Anatolian War (Ethelred the Pious)

Background
right|thumb|Eastern Emperor Alexios I Komnenos

The late was disastrous for the Eastern Roman Empire. The Seljuk Turks, who had built an enormous Middle Eastern empire, dealt a decisive defeat to Byzantine forces at Manzikert in 1071 and proceeded to occupy the whole of Asia minor, capturing Nicaea in 1077. Emperor Alexios came to the throne in 1081 and began the work of stabilizing the crumbling empire and recovering lost territory.

To this end, Alexios in the 1090s reached out the the newly crowned Western emperor, Guilhem (or William) II. The intent was not merely to get aid, but to increase good relations between East and West, something supported by both monarchs.

Western response
Guilhem began to raise an army, gathering forces outside Piacenza and contracting ships in Bari to ferry them across the Adriatic. He also called upon his feudatory nobles in the regions of Burgundy and Provença to equip knights to join him. At this point things started to drift out of the Guilhem's control, as the long-simmering issue of relations between Pope and Emperor got in the way of his plans.