Raoul of Mérencourt (also called Ralph or Radulfus) was the

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem () is the Latin Catholic ecclesiastical patriarchate in Jerusalem, officially seated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is the archbishop of Latin Church Catholics of th ...

from 1214 to 1224, succeeding the assassinated Albert Avogadro.

Early career in patriarchal service

Raoul was a native of the

County of Champagne The County of Champagne (; ) was a medieval territory and feudal principality in the Kingdom of France. It developed on the rich plains between Paris and the border of the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th century. It became an economic hub of north ...

. He seems to have come to the Holy Land as part of the entourage following

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

count of Champagne The count of Champagne was the ruler of the County of Champagne from 950 to 1316. Champagne evolved from the County of Troyes in the late eleventh century and Hugh I was the first to officially use the title count of Champagne. Count Theobal ...

and future husband of

Isabella I Isabella I (; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''Isabel la Católica''), was Queen of Castile and List of Leonese monarchs, León from 1474 until her death in 1504. She was also Queen of Aragon ...

, queen of Jerusalem. Raoul worked as a notary in the Haute Cour in

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

. In 1206, Albert, formerly

bishop of Vercelli The Archdiocese of Vercelli () is a Latin Church, Latin Metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in northern Italy, one of the two archdioceses which, together with their suffragan dioceses, form the ecclesiastical region of Piedmont. Th ...

, arrived as the new patriarch, following upon Soffredo Gaetani, who resigned the office after only one year, and went off to join the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. In 1208, Albert sent Raoul as part of an official delegation to

Philip Augustus Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), also known as Philip Augustus (), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks (Latin: ''rex Francorum''), but from 1190 onward, Philip became the firs ...

, king of France, to seek a husband and king-consort for the young heiress to the throne of Jerusalem,

Maria of Montferrat Maria of Montferrat (1192–1212) was the queen of Jerusalem from 1205 until her death. She was the daughter of Isabella I of Jerusalem and her second husband, Conrad of Montferrat. Maria succeeded her mother under the regency of her half-uncle Jo ...

. King Philip Augustus, with the encouragement of Blanche of Navarre, countess-regent of Champagne, selected one of her feudal vassals,

John of Brienne John of Brienne ( 1170 – 19–23 March 1237), also known as John I, was the king of Jerusalem from 1210 to 1225 and Latin emperor of Constantinople from 1229 to 1237. He was the youngest son of Erard II of Brienne, a wealthy nobleman in Cham ...

. John held the title of count of Brienne on behalf of his brother Walter (Gautier) of Brienne, whose cause had briefly attracted the young Giovanni Bernadone (later

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone ( 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italians, Italian Mysticism, mystic, poet and Friar, Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Chris ...

) to his cause. At Walter's death in 1205, John held the county as guardian for Walter's son, later to become

count of Jaffa The double County of Jaffa and Ascalon was one of the four major Manorialism, seigneuries comprising the major Crusader state of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, according to 13th-century commentator John of Ibelin (jurist), John of Ibelin. History Jaf ...

. John of Brienne arrived in Acre on 13 September 1210 and married Maria the following day, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the major feast of the

kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1 ...

. The two were then crowned King and Queen of Jerusalem on 3 October in the cathedral of Tyre. The patriarch recommended Raoul to become the chancellor and guide for the newly arrived monarch. Queen Maria died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Yolanda, officially known as

Isabella II Isabella II (, María Isabel Luisa de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias; 10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904) was Queen of Spain from 1833 until her deposition in 1868. She is the only queen regnant in the history of unified Spain. Isabella wa ...

. The barons of the kingdom were uncertain of John of Brienne's ability to lead. In 1211, Albert sent Raoul to seek the counsel of

Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III (; born Lotario dei Conti di Segni; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216. Pope Innocent was one of the most power ...

. He returned with clear instructions to support John as regent-king for his daughter.

Patriarch

Election

At Albert's assassination on 14 September 1214, while in procession to the cathedral of the Holy Cross in Acre, the post of patriarch became open. The canons of the

Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The church is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Some ...

, following their own custom in imitation of the Acts of the Apostles, selected two candidates to succeed Albert. One candidate was Lotario Rosario de Cremona, who had originally succeeded Albert as bishop of Vercelli, but who later became

archbishop of Pisa The Archdiocese of Pisa () is a Latin Church metropolitan see of the Catholic Church in Pisa, Italy.

. He occupied a position in the Roman hierarchy that was very similar to the esteem enjoined by Albert. The second candidate was the King of Jerusalem's own chancellor, Raoul of Mérencourt, who also held the episcopal see of Sidon. He was one of only three bishops installed by Albert during his years as patriarch. The king came down on the side of his chancellor and fellow countryman.

ratified that choice, and Raoul was installed as patriarch during the

Fourth Lateran Council The Fourth Council of the Lateran or Lateran IV was convoked by Pope Innocent III in April 1213 and opened at the Lateran Palace in Rome on 11 November 1215. Due to the great length of time between the council's convocation and its meeting, m ...

