it is perhaps permissible to suspect that he hankered for the principality of Tripoli and the renewal of hostilities with Bohemund. As at Antioch, so at Jerusalem, he fell into strife with the new ruler; and it was only with difficulty that Godfrey was able to secure from him the possession of the Tower of David, which he had originally occupied. The grasping nature of Raymund again appeared after the battle of Ascalon, when his eagerness to occupy Ascalon for himself prevented it from being occupied at all; while Godfrey also blamed him for the failure of his army to capture Arsuf. It almost seems as if the count could not appear without becoming a centre of storms; and when he went north, in the winter of 1099–1100, his first act was one of hostility against Bohemund, from whom he helped to wrest Laodicea. From Laodicea he went to Constantinople, where he fraternized with Alexius, the great enemy of his own enemy Bohemund. Joining in the ill-fated Crusade which followed in the wake of the First, he was successful in escaping from the débâcle, and returning to Constantinople. In 1102 he came 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, who was naturally willing to see the erection of a tributary county of Tripoli to the south of Bohemund's principality. 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.[1]
Raymund of Toulouse represents the Provencal element in the first Crusade, as Bohemund represents the Norman, and Godfrey and Baldwin the Lotharingian. Religiosity, obstinacy and greed seem curiously blended in his composition. The first quality appears in the episode of the Lance, and in his renunciation of the advocacy of Jerusalemz the second appears in the whole of his attitude to Bohemund: the third appears again and again, whenever the progress of the Crusades brought any new conquest. 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 history in the foundation of the county of Tripoli.
Raymund of Agiles, a clerk in the Provengal 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 R6hricht's works (see Crusades). (E. Br.)
RAYMUND OF TRIPOLI, the most famous of the descendants of Raymund of Toulouse, was a great-grandson of his eldest son Bertrand: his mother was Hodierna, a daughter of Baldwin II., and through her he was closely connected with the kings of Jerusalem. He became count of Tripoli in 1152, on the assassination of his father. In 1164 he was captured by Nureddin, and was only released in 1172 after a captivity of eight years. In 1174 he claimed the regency on behalf of Baldwin IV. (at once a minor and a leper), in virtue of his close relationship; and the claim was acknowledged. After two years the regency seems to have passed to Reginald of Chatillon; but Raymund, who had married the heiress of the county of Tiberias, continued to figure in the affairs of the kingdom. His great ability procured him enemies; for two years, 1180–1182, Baldwin IV. was induced by evil advisers to exclude him from his territories. But as Saladin grew more threatening, Raymund grew more indispensable; and in 1184 he became regent for Baldwin V., on condition that, if the king died before his majority, his successor should be determined by the great powers of the West. Raymund conducted the regency with skill, securing a truce from Saladin in II8S; but when Baldwin V. died, in 1186, all went wrong. Raymund summoned an assembly of the barons to Naplous to deliberate on the situation; but while they deliberated,
the supporters of Guy de Lusignan (the husband of Baldwin
IV.'s sister, Sibylla) acted, and had him crowned, in defiance
of the stipulation under which Raymund had become regent.
The rest of the barons came over to Guy; and Raymund, left in
isolation, retired to Tiberias and negotiated a truce for himself
with Saladin. His ambiguous position led contemporaries to
accuse him of treasonable correspondence with Saladin; but his
loyalty to the Christian cause was nobly shown in 1187, when
he reconciled himself to Guy, and aided him in the battle of
Hattin, which was engaged, however, in the teeth of his earnest
advice. He escaped from the battle wounded, and ultimately
retired to Tripoli, where he died (1187).
In the corrupt society of the latter days of the kingdom of Jerusalem, Raymund showed himself at least as disinterested as any other man, and certainly more capable than the rest of his contemporaries. He might have saved Jerusalem, if Jerusalem could have been saved; but his was the 1/ox clarmzntis in deserto. “He is worthy of the throne, ” wrote a contemporary Arabic chronicler: “ he seems destined for it by nature, who has given him pre-eminent wisdom and courage.” (E. Br.)
RAYNAL, GUILLAUME THOMAS FRANÇOIS (1713–1796), French writer, was born at Saint-Geniez in Rouergue on the 12th of April 1713. He was educated at the Jesuit school of Pézenas, and received priest’s orders, but he was dismissed for unexplained reasons from the parish of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, to which he was attached, and thenceforward he devoted himself to society and literature. The Abbé Raynal wrote for the Mercure de France, and compiled a series of popular but superficial works, which he published and sold himself. These—L’Histoire du stathoudérat (The Hague, 1748), L’Histoire du parlement d’Augleterre (London, 1748), Anecdotes historiques (Amsterdam, 3 vols., 1753)—gained for him access to the salons of Mme. Geoffrin, Helvétius, and the baron d’Holbach. He had the assistance of various members of the philosopher coteries in his most important work, L’Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemeuts et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes (Amsterdam, 4 vols., 1770). Diderot indeed is credited with a third of this work, which was characterized by Voltaire as “du réchauffé avec de la declamation.” The other chief collaborators were Pechméja, Holbach, Paulze, the farmer general of taxes, the Abbé Martin, and Alexandre Deleyre. To this piecemeal method of composition, in which narrative alternated with tirades on political and social questions, was added the further disadvantage of the lack of exact information, which, owing to the dearth of documents, could only have been gained by personal investigation. The “philosophic” declamations perhaps constituted its chief interest for the general public, and its significance as 'a contribution to democratic propaganda. The Histoire went through many editions, being revised and augmented from time to time by Raynal; it was translated into the principal European languages, and appeared in various abridgments. Its introduction into France was forbidden in 1779; the book was burned by the public executioner, and an order was given for the arrest of the author, whose name had not appeared in the first edition, but was printed on the title page of the Geneva edition of 1780. Raynal escaped to Spa, and thence to Berlin, where he was coolly received by Frederick the Great, in spite of his Connexion with the philosophe party. At St Petersburg he met with a more cordial reception from Catherine II., and in 1787 he was permitted to return to France, though not to Paris. He showed generosity in assigning a considerable income to be divided annually among the peasant proprietors of upper Guienne. He was elected by Marseilles to the States-general, but refused to sit on the score of age. Raynal now realized the impossibility of a peaceful revolution, and, In terror of the proceedings for which the writings of himself and his friends had prepared the way, he sent to the Constituent Assembly an address, which was read on the 31st of May 1791, deprecating the violence of its reforms. This address is said
- ↑ For the future history of the county, see under Raymund of Tripoli and Bohemund IV.
