War of the Antiochene Succession

After Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Syria and Egypt, nearly destroyed the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the late 1180s, Antioch emerged as the leading Christian power in the Levant. By 1186 Leo II, Lord of Cilician Armenia, had recognised the suzerainty of Bohemond III of Antioch, but their relationship became tense after Bohemond defaulted on a loan from Leo. In 1187, Saladin decisively defeated the field army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin and swiftly conquered nearly all western Christian territories in Syria and Palestine. However, the Third Crusade, a major western European military expedition, ensured the survival of the three Crusader states of Jerusalem, Tripoli, and Antioch. In 1191, Leo captured and restored Bagras, a strategically important fortress previously taken by Saladin from the Knights Templar. Bohemond demanded its return to the Templars, but Leo refused, arguing that recent conquest outweighed their claim. When Bohemond failed to include Cilician Armenia in his truce with Saladin in 1192, Leo invited him to Bagras under the pretext of negotiation. Bohemond accepted, but was taken prisoner and forced to surrender the city of Antioch. Although the Antiochene nobles—closely tied to Armenian aristocracy—were prepared to accept Leo's rule, the predominantly Greek and Latin townspeople formed a commune and blocked Armenian forces from occupying the city. Peace was brokered by the ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Count Henry II of Champagne, who persuaded both Leo and Bohemond to renounce claims of suzerainty over one another. Leo's control of Bagras was confirmed, and Bohemond's eldest son, Raymond, married Leo's niece and heir presumptive in Cilician Armenia, Alice. Raymond died in 1197, shortly before the birth of his son, Raymond-Roupen. BohemondIII, by then nearly sixty, sent Alice and the child to Cilicia, signalling his unwillingness to recognise his infant grandson's claim to Antioch. Meanwhile, Leo had united the Armenian Church in Cilicia with Rome and accepted the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI. Henry's envoy, Conrad of Wittelsbach, Archbishop of Mainz, was present at Leo's coronation as the first king of Cilician Armenia on 6January 1198. Shortly afterwards, Conrad travelled to Antioch and secured oaths from Bohemond and his barons to accept Raymond-Roupen's right to succession. BohemondIII's younger son, Bohemond of Tripoli, disputed the oath's legitimacy. With the backing of the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the burghers' commune, he expelled his father from Antioch in late 1198. Three months later, Leo invaded the principality, compelling the younger Bohemond to allow his father's return. Pope Innocent III also supported BohemondIII's restoration, but, responding to the Templars' demand, began urging Leo to return Bagras to them. == War ==

