Jerusalem. The Crusaders were transported across the Bosporus and into Asia after making the bizarre concession of vowing to give the emperor anything they took. Even a group of Byzantine troops were dispatched with them by Alexios. Ironically, while Alexios likely expected a limited number of Western European troops to serve in his Byzantine army, the reverse had actually happened. These troops would remain with the Crusaders until the battle grinded to a standstill outside of Antioch, at which time they went home believing the war was over. The immediate years leading up to, during, and following Peter the Hermit's campaign are described in Anna Comnena's Alexiad. The perspective of Anna Comnena on

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8.2.1- In 1097 an estimated 100,000 men enlisted in the first crusade, due to the fact that the pope promised salvation from purgatory if they joined the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to liberate the Holy Land. Peter the Hermit left, to the Holy Land, with 30,000 peasants, they terrorized Jews in Germany, and Christians in Bulgaria, when they got to Constantinople they were transported to Bosphorus and the Seljuk Turks defeated them, and the living were sold into slavery. After a five-week siege Jerusalem fell on July 15, 1099, the first crusade was a success, and because most crusaders were younger sons of nobles (Oldest gets the kingdom), they made four Crusader states based on the French Feudal model: the Country of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the Country of Tripoli, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. 8.2.2-

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The greatly needed stability for the Holy Roman Empire motivated the political leaders for the undertaking of the Christian Crusades. At this time the Holy Roman Empire was a poverish and the majority of the people who were in the middle and lower class were not able to live comfortably. In addition the government was not strong enough to advance let alone support the people. The fairly new feudalist government created a separation within the classes the made the lower class serfs, Middle class knight and the upper class lords and kings fight for mobility and power. In result of this violence and chaos erupted.

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Both Document 5 and Document 10 illustrate the political tension that ensued between the Byzantine Empire and Western Europe. Anna Comnena, the daughter of Alexius I, wrote in her history of her father’s reign, that the prospect of seizing Constantinople was an underlying motivation for many of the European crusaders (5). Anna was a high-class noble in the very sophisticated Byzantine state, so she, as well as many other Byzantine nobles, saw the Western European crusaders as uncultured and violent. Because of this she and many other Byzantines were suspicious of the Western crusader’s motives. The cultural differences between the two cultures eventually distracted from the original hope of unification.

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