Tancred (Crusader)

Tancred 1076-1112, Crusader. He became a Crusader in 1096 with his uncle Bohemond I . After distinguishing himself at Nicaea, he struck out into Cilicia and besieged Tarsus, but was deprived of the city, after its fall, by Baldwin ( Baldwin I of Jerusalem) and was forced to rejoin the main army. He took part in the captures of Antioch (1098), Jerusalem (1099), and Haifa (1100) and was for a short time prince of Galilee, with his capital at Tiberias. While acting (1100-1103) as regent of Antioch for Bohemond, he recaptured Laodicea and other towns and imprisoned Raymond IV of Toulouse. In 1104, after the capture of Baldwin II of Jerusalem by the Muslims, he took over the government of Edessa and, after the departure of Bohemond for the West, the government of Antioch. He subsequently made extensive conquests in Cilicia and N Syria. Although Bohemond submitted (1108) to Byzantine Emperor Alexius I , Tancred refused to surrender his conquests or to do the emperor homage.

Tancred, or the New Crusade, a novel by B. Disraeli, published 1847.

This is the last of the trilogy Coningsby—Sybil—Tancred. Much of the novel is devoted to an attempt to resolve the antagonism between Judaism and Christianity and to establish a role for a reforming faith and revitalized church in a progressive society.