Leo I ( Levon A Metsagorts (Magnificent, 1150 – 2 May 1219) was the tenth lord of Armenian Cilicia or “Lord of the Mountains” (1187–1198/1199), and the first king of Armenian Cilicia. He was the younger son of Stephen, the third son of Leo I, lord of Armenian Cilicia. His mother was Rita, a daughter of Sempad, Lord of Barbaron. Leo’s father, who was on his way to attend a banquet given by the Byzantine governor of Cilicia, Andronicus Euphorbenus, was murdered on 7 February 1165. Following their father’s death, Leo and his elder brother Roupen lived with their maternal uncle, Pagouran, lord of the fortress of Barbaron, protecting the Cilician Gates pass in the Taurus Mountains. Their paternal uncle, Mleh I, lord of Armenian Cilicia had made a host of enemies by his cruelties in his country, resulting in his assassination by his own soldiers in the city of Sis (now Kozan in Turkey) in 1175. The seigneurs of Cilician Armenia elected Leo’s brother, Roupen III to occupy the throne of the principality. In 1183, Hethum III of Lampron, allied with Prince Bohemond III of Antioch, began joint hostilities against Roupen III who sent Leo to surround Hethum’s mountain lair.[4] But Bohemond III, rushing to the aid of Hethum, treacherously made Roupen prisoner. His brother’s absence gave Leo the opportunity to put his sharp political skills to practice as the interim guardian of the Roupenian House. Roupen’s release required payment of a large ransom, and the submission of Adana and Mamistra as vassalages to Antioch. When Roupen returned from the captivity, he transferred the power to his brother, Leo (1187) and retired to the monastery of Trazarg. Leo married Isabelle, a niece of the Princess Sibylle, the third wife of Bohemond III. Leo participated in the wars of the crusaders: his troops were present at the siege of Acre, and on 11 May 1191 he joined King Richard the Lionheart of England in the conquest of Cyprus. Leo was intent, at the same time, upon insuring the security of his own realm, and some of his actions undertaken for this purpose ran counter the interests or aspirations of his neighbors. In 1191, Saladin dismantled the great fortress of Baghras, which he had captured from the Templars. Hardly his workmen left before Leo came up and reoccupied the site and rebuilt the fortress. This brought to a head the growing antagonism between Leo and Bohemond III, and the possession of Baghras was to be one of the principal points of contention in the long struggle between Cilicia and Antioch. Bohemond III demanded its return to the Templars and, when Leo refused, complained to Saladin. Saladin himself had objected to Leo’s holding Baghras, which lay on the route from Cilicia to Antioch. Soon after the death of Saladin, in October 1193, Leo invited Bohemond III to come to Baghras to discuss the whole question. Bohemond III arrived, accompanied by his wife, Sibylla and her son, and accepted Leo’s offer of hospitality within the castle walls. No sooner had he entered than he was taken prisoner by his host, with all his entourage, and was told that he would be released only if he yielded the suzerainty over Antioch to Leo.Leo hoped to gain release from homage to Bohemond III, and to seize Antioch; therefore, Leo took Bohemond’s family and court off to Sis as prisoners. Bohemond III agreed to surrender Antioch in exchange for his freedom, sending the Marshal Bartholomew Tirel and Richard L’Erminet to turn the city over to Armenian troops under Hethum of Sassoun. When the delegation arrived at Antioch, the barons there were ready to accept Leo as overlord, and allowed Bartholomew Tirel to bring the Armenian soldiers into the city and establish them in the palace. Leo pressed with renewed energy his claims for a royal crown, seeking the assistance of the two most powerful rulers of the time, the pope and the German emperor. He sent to Emperor Henry VI; but the emperor prevaricated, because he hoped to come soon to the East and he would look into the Armenian Question then. So Leo approached Pope Celestine III; but the pope required submission of the Armenian church to Rome, and this created considerable difficulty; there was marked opposition from the majority of the clergy and the people of Cilicia. The bishops called together by Leo at first refused the papal demands, and are said to have agreed to them only after Leo told them that he would submit merely in word and not in deed. The Byzantine Emperor, Alexios III Angelos, hoping to retain some influence in Cilicia, sent Leo a royal crown, which was gracefully received. In 1197 Leo sent an embassy to Constantinople composed of Bishop Nerses of Lampron and other dignitaries; all of the discussions centered on religious questions, and the sending of the embassy was the last of several fruitless efforts to achieve a union between the two churches. Meanwhile the Emperor Henry VI also promised a crown to Leo, in return for a recognition of his suzerain rights over Armenia. Although Henry VI never visited the East; but soon after his death, his Chancellor Bishop Conrad of Hildesheim came with the Papal legate, Archbishop Conrad of Mainz to Sis. Leo was crowned on 6 January 1198 (or 1199)[5] at Tarsus, in the presence of the Armenian clergy, the Franco-Armenian nobility of the land, the Greek archbishop of Tarsus, the Jacobite patriarch, and the caliph’s ambassadors.While he was crowned by the catholicos, Gregory VI Abirad, Leo received the other royal insignia from Archbishop Conrad of Mainz. There was great rejoicing among the Armenians, who saw their ancient kingdom restored and renewed in the person of Leo (In 6th of Junuary Armenian celebrate a Christmas). Archbishop Conrad of Mainz hastened from Sis to Antioch, where he obliged Bohemond III to summon his barons and make them swear to uphold Raymond-Roupen’s succession. The barons had sworn allegiance to Raymond-Roupen, but his succession to Antioch was opposed by Bohemond III’s second son, Count Bohemond of Tripoli, by the Templars, and by the commune, which was hostile to any Armenian interference. Bohemond of Tripoli was determined to secure the succession to Antioch, and at once refused to acknowledge the validity of the oath sworn in favor of his nephew. In 1198, while az-Zahir, the emir of Aleppo detained Leo, Bohemond of Tripoli entered Antioch, summoned the commune, and persuaded it to renounce in his favor its oath to his father. Within three month, however, Leo settled his Moslem troubles, made peace with the military orders, and marched on Antioch. There was no resistance to his army or to its restoration of Bohemond III. Meanwhile the Templars brought all their influence to bear at Rome; but Leo ignored hints from the Church that he should restore Baghras to them. Leo invited Bohemond III and the Latin Patriarch of Antioch, Peter II of Angoulême to discuss the whole question; but his intransigence drove even the Patriarch over to Bohemond of Tripoli’s side. In April 1201, Bohemond of Tripoli, informed of his father’s illness, rushed to Antioch, arriving on the day of the funeral. He immediately demanded recognition as rightful heir and Bohemond IV was accepted as prince. But many of the nobility, mindful of their oath and fearful of Bohemond IV’s autocratic tastes, fled to Leo’s court at Sis. Leo heard of the death of Bohemond III late, but then hurried to Antioch with Alice and Raymond-Roupen to claim it for his great-nephew. When he found Bohemond IV already installed, he sent back for reinforcements, while Bohemond IV called for Aleppo. Az-Zahir invaded Cilicia in July 1201, and Leo had to lift his siege of Antioch. The war was renewed by Leo in 1202. During the following summer King Amalric II of Jerusalem intervened; accompanied by the papal legate, cardinal Sofred of Saint-Praxedis, the masters of the Hospital and the Temple, and the high barons of the kingdom, he induced Leo to grant a short truce. After Leo had agreed to accept the decision of barons and legate, the barons announced that the question at issue was purely one of feudal law which the legate should have no say. Angered, Leo ended the truce and an on 11 November 1203 entered the city, and asked the patriarch to arrange peace between him and the commune. Bohemond IV who had been forced to leave Antioch to defend Tripoli during the feudal rebellion of Renart of Nephin was at Tripoli at that time, but the commune and the Templars held the citadel in Antioch stoutly, and were able to expel the Armenians. Their appeals to Aleppo were answered when az-Zahir started again into Cilicia. Leo left Antioch in December, when az-Zahir’s army reached the Orontes River. Thereafter until 1206, when Bohemond IV was able to return to Antioch from Tripoli, Antioch was more or less protected from Leo by the watchfulness of az-Zahir. In the spring of 1206, Az-Zahir sent fresh contingents and assumed their command in person. Victorious at first, Leo had to retreat before the superior forces when the Antiochene armies joined Moslims. An eight-year truce was signed. Meanwhile, he was reported “injurious information” about his queen; therefore Leo had numerous members of her suite put to death and attacked her personally before imprisoning her in the fortress of Vahka (today Feke in Turkey) on 27 January 1205/28 January 1206, where she was poisoned one year later. Pope Innocent III handed the responsibility of settling the struggle to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert who was a friend of Bohemond IV’s allies, the Templars.[1] The Patriarch offended Leo by insisting that the first preliminary to any settlement must be the return of Baghras to the Templars.[1] In 1208 Leo angrily devastated the country round Antioch. But Bohemond’s danger in Antioch in 1208 induced az-Zahir once more to invade Cilicia in 1209.The Seljuk Sultan, Kai-Kushrau I, whom Leo had befriended earlier and received at his court, also made a sudden attack and seized the fort of Pertous. Leo had to agree to return Baghras to the Templars and renounce his claims to Antioch. But Leo’s attempts to keep the fortress of Baghras, despite his promise in the treaty with az-Zahir to return it to the Templars, lead to a war in Cilicia and in the Antiochene plain. In Cyprus between 28 January 1210/27 January 1211 Leo married Sibylle, the half-sister of King Hugh I of Cyprus. Leo was reconciled with Rome in March 1213 after he had promised that he would help in the coming Crusade. He also won the favor of King John I, who in 1214 married Leo’s daughter Rita and expected to inherit Armenia. When King Andrew II of Hungary, having fulfilled his Crusader vow, took his troops northward in January, 1218, he proceeded through Cilician Armenia. There King Andrew II arranged a marriage between his son, Andrew and Leo’s daughter, Isabelle. Shortly afterwards, Raymond-Roupen even quarreled with Leon. In 1219, Antioch sent for its old prince while Raymond Roupen (Raymond-Roupen) first sought refuge in the citadel, only to leave it to the Hospitallers and flee to Cilicia. There he found Leo still unwilling to forgive him, although on his deathbed. Before Leo died, he had named his young daughter Isabel as his rightful heir and had released the barons from the oaths of allegiance to Raymond Roupen. His body was buried at Sis, but his heart and entrails were buried at the convent of Agner.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 11:29:42 +0000
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