The Counts of Tripoli and Lebanon in the Twelfth Century: Sons of Saint-Gilles

355 Pages·2017·4.153 MB·English

by  Lewis, Kevin James

The Counts of Tripoli and Lebanon
in the Twelfth Century
The county of Tripoli in what is now North Lebanon is arguably the most
neglected of the so-called ‘crusader states’ established in the Middle East at
the beginning of the twelfth century. The present work is the first mono-
graph on the county to be published in English, and the first in any western
language since 1945. What little has been written on the subject previ-
ously has focused upon the European ancestry of the counts of Tripoli: a
specifically Southern French heritage inherited from the famous crusader
Raymond IV of Saint-Gilles. Kevin Lewis argues that past historians have at
once exaggerated the political importance of the counts’ French descent
and ignored the more compelling signs of its cultural impact, highlight-
ing poetry composed by troubadours in Occitan at Tripoli’s court. For
Lewis, however, even this belies a deeper understanding of the processes
that shaped the county. What emerges is an intriguing portrait of the
county in which its rulers struggled to exert their power over Lebanon in
the face of this region’s insurmountable geographical forces and its some-
times bewildering, always beguiling diversity of religions, languages and
cultures. The counts of Tripoli and contemporary Muslim onlookers cer-
tainly viewed the dynasty as sons of Saint-Gilles, but the county’s admin-
istration relied upon Arabic, its stability upon the mixed loyalties of its
local inhabitants, and its very existence upon the rugged mountains that
cradled it. This book challenges prevailing knowledge of this little-known
crusader state and by extension the medieval Middle East as a whole.
Kevin James Lewis completed a doctorate in History at the University of
Oxford, where he produced a thesis on aspects of the ‘crusader’ county
of Tripoli during the twelfth century, under the supervision of Professor
Christopher Tyerman. Previously he studied at Cardiff University’s Centre
for the Crusades, taught by Professors Helen Nicholson, Peter Edbury
and Denys Pringle. More recently he held a Past & Present Postdoctoral
Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.
Rulers of the Latin East
Series editors
Nicholas Morton, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Jonathan Phillips, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
Academics concerned with the history of the Crusades and the Latin
East will be familiar with the various survey histories that have been pro-
duced for this fascinating topic. Many historians have published wide-
ranging texts that either seek to make sense of the strange phenomenon
that was the Crusades or shed light upon the Christian territories of the
Latin East. Such panoramic works have helped to generate enormous
interest in this subject, but they can only take their readers so far. Works
addressing the lives of individual rulers - whether kings, queens, counts,
princes or patriarchs - are less common and yet are needed if we are to
achieve a more detailed understanding of this period.
This series seeks to address this need by stimulating a collection of politi-
cal biographies of the men and women who ruled the Latin East between
1098 and 1291 and the kingdom of Cyprus up to 1571. These focus in detail
upon the evolving political and diplomatic events of this period, whilst
shedding light upon more thematic issues such as: gender and marriage,
intellectual life, kingship and governance, military history and inter-faith
relations.
The Counts of Tripoli
and Lebanon in the
Twelfth Century
Sons of Saint-Gilles
Kevin James Lewis
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Kevin James Lewis
The right of Kevin James Lewis to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lewis, Kevin James, 1987– author.
Title: The counts of Tripoli and Lebanon in the twelfth century :
sons of Saint-Gilles / Kevin James Lewis.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016047794| ISBN 9781472458902 (hardback :
alkaline paper) | ISBN 9781315609911 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Tripoli, Counts of. | Toulouse, Counts of. | Tripoli
(Lebanon)—History. | Tripoli (Lebanon)—Biography. |
Nobility—Lebanon—Tripoli—Biography. | French—Lebanon—
Tripoli—Biography. | Lebanon—Kings and rulers—Biography. |
France—Kings and rulers—Biography. | Power (Social sciences)—
Lebanon—Tripoli—History—To 1500. | Tripoli (Lebanon)—
Politics and government.
Classification: LCC D194 .L49 2017 | DDC 956.92—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047794
ISBN: 978-1-4724-5890-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-60991-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
For my parents

Contents
List of illustrations viii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements x
List of abbreviations xii
Introduction: sons of Saint-Gilles 1
1 The succession of cousins: Counts Raymond I (1103–5),
William Jordan (1105–9) and Bertrand (1109–12) 12
2 The forging and freedom of the county:
Count Pons (1112–37) 72
3 Military decline and matrimonial discord:
Count Raymond II (1137–52) 129
4 Count and captive: Count Raymond III (1152–74) 182
5 The regent thwarted: Count Raymond III (1174–87) 233
Conclusion: alien and native 285
Appendices 288
Bibliography 303
Index 329
Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Select genealogy of the counts of Toulouse and Tripoli 13
1.2 The Citadel of Saint-Gilles, Tripoli © Denys Pringle 23
1.3 The tomb of Count Raymond I of Tripoli
(= Raymond IV of Saint-Gilles and Toulouse) © Denys Pringle 27
2.1 Twelfth-century ‘crusader’ imitation dīnār minted
at Tripoli (Metcalf no. 485) © Ashmolean Museum,
University of Oxford 99
3.1 Jaufré Rudel dies in Countess Hodierna’s arms (BnF,
Ms Français 854, 121v) © Bibliothèque nationale de France 169
4.1 The abbey of Belmont (Dayr Balamand) © Denys Pringle 193
5.1 The seal of the lord of Batrūn incorporating his castle:
CASTELLVM BOTRONI © Jonathan Phillips 251
5.2 Twelfth-century Toulousan-style silver denier in the name of
Raymond II/III of Tripoli (Metcalf no. 509) © Ashmolean
Museum, University of Oxford 265
Map
1.1 The county of Tripoli 12
Preface
It has been more than seventy years since the publication of the last
full monograph on the county of Tripoli, despite the intervening dec-
ades witnessing a huge upsurge in publications on the crusades and the
Latin East. This book is intended to go some way towards redressing this
imbalance, shedding light upon the most neglected of crusader states
while also contributing to Syrian and Lebanese history more broadly.
The present work is based loosely upon my doctoral thesis completed
at the University of Oxford in 2014, which was entitled Rule and Identity
in a Diverse Mediterranean Society: Aspects of the County of Tripoli during the
Twelfth Century. The structure, focus and much of the content of the
earlier piece is radically different from that of The Counts of Tripoli and
Lebanon in the Twelfth Century. Whereas the thesis was structured the-
matically and comprised a handful of focused case studies, the present
work has been arranged chronologically and takes a much more holistic
approach to the subject. The book therefore is hopefully more acces-
sible to those who have not spent a good few years contemplating what
took place in the shadow of Mount Lebanon some nine centuries ago.
Kevin James Lewis
London, July 2016