Bohemund V of Antioch-Tripoli (d. 1252)

Prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli (1233-1252), having inherited both titles on the death of his father, Bohemund IV.

After a marriage to Alice of Champagne that was soon annulled, Bohemund married Lucienne of Segni, a cousin of Pope Gregory IX. Perhaps learning from his father’s experience, Bohemund obtained the privilege that he could not be excommunicated by anyone except the pope. His authority within both of his principalities was curtailed by the commune of Antioch (mod. Antakya, Turkey) as well as by the independence of the military orders, which controlled the port of Tortosa (mod. Tartus, Syria) and the castles of Baghras (mod. Bagra, Turkey), Margat (mod. Marqab, Syria), Krak des Chevaliers (mod. Qal‘at al-Hisn or Hisn al-Akrad, Syria), and Safita.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Bohemund largely stayed out of the struggle in the kingdom of Jerusalem between the Frankish barons and the Staufen regime imposed by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Sicily. Bohemund himself did not join in the battle of La For-bie (1244), in which the Franks of Jerusalem were defeated by the Ayyubids of Egypt, but a large number of Antiochene and Tripolitan troops lost their lives. Although the prince generally maintained good relations with his Muslim neighbors, relations with the Armenians had been strained since the death of his brother Philip at the hands of Constantine of Lampron in 1225. Bohemund died in January 1252 and was succeeded by his son Bohemund VI.

-Christopher MacEvitt

Bibliography

Cahen, Claude, La Syrie du nord a I’epoque des croisades et la principaute franque d’Antioche (Paris: Geuthner, 1940).

Runciman, Steven, History of the Crusades, 3 vols.

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).