The Norman Bohemund I (ca. 1055-ca. 1111) was one of the chief lay leaders of the First Crusade, in 1095-1099, and the self-proclaimed prince of Antioch.

The eldest son of the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard, Bohemund became involved after 1080 in several Norman expeditions against the Byzantine Empire in southern Italy and on the Greek mainland. But when his father died in 1085, the Greek invasion came to a halt, and Bohemund returned to Italy to wrest what lands he could, including Taranto, from his half brother, Roger, the successor to the fiefs in Apulia and Calabria. In 1096 Bohemund joined the French contingent of the First Crusade on its way to Constantinople.

In spite of his reputation as an enemy of the Byzantines, he soon reached an agreement with Emperor Alexius and swore an oath of allegiance to him. But this only aggravated the rivalry between Bohemund and Count Raymond of...