Thoros II

Raynald of Châtillon, a member of the Second Crusade who had left France for the Holy Land in 1147, had put himself at the service first of Baldwin III of Jerusalem and then of Constance of Antioch, whose husband had died in 1149.

Constance, having fallen in love with Raynald, had married him in secret in 1153 without consulting her first cousin and liege lord, Baldwin III.

Raynald had thus become Prince of Antioch.

Neither King Baldwin nor Aimery of Limoges, the Latin Patriarch of Antioch, had approved of Constance's choice of a husband of such low birth.

At the instigation of Emperor Manuel, Raynald attacks Armenian Cilicia in southeastern Anatolia, but he subsequently makes peace with Thoros II of Cilicia.

Raynald claims in 1156 that Constantinople’s emperor Manuel I Komnenos had reneged on his promise to pay Raynald a sum of money, and vows to attack the island of Cyprus, an imperial possession, in revenge.

When Patriarch Aimery refuses to finance this expedition, Raynald has the Patriarch seized, stripped naked, covered in honey, and left in the burning sun on top of the citadel.

When the Patriarch is released, he collapses in exhaustion and agrees to finance Raynald's expedition against Cyprus.

The combined forces of Raynald and Thoros attack Cyprus, ravaging the island and pillaging its inhabitants.

He arrests the governor of the island and nephew of the emperor, John Komnenos, and the general Michael Branas.

The Franks and Armenians march up and down the island robbing and pillaging every building that they see, churches and convents as well as shops and private houses.

The crops are burned; the herds are rounded up, together with all the population, and driven down to the coast.

The Latin historian William of Tyre deplores this act of war against fellow Christians, and describes the atrocities committed by Raynald's men in considerable detail.

Having ransacked the island and plundered all its wealth for three weeks, Raynald's army mutilates the survivors before forcing them to buy back their flocks at exorbitant prices with what little they have left.

Thus enriched with enough booty to make Antioch wealthy for years, the invaders board their ships and set sail for home, on the rumor of an imperial fleet over the horizon.

Raynald also sends some of the mutilated hostages to Constantinople as a vivid demonstration of his disobedience and his contempt for the emperor.

Thoros had quickly established a friendly rapport with Kilij Arslan II, the new Seljuq sultan of Rüm; and in 1158 a peace treaty is concluded.

Kilij, engaged in a power struggle with rival Turkish groups in 1158, requests military aid from Constantinople.

Emperor Manuel Komnenos, complies, apparently reasoning that intertribal warring will weaken all the Turks and thus prevent any group from incorporating Anatolia into their domain.

Kilij, using the imperial aid to great advantage, kills his enemies and expands his territory.

Manuel I Komnenos launches his second assault on Thoros in the summer of 1158, marching at the head of an army down the usual routes leading to Seleucia.

There, with a small rapid deployment force of horsemen and Seleucian troops, he launches a surprise attack on Thoros.

Thoros is at Tarsus, suspecting nothing, when one day in late October, a Latin pilgrim whom he had entertained came suddenly rushing back to his Court to tell him that he had seen Imperial troops only a day’s march away.

Thoros collects his family, his intimate friends and his treasure and flees at once to the mountains.

Next day the Emperor enters the Cilician plain; within a fortnight all the Cilician cities as far as Anazarbus are in his power, but Thoros himself still eludes him.

Imperial detachments scour the valleys as he flees from hilltop to hilltop and at last finds refuge on a crag called Dadjog, near the sources of the river Cydnus; only his two most trusted servants know where he lies hidden.

Thus, much of Cilicia is restored to imperial control, but Thoros still holds the mountainous regions in the north.

Thoros survives by sheltering alone under rocks on a hillside, where an old shepherd brings him food to keep him alive.

Eventually, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem intervenes and successfully brokers a peace treaty between the Emperor and Thoros: Thoros has to walk barefoot and bareheaded to the camp of the emperor, where he prostrates himself in the dust before the imperial platform.

A pardon is then accorded to him for his transgressions both in Cilicia and Cyprus.

He is still allowed to hold partial possession in Cilicia.

News of the advance of the imperial army soon reaches Antioch.

Realizing that he has no hope of defeating Manuel, Raynald also knows that he cannot expect any help from king Baldwin III of Jerusalem.

Baldwin does not approve of Raynald's attack on Cyprus, and in any case has already made an agreement with Manuel.

Thus isolated and abandoned by his allies, Raynald decides that abject submission is his only hope.

He appears before the Emperor, dressed in a sack and with a rope tied around his neck, and begs for forgiveness.

Manuel at first ignores the prostrate Raynald, chatting with his courtiers; William of Tyre commented that this ignominious scene continued for so long that all present were "disgusted" by it.

Eventually, Manuel forgives Raynald on condition that he become a vassal of the Empire, effectively surrendering the independence of Antioch to Constantinople.

Manuel's dramatic recovery of Antioch causes the crusaders to treat the Emperor with a new respect.

Nur ad-Din moves north to Antioch, with assistance from his brother Qutb ad-Din in Mosul, his other vassals from Aleppo and Damascus, and the Artuqids of the Jazira, and besieges the fortress of Harim (Harenc) in 1164.

As William of Tyre says, "he stationed his engines around it in the customary manner and began to assault the place with a fury which permitted the inhabitants no rest."

Reginald of Saint Valery, lord of Harim, calls for help, and Raymond III of Tripoli, Bohemond III of Antioch, and Joscelin III of Edessa arrived to relieve the siege.

They are joined by Constantine Kalamanos, the imperial governor of Cilicia, and Thoros, and Mleh of Armenia, as well as Hugh VIII of Lusignan and Geoffrey Martel, brother of William IV of Angoulême, both of whom had recently arrived on pilgrimage.

Nur ad-Din prepares to give up the siege when they arrive, but the crusaders, inspired by the victory at al-Buqaia, and, "regardless of the rules of military discipline ... recklessly dispersed and roved hither and yon in pursuit of the foe."

Nur ad-Din's troops defend against their charge and lead a counterattack, pushing the crusaders into a swamp, and they are massacred "like victims before the altar."

It is possible that Nur ad-Din was only feigning a retreat in order to draw the crusaders into an ambush, but abandoning a siege when a relief army arrived is a standard tactic and Nur ad-Din presumably had no way of knowing the crusaders would follow him.

William's assertion that this was a reckless move is further evidence of this.

"Only the Armenian Thoros, who had foreseen the Turkish maneuver and had not set off in pursuit, escaped from the disaster".

(Oldenbourg, Zoé (1966).

The Crusades.

New York: Pantheon Books.)

Mleh also avoids capture.

Constantine Kalamanos, Hugh, Raymond, Bohemund, and Joscelin are captured and imprisoned in Aleppo.

According to Ibn al-Athir, ten thousand crusaders were killed.

Nur ad-Din resumes the siege and captures Harim a few days later.

Amalric's absence in Egypt leaves all three crusader states without their rulers, but Nur ad-Din does not want to attack Antioch itself for fear of provoking a response from Constantinople, as the Principality is technically an imperial fief.

To his critics he replies, "I would rather have Bohemond as a neighbor than the King of the Greeks!".

Nur ad-Din goes on to besiege and capture Banias.

Amalric abandons Egypt and marches north with Thierry of Flanders to relieve Nur ad-Din's pressure on Antioch.

The influence of Emperor Manuel secures Bohemond's early release from captivity in 1165, but Raymond will remain in prison until 1173.