Principality of Antioch: Encyclopedia II - Principality of Antioch - Antioch in the Byzantine Empire

Principality of Antioch - Antioch in the Byzantine Empire

After the fall of Edessa in 1144, Antioch was attacked by Nur ad-Din during the Second Crusade. Much of the eastern part of the Principality was lost, and Raymond was killed at the battle of Inab in 1149. Baldwin III of Jerusalem was technically regent for Raymond's widow Constance until 1153 when she married Raynald of Chatillon. Raynald, too, immediately found himself in conflict with the Byzantines, this time in Cyprus; he made peace with Manuel I Comnenus, however, in 1158, and the next year Manuel arrived to take personal control of the Principality. Henceforth, the Principality of Antioch was to be a vassal of Byzantium until Manuel's death in 1180. Although this arrangement meant that the Principality had to provide a contingent for the Byzantine Army (troops from Antioch participated in an attack on the Seljuk Turks in 1176), it also safeguarded the City against Nur ad-Din at a time when it was in serious danger of being overun.

Raynald was taken prisoner by the Muslims in 1160, and the regency fell to the Patriarch of Antioch (Raynald was not released until 1176, and never returned to Antioch). Meanwhile, Manuel married Constance's daughter Maria, but as Constance was only nominally in charge of Antioch, she was deposed in 1163 and replaced by her son Bohemund III. Bohemund was taken captive by Nur ad-Din the following year at the Battle of Harim, and the Orontes River became the permanent boundary between Antioch and Aleppo. Bohemund returned to Antioch in 1165, and married one of Manuel's nieces; he was also convinced to install a Greek Orthodox patriarch in the city.

The Byzantine alliance came to an end with the death of the Emperor Manuel in 1180. Suddenly, Antioch was deprived of the Empire's protection, which had been enough to frighten Nur ad-Din away from intervening in the area for the past twenty years. Nevertheless, with help from the fleets of the Italian city-states Antioch survived Saladin's assault on the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. Neither Antioch nor Tripoli participated in the Third Crusade, although the remnants of Frederick Barbarossa's army briefly stopped in Antioch in 1190 to bury their king. Bohemund III's son, also named Bohemund, had become count of Tripoli after the Battle of Hattin, and Bohemund III's eldest son Raymond married an Armenian princess in 1194. Bohemund III died in 1201.

Bohemund's death resulted in a struggle for control between Antioch, represented by Bohemund of Tripoli, and Armenia, represented by Bohemund III's grandson Raymond-Roupen. Bohemund of Tripoli, as Bohemund IV, took control by 1207, but Raymond briefly ruled as a rival from 1216 to 1219. Bohemund died in 1233, and Antioch, ruled by his son Bohemund V, played no important role in the Fifth Crusade, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II's struggles to take back Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade, or Louis IX of France's Seventh Crusade.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Antioch in the Byzantine Empire", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki