علاقة نورمان إمارة أنطاكية الصليبية بالإمبراطورية البيزنطية

Abstract EN

The relations between the Normans of the Levant and the Byzantine Empire were not good, especially since the Norman leader Bohimond olved himself of recognizing the rights of Emperor Alexius Komnenos, and did not even recognize his promises to the latter, because he was coveting the establishment of a Norman entity in Antioch.

This city that the Byzantines demanded to recover after the Crusader invasion of it.

After the losses of the Crusaders in the Levant, Bohimond left for the West, perhaps achieving his dream of sympathizing with the Western Church and the Latin masses.

During his travels in the west, he gathered an army that headed east to eliminate the sultan of the Byzantines and Muslims together.

However, he faced a well-organised Byzantine army, and was defeated by Alexius and made an agreement with him according to which the Norman prince would be a follower of the emperor and restore Antioch to the Byzantines.

However, Bohmand's successor did not recognize the emperor's sovereignty, and his hostility to the empire continued.

The Byzantines did not hesitate to find military or diplomatic solutions to achieve their dream in Antioch, but the growth of Islamic unity made the Principality once again approach the Byzantines in order to ensure its survival, so bridges of rapprochement through intermarriage, which made the Byzantines protectors of the Latins, and the imposition of the rituals of the Orthodox Church in the Principality of Antioch.

But with the worsening of relations, the Byzantines became close to the Muslims to confront the Normans.

With the deviation of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 AD and its success in establishing its entity within the territory of the empire, the enmity between the Byzantines and the Latins increased.

Key words Relation, Norman, Antioch, Crusader, Empire, Byzantine.