Principality of Antioche

The Principauté of Antioche , whose territory is in Turkey and Syria, was one of the Latin States of the East made up at the time of the Croisade S.

History

The foundation of the principality is due to the only will of Bohémond de Tarente to cut a Holy Land State. Before taking part in the crusade, Bohémond de Tarente, oldest son of Robert Guiscard, had seen themselves preferring his/her half-brother Roger junior like duke by Pouilles and Calabria.

Antioche was an old Byzantine city which had been conquered by the Moslems only one ten years before, in 1085. And at the time of their passage to Constantinople, the Basileus Alexis Ier Comnène had required by oath of the cross main leaders that they restore the grounds previously lost to him by the Byzantines - and only Raymond IV of Toulouse had refused to lend oath.

The catch of Antioche

Vis-a-vis the difficulties for of besieging Antioche, Bohémond saw the occasion there to be made grant a stronghold. First of all he threatened, pretexting the lengthening of the seat, to turn over to Italy to seek reinforcements, but its capacities of strategist and the importance of the quota accompanying it were necessary to the crusaders, who promised all to him that it wished so that it remained. Then, the departure of Tatizius, the representative of Basileus gave the opportunity to him to claim with a treason, which could authorize the crusaders to be considered untied of their oath. Lastly, being ensured - by an intelligence inside the city - to finally be able there to penetrate, it made promise by the chiefs of the crusade that the first to enter there would have it. Thus in the small hour of the June 3rd 1098, when the city was invested, only the banner of Bohémond floated on the city.

Hardly entered the city, the crusaders must undergo in their turn the seat set up by an army Seldjoukide which tried to take again the city. The discovery of the Holy-Lance made it possible to the crusaders to take again courage and to push back this army. Bohémond then became the uncontested chief of the city and refusing the Byzantine title of duke of Antioche , took again the title of prince whom it carried already (as a prince de Tarente ) to be entitled prince d' Antioche , thus marking an independence with respect to Byzance

First decades

June 13rd, 1098, the cross armies take again their roads towards Jerusalem, except Bohémond which must from now on ensure its stronghold, if not to extend it. It is however captured in 1100 and its nephew Tancrède becomes regent and increases the principality, taking the towns of Tarse and Latakia with the Byzantine Empire. Bohémond was released in 1103, and left regency to Tancrède to leave to seek new troops in Italy. It used its troops to attack Byzance in 1107 and was beaten with Dyrrhachium and was obliged by Alexis Ier Comnène to sign the Traité of Déabolis in which it accepted that Antioche recognized vassal being of the Byzantine Empire until the death of Bohémond and the return to Byzance of the grounds conquered by the crusaders since their passage to Constantinople in 1097. Bohémond attacked also Alep with Baudouin Ier of Jerusalem and Josselin Ier d' Édesse, and when Baudouin and Josselin were captured, Tancrède became also regent of Edesse. Bohémond once more left regency to Tancrède to set out again in Italy, where he died in 1111.

Alexis Ier claimed the return of the principality to Byzance, but Tancrède, supported by the count de Tripoli and the king de Jérusalem refused. He died in 1112 and Bohémond II succeeded to him, under the regency of the nephew of Tancrède, Roger of Salerno, which beat the Seldjoukide S in 1113.

However, the June 27th 1119, Roger was killed with Ager Sanguinis and Antioche became a vassal state of Jerusalem with the king Baudouin II as regent until in 1126. Bohémond II, which married Alix, girl of Baudouin II, controlled only four years, before being killed in 1130, and Baudouin II, then his/her son-in-law Foulque of Anjou ensured regency in the name of Constance, the girl of Bohémond II. In 1136, Constancy, still 10 years old, married Raymond of Poitiers, which had 36 of them.

Raymond, like his predecessors, attacked the Byzantine province of Cilicie. The emperor Jean II Comnène counteracted and besieged Antioche, forced Raymond to recognize his suzerainty and a Greek administration, but a riot formentée by Josselin II of Édesse obliged the Greeks to flee the city. Jean II projected to take again the cross states when he died in 1142.

