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Raymond of Poitiers, French Raimond De Poitiers, Prince of Antioch (1136-49) who successfully resisted the attempts of the Byzantine emperor John II to establish control over the principality. Raymond was the younger son of William VII, count of Poitiers, in west-central France. In 1135 King Fulk of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, regent for the heiress Constance of Antioch, sent envoys to offer her in marriage to Raymond, who was then at the court of Henry I of England. Raymond arrived in Antioch in April 1136 and married the nine-year-old Constance, thereby becoming ruler of Antioch. The Byzantine Empire had claimed Antioch ever since the First Crusade (1095-99), when the crusaders had promised to hand over the city to the empire but instead had kept it themselves. In August 1137 Emperor John II Comnenus arrived at Antioch and forced Raymond to agree to cede Antioch to him in exchange for territory around Aleppo-provided it could be captured from the Muslims. In April and May 1138 Raymond and John battled the Muslims without success. John then made a solemn entry into Antioch, but Raymond managed to evade John's request for control of the citadel, and John soon left. In September 1142, John, who was campaigning in Syria, again demanded that Antioch be handed over to him in exchange for a yet-to-be-conquered principality. Raymond barred the Byzantines from the city, and they then prepared to invade Antioch. John died, however, in April 1143, and Raymond, attempting to take advantage of John's death, invaded Cilicia to the north, but was repulsed and driven back to Antioch. The Byzantines then ravaged the country north of the city, while their fleet raided the coast of the principality. The following year Edessa fell to the Muslims, exposing Antioch to attack from the northeast. In 1145, therefore, Raymond visited Constantinople to conciliate John's successor, Manuel I. In the spring of 1148, when Louis VII of France and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who were participating in the Second Crusade, visited Antioch, Raymond wisely urged Louis to attack Aleppo, the northern Syrian base of the Muslim leader Nureddin. For religious reasons, however, Louis decided to campaign closer to Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre. Raymond's relations with Eleanor, his niece, gave rise to scandalous rumours. Outraged, Louis procured an annulment of the marriage when he and Eleanor returned to France in 1148. The next year Raymond was slain in a battle against Nureddin. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Another version: Raymond of Poitiers (1099-June 27, 1149) was prince of Antioch between 1136 to 1149. He was the youngest son of William IX, duke of Aquitaine and his wife Philippa, countess of Toulouse. Following the regencies of Baldwin II of Jerusalem (1130-1131) and Fulk of Jerusalem (1131-1136), Raymond assumed the control of the principality of Antioch by his marriage in 1136 with the heiress of Bohemund II of Antioch, Constance, a child of ten years of age. The marriage had the blessing of the Patriarch of Antioch, but not of Alice of Jerusalem, the mother of the bride, who believed that Raymond was intended for her husband. The first years of Raymond and Constance's joint rule were spent with conflicts with the Byzantine Emperor John II Comnenus, who had come south partly to recover Cilicia from Leo of Armenia, and to reassert his rights over Antioch. Raymond was forced to do homage, and even to promise to cede his principality as soon as he was recompensed by a new fief, which John promised to carve for him in the Mahommedan territory to the east of Antioch. The expedition of 1138, in which Raymond joined with John, and which was to conquer this territory, naturally proved a failure: Raymond was not anxious to help the emperor to acquire new territories, when their acquisition only meant for him the loss of Antioch. John Comnenus returned unsuccessful to Constantinople, after demanding from Raymond, without response, the surrender of the citadel of Antioch. There followed a struggle between Raymond and the patriarch. Raymund was annoyed by the homage which he had been forced to pay to the patriarch in 1135 and the dubious validity of the patriarch's election offered a handle for opposition. Eventually Raymond triumphed, and the patriarch was deposed (1139). In 1142 John Comnenus returned to the attack, but Raymond refused to recognize or renew his previous submission; and John, though he ravaged the neighborhood of Antioch, was unable to effect anything against him. When, however Raymond demanded from Manuel, who had succeeded John in 1143, the cession of some of the Cilician towns, he found that he had met his match. Manuel forced him to a humiliating visit to Constantinople, during which he renewed his oath of homage and promised to acknowledge a Greek patriarch. In the last year of Raymond's life Louis VII and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Raymond's niece) visited Antioch. Raymond sought to prevent Louis from going south to Jerusalem, and to induce him to stay in Antioch and help in the conquest of Aleppo and Caesarea. At any rate Louis hastily left Antioch, and Raymond was balked in his plans. In 1149 he was killed in the battle of Inab during an expedition against Nur ad-Din. Raymond is described by William of Tyre (the main authority for his career) as handsome and affable; pre-eminent in the use of arms and military experience; litteratorum, licet ipse illiteratus esset, cultor (he caused the Chanson des chétifs to be composed); a regular churchman and faithful husband; but headstrong, irascible and unreasonable, vith too great a passion for gambling. Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite.
William B.
