Prince of Antioch was the title given during the Middle Ages to Norman rulers of the Principality of Antioch, a region surrounding the city of Antioch, now known as Antakya in Turkey. The Princes originally came from the County of Sicily in Southern Italy. After 1130 and until 1816 this county was known as the Kingdom of Sicily. Prince Bohemond IV of Antioch additionally came into possession of the County of Tripoli, combining these two Crusader states for the rest of their histories.
Antioch had been the chief city of the region since the time of the Roman Empire. When the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt drove out the knights in 1268, they largely destroyed the city to deny access to the region in case the Crusaders returned.
Prince, reign | Birth | Marriage(s) | Death |
---|---|---|---|
Bohemond I 1098–1111 | c. 1058 San Marco Argentano, Calabria son of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria & Alberada of Buonalbergo | Constance of France 25 March-26 May 1106 two sons | 3 March 1111 Bari, Apulia aged about 53 |
Tancred, Prince of Galilee acted as regent 1100–1103 and 1104–1112. | |||
Bohemond II 1111–1130 | 1108 Apulia son of Prince Bohemond I and Constance of France | Alice of Jerusalem 1126 one daughter | February 1130 Mamistra, Cilicia aged about 22 |
Roger of Salerno acted as regent 1112–1119; King Baldwin II of Jerusalem acted as regent 1119–1126 and 1130–1131. | |||
Constance 1130–1163 with Raymond 1136–1149 with Raynald 1153–1160 | 1127 daughter of Prince Bohemond II and Agnes of Jerusalem | Raymond of Poitiers 1136 three children Raynald of Châtillon 1153 one daughter | 1163 aged about 36 |
Fulk, King of Jerusalem acted as regent 1131–1136. | |||
Raymond 1136–1149 with Constance | c. 1115 Poitiers, Aquitaine son of William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and Philippa of Toulouse | Constance, Princess of Antioch 1136 three children | 29 June 1149 Inab, Syria aged about 34 |
Raynald 1153–1160 with Constance | c. 1125 | Constance, Princess of Antioch 1153 one daughter Stephanie, Lady of Oultrejordain 1175 two children | 4 July 1187 Hittin, Kingdom of Jerusalem aged about 62 |
Bohemond III 1163–1201 | 1144 son of Prince Raymond and Princess Constance | Orguilleuse d'Harenc c. 1169 two sons Theodora Komnene c. 1176 two children Sibylle c. 1181 two children Isabella c. 1199 one son | 1201 aged about 57 |
Bohemond III's eldest son Raymond IV, Count of Tripoli acted as regent 1193–1194. | |||
Bohemond IV 1201–1216 1219–1233 | c. 1172 son of Prince Bohemond III and Orguilleuse d'Harenc | Plaisance Embracio de Giblet bef. 21 August 1198 six children Melisende of Jerusalem January 1218 three daughters | March 1233 aged about 61 |
Raymond-Roupen 1216–1219 | 1199 son of Raymond IV, Count of Tripoli and Alice of Armenia | Helvis of Cyprus c. 1210 two daughters | c. 1221 Armenia aged about 22 |
Bohemond V 1233–1252 | 1199 son of Prince Bohemond IV and Plaisance Embracio de Giblet | Alice of Champagne July 1225 no children Luciana di Segni 1235 two children | January 1252 Antioch aged about 53 |
Bohemond VI 1252–1268 | c. 1237 son of Prince Bohemond V and Luciana di Segni | Sibylla of Armenia 1254 four children | 1275 aged about 38 |
Titular Prince, reign | Birth | Marriage(s) | Death |
---|---|---|---|
Bohemond VI 1268–1275 | c. 1237 son of Prince Bohemond V and Luciana di Segni | Sibylla of Armenia 1254 four children | 1275 aged about 38 |
Bohemond VII 1275–1287 | 1261 son of Prince Bohemond VI and Sibylla of Armenia | Margaret of Acre no children | 19 October 1287 aged about 26 |
Lucia 1287–c. 1299 | daughter of Prince Bohemond VI and Sibylla of Armenia | Narjot de Toucy c. 1278 one son | after 1292 |
Philippe II c.1299–1300 | after 1278 Auxerre son of Narjot de Toucy and Princess Lucia | Eleanor of Naples 1299 no children | 1300 |
Here the empty title passes to the Kings of Cyprus and Jerusalem. | |||
Margaret 1300–1308 | c. 1244 daughter of Henry of Antioch and Isabella of Cyprus | Jean de Montfort 22 September 1268 no children | 1308 aged about 74 |
John I (of Lusignan) bef. 1364–1375 | c. 1329 son of Hugh IV, King of Cyprus, and Alix of Ibelin | Constance of Sicily 1343 no children Alice of Ibelin 1350 one son | 1375 aged about 46 |
John II bef. 1432–1432 | 16 May 1418 son of Janus, King of Cyprus, and Charlotte of Bourbon | Amadea Palaiologina of Montferrat 3 July 1440 no children Helena Palaiologina 3 February 1442 two daughters | 28 July 1458 aged 40 |
John III (of Coimbra) c. 1456–1457 | 1431 son of Infante Peter, Duke of Coimbra and Isabella of Urgell | Charlotte of Cyprus 1456 no children | 1457 Nicosia, Kingdom of Cyprus aged about 26 |
The Lordship of Saône was centered on the castle of Saône, but included the towns of Sarmada (lost in 1134) and Balatanos. Saône was captured by Saladin from the last lord, Matthew, in 1188.
