Bohemond III was the son of Constance, daughter of Bohemond II, by her first husband, Raymond of Antioch. He succeeded his mother in the principality of Antioch in 1163, and first appears prominently in 1164, as regent of the kingdom of Jerusalem during the expedition of Amalric I to Egypt. During the absence of Amalric, he was defeated and captured by Nureddin (August 1164) at Harenc, to the east of Antioch. He was at once ransomed by his brother-in-law, the emperor Manuel, and went to Constantinople, whence he returned with a Greek patriarch.
In 1180 he deserted his second wife, the princess Orguilleuse, for a certain Sibylla, and he was in consequence excommunicated. By Orguilleuse he had had two sons, Raymund and Bohemond (the future Bohemond IV), whose relations and actions determined the rest of his life. Raymund married Alice, a daughter of the Armenian prince Rhupen (Rupin), brother of Leo of Armenia, and died in 1197, leaving behind him a son, Raymond Rhupen. Bohemond, the younger brother of Raymund, had succeeded the last count of Tripoli in the possession of that county, 1187; and the problem which occupied the last years of Bohemond III was to determine whether his grandson, Raymond Rhupen, or his younger son, Bohemond, should succeed him in Antioch. Leo of Armenia was naturally the champion of his great-nephew, Raymond Rhupen; indeed he had already claimed Antioch in his own right, before the marriage of his niece to Raymond, in 1194, when he had captured Bohemond III at Gastin, and attempted without success to force him to cede Antioch.(*) Bohemond the younger, however, prosecuted his claim with vigour, and even evicted his father from Antioch about 1199; but he was ousted by Leo (now king of Armenia by the grace of the emperor, Henry VI), and Bohemond III. died in possession of his principality (1201).
(* During the captivity of Bohemond III the patriarch of Antioch helped to found a commune, which persisted, with its mayor and jurats, during the 13th century. )
Being the entry for BOHEMUND III in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain.