Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse
Raymond IV of Toulouse ( called Raymond of Saint- Gilles; * 1041/42 in Toulouse; † February 28, 1105 at the castle Mons Peregrinus in Tripoli) from the family of Raimundiner was since 1094, Count of Toulouse, Margrave of Provence and since 1102 Count of Tripoli. He was one of the most important military leader of the First Crusade.
Life
Raimund was a younger son of Count Pons of Toulouse and his second wife Almodis of La Marche. After his father's death to 1061, he received the land to the Abbey of Saint- Gilles and the title of Count assigned, while his older brother William IV inherited the vast territories of the family. Died in 1065 his cousin Bertha, of which he inherited the Rouergue and the title of Duke of Narbonne, which goes back to the old title of Marquis of Septimania / Gothia and included a claim sovereignty over the entire region of Languedoc. Around the year 1081 Raimund inherited the Margraviate of Provence, after there had died, his uncle, Marquis Bertrand I.. Raimund took part in the struggles of the Christian kings of Spain against the Moors ( Reconquista ).
Around the year 1066 married Raimund an unnamed daughter of Count Godfrey I of Provence, from which it separated again by 1076. From the marriage of the son of Bertrand showed its legitimacy, however, was controversial. Raimund married around 1080 in second marriage with Mathilde de Hauteville, a daughter of Count Roger I of Sicily, from whom he divorced in 1088 to again. This marriage was childless. His third and last wife was Elvira since 1094, an illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso VI. of Castile. She gave birth during the crusade in Lebanon 's son Alfonso, who was baptized in the Jordan.
1094 Raymond's older brother died, after which he also inherited the Quercy and Albi next to the Toulousain. Raimund was also recognized in 1095 this heritage by the Pope, although any inheritance to his niece Philippa were ignored. She married in 1094 Duke William IX. of Aquitaine, reducing their claims on his family went through and so triggered a dispute over inheritance between generations of Aquitaine and Toulouse.
First crusade
On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont on the first crusade, four days after Raymond IV was the first major ruler who took the cross. In October 1096 Raimund made as the oldest and richest of the crusaders, accompanied by his wife on the way to Jerusalem. He led an army of the features of the crusade consisting of southerners, mainly Provencal and Burgundians. They marched through northern Italy, on the Dalmatian coast to Dyrrachium ( Durres ), where the old Roman military road, the Via Egnatia to Constantinople reached Opel, and also used Bohemond of Taranto. In Constantinople, Opel, he met with the other army trains together, and then was the only one of the leaders of the Crusade, the I. the Byzantine emperor Alexios fealty refused and instead negotiated a modified oath, which did not look at him as a vassal - but as allies against their common enemy Bohemund.
He was present at the siege and the battle Nicäas from Eskisehir, but he played an important role only in October 1097 at the siege of Antioch. The crusaders heard a rumor that Antioch had been devastated by the Seljuks, whereupon Raimund forward sent his army to occupy the city. Thus he came Bohemund in the way, which they claimed for themselves. However, Antioch was intact and could be taken by the crusaders only after a siege in June 1098. Raimund occupied the palatium Cassiani ( the palace of the emir, Yaghi Siyan - ) and the tower at the bridge gate. The second siege of Antioch, now by the troops Kerbogas, the Atabegs of Mosul, he witnessed from a hospital bed, as well as the discovery of the Holy Lance by Peter Bartholomew and the acts building upon victory of the Crusaders, with whom she could expel the Arabs. The lance was the most valuable relic in Raymond's followers, despite Adhemar de Monteils, Bishop of Le Puy -en- Velay and Apostolic legate, skeptical attitude towards it.
Raymond refused to cede his possessions within the city to Bohemond, by reminding him that he had it so, pass it on to Alexius I, in accordance with his oath. The following dispute between Raymond and Bohemond's followers turned to the part about the authenticity of the lance, but especially the possession of Antioch.
