Latin patriarch of Antioch (1140-1165 and 1170-1193/ 1196), one of the longest serving senior clerics in the Latin Church of Outremer.
Aimery was born in France around 1110, and studied in Toledo. He was appointed archdeacon of Antioch after 1136, and elected patriarch of Antioch on the deposition of Ralph of Domfront (1140). Aimery’s rapid rise owed much to the prince of Antioch, his fellow countryman Raymond of Poitiers, with whom he enjoyed good relations; after Raymond’s death in battle (June 1149), Aimery played a major role in the regency government of Raymond’s widow Constance. However, in 1153 the patriarch was imprisoned by the new prince, Constance’s second husband, Reynald of Châtillon, who had tried to seize church property. Released on the intervention of King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, Aimery went into exile in Palestine. He conducted the marriage of Baldwin III to Theodora Komnene (1158) and accompanied Baldwin to Antioch when he went to meet the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos (Easter 1159), and was restored by Reynald to the patriarchate shortly afterward.
Aimery was again called to play a role in government when the young prince Bohemund III was captured by Nûr al-Din (August 1164). Manuel secured Bohemund’s release, but only on condition that the prince appoint a Greek to the patriarchate, and in 1165 Aimery withdrew to his castle at Cursat. In 1170 he was restored when the Greek patriarch, Athanasios, died from injuries sustained in an earthquake. A fresh dispute broke out over Bohemund’s repudiation of his Greek wife, Theodora (1180), leading to fighting in the principality until a compromise was brokered by Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. Although Aimery was able to fend off Greek claims to the patriarchate of Antioch, he could do little to prevent the loss of most of its territorial jurisdiction to the conquests of Zangi, Nûr al-Dīn, and Saladin.
He cultivated good relations with the Eastern churches, and paved the way for a settlement by which the Maronites accepted union with the Latin Church. He died between 1193 and 1196 and was buried in the cathedral of Antioch.