RAYMUND OF TOULOUSE (d. 1105) (called also Ray mund of St. Gilles, after a town near Nimes), count of Provence, one of the leaders of the first Crusade. According to an Armenian authority, he had lost an eye on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem before the first Crusade ; but the statement probably rests on the fact that he was one-eyed, vir monoculus. He is also recorded to have fought against the Moors in Spain before 1096; and he was the first of the princes of the West to take the cross after Pope Urban's sermon at Clermont. The oldest and the richest of the crusading princes, the count of Provence started, in October 1096, with a large company, which included his wife, his son, and Adhemar, bishop of Puy, the Papal Legate. His march lay by Ragusa and Scutari to Durazzo, whence he struck eastward, along the route also used by Bohemund, to Constantinople. At the end of April 1097 he was with difficulty induced to take a some what negative oath of fealty to Alexius. He was present at Nicaea and Dorylaeum; but he first showed his hand in October 1o97, when, as the army neared Antioch, and a rumour was spread that Antioch had been deserted by the Turks, he sent a detachment in advance to occupy the city—an action which presaged his future difficulties with Bohemund (q.v.), the would-be prince of Antioch. In the siege of Antioch (which was far from having been deserted) Raymund played his part. When the city was taken by Bohemund (June 1098), the count garrisoned the palatium Cassiani (the palace of the emir, Yagi Sian) and the tower over the Bridge Gate. He lay ill during the second siege of Antioch by Kerbogha; but in his camp a great spiritualistic activity culminated in the discovery of the Holy Lance by the Provencals. The miracle stimulated the crusaders to defeat Kerbogha : the Lance itself, discovered by the Provencals and carried henceforward by their count, became a valuable asset in Raymund's favour. A struggle arose between the Provencals and the Normans, partly with re gard to the genuineness of the Lance, and partly with regard to the possession of Antioch. Raymund moved southward in the autumn of 1098 to the siege of Marra, leaving a detachment of his troops in Antioch. With Bohemund left in Antioch ; with the Holy Lance to give him prestige ; and with the wealth which he had at his disposal, the count of Provence began to figure as the leader of the Crusade. But he delayed the advance to Jerusalem to
besiege Area with the intention of founding a principality to check the extension of Bohemund's kingdom. A wave of indigna tion in the ranks, and the inducements which the emir of Tripoli offered to the other princes, forced Raymund to desist from the siege (May 1098), and to march southwards to Jerusalem. He hampered Godfrey in the campaigns which followed.
Going north in the winter of 1099-1100 Raymund began hos tilities against Bohemund, from whom he hoped to wrest Laodicea. From Laodicea he went to Constantinople, where he fraternized with Alexius, the great enemy of Bohemund. Joining in the ill-fated crusade which followed the first, he escaped from the debacle, and returned to Constantinople. In 1102 he went by sea from Constantinople to Antioch, where he was imprisoned by Tancred, regent of Antioch during the captivity of Bohemund, and only dismissed upon promising not to attempt any conquests in the country between Antioch and Acre. He broke his promise, attacking and capturing Tortosa, and beginning to build a castle for the reduction of Tripoli (on the Mons Peregrinus). In this policy he was aided by Alexius. In 1105 Raymund died. He was succeeded by his nephew William, who in 1109, with the aid of Baldwin I., captured the town and definitely established the county of Tripoli. William was ousted in the same year by Raymund's eldest son Bertrand; and the county continued in the possession of his house during the 12th century'.
Raymund of Toulouse represents the Provençal element in the first Crusade, as Bohemund represents the Norman, and Godfrey and Baldwin the Lotharingian. If in temperament he is the least attractive among the princes of the first Crusade, he was yet one of its foremost leaders, and he left his mark upon 'For the future history of the county, see under RAYMUND OF TRIPOLI and BOHEMUND IV.
history in the foundation of the county of Tripoli.
Raymund of Agiles, a clerk in the Provençal army, gives the history of the first Crusade from his master's point of view. For a modern account of Count Raymund's part in the crusading movement, one may refer to Rohricht's works. (See CRUSADES.)