Raymond II, Count of Tripoli

The Crusader states in 1135

Bazwāj, the mamluk (or slave) commander of Damascus made a raid against Tripoli and defeated Pons in a battle.[5][6] Pons fled from the battlefield, but native Christians captured and handed him over to Bazwāj who had him executed on 25 March 1137.[5] Bazwāj captured a frontier fort, but returned to Damascus without attacking Tripoli.[7] To take vengeance for his father's death, Raymond invaded the local Christians' settlements in the Mount Lebanon area and captured many of them.[8][9] The captured men, women and children were taken to Tripoli where the majority was tortured and executed.[8] William of Tyre remarked that Raymond's campaign against the local Christians provided "the first lessons of his martial courage".[10]

After learning of Pons' death, Zengi invaded Tripoli in July 1137.[10] A Muslim historian, Kamal al-Din, would later claim that Zengi attacked Tripoli only after Raymond mustered his troops to force Zengi to lift the siege of Homs.[10] Lewis emphasizes that Kamal al-Din's report is doubtful, because Bazwāj had almost annihilated the army of Tripoli, preventing Raymond from launching major campaigns.[10] After Zengi laid siege to Montferrand,[11] Raymond sent envoys to his maternal uncle, Fulk, King of Jerusalem, urging him to hurry to the besieged fortress.[12] Shortly after Fulk and his army crossed the frontier of the County of Tripoli, the envoys of Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, informed him that the Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos had invaded Antioch.[12]

Fulk and Raymond of Tripoli decided to launch an assault on Zengi's forces before marching to Antioch, because they thought they could easily defeat the atabeg.[12] However, Zengi lifted the siege of Homs and made an unexpected attack on the united forces of Jerusalem and Tripoli.[12] Thousands of Christian soldiers were killed during the battle, and even more (including Raymond) were captured; Fulk and his retinue fled to Montferrand.[12][13] Zengi again besieged Montferrand, but began negotiations with the besieged when he heard that further relief was on its way from Raymond of Poitiers, Joscelin II of Edessa, and emperor John II Komnenos.[13][14] Those besieged in the fortress did not know of these movements but readily agreed to hand over the castle to Zengi in exchange for a safe passage and the release of Raymond and all other Christian captives.[13][15]

The Byzantine author, Theodore Prodromos, praised John II Komnenos for having made Tripoli subject shortly after 1137.[16] Decades later the Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates would also describe Raymond as a liegeman (vassal) of John II Komnenos.[17] Both sources suggest that Raymond renewed his predecessors' oath of loyalty towards the Byzantine emperor, according to Lewis.[16] Nevertheless, Raymond did not participate in John II Komnenos' military campaign against the Muslim rulers of Northern Syria in 1138.[18] Historian Ralph-Johannes Lilie says the lack of sufficient military forces prevented Raymond from assisting the Byzantines.[19]

Raymond granted several settlements to the Knights Hospitallers along the eastern borders of his county in 1142.[20][21] His grant included "the fortress of the Kurds" which developed into the important Crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers during the following decades.[21][22] He also transferred his rights to Montferrand and Rafaniya, both seized by Zengi in 1137, to the Hospitallers if they could recapture them.[20][21] When establishing a military order on the eastern borderland, Raymond only wanted to secure the defence of his county, but his magnanimous grant laid the foundation of an almost independent ecclesiastic state.[23]

Krak des Chevaliers: the large fortress built by the Knights Hospitaller on the land that Raymond had granted to them in 1142

Raymond was a great-grandson of Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse, one of the leaders of the First Crusade who was the first to style himself as count of Tripoli (even before Tripoli had been captured).[24] However, Raymond was descended from Saint-Gilles through Bertrand of Toulouse, a son with disputed legitimacy.[25] Saint-Gilles' legitimate son, Alfonso-Jordan, was born after Saint-Gilles started to use the title of count of Tripoli, making him his father's lawful heir in accordance with the idea of porphyrogeniture.[26]

