Bethlehem the official Christian presence in the region was Greek Orthodox. On Christmas Day 1100, Baldwin I, first king of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem, was crowned in Bethlehem, and that year a Latin episcopate was also established in the town. In 1187, Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria who led the Muslim Ayyubids, captured Bethlehem from the Crusaders. The Latin clerics were forced to leave, allowing the Greek Orthodox clergy to return. Saladin agreed to the return of two Latin priests and two deacons in 1192. However, Bethlehem suffered from the loss of the pilgrim trade, as there was
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.