In deciding on a topic for research, I knew I wanted to look into a topic which had not been widely analyzed. After some deliberation I learned that the topic of the relations between Alexius Komnenos and Bohemond of Toranto had not been one that historians paid much attention to. What is written is centered on the facts surrounding the conflicts and unity of the two men. .
The earliest years of Bohemond of Torantos power led to him becoming one of the leading Crusaders of the First Crusade. His story began in the early eleventh century with the conquest of southern Italy by the Normans. Tancred de Hauteville was one of the original conquerors to begin the Norman presence in southern Italy. Historians are not sure of the exact year, but he and his second wife, Fessenda would later gave birth to their eldest son Robert nicknamed Guiscard.2 Robert went on to claim much of sourthern Italy and lay the groundwork for his son to become one of the most under-examined figures in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Bohemond was born and baptized Mark somewhere between 1050 and 1058. This was noted by Ralph Baily Yewdale regarding the origins of his name, "The nickname Bohemond, according to Ordericus Vitalis, the Norman historian, was given to him by his father, who had recently heard at a banquet a droll tale about a certain "Baumundus Gigas," and who evidently considered the name for his own giant son. The nickname lasted and eventually supplanted the baptismal name altogether."3 The roots of his name proved true in his earliest years of conquest after taking control of the Norman forces during his father's leave of absence.
Alexius Komnenos rose to power in Constantinople during a time when the whole of Asia Minor were in disarray. The Turkish invasions of Byzantium in the late 1060's and early 1070 have left many Byzantines in the eastern frontier homeless.