Page "Bohemond II of Antioch" Paragraph 2

In 1124, at the age of sixteen, he reached his majority.

He spent the next two years attending to affairs of state in the Mezzogiorno.

Finally, in October 1126, after his eighteenth birthday, he finally left Apulia for Antioch.

According to William of Tyre, he reached an agreement beforehand with his cousin William II, Duke of Apulia, that whichever of them died first, would leave his lands in Italy to the other.

This is flatly contradicted by Alexander of Telese, who states that Bohemond left his lands under the governance of the Pope, and by Romuald of Salerno, who states that the regency of Taranto went to a relative of Bohemond's, Alexander, Count of Conversano.

To whomever the principality of Taranto was left or promised, as part of his agreement to come to Antioch, Bohemond also married Baldwin II's daughter Alice.

According to Matthew of Edessa Baldwin supposedly also promised him the crown of Jerusalem, but Matthew might be confusing Alice with her elder sister Melisende of Jerusalem, who also married a westerner, Fulk V of Anjou, around the same time.