| Scholars have generally ignored the Crusades from the Byzantine perspective with the majority of scholarship focusing on the Western, and more recently, Arabic viewpoints. Western sources from the period such as the Gesta Francorum and the account of Fulcher of Chartres typically portray Alexius I, the Byzantine emperor during the First Crusade, as anti-Western. It is this study's position that Alexius's actions derived from a need to protect his people and empire rather than a desire to see the crusaders' mission fail. By studying the Byzantine perspective, we gain a fuller understanding of the First Crusade and the Crusades as a whole begin to become more comprehensible. |
