Bohemond III | |
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Bohemond in Jerusalem
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Prince of Antioch | |
Reign | 1163–1201 |
Predecessor | Constance |
Successor | Bohemond IV |
Born | c. 1148 |
Died | April 1201 (aged 52–53) |
Spouse | Orgueilleuse of Harenc Theodora Sybil |
Issue |
Raymond Bohemond IV of Antioch William |
House | House of Poitiers |
Father | Raymond of Poitiers |
Mother | Constance of Antioch |
Religion | Catholicism |
Bohemond III of Antioch, also known as Bohemond the Child or the Stammerer (French: Bohémond le Bambe or le Baube; c. 1148–1201), 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 Artah 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. Since Bohemond repudiated his second wife and married an Antiochene lady, Patriarch Aimery excommunicated him in 1180.