Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse

Who was Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse?

Raymond IV of Toulouse, sometimes called Raymond of St Gilles, was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne, and Margrave of Provence and one of the leaders of the First Crusade. He was a son of Pons of Toulouse and Almodis de La Marche. He received Saint-Gilles with the title of "count" from his father and displaced his niece Philippa, Duchess of Aquitaine, his brother William IV's daughter, in 1094 from inheriting Toulouse.

According to an Armenian source, he had lost an eye on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem before the First Crusade, but this statement probably refers to the fact that he was one-eyed. He also fought against the Moors in Spain before 1096, and he was the first to join the crusade after Pope Urban II's homily at the Council of Clermont.