County of Tripoli

Who rules

Name

Bohemond IV

Title

Count of Tripoli

Since

late 1187 (Wikipedia); FMG says his father installed him in 1189

Born

about 1172 (French Wikipedia) or about 1175 (English Wikipedia)

Family

Younger son of Bohemond III of Antioch and Orgueilleuse of Harenc

Confidence

high

Raymond III of Tripoli left the county to his godson Raymond, Bohemond III's eldest son, but Bohemond III sent his younger son instead (late 1187). Wife: Plaisance Embriaco, daughter of Hugh III of Gibelet and Stephanie of Milly (she dies in 1217); married by about 1194, since their eldest son Raymond was about eighteen when he was murdered at Tortosa in 1213. Children by 1 January 1200: Raymond, about four or five; the second son Bohemond (V) may be born, but his birth year is not pinned; Philip, Henry and Orgueilleuse are not pinned and probably later.

He lost an eye fighting Renart of Nephin's men at the gates of Tripoli in late 1204, so the byname is later.

Overlord

None in practice. The counts of Tripoli were sometimes counted vassals of the king of Jerusalem; Bohemond IV acts as a sovereign count.

What the realm holds

• Tripoli: the city, its port and the castle of Mount Pilgrim (Qal'at Sanjil) above it (the count's)
• The plain of Tripoli and the Koura and Zgharta hills (the count's domain; extent not pinned)
• The Akkar plain with Arqa (castle and small town; holder not pinned)
• Lordship of Gibelet (Byblos), held by Guy I Embriaco
• Lordship of Botron (Batroun), held by Plebanus and Cecilia
• Lordship of Nephin (Enfeh), lord on 1 January 1200 not pinned (Renart of Nephin by 1203)
• Gibelcar (Akkar castle): a lordship whose heiress Isabel marries Renart of Nephin in 1203; holder in 1200 not pinned
• Besmedin (Bechmezzine): a lordship of an Embriaco cadet line (Hugh of Gibelet, died 1220 or after); first date not pinned
• Tortosa and Chastel Blanc, the Templars' (Church map, Tortosa)
• Krak des Chevaliers and the Buqaia, the Hospitallers' (Church map, Krak)
• Chastel Rouge (Qal'at Yahmur), the Hospitallers' since 1177/78, destroyed by Saladin in 1188 and apparently recovered
• Maraclea: a small port taken by Saladin in 1188; its state in 1200 not pinned
• The Maronite villages of the high Lebanon (Bsharri, the Qadisha valley, the Jebbet) under the lords of Gibelet, Botron and the count (how far Frankish rule reached the high valleys is not pinned)
• Lost and claimed in name only: Montferrand (Barin) and Rafaniya, lost in 1137, and the Homs frontier

How it was acquired

Tripoli fell to the Franks in July 1109 after a long siege, and the county was the house of Toulouse's until Raymond III died in 1187. He left it to Bohemond III's eldest son Raymond; Bohemond III sent his younger son Bohemond instead, and the Tripolitan vassals did homage to him.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the Embriaci of Gibelet (his wife's family); the Templars, Leo's enemies over Baghras; the commune of Antioch, which chose him in 1198; in 1198 also the Hospitallers and the Italian merchants, won with promised grants. Rivals: Leo I of Armenia and the Raymond-Roupen party; his father's barons in Antioch, sworn to Raymond-Roupen. Aimery of Jerusalem and Cyprus and the Tiberias brothers later resent his independence (1203-1205); their stance on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Muslim neighbours: al-Mujahid Shirkuh of Homs, al-Amjad Bahramshah of Baalbek and the Nizaris of the Jabal Bahra; al-Zahir of Aleppo becomes his ally against Leo in 1201.

The realm that morning

Bohemond IV holds Tripoli and governs the county through his High Court; no source places him outside Tripoli that winter (not pinned). The Templars hold Tortosa and Chastel Blanc and the Hospitallers Krak, the Buqaia and Chastel Rouge as near-independent marches. Across the borders: the lordship of Beirut (the kingdom of Jerusalem, recovered in October 1197) to the south, the boundary running somewhere in the Kesrouan between the Nahr Ibrahim and the Nahr al-Kalb (not pinned; the outline stops at the Nahr Ibrahim); Baalbek's Bekaa beyond the crest of Mount Lebanon; Homs beyond the Homs Gap; the Nizari castles of the Jabal Bahra north-east of Tortosa (Khawabi, Qadmus, Kahf, Ullayqa, Maniqa, Masyaf: the Aleppo sheet's assassins); and the Hospitallers' Margat and Valania, Antiochene, to the north.

The ten-year truce made with Saladin at Beirut in October 1192 covered Tripoli as well as Antioch; whether Aimery's truce with al-Adil of 1 July 1198 also binds Tripoli is not pinned. No raiding is recorded on the county's borders that winter.

