Raymond IV (Toulouse)

Raimund IV of Toulouse (called Raimund von Saint-Gilles ; * 1041/42 in Toulouse ; † February 28, 1105 at the Mons Peregrinus Castle near Tripoli ) from the Raimundiner dynasty was Count of Toulouse and Margrave of Provence since 1094 and since 1102 Count of Tripoli . He was one of the most important military leaders 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 around 1061, he was given the land around the Abbey of Saint-Gilles and the title of Count, while his older brother William IV inherited the extensive territories of the family. In 1065 his cousin Bertha died , from whom he inherited the Rouergue and the title of Duke of Narbonne , which goes back to the old title of Margrave of Septimania / Gothien and included a claim to supremacy over the entire Languedoc region . Around 1081 Raimund inherited the margraviate of Provence after his uncle, Margrave Bertrand I , had died there. Raimund took part in the battles of the Christian kings of Spain against the Moors ( Reconquista ).

Around 1066 Raimund married a daughter of Count Gottfried I of Provence , who was not known by name , from whom he separated again around 1076. The son Bertrand emerged from the marriage, but his legitimacy was disputed. Raimund married Mathilde de Hauteville, a daughter of Count Roger I of Sicily , in his second marriage around 1080 , from whom he divorced around 1088. This marriage had remained childless. His third and last wife since 1094 was Elvira , an illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso VI. of Castile . During the crusade in Lebanon she gave birth to her son Alfons , who was baptized in the Jordan .

Raimund's older brother died in 1094, whereupon he inherited the Quercy and Albigeois in addition to the Toulousain . Raimund was recognized in this inheritance by the Pope in 1095, although any inheritance rights of his niece Philippa were ignored. She married Duke Wilhelm IX in 1094 . of Aquitaine , whereby their claims passed on to his family and thus triggered a generational dispute between Aquitaine and Toulouse .

First crusade

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II called for the first crusade at the Synod of Clermont , four days later Raymond IV was the first important prince to take the cross. In October 1096, Raimund, the oldest and richest of the Crusaders, set out for Jerusalem with his wife . He led one of the military campaigns of the crusade, consisting of southern French, mainly Provençals and Burgundians . They marched through northern Italy , along the Dalmatian coast to Dyrrhachion (Durrës), where they reached the old Roman military road, the Via Egnatia to Constantinople , on which Bohemond also moved east from Taranto . In Constantinople he met with the other army platoons. There he was the only one of the leaders of the crusade who refused the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I the feudal oath and instead negotiated a modified form of the oath in which he merely undertook to respect the emperor's life and honor.

He was involved in the siege of Nicaea and the battle of Dorylaum , but he only played an important role in the siege of Antioch in October 1097 : the Crusaders had heard rumors that Antioch had been devastated by the Seljuks , whereupon Raimund sent his army ahead occupy the city. This got in the way of Bohemond, who claimed it for himself. However, Antioch was intact and could not be captured by the Crusaders until 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 of Kerbogas , the Atabeg of Mosul , he witnessed from his sick bed, as well as the discovery of the Holy Lance by Peter Bartholomäus and the subsequent victory of the Crusaders, with which they could drive out the Arabs. The lance became the most precious relic among Raymond's followers, despite the skeptical attitude of Adhemar de Monteil , the bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay and apostolic legate .

Raimund refused to give up his possessions within the city to Bohemond, reminding him that he had to pass them on to Alexios I, in accordance with his oath. The following dispute between Raimund's and Bohemond's supporters revolved in part about the authenticity of the lance, but above all about the property of Antioch.

However, many of the simpler knights and foot soldiers were waiting to move on to Jerusalem and in the fall of 1098 convinced Raimund to lead them. Bohemond remained behind, as did a small delegation of Raimund's men (who were driven out by Bohemond in January 1099), the rest of them followed Raimund, who, since Adhemar had died in the meantime, was now in possession of the Holy Lance and the undisputed leader of the crusade.

Maara was conquered in December 1098, the siege of Arqa in the Emirate of Tripoli began on February 14, 1099 - both obviously with the intention of gaining independent territory that would limit the power of Bohemond to the south. The siege of Arqa at the gates of Tripoli lasted longer than hoped; He succeeded in conquering Hisn al-Akrad, a castle that was later named Krak des Chevaliers , but not that of Tripoli itself, which delayed the onward journey to Jerusalem and cost Raymond much of the support he had acquired after Antioch, when he insisted on completing this task first.

Finally, on May 13, Raimund agreed to move on to Jerusalem, the siege of which ended on July 15 with the storming of the city and a massacre of the residents. Raimund was offered the crown of Jerusalem , but he refused on the grounds that he did not want to wear a royal crown in the city where Christ had worn the crown of thorns. (This may have been an echo of sermons previously held.) Another possible reason for his refusal is that he would rather continue the siege of Tripoli. The rejection made him very popular, but now Godfried von Bouillon came to power, albeit under the more modest title of Princeps ("Prince"). Raimund also refused to hand over the Tower of David , which he had occupied after the fall of the city, and it took some effort on the part of Gottfried to change his mind.

Raimund took part in the Battle of Ascalon shortly after the conquest of Jerusalem, in which an Egyptian army was defeated. The dispute between him and Gottfried over the possession of Askalon meant that the city was not conquered until 1153. He also did not succeed in conquering Arsuf , which earned him reproaches on the part of Gottfried.

When Raimund moved north in the winter of 1099–1100, the first thing he did was a hostile act towards Bohemond when he conquered Laodicea , which Bohemond had recently taken from Alexios. From here he traveled to Constantinople, where he allied himself with Alexios against Bohemond, who at the time was trying to expand his possessions at the expense of Byzantium and refused to honor his oath to the Byzantine Empire .

Crusade of 1101

Raimund joined the smaller and ultimately unsuccessful crusade of 1101 , which was fought in Herakleia in Anatolia . Raimund fled and returned to Constantinople, from there in 1102 by sea to Antioch, where he was captured by Tankred , who ruled the principality during Bohemond's own captivity. He was only released when he promised not to attempt to conquer the land between Antioch and Akko - a promise which he immediately broke by - with the support of Alexios, who was important to have an ally in Tripoli to balance enemy Antioch - Tortosa attacked and conquered and then began to build a castle on Mons Peregrinus (Pilgrim's Mountain) at the gates of Tripoli, which should facilitate the siege of the city for him.

Raimund died in 1105 without having conquered Tripoli. He was followed by his blood relative Wilhelm-Jordan , the Count of Cerdagne as guardian of his two-year-old heir Alfons Jordan , who in 1109 with the help of Baldwin I , King of Jerusalem , succeeded in conquering Tripoli and thus establishing the County of Tripoli .

swell

Raimund von Aguilers , a cleric from Raimund's entourage, wrote a report on the crusade in which he takes the view of the Count of Toulouse. According to an Armenian source, Raymond had lost an eye on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem before his crusades. The statement does not necessarily apply, however, and possibly tries to explain the fact that he was one-eyed ( monoculus ), as other sources confirm, by a fictional history.

Aftermath

• Raimund von Toulouse is one of the main characters in Giuseppe Verdi's opera Jérusalem , which premiered in Paris in 1847.

literature

• Jean-Luc Dejean: Les comtes de Toulouse. 1979, 1988, ISBN 2-213-02188-0

Web links

Commons : Raimund IV.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Bertha	Earl of Gevaudan 1085-1105	Richard I.
Wilhelm IV. (III.)	Count of Toulouse 1088–1105	Bertrand (II.)
Wilhelm IV. (III.)	Margrave of Provence 1088–1105	Bertrand (II.)
New title created	Duke of Narbonne 1088-1105	Alfons Jordan
New title created	Count of Tripoli 1102–1105	Alfons Jordan