Count of Tripoli

Count Raymond IV of Toulouse, one of the leaders of the First Crusade, founded the county in 1102 during a lengthy war with the Banu Ammar emirs of Tripoli (theoretically vassals of the Fatimid caliphs in Cairo).

William-Jordan continued the siege of Tripoli until 1109,[2] when the elder son of Raymond, Bertrand arrived in the east, leaving Toulouse to Alfonso-Jordan and his mother, who returned to France.

Count Raymond III, who reigned from 1152 to 1187, was an important figure in the history of the Kingdom to the south due to his close relationship to its kings (his mother Hodierna was a daughter of Baldwin II of Jerusalem) and to his own position as Prince of Galilee through his wife.

He also acted as the leader of the local nobility in their opposition to Baldwin IV's Courtenay relations with the Knights Templar, Guy of Lusignan, and Reynald of Châtillon.

The death of the unpopular Count Bohemond VII in 1287 led to a dispute between his heir, his sister Lucia, and the city's commune, which put itself under the protection of the Genoese.