Prince of Antioch (1216-1219).
Raymond-Rupen was probably born in 1196, the son of Raymond, the eldest son of Prince Bohemund III of Antioch; his mother was Alice, niece of King Leon I of Cilicia (Lesser Armenia). He was raised in Cilicia after the death of his father in 1197.
Following the death of his grandfather. Bohemund III (1201), Raymond-Rupen should by rights have inherited the principality of Antioch. However, his uncle, Count Bohe-mund IV of Tripoli, arrived in the city of Antioch (mod. Antakya, Turkey) before him and was elected prince by its commune, which feared Armenian domination under Ray-mond-Rupen. Yet in 1216 the young Raymond-Rupen seized the city with the help of his great-uncle, Leon I, and was consecrated prince of Antioch. Raymond’s rule in Antioch, though popular in the beginning, soon became an unwanted imposition. The citizens welcomed Bohemund IV back in 1219, and Raymond, having already alienated Leon, fled to Damietta in Egypt, where the Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) was in progress.
Following Leon’s death in 1219 Raymond claimed the Cilician throne by right of his mother. He invaded Cilicia in 1221 but, after a few successes, was captured by Constantine of Lampron, regent for Leon’s young daughter Isabella. He died in prison the following year.
-Christopher MacEvitt
Bibliography
Cahen, Claude, La Syrie du Nord a I’epoque des croisades et la principaute franque d’Antioche (Paris: Geuthner, 1940).
Mutafian, Claude, La Cilicie au carrefour des empires, 2 vols. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1988).
Runciman, Steven, A History of the Crusades, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951).
World History
