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At the tail end of the 11th century, a colossal army of Western Europeans launched a blitzkrieg offensive across

Asia Minor, reclaiming towns in the name of Christendom and defeating every Turkish army sent

out against them. By 1100, this first crusade saw the rise of three brand new political entities in the Holy Land,

centred on the largest settlements conquered, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Odessa,

and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

A fourth would follow in 1109, in the form of the county of Tripoli.

Yet, all was not well in the new Christian countries of the East.

Within just a few months of the successful conquest of Jerusalem,

vast swathes of Crusaders returned back to their estates in Europe.

Their vows fulfilled, leaving a skeleton defense force of elite European knights and men-at-arms

to cling on to the newly won lands.

Utilizing the vast wealth of their new territories to recruit Turcopole mercenaries, and their

renown to persuade Armenians and Syrians to fight on their behalf.

The first blow to the Crusade estates came in 1100, when Godfrey of Buon, the hero of the Crusade and first monarch of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, died, plunging the Levant into political chaos.

Just months later, the mighty Norman adventurer Boamund of Taranto was captured in battle by the Danish men's Turks of Anatolia,

after leading a daring sortie into the northern marches of Antioch, with just a handful of knights.

He spent the next three years languishing in a Turkish dungeon.

In the meantime, a new power arose in Jerusalem, in the form of Godfrey's brother, Baldwin,

previously the Count of Odessa, and now the newly proclaimed King of Jerusalem.

Upon Boeman's eventual ransom in 1103, proclaimed king of Jerusalem.

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