Botron

Who he is

Name

Plebanus (Plivano, Pieban), a Pisan, with his wife Cecilia (Lucia), heiress of Botron

Title

Lord of Botron (by marriage)

Since

1181

Born

not pinned

Family

Plebanus was a rich Pisan; Cecilia was the daughter and heiress of Rostain, lord of Botron (FMG)

Confidence

high

In 1181 Raymond III of Tripoli gave the heiress of Botron to Plebanus, who is said to have paid her weight in gold, although Gerard of Ridefort, later master of the Temple, had been promised her (general reference). Plebanus witnesses charters in 1181, 1195, 1196, 1198, 1199, 1204 and 1209, and dies between September 1209 and January 1227; Cecilia is living after March 1203 (FMG). His nephew Henry witnesses in August 1198.

The heiress Isabella, who holds Botron from 1206 and marries Bohemond (son of Bohemond III and Isabella), is presumably their daughter; her birth is not pinned.

Overlord

Bohemond IV, count of Tripoli

What it holds

• Botron: the small walled port and its castle
• The coast from the Nahr al-Madfun to Ras Shaqqa and the hill villages behind it (extent not pinned)

How it was acquired

By marriage to the heiress, 1181.

Allies and rivals

In the count's circle (witness in 1198, 1199 and 1204); Pisan connections.

How things stand that morning

Held. Whether Botron was occupied by Saladin's men in 1187-1188 and recovered with Gibelet is not pinned in the sources read; Plebanus witnesses as lord from 1195.

Wealth

Port and coastal farms; Pisan trade. No figures.

Military

The town walls and a small castle; knight service to the count.

Threats

• Succession by an heiress (Isabella), which later draws Bohemond III's younger son in

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia calls the heiress Cecilia (Lucia); FMG calls her Cecile and gives her father as Rostain.

Evidence: Holder well attested in charters of 1195-1209; the lordship's extent is not.

On the map: Inland extent approximate.

Primary sources for Tripoli

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer, Ernoul, squire of Balian of Ibelin, and later compilers (the 1187 core soon after the event; the whole in its present form 1227 to 1232). The Ibelin household's version of events in Outremer. Read online
• The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (Eracles), Anonymous continuators, the earliest drawing on Ernoul (about 1220 to 1277; the first continuation (1184 to 1197, the Lyon Eracles) compiled about 1230 from material of the 1190s). For the Latin East at 1200 it narrates the aftermath of the Third Crusade: the truce of 1192, the succession to Jerusalem through Queen Isabella's marriages to Henry of Champagne (died September 1197) and Aimery of Lusignan, Aimery's rule as king of Jerusalem from 1198 while king of Cyprus, the German crusade of 1197 to 1198 and the recovery of Beirut and Sidon, the truce with al-Adil of 1198, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond IV and Leo of Armenia, and the Pisan plot against Aimery. Read online
• Calendar of the Acts of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Various, calendared by Reinhold Rohricht (documents 1097 to 1291; calendar published 1893, Additamentum 1904). A chronological calendar of every charter, letter and treaty of the Latin East then known, with date, parties, witnesses and the edition where each is printed. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• General Cartulary of the Order of the Hospital, Various, edited by Joseph Delaville Le Roulx (documents 1100 to 1310; published in 4 vols, Paris, 1894 to 1906). Volume 1 (1100 to 1200) and volume 2 (1201 to 1260) print in full the Hospital's charters: royal and baronial grants in Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch and Cilicia, papal bulls, the order's European priories and its agreements with the Temple and the Italians. Read online
• The Rule of the Templars: the Latin Rule, the French Rule and the hierarchical statutes, Anonymous (the Council of Troyes and the order's chapter) (Latin rule 1129; French translation about 1140; hierarchical statutes (retrais) about 1165; further statutes to about 1260). Not a chronicle but the constitution of the Temple as it stood in 1200: the hierarchical statutes describe the master, seneschal, marshal and the commanders of Jerusalem, Tripoli and Antioch, the drawing up of the line of battle, the convent's discipline and the horses, squires and tents allowed to each rank. Read online
• The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, Benjamin of Tudela (about 1173). A generation before 1200 but the only survey of its kind: the Jewish communities and their heads from Navarre through Provence, Italy, Constantinople and the Aegean, Antioch, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, Mosul and Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, with notes on rulers, trades, the exilarch at Baghdad, the Assassins of Syria and Persia, and hearsay on India, Ceylon and China. Read online