Episode 2352
Raymond III, Count of Tripoli
Fri, 2023-Oct-13 00:30 UTC
Length - 4:36
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Friday, 13 October 2023 is Raymond III, Count of Tripoli.
Raymond III (1140 – September/October 1187) was count of Tripoli from 1152 to 1187. He was a minor when Nizari Assassins murdered his father, Raymond II of Tripoli. Baldwin III of Jerusalem, who was staying in Tripoli, made Raymond's mother, Hodierna of Jerusalem, regent. Raymond spent the following years at the royal court in Jerusalem. He participated in a series of military campaigns against Nur ad-Din, the Zengid ruler of Damascus, after he reached the age of majority in 1155. Raymond hired pirates in 1161 to pillage the Byzantine coastline and islands to take vengeance on Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, who had refused to marry his sister Melisende. Captured in the Battle of Harim by Nur ad-Din's troops on 10 August 1164, he was imprisoned in Aleppo for almost ten years. During his captivity, Amalric I of Jerusalem administered the county of Tripoli on his behalf.
Raymond was released for a large ransom which he had to borrow from the Knights Hospitaller. His marriage to Eschiva of Bures made him prince of Galilee and one of the wealthiest noblemen in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Amalric died in 1174, leaving a minor son, Baldwin IV, as his successor. As the child-king's closest male relative, Raymond was elected bailiff (or regent). Raymond remained neutral during the conflicts between Nur ad-Din's successors and his former commander, Saladin, which facilitated the unification of Egypt and a significant part of Syria under Saladin. Baldwin reached the age of majority in 1176. Although Baldwin suffered from lepromatous leprosy, Raymond's regency ended and he returned to Tripoli.
Raymond and Bohemond III of Antioch sought to diminish the influence of the ailing Baldwin's mother, Agnes of Courtenay, and her brother, Joscelin III of Edessa, over the government. They unexpectedly marched to Jerusalem before Easter 1180, but their sudden arrival had the opposite effect. Baldwin hastily married his sister and heir, Sibylla, to the Courtenays' supporter Guy of Lusignan and Raymond had to leave the kingdom. Relations between Baldwin and his new brother-in-law became tense, and the dying king disinherited his sister in favour of her son Baldwin V. Raymond's partisans persuaded the King to make him bailiff for the child Baldwin V in 1185. His authority was limited because Joscelin III of Edessa was made the child's guardian, and all royal fortresses were placed into the custody of the military orders.
After Baldwin V died in the summer of 1186, Raymond convoked the barons of the realm to an assembly to Nablus; this enabled Sibylla's supporters to take possession of Jerusalem. Raymond tried to persuade Sybilla's half-sister, Isabella, and Isabella's husband, Humphrey IV of Toron, to claim the throne, but Humphrey swore fealty to Sybilla and Guy. Raymond refused to do homage to them and made an alliance with Saladin, allowing Saladin to cross Galilee during his campaigns against Jerusalem and to place a garrison in Galilee's capital Tiberias. Raymond was reconciled with Guy only after Saladin decided to launch a full-scale invasion against the crusaders in the summer of 1187. He commanded the vanguard of the crusaders' army in the Battle of Hattin, which ended with their catastrophic defeat. Raymond was one of the few crusader commanders who were not killed or captured. He fled to Tyre and then to Tripoli, where he died (probably of pleurisy) after bequeathing Tripoli to his godson, Raymond of Antioch. The late 12th-century historian William of Tyre held Raymond III in high regard, and contemporaneous Muslim historians also praised his intelligence, but after Hattin western historians tended to blame him for the crusaders' catastrophic defeat. In modern historiography, scholarly opinions are divided, with some historians accepting William of Tyre's assessment, while others emphasize Raymond's selfishness and failures.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Friday, 13 October 2023.
For the full current version of the article, see Raymond III, Count of Tripoli on Wikipedia.
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This has been Stephen Neural. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.
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