Raymond IV of Toulouse (sometimes known as Raymond of Saint-Gilles) was an old, rich, deeply religious and well respected man when the First Crusade was preached in 1095. When the crusaders were pushed to swear an oath of fealty to the Byzantine emperor, Alexius I, Raymond managed not to lower himself to the emperor – instead he swore an oath of friendship and was allowed to proceed with the crusade. The historian and princess Anna Komnene said that her father Emperor Alexius I had a ‘deep affection’ for Raymond (The Alexiad Book 10).
Raymond’s major role in the First Crusade comes when rumour reaches him that Antioch has been abandoned by the Turks. He rushes his army in, but found the city was still defended. Antioch was only captured after a siege in 1098 and after this the Turks, led by the Atabeg (a governor and soldier in charge of raising the Turkic crown prince) called Kerbogha. Kerbogha laid siege to Antioch to try and win it back from the Crusaders.
During this time, Raymond was ill but hopes started to look up when the monk Peter Bartholomew proclaimed that he had found the Holy Lance. Well, he had a vision of where the Holy Lance was and they started digging, finding nothing until the over-enthusiastic Peter Bartholomew jumped into the pit and digging a bit further managed to produce the Lance. Did he have it up his sleeve the whole time? That’s what some people were whispering. But Raymond was convinced.
Due in part to Kerbogha’s bad intelligence about the Crusader Franks being an undisciplined lot, and perhaps due to their high morale on finding the Holy Lance, Raymond’s men defeated the Turkish besiegers and Antioch was theirs. After Raymond left, the other Crusade leader Bohemond took over Antioch and Raymond was left to find other territories.
After Jerusalem was taken by the Crusaders in 1099, Raymond was offered to be King of Jerusalem. He seemed to feel it would be wrong to be a king where Jesus had died and so he refused the crown. Instead Raymond became involved in various territorial disputes with Bohemond, then participated in the disastrous Crusade of 1101 where the Turks destroyed the Frankish forces.
Raymond survived, however, and eventually in 1102 he laid siege to Tripoli, building the Mons Peregrinus in the process. In 1105 Raymond died. Tripoli was taken after his death and became the fourth crusader state.