I am Charlotte Cassaragi and in partnership with the House of Chanel, I present to you

the Léron Contre podcast.

As part of the Rendez-vous littéraire à Trucambon, this podcast spotlights the birth of

a female writer.

You can listen to the various episodes and their authors on your preferred streaming platforms.

Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, Episode 221, The Triptych.

The situation is this, Alexius wants Antioch, but Beaumont holds it.

Beaumont wants to keep the city, but is under pressure from every direction.

Turks to the North, Aleppo's to the East, and the Byzantines from every other angle.

The Norman Lacks money and men, his defeat in battle in 1104, has allowed his enemies

to begin closing in.

So he makes a fateful decision, to return to Western Europe, to recruit a new army, and

to return to Antioch with it.

He knows though that in order to get an army from West to East, he must pass through

by Antioch.

He realizes that he must defeat Alexius once again.

Only by inflicting some kind of punishment on the Vassilafs, can he force him to relinquish

the pressure on Antioch and accept Beaumont as its rightful lord.

One way or another, Beaumont's story has reached its final chapter.

Beaumont's journey home illustrates the problem he was up against.

Naturally he was going to sail from Antioch to Italy, but Byzantium rules the waves.

The Norman was going to have to stop off, at least half a dozen Roman ports in order

...