Boemondo, Prince of Antioch

BOEMONDO, prince of ANTIOCH. — Born around 1170, died in 1233, he was the son of Boemondo III and Orgogliosa. At his father’s death (1201), he seized the principality of Antioch in defiance of feudal law. His government, however, was troubled by the struggle for succession waged against him by his nephew Raimondo Roupen and the latter’s grandfather, Leone II of Armenia—a struggle that soon also assumed a religious character. The city’s patriarch, Pietro d’Angoulême, supported by the Hospitallers, favored Raimondo, while the Templars took B.’s side. B. then installed in the city a patriarch of the Greek rite, Simeone III, but Pietro excommunicated him. A popular uprising led by Pietro succeeded, for a few days (1208), in bringing Raimondo into Antioch; but B., having reoccupied the city, threw the patriarch into prison, where he died in July of the same year. The Pope then elected a new Latin patriarch in the person of Pietro di Locedio, but B. refused to recognize him. In 1216, taking advantage of B.’s absence, Raimondo seized the city and held it for four years; but he was incapable of governing, and B. was easily able to drive him out with the help of his supporters who had remained in Antioch. He then took harsh revenge on his enemies, especially the Hospitallers, whose entire property he confiscated. They appealed to Pope Gregorio IX, who excommunicated B. in 1230. Subsequently, the patriarch Geraldo of Jerusalem succeeded in establishing peace in the principality, ratified by the Pope, who consequently lifted the excommunication (1231). B. was again involved in the struggles that tore apart the various Latin princes of Syria, but he was inconsistent, now taking one side and now the other.

Agostino Amore