Like Jerusalem, Antioch had its share of great officers, including Constable, Marshal, Seneschal, Duc, Vicomte, Butler, Chamberlain, and Chancellor.
Roger II or Roger the Great was King of Sicily and Africa, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in 1127, then King of Sicily in 1130 and King of Africa in 1148.
Bohemond I of Antioch, also known as Bohemond of Taranto or Bohemond of Hauteville, was the prince of Taranto from 1089 to 1111 and the prince of Antioch from 1098 to 1111. He was a leader of the First Crusade, leading a contingent of Normans on the quest eastward. Knowledgeable about the Byzantine Empire through earlier campaigns with his father, he was the most experienced military leader of the crusade.
Bohemond II was Prince of Taranto from 1111 to 1128 and Prince of Antioch from 1111/1119 to 1130. He was the son of Bohemond I, who in 1108 was forced to submit to the authority of the Byzantine Empire in the Treaty of Devol. Three years later, the infant Bohemond inherited the Principality of Taranto under the guardianship of his mother, Constance of France. The Principality of Antioch was administered by his father's nephew, Tancred, until 1111. Tancred's cousin, Roger of Salerno, managed the principality from 1111 to 1119. After Roger died in the Battle of the Field of Blood, Baldwin II of Jerusalem took over the administration of Antioch. However, he did acknowledge Bohemond's right to personally rule the principality upon reaching the age of majority.
The County of Edessa was a 12th-century Crusader state in Upper Mesopotamia. Its seat was the city of Edessa.
The Principality of Antioch was one of the Crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It extended around the northeastern edge of the Mediterranean, bordering the County of Tripoli to the south, Edessa to the east, and the Byzantine Empire or the Kingdom of Armenia to the northwest, depending on the date.
The County of Tripoli (1102–1289) was the last of the Crusader states. It was founded in the Levant in the modern-day region of Tripoli, northern Lebanon and parts of western Syria. When the Frankish Crusaders – mostly southern French forces – captured the region in 1109, Bertrand of Toulouse became the first count of Tripoli as a vassal of King Baldwin I of Jerusalem. From that time, the rule of the county was decided not strictly by inheritance but by factors such as military force, favour and negotiation. In 1289 the County of Tripoli fell to Sultan Qalawun of the Muslim Mamluks of Cairo. The county was absorbed into Mamluk Egypt.
In the Battle of Ager Sanguinis, also known as the Battle of the Field of Blood, the Battle of Sarmada, or the Battle of Balat, Roger of Salerno's Crusader army of the Principality of Antioch was annihilated by the army of Ilghazi of Mardin, the Artuqid ruler of Aleppo on 28 June 1119.
Bohemond III of Antioch, also known as Bohemond the Child or the Stammerer, was Prince of Antioch from 1163 to 1201. He was the elder son of Constance of Antioch and her first husband, Raymond of Poitiers. Bohemond ascended to the throne after the Antiochene noblemen dethroned his mother with the assistance of the lord of Armenian Cilicia, Thoros II. He fell into captivity in the Battle of Harim in 1164, but the victorious Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo released him to avoid coming into conflict with the Byzantine Empire. Bohemond went to Constantinople to pay homage to Manuel I Komnenos, who persuaded him to install a Greek Orthodox patriarch in Antioch. The Latin patriarch of Antioch, Aimery of Limoges, placed Antioch under interdict. Bohemond restored Aimery only after the Greek patriarch died during an earthquake in 1170.
