The situation in Byzantium

• For most of its history the Byzantine Empire boasted one of the greatest armies in the World, but by 1050 it was in serious decline as successive cash-strapped Emperors sold off land and therefore also the obligation of the peasants who inhabited these lands to do military service for the Emperor. 

  The army was being weakened just when the Empire faced attack from three sides…
• From the north, fierce pagan tribes crossed the Danube river, forcing the Byzantines to let them settle.
• In the south, the Selkjuks controlled controlled so much of Anatolia by 1077 they declared it to be their own and it the Sultanate of Rum (i.e. “Rome”). In fact, most coastal town were still under Byzantine control, or under the control of relatively friendly Turks who had done deals with the Emperor. But, a great deal of land had been lost and the the stable border between the Empire and Muslim lands that had lasted for many years had been shattered.
• In the west, Byzantine lands in Italy had been taken by the warlike Normans from northern France (originally Vikings from Scandinavia). They had captured Sicily.
• Led by the Robert Guiscard and many members of the families that had conquered England in 1066, the Normans captured Bari in southern Italy – the last Byzantine possession there.

  Robert planned a full-scale invasion of Byzantine lands in the Balkans.
• In February 1081, fearing that the Empire might collapse if he did not intervene, a powerful general in the Byzantine army used a combination of bribery, deception and family ties to seize power in Constantinople and make himself Byzantine Emperor – Alexius Comnenus
• Using a combination of paying for mercenaries, bribery, trickery and luck Alexius had managed to contain the Norman and Barbarian threats by the early 1080’s (e.g. in 1082 he paid the German Emperor, Henry IV to attack Rome, knowing that the Pope would recall Norman soldiers to defend him – it worked!) 
• Alexius also bought the support of the navy of growing Italian sea power Venice, who were granted trade privileges in Constantinople in return for their help.
• By 1091 Alexius had survived another attack from the Norman Robert Guiscard and defeated the pagans in the north.  
• Alexius could now turn his attention to the Seljuk and other Turkish warlords that had taken advantage of the threat posed by the Normans to encroach on Byzantium from the south. But he would need help.
• In March 1095 Pope Urban II held a council at Piacenza, Italy, to deal with matters of church reform. 

  At the Council, envoys sent from Byzantine Emperor Alexius requested aid to help him fight off the Seljuk Turks who were attacking Asia Minor – the borders of Alexius’ Empire. 
• There is some evidence to suggest that Alexius exaggerated the threat from the Seljuk Turks to get Urban to act. He implored Urban and all faith Christians to defend “the Holy Church” by driving back “the pagans”. According to Alexius the Muslims were not only at the walls of Constantinople, but had been persecuting Christians who lived in the Near East especially in Jerusalem, which made pilgrimages dangerous. This was almost certainly an exaggeration. 
• The Turks had defeated the BT Empire in 1071 at Manzikert, and they had gone on to drive the Byzantines from eastern Anatolia led by the warlike Sultan Malik Shah (1077-92). There was a possible threat to the BE’s capital. But Alexius had even made deals with Malik Shah whereby the Seljuk warlord agreed to limit the aggression of other Seljuks. 
• The death of  Malikj Shah in 1092 created some instability in Anatolia and between 1092-94 many important coastal towns had fallen to the Seljuks, but Alexius soon made a treaty with the more conciliatory Kilij Arslan, and by 1094-5 was busy recruiting Norman mercenaries to defend his Empire.
• By 1095, therefore, it seems that the threat to the BE from the Seljuks was not as great as Alexius made out. Alexius clearly wanted help, and probably used the fact that Urban had called a Papal Council meeting at Piacenza in Italy in March 1095 to make his plea land on more sympathetic ears. The fact that he mentioned Jerusalem as threatened is clear evidence that he exaggerated the threat.
• It’s not clear exactly what help Alexius wanted. He probably wanted a small force of trained, armed soldiers to drive the Seljuks from Anatolia – but he might have wanted to recapture Jerusalem.