Lordship of Marash

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The Lordship of Marash was a territorial lordship in northeastern

fall of Edessa
in 1146.

Primary sources

The lordship of Marash is mentioned in passing in the

Albert of Aachen, Ralph of Caen, Orderic Vitalis, Walter the Chancellor and William of Tyre.[2]

Background

Marash had a population of several thousand and an Armenian majority since at least the battle of Manzikert in 1071. It had an Armenian bishop and was the seat of an autonomous principality ruled by an Armenian general, Philaretos Brachamios, under the nominal suzerainty of the Byzantine Empire. On Philaretos' death in 1085, most of his territory was taken by the Seljuk Turks. Marash and its immediate environs, however, continued to be ruled by his sons.[3]

Marash was a strategically important city, for it controlled a major pass through the

armies of the First Crusade crossed by this route and stopped in Marash. They did not attempt to impose their own rule, but their presence allowed the Byzantines to appoint a governor, an Armenian named Thathoul. In 1097, one of the leaders of the First Crusade, Count Baldwin I of Edessa, married as his second wife an Armenian named Arda, who may have been the daughter of Thathoul.[4]

The first crusaders to seize control of Marash were Prince

Richard of the Principate, who invaded the territory and briefly occupied the city in 1100, according to Matthew of Edessa. Their rule was short-lived. They were captured by the Turks in an ambush in August 1100.[5]

History

Creation

In 1104, the Byzantine general

Turbessel in the County of Edessa. It appears that Thathoul, unable to defend the city, preferred to see it pass to Edessa rather than Antioch. Late in 1104, Joscelin was captured by the Turks at the battle of Harran. He remained their prisoner until 1108.[5]

From the writings of Ibn al-Furat, it appears that one of Joscelin's

Tancred of Antioch in 1108. By that year, however, Marash had passed to Richard of the Principate.[6] The Chronicle of 1234 describes Richard as returning to "his own country, Marash", after his regency of Edessa came to an end in 1108, implying that he had already acquired Marash by then.[8]

Vassal of Antioch

Richard held Marash as a vassal of Antioch. It is not clear how he acquired actual control, but he may have been appointed lord of Marash as early as 1100, when Bohemond briefly controlled it. There is no documentary evidence of Richard's title as lord of Marash, but Albert of Aachen calls him a prefect (praefectus). The territorial extent of the lordship is also unknown. After 1104, it seems to have functioned as the Antiochene counterpoise to the Edessene lordship of Turbessel. Richard supplied 60 knights and 100 infantry against the Turkish invasion of Antioch in September 1111.[9]

Around the same time the lordship was established, Bohemond set up a

Latin patriarch of Antioch.[9]

Richard was probably dead by 1112, when his son Roger became regent of Antioch. Walter the Chancellor records that the lord of Marash died during an earthquake in 1114, but does not name him. This could have been Richard, but was more likely his successor. There is no evidence that the lordship was yet regarded as hereditary.[10]

Armenian interlude

In the chaos that followed the earthquake, the Armenians reasserted themselves. In 1114–1115, according to both Bar Hebraeus and Ibn al-Athir, the city was ruled by the unnamed widow of

dapifer) of Marash named Arnulf, who died during Ilghazi's offensive in late 1119.[10]

Geoffrey and Basil

In 1122, Baldwin II, now king, appointed

Behesni by Baldwin II in 1122. Although his regency would end when Joscelin was freed, Geoffrey's lordship in Marash was probably a lifetime grant.[11] Under him, Marash seems to have asserted its independence from Antioch.[7] Both Matthew of Edessa and Orderic Vitalis call Geoffrey a count, but scholarship is divided as to whether this represents a real change in status.[12][7] The territory of the lordship had been extended to cover much of the territory ruled by Kogh Vasil. Most sources record that Geoffrey died at the siege of Manbij in 1124, but William of Tyre places his death in 1131.[11]

There is no record of the lordship between 1124 and 1136. In the latter year,

Servantikar. Baldwin requested aid from the Byzantines, which came in 1137–1138, and in return for which he may have done homage. He died during the siege of Edessa in 1146.[13]

The only surviving

seal and "is the only nobleman of the nonhern Syria region aside from the [rulers] of Edessa and Antioch known to have used one, a further mark of his high standing."[15]

Conquest

Baldwin was succeeded by his brother

safeconduct, he slaughtered the surrendered defenders.[16]

List of lords

Notes

  1. ^ Beech 1996, pp. 39, 42.
  2. ^ Beech 1996, p. 36.
  3. ^ Beech 1996, pp. 36–38.
  4. ^ Beech 1996, p. 38.
  5. ^ a b Beech 1996, p. 39.
  6. ^ a b Beech 1996, pp. 39–40.
  7. ^ a b c d Asbridge 2000, pp. 162–163.
  8. ^ Beech 1996, pp. 40–41.
  9. ^ a b Beech 1996, p. 41.
  10. ^ a b Beech 1996, p. 42.
  11. ^ a b c Beech 1996, pp. 43–45.
  12. ^ Beech 1996, pp. 44–45.
  13. ^ Beech 1996, pp. 45–47.
  14. ^ Beech 1996, p. 48.
  15. ^ Beech 1996, p. 49.
  16. ^ Beech 1996, p. 50.

Bibliography

  • ISBN 978-0-85115-661-3
    .
  • Beech, George T. (1996). "The Crusader Lordship of Marash in Armenian Cilicia, 1104–1149". Viator. 27: 35–52.
    doi:10.1484/j.viator.2.301121
    .
  • Buck, Andrew D. (2017). The Principality of Antioch and Its Frontiers in the Twelfth Century. Boydell Press.
  • Cahen, Claude (1940). La Syrie du nord a l'époque des Croisades et la principauté d'Antioche. Geuthner.
  • Cahen, Claude (1976). "Un épisode épico-féodal franc dans une chronique arabe". In Philippe Contamine (ed.). La Noblesse au Moyen Âge XIe–XVe siècles. Presses universitaires de France. pp. 129–132.
  • Hamilton, Bernard (1980). The Latin Church in the Crusader States: The Secular Church. Ashgate.
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