Armies of Heaven by Jay Rubenstein

All others presumably perished or were enslaved. The crusade’s first great acts of slaughter thus occurred in battles that pitted Catholic Christians against other Catholic Christians.
    As for Emicho, he was one of the fortunate few who escaped. But his credibility had been badly damaged, and rather than continue the crusade, he thought it best to return to Flonheim. But some of his companions—including Thomas of Marle, Drogo of Nesle, Clarembald of Vendeuil, and William the Carpenter—were not ready to give up. Rumor had it that other pilgrims were gathering in Italy to cross the sea and thus avoid Hungary altogether, entering the Byzantine Empire directly. These few survivors therefore broke away from the pilgrims’ land route and met up with another potential king of Jerusalem in September: Hugh of Vermandois, called “Hugh the Great,” brother of King Philip of France, leading a small but wealthy army of knights confidently toward the center of the earth. 14

The Princes on the March
    Hugh’s army was one of the first of the better-organized princely forces to depart, probably leaving France sometime near Urban II’s proposed date of August 15, 1096. Eschewing the roads through Hungary, the army aimed instead for Bari in southeastern Italy, intending to sail from there to Durazzo (Durrës, in modern Albania).
    As Hugh’s followers set about putting their moral and financial houses in order, Hugh himself wrote a letter to the Emperor Alexius, warning him of his imminent arrival. The letter does not survive. Instead, we have a satirical paraphrase written in the biography of Alexius by his daughter Anna Comnena. Hugh, according to Anna, proclaimed himself “the King of Kings, the greatest of all beneath the heavens,” and warned Alexius that he expected to be received in Constantinople with all the pomp suited to his great station. The language, though a bit over the top, does accord with what we know about Hugh and his followers—namely, that they expected him to become king of Jerusalem. We also know that most Latin observers found Greek court ceremonial more than a little overbearing.
It is easy to imagine, then, the brother of the French king firing off a pompous and high-handed missive to the Greek emperor before departing for the East.
    Alexius must have viewed Hugh’s letter not so much as a sign of Frankish pretension but as part of an ongoing crisis. By the time it arrived, he had already received the armies of Walter and Peter at Constantinople. He would have also had to deal with the crises created by Peter’s followers near Belgrade and afterward at Nish. Finally, Alexius would have heard how King Coloman, because of the Franks’ boorish and brutal conduct, had decided to forbid them from entering his domain. Alexius’s own subjects, already overburdened with the massive armies of Peter and Walter and equally aware of the chaos engulfing Hungary, were likely ready to take a similar stand against Hugh—even without knowing that while passing through Italy, Hugh had welcomed into his army some of the most erratic and violent members of Emicho’s following.
    As soon as Hugh reached Bari in early October, he sent ahead a party of envoys to the Byzantine port of Durazzo to announce his imminent arrival. Accompanying this diplomatic group, unaccountably, was William the Carpenter. At Durazzo, according to Anna Comnena, the Franks repeated the veiled threats of Hugh’s earlier letter, backed up this time by Urban II’s endorsement: “Be it known to you, Duke, that our Lord Hugh is almost here. He brings with him from Rome the golden standard of St. Peter. Understand, moreover, that he is supreme commander of the Frankish army. See to it then that he is accorded a reception worthy of his rank and yourself prepare to meet him.”
    Hugh arrived at Durazzo a few days later, after, according to one source, his ship nearly sank during a