Duke Tancred of Galilee (1072-12 December 1112) was a noble of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and regent of the Principality of Antioch.
Biography[]
Tancred was the son of Odo the Good and Emma de Hauteville, the daughter of Robert Guiscard and sister of the future Bohemond I of Antioch. In 1096 Tancred and Bohemond embarked on the First Crusade from Italy, and Tancred was the only leader of the crusade who refused to promise the Byzantine Empire that any lands conquered from the Muslims would be given back to the Byzantines (the other leaders made this promise but did not keep it). In 1097 he besieged Nicaea, but the Byzantines later took the city after negotiations with the Sultanate of Rum. In 1097 he took Tarsus and in 1098 he took Antioch, and in 1099 he claimed that he was the first crusader to enter the city, although this was false. He became Prince of Galilee under King Godfrey de Bouillon of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and he was the regent of the Principality of Antioch after Bohemond was captured at the 1100 Battle of Melitene. In 1104 he took over the County of Edessa after Baldwin II of Jerusalem was captured at the disaster of the Battle of Harran, but in 1108 Baldwin fought for his lands back when he was released and Tancred was forced to yield. He died in a typhoid epidemic in 1112.