Risking battle The Antiochene frontier, 1100-1164

This article contributes to debate amongst military historians by focusing on the principality of Antioch and its wars with neighbouring Turkish powers between the years 1099-1164. It makes the point that this state lived a precarious existence on the frontiers of Christendom and had a great deal to lose from a major defeat. This article consequently seeks to explain why the Franks would so frequently chance pitched battles when they had so much to lose.