, which took place in November 1215.

Fifth Crusade

Along with Pope Innocent III, Raoul gave a sermon on the first day of the council (11 November 1215) calling for a new

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

to recover the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

. Further preparations for the crusade ( the Fifth) were made on the last day of the council, 30 November. However, for various reasons the crusade was postponed until 1217, after the death of Innocent. Raoul was appointed as one of

Pope Honorius III Pope Honorius III (c. 1150 – 18 March 1227), born Cencio Savelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 18 July 1216 to his death. A canon at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, he came to hold a number of importa ...

papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the Pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title '' legatus'') is a personal representative of the Pope to foreign nations, to some other part of the Catho ...

s, and was escorted back to his see in Acre by John of Brienne, the nominal

King of Jerusalem The king or queen of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Church, Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was Siege of Jerusalem (1099), conquered in ...

. Raoul personally participated in the crusade against

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. The assembled crusader armies left Acre for

Damietta Damietta ( ' ) is a harbor, port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the Damietta branch, an eastern distributary of the Nile Delta, from the Mediterranean Sea, and about north of Cairo. It was a Cath ...

in Egypt during the last days of May 1218. On the 29 August 1219 an attack on Damietta failed, as St. Francis of Assisi had predicted. The successful taking of Damietta occurred by 5 November 1219. It is recounted that at one point the patriarch carried a

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...

of the

True Cross According to Christian tradition, the True Cross is the real instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, cross on which Jesus of Nazareth was Crucifixion of Jesus, crucified. It is related by numerous historical accounts and Christian mythology, legends ...

, and prostrated himself with his head buried under the sand in order to ensure the success of the siege at Damietta. The whole crusade came to a disastrous end on 29 August 1221, when the crusading armies were trapped by the flooding waters of the Nile and the combined armies of the sultan,

al-Kamil Al-Malik al-Kamil Nasir ad-Din Muhammad (; – 6 March 1238), titled Abu al-Maali (), was an Egyptian ruler and the fourth Ayyubid sultan of Egypt. During his tenure as sultan, the Ayyubids defeated the Fifth Crusade. He was known to the Franki ...

, and his two brothers, al-Mu'azzam and al-Ashraf. The sultan, after allowing the hostages to be ransomed, agreed to an eight-year truce.

Preparations for the Sixth Crusade

In 1222 the pope summoned

, King of Jerusalem; Pelagius Galvani, the papal legate; patriarch Raoul, and other leaders to attend a meeting with him and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II to be held in

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

on 11 November. The pope's illness forced the meeting to be postponed until 23 March 1223 at the imperial villa in

Ferentino Ferentino is a town and ''comune'' in Italy, in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, southeast of Rome. It is situated on a hill above sea level, in the Monti Ernici area. History ''Ferentinum'' was a town of the Hernici; it was captured from them ...

.Joseph P. Donovan, ''Pelagius and the Fifth Crusade'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016) p.107 ("All of them agreed to join him at Ferentino on March 23 for a meeting with Honorius.") There they struck an agreement to have King John's young daughter Yolande of Brienne marry the newly widowed Emperor Frederick II. Frederick then agreed to lead the next crusade and to have his fleet depart from Europe by 24 June 1225. On 1 March 1224 Honorius III wrote to the patriarch of Jerusalem of the imminent departure of the imperial fleet, and to prepare for the marriage of Yolanda of Brienne (later to become Isabella II) to the emperor. Any and all impediments were to be cleared away. Patriarch Raoul, John of Brienne and

Hermann von Salza Hermann von Salza (or Herman of Salza; – 20 March 1239) was the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1210 to 1239. A skilled diplomat with ties to the Frederick II and the Pope, Hermann oversaw the expansion of the ...

met with the pope in the summer of 1224 to deal with the emperor's announcement that conditions in Sicily had so deteriorated that he could not possibly depart for the Holy Land at this time. A new date for departure was arrived at. As a new patriarch was nominated and in place by May 1225, it would seem that Raoul died in late 1224. His replacement, Gérold of Lausanne,

bishop of Valence The Diocese of Valence (–Die–Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux) (Latin: ''Dioecesis Valentinensis (–Diensis–Sancti Pauli Tricastinorum)''; French: ''Diocèse de Valence (–Die–Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux'') is a Latin Church diocese of the Cat ...

and former abbot of Cluny, was elected on 10 May 1225.

Early career in patriarchal service

Patriarch

Election

Fifth Crusade

Preparations for the Sixth Crusade

References

Further reading