Byzantine Negotiations during the First Crusade, part 4: The Power of Friendship!

What happens when one of the most powerful lords from Southwestern Frances comes to your doorstop and refuses to swear your oath?

Unlike the other negotiations, the negotiation with Count Raymond De Toulouse was inspired by the Negotiation symposium last April 2023 by Anil Menghani and was specifically inspired by his presentation on the Negotiation symposium back on May 5th.

I recommend looking up his LinkedIn for good content on negotiations in general: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anilmenghani/

Originally cut from my NUS-UCLA program’s negotiations class, he was cut not only due to time and world length but also because I lacked the proper tools necessary to describe what happened during his negotiation.

However, because of the symposium, I had a clearer understanding, and fit one of the missing pieces of the puzzle of what happened.

Count Raymond of Toulouse was the only one of the Crusades leaders to not swear an oath to Emperor Alexios, which was extremely unusual. Not many Latin military leaders managed to get the blessing of the Eastern Roman Emperor let alone support without swearing the oath.  

However, Count Raymond got not only the blessing from Emperor Alexis to go through his empire but also the same promises of logistical aid that the other crusaders got from the emperor. 

Rather than swearing the standard oath Count Raymond instead swore a pledge of friendship that included no attacking any Roman assets and to “return any territory gained from the campaign to the Empire.” One big difference in this agreement is that Count Raymond did not get any gifts from the Emperor. But this did not matter, Count Raymond did not need any of it, nor did he desire it. 

He simply wanted to “go out with a bang “at the end of his career”

Before we talk about how this was a factor in his negotiations, we need to go into the background of Count Raymond of Toulouse.

What set him apart from the other Crusade leaders was not only his advanced age (was easily the oldest Crusade leader) but also his immense wealth and sheer number of troops. 

He had the largest host out of all of the Crusaders by far, and he carried with him the most wealth and experience out of all the Crusaders during the first Crusade, as well as the most influence—even more influence than the younger brother of the King of France. 

With Modern ears, when we hear the word “France” we often think of the centralized modern nation-state of France. However, the Kingdom of France back in this period was anything but centralized, it is quite the opposite. Not only did the king of France have very low crown authority, but each region was constantly shifting rulership between different counts, dukes, and barons, who constantly warred with each other (which was one of the factors for the crusade, to begin with, Pope Urban II wanted Christendom to simply stop fighting each other).    

In addition to essentially being different countries, each region also has different languages, customs, and even cultures and fighting styles.  

If the average Parisian from this time period were to travel to Toulouse, where Count Raymond is the lord of, he or she would have great difficulty communicating with each other.  Why? That is because inhabitants of Toulouse speak a very different language from Parisian French.  Instead, they speak a language called Occitan. 

This region is known as the “Languedoc Region” meaning “language of the Occitanians”

The Occitanians were a completely different ethnic group from the people from Paris, and although they nominally swore fealty to the King of France, the King’s power was so weak that Count Raymond was the de facto “King of Occitania.”

He got this title not only through birthright but a lifetime of statecraft (as in fighting rivals and being a shrewd diplomat).

In addition to his skill as a statesman in Occitania, He is also related to the nobility of eastern Spain through marriage and friendship. Plus, the Occitanian language was more closely related to the eastern Iberian Kingdoms than it was to Parisian French, which made them have more affinity with each other.  

As stated in my previous essay (El Cid lived around this period as well), Spain simply did not exist and was a collection of different independent kingdoms, duchies, counties, emirates, and sultanates.

The Hispanic Peninsula was in a state of constant war with Christians struggling against the Muslims (and each other) and the Muslims doing much of the same while fighting off the North African Emirates from time to time as well).  

Count Raymond was a veteran of the Reconquista due to his close ties to eastern Iberia and participated in several wars there on the side of his “Spanish” (Aragonese and Catalonian) allies.  

He saw his fight as a noble fight defending the borders of Christendom against the encroachment of Islamic Invaders. 

As a result, he is a grizzled veteran who has faced a lifetime of warfare and became the powerful “King of Occitania.”  

By the time he arrived in Constantinople, he was an aged warrior well advanced in not only age but also had a lifetime of experience fighting and managing a territory. He was a grizzled old man (who wore an eyepatch) who had already fought in many wars and was just ready to die in the Holy Land fighting to his last breath in an attempt to free the birthplace of his Lord and Savior or die trying. He was essentially the “perfect” archetype of the crusader and this was pretty much his only goal in the entire armed pilgrimage.  

In addition, his advanced age made him a very mature leader who prioritized comradery, honor, and piety compared to the younger leaders we saw earlier who were more like adventurers than statemen.  

Emperor Alexios knows all about this of course and had him come in. The Count arrived in Constantinople without any drama or any sort of issue, which was a testament to the discipline of his army.  

The Negotiation Starts

Now the negotiation starts. 

Alexios first starts off offering him the standard agreement that all Latin Mercenaries had to swear when fighting for the empire, which is to swear an oath of fealty to the Emperor, return any land to the empire, and of course not attack any imperials.

