Raoul of Mérencourt

In 1206, Albert, formerly bishop of Vercelli, 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 in Constantinople.

In 1208, Albert sent Raoul as part of an official delegation to Philip Augustus, king of France, to seek a husband and king-consort for the young heiress to the throne of Jerusalem, Maria of Montferrat.

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

Raoul was appointed as one of Pope Honorius III's papal legates, and was escorted back to his see in Acre by John of Brienne, the nominal King of Jerusalem.

It is recounted that at one point the patriarch carried a relic of the True Cross, and prostrated himself with his head buried under the sand in order to ensure the success of the siege at Damietta.

In 1222 the pope summoned John of Brienne, 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 on 11 November.

[1] There they struck an agreement to have King John's young daughter Yolande of Brienne marry the newly widowed Emperor Frederick II.

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.

Patriarch Raoul, John of Brienne and Hermann von Salza 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.