Alfonso-Jordan was one of the supreme commanders of the Second Crusade, but he died shortly after he landed at the Holy Land in April 1148.[26][27] Because of his unexpected death, gossip about his murder started spreading among the Crusaders,[28] although he most probably died of natural causes, as a consequence of his lengthy voyage across the Mediterranean Sea.[29][30] An anonymous Syrian chronicler accused Raymond of the crime, stating that he poisoned Alfonso-Jordan because he feared that his uncle had come to seize Tripoli.[26] Lewis emphasizes, the chronicle "is hardly the most reliable piece of evidence, so some skepticism about Raymond's involvement in Alfons's death is surely advisible".[26] Another contemporaneous author—the continuator of Sigebert of Gembloux's chronicle—was convinced that Raymond's sister-in-law, Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem, had poisoned Alfons-Jordan, because she wanted to prevent him from claiming Tripoli.[31]

Raymond did not attend the assembly of the leaders of the crusade at Acre on 24 June 1148.[30] He also kept away from the Crusaders' siege of Damascus in 1148.[30] In contrast with Raymond, Alfons-Jordan's illegitimate son, Bertrand, who had arrived in his father's retinue, participated in the Crusaders' fights.[32] He decided to lay claim to Tripoli and took possession of the fortress of Areimeh in the summer of 1149.[33][29] After being unable to expel Bertrand from the fort which controlled important roads in the county, Raymond sought assistance from Mu'in ad-Din Unur, the Muslim ruler of Damascus, as well as from Zengi's son, Nur ad-Din.[34][35] The two Muslim rulers captured Areimeh and imprisoned Bertrand and his family.[35] After destroying the castle, they returned the territory to Raymond.[36] Raymond granted the land to the Knights Templar in the early 1150s.[37]

The trobadour Jaufre Rudel dying in the arms of Raymond's wife, Hodierna of Jerusalem

Baldwin III of Jerusalem crossed Tripoli during his march towards northern Syria in the summer of 1150.[38] He wanted to meet with the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos who had purchased the last fortresses of the County of Edessa.[39] Because of a conflict between Baldwin and his mother, Melisende, her supporters had refused to accompany the king, who thus asked Raymond to join him.[38][40] Raymond agreed and accompanied Baldwin to the meeting and they jointly supervised the transfer of the castles to the Byzantines.[38]

A Fatimid fleet pillaged Tripoli during a plundering raid against the coastal towns in the summer of 1151.[41][42] The Egyptians destroyed ships and killed or captured hundreds of people in the harbor.[41][42] In December, Crusader troops invaded the Beqaa Valley, seizing prisoners and booty during their campaign before the Muslim governor of Baalbek routed them.[43] Nur ad-Din broke into the county in April or May 1152 and captured Tortosa, leaving a garrison there.[40][43] Baldwin III came to Tripoli and held a "general court", attended by the leading barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the County of Tripoli.[40][43] After the king's arrival, the Nur ad-Din's troops left Tortosa, but they destroyed the fortress.[43] Since its restoration proved costly, Raymond ceded Tortosa first to the local bishop, then to the Templars who transformed it into one of their most important headquarters.[44]

An "enmity born from marital jealousy" had meanwhile emerged between Raymond and his wife, according to William of Tyre.[45] Her sister, Melisende, who attended the assembly at Tripoli, tried to mediate between them, but their relationship remained tense.[46] After the assembly was closed, Melisende and Hodierna left Tripoli for Jerusalem.[47][48] Raymond rode out with them for a short distance, and on his way back to Tripoli, he was killed by a group of Assassins—fanatics employed by the head of the Nizari to murder their enemies[49]—at the southern gate to the city, along with two of his knights.[47][48] The motivation of the crime is unknown.[45] Since the Nizari had not previously killed Christian rulers, modern historians propose that the establishment of the Templars at Tortosa had outraged them.[45]