To Alexios’s surprise, Count Raymond just refused outright.  

They started chatting for a bit (via translation of course) and Alexios simply got a sense of who this person is. He was different from the others. He was not interested in worldly gain, and he simply came to fight and simply die in the Holy Land, perhaps for atonement for whatever reason.  

  What Emperor Alexios had in front of him was a wise old warrior, who was simply not interested in any more worldly gain (he already had enough), and came essentially for atonement, and to have one last campaign before his death. 

That being said, Alexios saw this and decided that it might be a better idea to give him a customized deal since it was clear that Count Raymond had no interest in attacking fellow Christians, and was solely focused on the holy land.  

Eventually, the topic of Bohemond came up and Count Raymond noted he did not Trust Bohemond and considered him a rouge and a trickster.    

At this point, we needed to remember that Bohemond and the Emperor personally fought each other on opposite sides of the battlefield during precious Norman Invasions of Greece and the Emperor also did not trust the wily Norman as well.

Seeing that there was common ground in this meeting, the Emperor came up with an idea.

In a stroke of creativity, Emperor Alexios decided to give a counteroffer: he did not have to swear the standard oath that Bohemond, Godfrey, and Hugh had to swear. Rather, he accepted Count Raymond’s offer of honor and friendship that he kept on asking for. Raymond of course promised to hand any territory back to the Empire and not attack any Imperial entities in the process—which is what friends do.

At this point, Alexios accepted this and told him that they would be friends and Raymond’s army will be supplied and backed up for the campaign.  

This was exactly what Raymond wanted to begin with, he simply wanted to establish a bond of honor and friendship with the emperor and have an ally that would have his back when fighting in alien territory, against an alien army, and in an alien climate. The Count got his local guide and full backing for the final campaign in his life. 

A deal was struck—it was perfect for Raymond.

Ironically, it was also perfect for Alexios as well. The Emperor did not have to give out any titles, a salary, or drain the treasury even more with lavish gifts. This sign of friendship turned out to be one of the cheapest, most efficient deals the Emperor ever made in his entire career. And to Count Raymond, this sign of friendship was one of the biggest gains that he has ever gotten in his career as well. Without conceding anything, Count Raymond got the full backing of the Eastern Roman Empire to help him on his final campaign. For this first crusade, it will be Count Raymond’s Last Crusade as well. 

Almost immediately, the Empire then started to ferry Count Raymond and his entire army across the Bosporus onto Asia Minor, where he would combine his forces with the other Armed Pilgrims, and finally head out on the Quest.  

The Holy Land Beckons!

Analysis: The Power of Friendship!

In the previous cases, it was pretty clear what kind of relationship that each side had in mind. 

The pattern was simple: a minor lord who did not have much power in Western Europe goes to Constantinople, sees the grandeur and power that Eastern Rome has, and then swears the standard oath that pretty much ALL foreign contractors swear to the Emperor.

It used to be so clear. 

However, in previous cases, these foreign contractors that the Empire hired to fight for them as glorified mercenaries were never that powerful to begin with, and tended to be landless nobles who were younger sons, or even just plain adventurers who fought well.

In the history of Alexios Komnenos’ career, he has never had to deal with a count with as much wealth, power, and military prowess as Count “The King of Occitania” Raymond of Toulouse. 

There was simply no precedent.  

On the flip side, there was simply no reason that someone who was a de facto “King” of an area would have to negotiate the same way Count Raymond had to. This was groundbreaking new territory.  

However, there was one factor that neither side had expected to help: The power of friendship.

When negotiating, it is sometimes easy to forget that this is a discussion to iron out a deal, not a battlefield. It is very unwise to metaphorically “kill” the other side in an attempt to gain.  

However, what is often missing in negotiations is the desire to build a relationship that extends beyond this one deal.

The previous leaders that Emperor Alexios had to deal with all had one thing in common: they were the younger sons who saw an opportunity to head out to the east and try their luck in obtaining more power and glory as well as go on a crusade that will wipe out their sins.

The case of Count Raymond however was different, as an older man he already had his share of power and glory, and simply wanted to live out the last years of his life heeding the call of Pope Urban II and a genuine desire to free the Holy Land from non-Christian powers who were exploiting the local native Christian, populations as well as to turn the tide of the fortunes of a beleaguered Eastern Roman Empire.  

He was a different sort of man who already had it all anyway, and one more friend on the way there was not going to hurt anything.

So when Count Raymond asked for friendship and partnership, Emperor Alexios gave it to him.  

Taking a page from Anil’s presentation, the first three tips were followed.

 1. It was not a friendship, and Friendship was pursued.  

2. They both did not rush too close and sought to understand each other.

3. Sometimes it is not about money, it is about the value of the intangible things.  

Credit to: Anil Menghani

When two really powerful men who only saw money as tools rather than the end goal meet up, sometimes, instead of transactions, value can be created instead.  

Now that the most powerful leader of the First Crusade successfully negotiated a crossing onto Asia Minor, what will happen next? Read on