Aimery versus Ralph

The King of Jerusalem, Aimery of Lusignan, had a problem with his seneschal, Ralph of Saint-Omer: he accused the seneschal (who had hopes of becoming King of Jerusalem before the election went to Aimery) of being behind a foiled assassination attempt in 1198.

Aimery declared Ralph should be exiled, and gave him eight days to depart the kingdom. Aimery's plan ran into a snag.

You see, Ralph knew the laws of the land better than anybody, and he brought up a rule laid down a couple decades earlier.

In the 1170s, King Amalric of Jerusalem proposed a new law, which was heartily approved by the High Court. The law stated that 1) all lords were vassals of the king, even if they were vassals of someone who was himself a vassal of the king; and 2) therefore anyone could take their case before the king if they felt their immediate lord were unfair to them. Amalric wanted to be able to control any disputes in his vassals and their vassals. It also claimed that vassals were right to withdraw their support from their liege if the liege did not abide by the ruling of the High Court, the collection of barons and prelates and other nobles brought together when important matters needed to be discussed or adjudicated.

This was called the Assise sur la ligece (basically, an "Assize on liege-homage"). 

Ralph appealed to the High Court that he needed to be judged by his peers at the Court, not by the king. Aimery might have thought that, since he was king and the nobles had already decided that Aimery was preferable to Ralph as king, this would be smooth sailing. But Aimery wanted Ralph exiled, the High Court didn't, Aimery refused to accept the High Court's verdict, whereupon the barons declared that they were withdrawing their support from the king.

Aimery's vassals withdrew their service from Aimery, but Ralph took himself away to Tripoli anyway  (since clearly he could not work under this king) and then to Constantinople in 1204. He returned after Aimery's death in 1207.

The barons returned their support to Aimery in 1200.

This was an important legal precedent, applying the force of law to the king himself. It was used a couple more times, which I'll share tomorrow.

The Next King of Jerusalem

With the unexpected death of Henry II of Champagne by falling out a window, Jerusalem's Queen Isabella (the real ruler) needed a new husband to help lead the kingdom. The Prince of Galilee and Tiberias, Hugh II of Saint-Omer, suggested his brother Ralph. Ralph was the seneschal of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The nobles rejected him due to his lack of wealth (Henry had brought revenues from Champagne which helped the kingdom's finances), and his lack of stature.

Instead they chose none other than Aimery of Lusignan, who had just recently been reconciled to Henry. Aimery had once been opposed to Henry because Aimery's brother Guy had been King of Jerusalem by marriage to Isabella's older sister, Sibylla. When Sibylla died and Guy's status as king through marriage ended, he refused to give up the title. Even after Isabella was married to Henry, Aimery was part of a plot to take Acre away from Henry and grant it to Guy.

Now, however, Aimery was the most prominent "free agent," his wife Eschiva (of the prominent Jerusalem Ibelin clan) having died not long before. Aimery would bring the resources of Cyprus to Jerusalem, and in October of 1197 Henry and Isabella were betrothed. (The illustration is Aimery's seal as King of Cyprus.)

Although Aimery did use Cypriot troops on the mainland, he was very careful to keep the two kingdoms separate. After all, he had no real claim to Jerusalem as a dynasty, and Isabella's children were the proper line of succession. Cyprus, on the other hand, would be passed on to his own children. The fact that he and Henry had promised to marry Isabella's three daughters to Aimery's three sons would mean that no one could see how the two kingdoms would relate to each other in the future, but for now they had only Aimery in common.

Aimery did not make any radical changes to Jerusalem or its royal advisors or offices. He did not like Ralph of Saint-Omer, but he approved of Ralph's competence as seneschal. When he asked Ralph to be part of a commission to codify all the laws of the kingdom because Ralph knew and understood them so well, however, Ralph would not participate.

In March of 1198, while riding from Acre to Tyre, Aimery and his small escort were attacked by four Germans. Aimery was saved by his escort. The four would not admit who hired them to attack, but Aimery came to believe that Ralph was behind it.

Aimery called the High Court of barons and nobles together to accuse and punish Ralph, but Ralph had a defense based on a law from a generation earlier that actually turned the High Court against Aimery.

I'll explain how quickly things turned against Aimery next time.