Many of the knights and foot soldiers simpler waited out, however, move on to Jerusalem and convinced Raymond in autumn 1098 of them, to lead them. Bohemond remained, a small delegation of Raymond's men also (which were driven out by Bohemond in January 1099 ), the great rest followed Raimund, who, as Adhemar had died in the meantime, was now in the possession of the Holy Lance and the undisputed leader of the crusade.
Maara was captured in December 1098, the siege of Arqa in the Emirate of Tripoli began on February 14, 1099 - both apparently with the intention of obtaining an independent territory, which should limit the power of Bohemond to the south. The siege Arqas at the gates of Tripoli took longer than hoped; Although succeeded the conquest of Hisn al - Akrad, a castle that was later called Krak des Chevaliers, but not of Tripoli itself, which the Weiterzug to Jerusalem delayed and cost Raimund much of the support he had acquired to Antioch when he insisted on completing this task first.
Finally, Raimund agreed on 13 May to a Weiterzug to Jerusalem, the siege on 15 July ended with the storming of the city and the massacre of the inhabitants. Raimund was offered the crown of Jerusalem, but he refused on the grounds that he wanted in the city in which Christ 's crown of thorns was wearing, do not wear a royal crown. ( Eg use, this was a response to previously held sermons. ) Another possible reason for his refusal is that he would rather carry on the siege of Tripoli. By refusing, he first gave to great popularity, but now joined Godfrey of Bouillon the rule, albeit under the modest title of Princeps ( " prince "). Raimund it refused at first also starting to publish the Tower of David, which he had occupied after the fall of the city, and it took some effort on the part of Godfrey to change his mind.
Raimund participated in the Battle of Ascalon part shortly after the conquest of Jerusalem, in which an Egyptian army was defeated. The dispute between him and Gottfried for the possession of Ashkelon meant that the city was not conquered until 1153. Also, he failed to capture Arsuf, which earned him accusations by Godfrey.
As Raimund moved north in winter 1099-1100, he served as the first act of hostility against Bohemond, when he conquered Laodicea, which Bohemond had recently taken Alexios. From here, he traveled to Constantinople Opel, where he allied with Alexius against Bohemund, who was trying at the time to extend his possessions at the expense of the Byzantine Empire, and refused to comply with his oath to the Byzantine Empire.
Crusade of 1101
Raymond joined the smaller and ultimately unsuccessful crusade of 1101 was defeated in Heraclea in Anatolia. Raimund fled and returned to Constantinople Opel back from there in 1102 by sea to Antioch, where he was captured by Tancred, who ruled the principality of Bohemund during his own imprisonment. He was only released when he promised not to attempt to conquer the country between Antioch and Acre - a promise which he immediately broke by - with the support of Alexios, which it was important to have an ally in Tripoli to balance the hostile Antioch - Tortosa attacked and conquered and then began on the Mons Peregrinus ( pilgrims mountain ) outside the gates of Tripoli to build a castle, which should facilitate their siege of the city.
Raymond died in 1105, having conquered without Tripoli. He was succeeded by his kinsman William -Jordan, Count of Cerdanya as guardian of his two -year-old heir Alfonso -Jordan, the 1109 with the help of Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, the conquest of Tripoli and thus the establishment of the County of Tripoli succeeded.
Although Raymond IV of Toulouse, the only leader of the First Crusade was that left a considerable estate at departure, he seems to have been driven by both religious and material reasons. On the one hand he accepted the discovery of the Holy Lance and rejected the crown of Jerusalem back, on the other hand he could not resist the purchase of new countries.
Raymond of Aguilers, a clerk in Raymond's army, wrote a report on the crusade from the perspective of the Count of Toulouse. According to an Armenian source, he had lost an eye during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem before the Crusades, but this statement is doing it only to explain the fact that he was one-eyed ( MONOCULUS ).
Aftermath
- Count Raymond of Toulouse is one of the main characters in Giuseppe Verdi's opera Jérusalem, which was premiered in 1847 in Paris.