First phase , the first king of Cilician Armenia. He took up arms for his young grandnephew Raymond-Roupen to seize the Principality of Antioch from Raymond-Roupen's uncle Bohemond IV. When BohemondIII died in April 1201, his surviving son Bohemond hurried from Tripoli to Antioch, where the townspeople's commune acknowledged him as the rightful heir, being the late prince's closest living relative. Some nobles backed the rival claim of Raymond-Roupen, the only son of the late prince's eldest son, Raymond; however, they were soon forced to flee to Cilician Armenia. The new prince, BohemondIV secured the Hospitallers' support by repaying a long-outstanding loan. The war, which extended across multiple fronts, was fuelled by Leo's continued backing of Raymond-Roupen's claim. Throughout the conflict, neither Leo nor BohemondIV was able to hold both his own territory (Cilician Armenia or Tripoli) and Antioch simultaneously, due to limited military resources. Az-Zahir Ghazi, Ayyubid emir of Aleppo, and the Seljuk sultans of Rum repeatedly threatened Cilician Armenia, while Ayyubid rulers of Hama and Homs controlled the lands between Antioch and Tripoli, restricting Bohemond's troop movements. Shortly after Bohemond assumed power in Antioch, Leo laid siege to the city to advance Raymond-Roupen's cause. However, Bohemond's Muslim allies—az-Zahir Ghazi and Sultan Suleiman II of Rum—invaded Cilician Armenia, forcing Leo to retreat in July 1201. Leo subsequently sent letters to Pope Innocent, alerting him to Bohemond's dealings with the two Muslim rulers. He renewed his campaign in 1202, but a truce was brokered by Aimery (King of Jerusalem and Cyprus), and the papal legate, Cardinal Soffredo. As BohemondIV refused to acknowledge the Holy See's authority over the succession dispute, Leo resumed the war in 1203. Taking advantage of Bohemond's absence, he entered Antioch on 11November, but failed to capture the citadel, which was held by the Templars and communal forces. Az-Zahir Ghazi soon invaded Cilician Armenia again, forcing Leo to withdraw from Antioch. In May 1204, Bohemond did homage to Marie of Champagne, wife and representative of Baldwin, the first Latin emperor of Constantinople, thereby recognising Baldwin as the lawful successor to the Byzantine emperors. This move aimed to counter Leo's alliance with the German imperial court. That same year, Renoart of Nephin, a Tripolitan aristocrat, married an heiress without Bohemond's consent and was condemned by the royal court. In defiance, Renoart rebelled and routed Bohemond near the gates of Tripoli, where Bohemond lost an eye. Exploiting the turmoil, Leo seized Antiochene fortresses in the Amanus Mountains, taking control of the route to Antioch. On 25December 1205, he besieged the fortress at Trapessac, but his army was routed by az-Zahir Ghazi's forces. Meanwhile, Bohemond had crushed Renoart's rebellion in Tripoli and returned to Antioch, compelling Leo to sign an eight-year truce in the summer of 1206. Conflicts with the Church By the time Bohemond returned, the papal legate Peter of Capua had also come to Antioch. Though initially acting as a neutral mediator between Bohemond and Leo, he soon clashed with the city's Latin patriarch, Peter of Angoulême—a supporter of Raymond-Roupen—over church appointments. The dispute led to the suspension of Peter of Angoulême's patriarchal authority. Taking advantage of the situation, Bohemond replaced Peter of Angoulême with the Greek Orthodox patriarch, SymeonII, with the support of the commune in early 1207. This uncanonical move provoked outrage among the Catholic clergy and laity. In 1208, Patriarch Peter reconciled with the legate, excommunicated Bohemond and the commune, and incited some nobles to revolt. Bohemond retreated to the citadel. Before long, Leo entered Antioch, but Bohemond countered with a sortie and defeated him. Peter of Angoulême was captured and died of dehydration in prison. The same year, the Ayyubid sultan al-Adil I invaded Tripoli, giving Leo the chance to raid the region around Antioch, but Bohemond persuaded Kaykaus I, Sultan of Rum, to invade Cilician Armenia, forcing Leo to retreat. Pope Innocent appointed Albert Avogadro, Patriarch of Jerusalem, to mediate peace. A supporter of the Templars, Avogadro urged Leo to return Bagras to their control. Leo promised to do so but soon broke his word, preferring instead to grant Cilician fortresses to the Teutonic Knights. He also ended the church union with Rome and arranged the marriage of Raymond-Roupen to Helvis, sister of Hugh I of Cyprus. In 1211, Leo ambushed a Templar supply caravan and William of Chartres, Grand Master of the Templars, was badly injured. The attack shocked Pope Innocent, who forbade Christian rulers from assisting Leo and urged John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, to intervene. John dispatched fifty knights to northern Syria, prompting Leo to expel the Latin priests from Cilicia and give refuge to Symeon, the Orthodox patriarch previously driven from Antioch. By 1212, Raymond-Roupen reached the age of majority and was sent to raid the region of Antioch. : the long-standing dispute over its possession was a major source of tension between Cilician Armenia and the Templars for decades. Recognising that he could not overcome Bohemond without reconciling with the Templars, the papacy and Jerusalem, Leo agreed to return all lands seized from the Templars, except Bagras. He also married his eldest daughter, Stephanie, to John of Brienne. These gestures appeased Pope Innocent, who lifted Leo's excommunication. At the same time, Bohemond's position weakened. The Assassins—who controlled the area between Antioch and Tripoli—murdered his eldest son, Raymond, in 1213. The following year, Bohemond attacked their stronghold at Khawabi, but the Assassins sought assistance from az-Zahir Ghazi of Aleppo. Fearing Bohemond's growing power, az-Zahir allied with al-Adil, compelling Bohemond to abandon the siege and shift his focus on defending Tripoli. Raymond-Roupen in Antioch With Leo's backing, Raymond-Roupen began securing allies in Antioch from , promising land grants to the Hospitallers and local nobles, including Acharie of Sermin, leader of the commune. Seizing the opportunity created by BohemondIV's absence, Leo and his army entered Antioch during the night of 14February 1216. Within days, the Templars, who held the citadel, surrendered without resistance. Raymond-Roupen was consecrated prince by the new Latin patriarch, Peter of Ivrea. Once in control of the principality, Leo returned Bagras to the Templars. However, during his absence from Cilicia, KaykausI captured Armenian forts north of the Taurus Mountains, compelling Leo to concentrate on the defence of his kingdom. In Antioch, Raymond-Roupen found the treasury empty and responded by increasing taxes, quickly alienating the population. His relationship with Leo also soured. In 1217, he attempted to capture Leo, but the Templars intervened and rescued the Armenian king. Early the next year, Leo's son-in-law, John of Brienne, acknowledged Bohemond as Antioch's rightful prince but took no action to restore him against Raymond-Roupen. Bohemond's support strengthened through his marriage to Melisende, half-sister of King Hugh. Rising discontent in Antioch led to a revolt in 1219. Its leader, William Farabel, invited Bohemond to return. Upon Bohemond's arrival, Raymond-Roupen sought refuge in the citadel but soon fled to Cilicia after ceding the citadel to the Hospitallers. He never regained Antioch. == Aftermath ==

Leo was dying when Raymond-Roupen arrived in Cilician Armenia. With Bohemond restored and Leo's death in May 1219, the war, in the words of the historian Jochen Burgtorf, "came to a rather unspectacular end". In his will, Leo disinherited Raymond-Roupen and left the kingdom to his five-year-old daughter, Isabella. Both Raymond-Roupen and John of Brienne rejected the will and laid claim to Cilician Armenia. The resulting dispute further weakened the Christian states of northern Syria. == See also ==