The principality, between Byzance and Arménie

After the fall of Édesse in 1144, Antioche was attacked by Nur AD-DIN. Badly helped by the Second crusade, most of the east of the principality was lost and Raymond was killed with the Bataille of Inab in 1149. Baudouin III of Jerusalem became regent in the name of the widow of Raymond, until in 1153 when she married Renaud de Châtillon. Renaud entered immediately in conflict with Byzance, having plundered the Byzantine island of Cyprus. He was attacked in 1158 by Manuel Ier and had to humiliate and recognize his suzerainty.

Renaud was made prisoner by the Moslems in 1160 and regency was ensured by the patriarch of Antioche (Renaud was not released before 1176, and never returned in Antioche). Handbook married Marie, girl of Raymond and Constancy. In 1163, Bohémond III succeeded his/her mother, but was also made prisoner in the years which followed and the course of Oronte became the final border between Alep and Antioche. Bohémond returned in 1165 and married a niece of Ier Handbook; it authorized also the establishment of a orthodoxe Greek patriarch in the city.

Thanks to the assistance of Italian fleets, the state of Antioche survived the reconquest of Saladin. Neither Antioche, nor Tripoli took part in the Third crusade, although the remainders of the army of Frederic Barberousse stopped some time with Antioche in 1190 to bury their king. The oldest son of Bohémond III, named Raymond became count de Tripoli after the Bataille of Hattin and married a Armenian princess in 1194, but died in 1199. Bohémond III died in 1201.

Its succession was the beginning of a war succession between Bohémond IV, second wire of Bohémond III, supported by Latin of Antioche, and Raymond-Roupen, wire of Raymond and grandson of Bohémond III, supported by the Armenians. It was only in 1221 with the death of Raymon-Roupen that the war ended. Bohémond IV died in 1233 and Antioche, controlled by his/her son Bohémond V took great part with the Fifth crusade, neither with the fight between Frederic II and the barons of the East, nor with the Seventh crusade of Saint-Louis.

The fall of the principality

In 1254, Bohémond VI married Sibylle, a Armenian princess, putting an end to the fight between the two states, although on this point the Smallone was most powerful of both and Antioche was the vassal one. Then the conflict between the Mamelouk S and the started Mongolian S; when the Mongols were overcome with the Bataille of Ain Djalout in 1260, Baybars was turned over against their allied, Antioche and Arménie. The city was taken in 1268 with the totality of the north of franque Syria; thirty three years later, it was the turn of Arcre and the state cross disappeared. The title of prince d' Antioche became to the extinction counts of Tripoli, with the kings de Chypre resulting from a branch junior by the family by Poitiers-Antioche.

Geography and demography

The principality was, even during its greater extension, smaller than the Comté of Édesse and than the Royaume of Jerusalem. It extended to the North-East from the edge from the Mediterranean, and bordered by the Comté of Tripoli in the south, the county of Édesse in the North-East, the States Moslem (in particular ayyubide and Mameluke) in the east, transitorily the Byzantine empire and especially the Armenian Kingdom in Cilicie in the North-West.

There were probably 20.000 inhabitants at the 12th century, mainly of the Armenians and the orthodoxe Christians, with some Moslems outside the city. There were very few roman catholics apart from the crusaders, even if a Latin patriarchate were established there in 1100

Institutions

Armorial bearings

One allots to Bohémond Ier de Tarente the weapons of money to the branch of vairy gold fern perished out of stake, the branch poured against bottom . It are however allotted a posteriori, because the blazons appear only one half-century after the death of Bohémond.

Later, Bohémond VI of Antioche carried: quartered, into 1 and 4 of mouths and 2 and 3d' azure sown of flowers of lily of gold and it is specified that Saint Louis had enabled him to quarter its blazon with the lilies of France, which lets think that preceding the princes carried: of mouths full .

List princes d' Antioche

See the article: List of the princes d' Antioche

Organization of the principality

to develop

Vassal seigniories

The principal vassal seigniories of the principality of Antioche are:

the seigniory of Valénie and Marqab
the seigniory of the Saone and Sard
the seigniory of Harrenc
the seigniory of Cerep
the seigniory of Capharda

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