He was the son of Bohemund VI of Antioch, who died in 1275, and his wife Sibylla of Armenia. As Bohemund VII was still underage, Sibylla acted as regent, although the regency was also unsuccessfully claimed by Hugh I of Jerusalem, Bohemund's closest living male relative. Tripoli was very weak at this time and was divided among various factions; from 1277 to 1282 Bohemund was at war with the Knights Templar, but also in 1277 he made peace with Qalawun, the successor of the Mameluk sultan Baibars (who died earlier in the year), and the Venetians, who he exempted from harbour duties. In 1282 he defeated the rebellious Genoan lords of Jubail, by starving them to death in that town's castle.
Bohemund married Margaret of Acre but had no children with her. He died on October 19, 1287, and Sibylla tried to claim the regency, but this was opposed by the Italian merchants, who set up their own administration. Bohemund's sister Lucia soon arrived from Europe to take control of the county.
From Constantinople to AntiochBohemund was the real leader of the First Crusade; and it says much for his leading that the First Crusade succeeded in crossing Asia Minor, which the Crusades of 1101, 1147 and 1189 failed to accomplish.
A politique, Bohemund was resolved to engineer the enthusiasm of the crusaders to his own ends; and when his nephew Tancred left the main army at Heraclea, and attempted to establish a footing in Cilicia, the movement may have been already intended as a preparation for Bohemund's eastern principality.
Bohemund was the first to get into position before Antioch (October 1097), and he took a great part in the siege, beating off the Mahommedan attempts at relief from the east, and connecting the besiegers on the west with the port of St Simeon and the Italian ships which lay there.
Raymund, prince of Antioch (1099-1149), was the son of William VI[?], count of Poitou.
On the death of Bohemund II of Antioch, the principality devolved upon his daughter, Constance, a child of some three years of age (1130).
Fulk, the king of Jerusalem, and, as such, guardian of Antioch, was concerned to find a husband for her, and sent envoys to England to offer her hand to Raymund, who was then at the court of Henry I.
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