THE FIRST CRUSADE HAD BEEN DEFEATED?
INTERVIEW WITH PETER FRANKOPAN
Professor of Global History at Oxford University, Director of the Centre for Byzantine Research and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College. Author of The First Crusade: The Call From The East, and The Silk Roads: A New History Of The World
Who were the main forces behind the First Crusade?
The Byzantine Empire, centred around Constantinople, was a model in managing risk – one reason it had been so stable and successful for over half a millennium after the fall of Rome. In the late 11th century, however, a build-up of pressure for multiple sources brought the empire to its knees. The Emperor Alexios I Komnenos had taken his throne by military force in a coup in 1081, and as basically a usurper with no inherited authority his position
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