Wealth

Tripoli's port and markets, its silk, sugar and glass (the city's industries are well attested for the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, not pinned for 1200), the gold bezants struck at Tripoli in imitation of Fatimid dinars and the count's billon deniers, the sugar cane and gardens of the coastal plain, olive oil of the Koura, and the grain of the Akkar plain and the Buqaia. The Genoese, who helped take the city in 1109 and were rewarded with property in it (and with Gibelet, granted on to the Embriaci), and the Pisans trade under privileges. No figures.

Military

The count's household knights and the service owed by Gibelet, Botron, Nephin and the lesser fiefs; the military orders carry most of the eastern frontier (Krak, Chastel Blanc, Tortosa). The walls of Tripoli and the castle of Mount Pilgrim guard the capital; Nephin's castle, Gibelet's castle and Arqa guard the coast road and the Akkar. The orders' sides that winter: the Templars of Tortosa are the count's surest allies against Leo; the Hospitallers, who backed him in late 1198, are uncommitted after Leo's terms with the orders in early 1199 (not pinned), and rejoin him in 1201 when an old debt of Raymond III is settled (Setton, pp.

556, 561). The Hospitallers of Krak and Margat begin raiding Montferrand (Barin), held from Aleppo by al-Mansur of Hama, only in 1203.

Threats

• Leo of Armenia, should the Antioch succession turn to war
• Raids from Homs and Baalbek or the Nizaris if the truce lapses
• The independence of the military orders, who hold the county's eastern march
• Quarrels with his own vassals over marriages and fiefs (the Nephin war of 1203-1205 is later)

Churches

Latin bishops sit at Tripoli, Tortosa (Our Lady of Tortosa, a pilgrim shrine) and Gibelet, under the patriarch of Antioch (holders on 1 January 1200 not pinned). The Maronite patriarch Jeremiah of Amshit (1199-1230), from a village near Gibelet, whose church accepted union with Rome in the 1180s, lives in the hills of the Jebbet; the Greek Orthodox have their own clergy in Tripoli and the Koura.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. April 1201 (later)On his father's death Bohemond IV rides to Antioch, is accepted by the commune and becomes prince of Antioch as well as count of Tripoli.Depends on: Bohemond III's natural death; the commune keeping its preference for him. Stopped by: Leo or the Raymond-Roupen party taking Antioch first.
2. 1203-1205 (later)Renart of Nephin marries Isabel, heiress of Gibelcar, without the count's leave (1203); the High Court of Tripoli confiscates his fiefs; Renart, helped by Leo and King Aimery, raids to the walls of Tripoli (late 1204), where Bohemond loses an eye; after Aimery's death (April 1205) Bohemond takes Nephin and Gibelcar.Depends on: Renart's marriage and Leo's and Aimery's support. Stopped by: A settlement of the marriage, or the count's consent.
3. 20 May 1202 (later)A great earthquake strikes Syria and the coast, damaging Tripoli, Arqa, Krak and Chastel Blanc (general reference).Depends on: Natural event. Stopped by: Nothing in play.
4. 1203-1205 (later)The Hospitallers of Krak and Margat raid Montferrand (Barin), held from Aleppo by al-Mansur of Hama, twice in 1203 without success; a peace favourable to them follows in September 1203; they raid Barin, Jabala and Latakia again in 1204-1205.Depends on: The orders' wish to win back the lost castles and a quiet Antioch. Stopped by: A general truce enforced by the count, or al-Adil's intervention.

Places of note

• Mount Pilgrim (Qal'at Sanjil): The count's castle above Tripoli, begun by Raymond of Saint-Gilles.
• Arqa: Castle town of the Akkar plain.
• Mayfuq, seat of the Maronite patriarch: Patriarch Jeremiah of Amshit, chosen 1199. Position approximate.

Where the sources disagree

• Bohemond IV's birth: about 1172 (French Wikipedia) or about 1175 (English Wikipedia). His installation at Tripoli: late 1187 (Wikipedia) or 1189 (FMG).
• Raymond, Bohemond III's eldest son, dies in 1199 according to the French Wikipedia page on Bohemond IV; the English accounts say early 1197 and FMG May or June 1198. 1199 is not followed.

Evidence: The count, his marriage and the great vassals are well attested (FMG charters of 1198, 1199 and 1204; Setton); the county's officers, the holders of Nephin, Gibelcar and Arqa on 1 January 1200, and the state of Maraclea are not pinned.

On the map: The southern limit against Beirut (the Nahr Ibrahim or the Nahr al-Kalb), the eastern limit on the crest of Mount Lebanon and in the Homs Gap, and the edge of the Nizari mountains are approximate.

Primary sources for this realm

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