Prince of Antioch
Born 1099 Died 1149
Raymond was the son of William VI, count of Poitou. On the death of Bohemond II of Antioch, the principality devolved upon his daughter, Constance, a child of some three years of age (1130). Fulk, the king of Jerusalem, and, as such, guardian of Antioch, was concerned to find a husband for her, and sent envoys to England to offer her hand to Raymond, who was then at the court of Henry I. Raymond accepted the offer, and stealing in disguise through southern Italy, for fear of apprehension by Roger of Sicily, who claimed the inheritance of Antioch as cousin of Bohemond I, he reached Antioch in 1135. Here he was married to Constance by the patriarch, but not until he had done him homage and fealty.
The marriage excited the indignation of Alice, the mother of Constance, who had been led by the patriarch to think that it was she whom Raymond desired to wed; and the new prince had thus to face the enmity of the princess dowager and her party. In 1137 he had also to face the advent of the eastern emperor, John Comnenus, who had come south partly to recover Cilicia from Leo, the prince of Armenia, but partly, also, to assert 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; and John had to return unsuccessful to Byzantium, after vainly demanding from Raymond the surrender of the citadel of Antioch.
There followed a struggle between Raymond and the patriarch. Raymond 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 neighbourhood 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 receive a Greek patriarch.
The last event of importance in Raymond's life was the visit to Antioch in 1148 of Louis VII and his wife Eleanor, Raymond's niece. 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. Perhaps for this end he acquired an influence over his niece, which was by some interpreted as a guilty intimacy. At any rate Louis hastily left Antioch, and Raymond was balked in his plans. In 1149 he fell in battle during an expedition against Nureddin.
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 experi ence; litteratorum, licet ipse illiteratus esset, cultor (he caused the Chanson des chetifs to be composed); a regular churchman and a faithful husband; but headstrong, irascible and unreasonable, with too great a passion for gambling (bk. xiv. c. xxi.).
For his career see Rey, in the Revue de l'orient Latin, vol. iv. (E.B.R.)
Being the entry for RAYMUND in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain.