Ruben III. (Armenia)

Ruben III. of Armenia († 1187 in Drazark ) was the ruling prince of Lesser Armenia from 1174 to 1187 . He was the son of Stephan I and Retha de Barbaron . The barons made him ruler after the murder of his uncle Mleh .

After the defeat of the Byzantines at the Battle of Myriokephalon in September 1176, Ruben allied himself with the victorious Rum Seljuks .

In 1177 he supported Prince Bohemond III. of Antioch during his unsuccessful siege of Harenc .

In the spring of 1181 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem . There he married Isabella von Toron , the daughter of Humfried III. by Toron and Stephanie of Transjordan , which deepened his relations with the Crusader States. With Isabella he had two daughters:

• Alice of Armenia (* 1182; † after 1234),

∞ I) 1189 Hetum of Sassun († 1193), Lord of Misis

∞ II) 1194 Raymond IV. Count of Tripoli , regent of Antioch

∞ III) 1220 Vahram of Korykos († 1222)

• Philippa (* 1183),

∞ I) 1189 Shahanshah (Schahe'nschah) of Sassun († 1193), Lord of Silifke

∞ II) 1214 Theodor I. Komnenos Laskaris , the Emperor of Nicaea .

He fought his Armenian rivals, the Hethumids , who had allied themselves with the Byzantines. Around 1182 Ruben was from Bohemond III. captured by Antioch . As a ransom he was supposed to pay 30,000 solidi and hand over some of the Cilician coastal towns. Instead of the always tight money, Ruben offered to hand over the Byzantine governor Isaak Komnenus and his family, whom he had previously captured himself. Bohemond agreed.

In 1187 Ruben abdicated in favor of his brother Leon II and died a little later as a monk in the Drazark monastery .

literature

• Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades. CH Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-39960-6 .

Web links

• Rupen at fmg.ac (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Runciman, p. 720
2. ↑ See Runciman, p. 723.

predecessor	Office	successor
Mleh	Prince of Lesser Armenia 1174–1187	Leon ii