The Battle of Inab, also called Battle of Ard al-Hâtim or Fons Muratus, was fought on 29 June 1149, during the Second Crusade. The Zengid army of Atabeg Nur ad-Din Zangi destroyed the combined army of Prince Raymond of Poitiers and the Assassins of Ali ibn-Wafa. The Principality of Antioch was subsequently pillaged and reduced in size as its eastern border was pushed west.
The Treaty of Devol was an agreement made in 1108 between Bohemond I of Antioch and Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, in the wake of the First Crusade. It is named after the Byzantine fortress of Devol. Although the treaty was not immediately enforced, it was intended to make the Principality of Antioch a vassal state of the Byzantine Empire.
The Battle of Harran took place on 7 May 1104 between the Crusader states of the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa, and the Seljuk Turks. It was the first major battle against the newfound Crusader states in the aftermath of the First Crusade, marking a key turning point against Frankish expansion. The battle had a disastrous effect on the Principality of Antioch as the Turks regained territory earlier lost.
Roger of Salerno was regent of the Principality of Antioch from 1112 to 1119. He was the son of Richard of the Principate and the 2nd cousin of Tancred, Prince of Galilee, both participants on the First Crusade. He became regent of Antioch when Tancred died in 1112; the actual prince, Bohemund II, was still a child. Like Tancred, Roger was almost constantly at war with the nearby Muslim states such as Aleppo. In 1114 there was an earthquake that destroyed many of the fortifications of the principality, and Roger took great care to rebuild them, especially those near the frontier.
Najm ad-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq was the Turkoman Artukid ruler of Mardin from 1107 to 1122. He was born into the Oghuz tribe of Döğer.
The Hauteville was a Norman family originally of seigneurial rank from the Cotentin. The Hautevilles rose to prominence through their part in the Norman conquest of southern Italy. By 1130, one of their members, Roger II, was made the first King of Sicily. His male-line descendants ruled Sicily until 1194. Some Italian Hautevilles took part in the First Crusade and the founding of the Principality of Antioch (1098).
The Normans were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. The term is also used to denote emigrants from the duchy who conquered other territories such as England and Sicily. The Norse settlements in West Francia followed a series of raids on the French northern coast mainly from Denmark, although some also sailed from Norway and Sweden. These settlements were finally legitimized when Rollo, a Scandinavian Viking leader, agreed to swear fealty to King Charles III of West Francia following the siege of Chartres in 911. The intermingling in Normandy produced an ethnic and cultural "Norman" identity in the first half of the 10th century, an identity which continued to evolve over the centuries.
William of Zardana, also known as William of Saone, was a powerful baron who held Balatanos, Saone and Zardana in the Principality of Antioch. After his father, Robert the Leper, was executed by the atabeg of Toghtekin in 1119, William inherited Balatanos and Saone. Zardana, that his father had lost before his death, was restored to William by Baldwin II of Jerusalem in 1121. He supported Baldwin II's daughter, Alice, against her brother-in-law, Fulk of Jerusalem, in 1132, but Fulk defeated her allies. William died fighting either against Fulk's troops or against a Muslim army.
Robert fitz-Fulk the Leper, also known as Robert Fulcoy, Robert the Leprous, or Robert of Saone, was a powerful baron in the Principality of Antioch.
Rainald I Masoir, also known as Renaud I Masoir, was constable of the Principality of Antioch from around 1126, and also baillif of the principality from 1132. Although he was a prominent military commander and held important offices, most details of his life are unknown. He received his first estates in the southern regions of Antioch in the 1110s. He made the strong fortress of Margat the center of his domains. He regularly witnessed the Antiochene rulers' diplomas from the 1120s. He was most probably still the actual ruler of the principality when he died.
The Lordship of Marash was a territorial lordship in northeastern Cilicia between 1104 and 1149, centred on the city of Marash. One of the lesser Crusader states, it played a major role in the defence of the northern frontier in the 1130s and 1140s under Lords Geoffrey and Baldwin. Its position became untenable after the fall of Edessa in 1146.