page_title: Bohemond III of Antioch
section_title: Saladin's triumph
hierarchical_section_title: Bohemond III of Antioch / Prince of Antioch / Saladin's triumph
caption_attribution_description: Baghras - burcht in Amanosgebergte bij Antakya, Turkije. Foto genomen door Godfried Warreyn in mei 2006
context_page_description: 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 Thoros II, Lord of Armenian Cilicia. 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.
  Bohemond remained a close ally of the Byzantine Empire. He fought against Mleh, Lord of Armenian Cilicia, assisting in the restoration of Byzantine rule in the Cilician plain. He also made alliances with the Muslim rulers of Aleppo and Damascus against Saladin, who had begun to unite the Muslim countries along the borders of the crusader states.
context_section_description: The child Baldwin V of Jerusalem died in late summer 1186. Raymond of Tripoli and his supporters could not prevent Baldwin V's mother, Sibylla, and her husband, Guy of Lusignan, from seizing the throne. Baldwin of Ibelin, who was the only Jerusalemite baron to refuse to pay homage to Sibylla and Guy after their coronation, moved to Antioch. Bohemond granted a fief to him.
  Nomad Turkmen bands invaded Cilicia, forcing the new ruler, Leo, to swear fealty to Bohemond shortly after his ascension in 1186 or 1187. The Turkmens also broke into the Principality of Antioch, pillaging the lowlands around Latakia and the monasteries in the nearby mountains. Bohemond was forced to make a truce with Al-Muzaffar Umar, Saladin's governor in Syria, who joined Saladin's invasion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in May. Even so, Bohemond sent 50 knights under the command of his elder son, Raymond, to Jerusalem after a Christian army was almost annihilated in the Battle of Cresson. The Turkmens continued their plundering raid until the Antiochene army defeated them and seized their booty.
  Saladin launched a crushing defeat on the Christian army in the Battle of Hattin on 4 July 1187. Bohemond's son was one of the few Christian leaders to flee from the battlefield. Within three months, Saladin captured almost all towns and fortresses of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Raymond III of Tripoli, who died before the end of the year, willed the County of Tripoli to Bohemond's elder son and heir, Raymond. Bohemond sent his younger son and namesake to take control of Tripoli, convinced that one ruler could not defend both Antioch and Tripoli. After his son was installed in Tripoli, Bohemond became "the greatest of the Franks and their most extensive ruler", according to Ibn Al-Athir. Bohemond offered to pay homage to William II of Sicily in exchange for military assistance.
  Saladin started the invasion of northern Syria on 1 July 1188. His troops captured Latakia on 22 or 23 July, Sahyun six days later, and the fortresses along the Orontes River in August. After the Knights Templar surrendered their fortress at Bagras to Saladin on 26 September, Bohemond pleaded for a truce, offering the release of his Muslim prisoners. Saladin granted the truce from 1 October 1188 to 31 May 1189. Bohemond managed to retain only his capital and the port of St Symeon. Saladin stipulated that Antioch was to be surrendered without resistance if no reinforcements came before the end of May 1189. Bohemond urged the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I Barbarossa, to come to Syria, offering him the suzerainty over Antioch.
  This summer the unspeakable Saladin totally destroyed the city of Tortosa except for the Templar citadel, burnt down the city of Valania before moving on to the region of Antioch where he claimed the famous cities of Jabala and Latakia, the strongholds of Saône, Gorda, Cavea and [Burzey] and the lands as far as Antioch. Beyond Antioch he besieged and captured Darbsak and [Bagras]. Thus, with the whole of the principality apart from our stronghold at Margat, more or less destroyed and lost, the prince and the people of Antioch made a pitiful agreement with Saladin, that if no help was forthcoming in the seven months from the beginning of that month of October they would formally surrender Antioch, alas without even a stone being thrown, a city acquired with the blood of valiant Christians.
  — Letter by Armengarde of Aspe, Master of the Hospital, to Leopold V, Duke of Austria (November 1188)
caption: Ruins of Bagras
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