Baldwin I of Jerusalem death, thought that "al-Bardawil" had started the First Crusade. Presenting a fictional correspondence between Baldwin and Roger I of Sicily, Al-Athir claimed that Baldwin had initially wanted to conquer Ifriqiya, but Roger, who wanted to secure the territory for himself, talked into him into attacking Jerusalem. Among modern historians, Thomas Asbridge states that Baldwin was one of the commanders of the First Crusade "whose skill, ambition and devotion drove the enterprise, and by turns threatened to rip it apart". Christopher Tyerman emphasises that Baldwin was a talented military commander and a clever politician, who "established a stable kingdom with defined
Baldwin I of Jerusalem the Seljuq Sultan of Rum, in the Battle of Dorylaeum on 1July 1097, Baldwin and the Norman Tancred broke away from the main body of the army. They marched as far as Heraclea where they again joined their fellows around 15 August. The long march across Asia Minor in the heat of summer exhausted the crusaders and most knights' horses died. To secure a supply of food and forage, Baldwin and Tancred were sent to the fertile plains of Cilicia. They could count on the local Armenians' support, especially as Baldwin had already been befriended by an Armenian nobleman, Bagrat.