TANCRED (d. 1112), nephew of Bohemund and a grandson of Robert Guiscard on the female side, was the son of a certain Marchisus, in whom some have seen a marquis, and some an Arab (Makrizi). He took the Cross with Bohemund in 1096, and marched with him to Constantinople. Here he ref used to take an oath to Alexius, escaping across the Bosporus in the disguise of a peasant ; but after the capture of Nicaea he followed the example of the other princes, and became the man of Alexius. At Heraclea, in the centre of Asia Minor, he left the main body of the Cru saders, and struck into Cilicia, closely followed by Baldwin of Lorraine. He made himself master of Tarsus, and when he was evicted from it by the superior forces of Baldwin, he pushed further onwards, and took the towns of Adana and Mamistra. He joined the main army before Antioch, and took a great part in the siege. In the beginning of 5099 he was in the ranks of Ray mund's army, but he soon left the count, like so many of the other pilgrims (see under RAYMUND) ; and he joined himself to Godfrey of Lorraine in the final march. After the capture of Jerusalem he went to Nablous, and began to found a principality of his own. He took part in the battle of Ascalon in August; and after it he was invested by Godfrey with Tiberias and the principality of Galilee, to the north of Nablous. In I coo he attempted, without success, to prevent Baldwin of Lorraine (his old enemy in Cilicia) from acquiring the throne of Jerusalem. Failing in this attempt, and being urgently summoned from the North to succeed Bohe mund in the government of Antioch, he surrendered his smaller possessions to Baldwin. He acted as regent in Antioch until 1103, when Bohemund regained his liberty. He regained the Cilician towns for Antioch (II °I), and recaptured Laodicea (H03) ; he imprisoned Raymund of Toulouse, and only gave him his liberty on stringent conditions; and he caused the restoration of the de posed patriarch of Jerusalem, Dagobert, if only for a brief season, by refusing to aid Baldwin I. on any other terms. When Bohe
mund was set free, Tancred had to surrender Antioch to him. In 1104 he joined with Bohemund and Baldwin de Burg (now count of Odessa in succession to Baldwin of Lorraine) in an expedition against Harran, in which they were heavily defeated, and Baldwin was taken prisoner. Tancred, however, profited doubly by the defeat. He took over the government of Edessa in Baldwin's place; and in 1105 Bohemund surrendered to him the government of Antioch, while he himself went to Europe to seek reinforcements. Ruler of the two northern principalities, Tancred carried on vigorous hostilities against his Mohammedan neighbours, especially Ridwan of Aleppo; and in 1106 he suc ceeded in capturing Apamea. In 1107, while Bohemund was beginning his last expedition against Alexius, he wrested the whole of Cilicia from the Greeks; and he steadfastly refused, after Bohemund's humiliating treaty at Durazzo in 1108, to agree to any of its stipulations with regard to Antioch and Cilicia. To the hostility of the Mohammedans and the Greeks, Tancred also added that of his own fellow Latins. When Baldwin de Burg regained his liberty in I108, it was only with difficulty that he was induced to restore Edessa to him. But it was against the emirs of Northern Syria that his arms were chiefly directed ; and he became the hammer of the Turks. He died in 1112, leaving the government to his brother-in-law, Roger de Principatu, until such time as Bohemund II. should come to his inheritance.
Gesta were recorded by Ralph of Caen, who drew his information from Tancred's own conversation and reminiscences. Kugler has written a work on Bohemund and Tancred (Tiibingen, 1862) ; and Tancred's career is also described by Rey, in the Revue de l'Orient Latin, iv. 334-34o.