Principality of Antioch

The Principality of Antioch was one of the Frankish Crusader States founded in the Levant after the First Crusade. It was set up by Bohemond of Taranto, a Norman from southern Italy, who captured the city in June 1098 and refused to hand it over to the Byzantine emperor Alexius Comnenus, although the leaders of the First Crusade had promised the emperor that lands which had formerly belonged to him would be restored. Antioch had been held by the Greeks until 1085 and was the seat of an Orthodox patriarch, and its native population was largely Greek Orthodox, with Armenian Christian and Sunni Muslim farmers as well. During the twelfth century relations with the Byzantine Empire dominated its affairs: when the prince tried to invade Byzantium in 1108 his defeat led to the Treaty of Devol, in which he acknowledged imperial overlordship, although his successors sought to evade it.