Hugh of Vermandois and Baldwin of Hainaut…
July 1098 CE
Hugh of Vermandois and Baldwin of Hainaut are sent to Constantinople.
Baldwin had joined the First Crusade in the company of Godfrey of Bouillon (rather than with Robert II of Flanders, whose family was still at odds with his own), after selling some of his property to the Bishopric of Liège.
He disappears during a raid by the Seljuq Turks in Anatolia, and is presumably killed.
Alexios, however, is uninterested in sending an expedition to claim the city this late in the summer.
Back in Antioch, Bohemond argues that Alexios has deserted the crusade and thus invalidated all of their oaths to him.
Bohemond and Raymond occupy Yaghi-Siyan's palace, but Bohemond controls most of the rest of the city and flies his standard from the citadel.
It is a common assumption that the Franks of northern France, the Provencals of southern France, and the Normans of southern Italy considered themselves separate "nations" and that each wanted to increase its status.
This may have had something to do with the disputes, but personal ambition is more likely the cause of the infighting.
The Genoese fleet had transported and provided naval support to the crusaders during the siege, blockading the city while the troops provided military support.
On July 14, in what becomes know as the donation of Altavilla, Bohemond grants commercial privileges and the right to use warehouses (fondaco) and the church of Saint John to the Republic of Genoa.
He also grants them a headquarters and thirty houses in the city.
This marks the beginning of Italian merchant settlements in the Levant.