The First Crusade and the Conquest of Jerusalem (1096-1099)

The First Crusade was organized as several independent armies led by great nobles, with no single centralized command. Its principal leaders were Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond IV of Toulouse, Bohemond of Taranto, Robert of Normandy, and Stephen of Blois. These armies gathered progressively at Constantinople between 1096 and 1097, generating tension with Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who demanded that the crusader leaders swear an oath of vassalage and promise to return to Byzantium any former imperial territories they conquered. The first major military objective was Nicaea, capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, which surrendered to the Byzantines in June 1097 after the crusader siege, and the Battle of Dorylaeum in July 1097 brought an important crusader victory over the Seljuk forces of Kilij Arslan I.