Count of Tripoli (1137-1152).
The son of Count Pons of Tripoli and Cecilia of France, widow of Tancred of Antioch, Raymond succeeded to the county when his father was killed by the Damascenes in March 1137. He was by then married to Hodierna, sister of Queen Melisende of Jerusalem, by whom he later had a son, Raymond (III), and a daughter, Melisende.
In the summer of1137 Raymond II was captured by Zangi while attempting to relieve the Tripolitan castle of Montfer-rand; the surrender of this strategic fortress was the price paid for his release by Raymond and his ally King Fulk of Jerusalem. Raymond subsequently made important grants to the Order of the Hospital, including the castle of Krak des Chevaliers and its territory. The arrival of the Second Crusade in 1148 brought about a threat to Raymond’s rule in the person of Alphonse-Jordan, count of Toulouse, who claimed to be the rightful heir to the county of Tripoli as the son of its founder, Raymond of Saint-Gilles. The death of Alphonse-Jordan soon after his arrival in the Holy Land was blamed by his son Bertrand on Raymond, and the ill will between Raymond and the French crusaders contributed to Raymond’s refusal to cooperate in the attack launched against
Damascus by the crusade armies and the Franks of Jerusalem in July 1148. In September Bertrand’s troops seized the Tripolitan castle of Aryma, and Raymond called in the Muslim princes Unur of Damascus and Nur al-Din, whose capture of Bertrand and destruction of his forces finally removed the Toulousan threat. Four years later, Raymond fell victim to attack by the Assassins, and he was succeeded by his son Raymond III.
-Alan V. Murray
Bibliography
Richard, Jean, Le Comte de Tripoli sous la dynastie toulousaine (1102-1187) (Paris: Geuthner, 1945).
World History
