Raymond IV of Toulouse
| Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse | |
|---|---|
Portrait by François-Édouard Picot
|
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| Count of Tripoli | |
| Reign | 1102 – 1105 |
| Predecessor | Position established |
| Successor | Alfonso Jordan |
| Count of Toulouse | |
| Reign | 1094 - 1105 |
| Predecessor | William IV |
| Successor | Bertrand |
| Born | c. 1041 |
| Died | 28 February 1105 (aged c. 64) Tripoli |
| Spouse | Unknown first wife Matilda of Sicily Elvira of Castile |
| Issue |
Bertrand Alfonso Jordan |
| House | House of Toulouse |
| Father | Pons of Toulouse |
| Mother | Almodis de la Marche |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Raymond IV (c. 1041 – 28 February 1105), sometimes called Raymond of Saint-Gilles or Raymond I of Tripoli, was a powerful noble in southern France and one of the leaders of the First Crusade (1096–99). He was the Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Margrave of Provence from 1094, and he spent the last five years of his life establishing the County of Tripoli in the Near East.
Raymond was a son of Pons of Toulouse and Almodis de La Marche. He received Saint-Gilles with the title of "count" from his father and displaced his niece Philippa, Duchess of Aquitaine, his brother William IV's daughter, in 1094 from inheriting Toulouse. In 1094, William Bertrand of Provence died and his margravial title to Provence passed to Raymond. A bull of Urban's dated 22 July 1096 names Raymond comes Nimirum Tholosanorum ac Ruthenensium et marchio Provintie Raimundus ("Raymond, count of Nîmes, Toulouse and Rouergue and margrave of Provence").
Raymond was deeply religious, and wished to die in the Holy Land, and so when the call was raised for the First Crusade, he was one of the first to take the cross. He is sometimes called "the one-eyed" (monoculus in Latin) after a rumour that he had lost an eye in a scuffle with the doorkeeper of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during an earlier pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The oldest and the richest of the crusaders, Raymond left Toulouse at the end of October 1096, with a large company that included his wife Elvira, his infant son (who would die on the journey) and Adhemar, bishop of Le Puy, the papal legate. He ignored requests by his niece, Philippa (the rightful heiress to Toulouse) to grant the rule of Toulouse to her in his stead; instead, he left Bertrand, his eldest son, to govern. He marched to Dyrrhachium, and then east to Constantinople along the same route used by Bohemond of Taranto. At the end of April 1097, he was the only crusade leader not to swear an oath of fealty to Byzantine emperor Alexius I. Instead, Raymond swore an oath of friendship, and offered his support against Bohemond, mutual enemy of both Raymond and Alexius.
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