Thoros II

Thoros II. († 1169 ) was prince of Lesser Armenia from 1140 to 1169 .

Life

Thoros came from the house of the Rubenids and was the son of the Armenian prince Leo I and Beatrice von Rethel . Together with his younger brother Ruben and his father, Thoros was taken prisoner in 1137 and was brought to Constantinople , where his father died in 1140 and Ruben was murdered in 1141. Thoros managed to escape to Lesser Armenia, where he arrived in 1145. There he recaptured Vahka from the Byzantines and established his own rule. In 1151 he succeeded in taking Mopsuestia and Til Hamdun . Thereby he called the emperor Manuel I Komnenos on the scene, who in 1152 sent an army under the command of his cousin Andronikos I to retake Mopsuestia. Manuel also used Armenian nobles who were in opposition to the Rubenids. In a surprise attack at night, Thoros succeeded in defeating the opposing troops, with Sempad, lord of Barbaron, perishing and Oschin II, lord of Lampron , Basilios, lord of Partzerpert , and Tigran, lord of Prakan , captured got.

After this defeat, the Byzantines persuaded the Sultan of the Rum Seljuks , Mas'ud I , to attack Lesser Armenia in 1153 . Thoros was able to prevent an attack initially by recognizing Mas'ud as liege lord, but this Thoros attacked in the following year. He besieged Anazarba (today's Agaçli) and at the same time sent an army against the principality of Antioch , which however could be defeated by the Knights Templar . Thereupon the Seljuks gave up the siege of Anazarba. The siege of Til Hamdun in 1155 by the Seljuks also remained unsuccessful. When Kılıç Arslan II succeeded Mas'ud I as Sultan in 1156 , the Seljuks and Armenians made peace. Although Thoros' half-brother Stephan attacked Seljuk territory around Kokison in 1157 despite this agreement , Thoros gave the land back to the Seljuks.

At this time Thoros came into conflict with Rainald von Chatillon over possession of the fortress Baghras in the border area between the principality of Antioch and Lesser Armenia. This fortress was originally built for the Templars , then came into the possession of the Byzantines and finally to Lesser Armenia. Emperor Manuel I ordered Renaud to retake the fortress for Byzantium, but Renaud was defeated by Thoros at Alexandretta . Thoros then returned Baghras to the Templars, who in return undertook to support him. Since Manuel, faced with Renaud's defeat, refused to pay him for the campaign, Renaud switched sides and joined Thoros. Together they undertook a bloody raid against Byzantine Cyprus .

In 1158 Manuel then surprisingly sent a large army towards the small Armenian coast. Thoros was staying in Tarsos at this time and, when the city was taken by Manuel's brother-in-law Theodoros Batatzes , he only barely escaped to the mountain fortress of Tajikikar . His ally, Rainald of Chatillon, submitted to the emperor at Mamistra and, to the amazement of most contemporaries, retained his head and rule over Antioch . However, he seems to have had allies at the imperial court who stood up for him. Through the mediation of King Baldwin III. , who was staying in the imperial camp, and the Templar also came to an understanding with Thoros, who submitted to the emperor and gave him some fortifications. Tarsus was probably annexed to Antioch at this time, Bohemond only sold it to Ruben III in 1183, with which the city came back to Armenia.

The emperor spent Easter in Cilicia and then returned to Antioch. But when a little later the Byzantine governor of Tarsos, Andronikos Euphorbenos , invited Stephan, Thoros' half-brother, to a feast and had him killed because of Stephen's earlier attacks on Byzantine territory, Thoros and his half-brother Mleh gave the order to all Greeks in their area to murder. Another war with Byzantium could just be avoided through the mediation of the King of Jerusalem, Amalrich I.

The final years of Thoros' reign were marked by rivalry with Mleh, who sought his life. The attack was discovered, however, and Mleh lost a large part of his possessions. He fled to Antioch and finally to Aleppo to enter the service of Nur ad-Din . Shortly before his death, Thoros went to the monastery and appointed his underage son Ruben II as his successor. Thomas , a relative of Thoros, took over the reign.

In addition to Ruben, Thoros left two daughters: Rita, who lived with Hethum III. von Lampron was married, and Irene, the wife of Isaac Comnenus of Cyprus .

literature

• Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades , Munich 1978
• Emily A. Babcock, AC Krey (Ed.): A history of the Deeds done beyond the sea, by William, Archbishop of Tire , New York, Columbia University Press 1943

predecessor	Office	successor
Stephan I.	Prince of Lesser Armenia 1144–1169	Ruben II.