Fighting for Egypt

In 1163, the young Fatimid caliph of Egypt was al-Adid, who was only 12 and a puppet of several strong nobles and viziers. His current vizier, Shawar, was overthrown by the military commander Dirgham. Shortly after, Amalric I, King of Jerusalem, attacked on the pretense that Egypt was not keeping up tributes promised to Baldwin III, Amalric's brother and predecessor.

Amalric failed, but it motivated Nur ad-Din, Emir of Aleppo, to attack Crusader forces in Syria to keep their attention away from Egypt. While Nur ad-Din was attacking Tripoli, Shawar visited him asking for help to be restored to power in Egypt.

Nur ad-Din did not want to divide his forces, but gave a Kurdish mercenary general employed by the Zengid Dynasty permission to invade Egypt. General Shirkuh was happy to do so, but his approach to Egypt frightened Dirgham enough to forge an alliance with Amalric to fight Shirkuh. Unfortunately, Amalric assembled his forces but did not arrive in time to help. Dirgham was killed, and Shawar was restored to power over the kingdom and the young caliph.

But Shawar and Shirkuh fell out and Shawar called Amalric for help. Amalric attacked Shirkuh's forces, but they came to a stalemate and each agreed to leave Egypt. In 1166, however, Shirkuh came back. Shawar called on Amalric again, who arrived in January 1167. Another stalemate was reached, and again the two agreed to retreat and leave Egypt to Shawar (although Amalric left a garrison in Cairo). Amalric also demanded more tribute from Egypt.

Amalric came back in the winter of 1168, at which point Shawar re-allied himself with Shirkuh. They could not drive Amalric out of Cairo, and Amalric progressed until he was camped at Fustat (now called Old Cairo). Shawar decided to destroy the city rather than let it fall into Christian hands. An Egyptian historian, writing at least two centuries later, says:

Shawar ordered that Fustat be evacuated. He forced [the citizens] to leave their money and property behind and flee for their lives with their children. In the panic and chaos of the exodus, the fleeing crowd looked like a massive army of ghosts.... Shawar sent 20,000 naphtha pots and 10,000 lighting bombs and distributed them throughout the city. Flames and smoke engulfed the city and rose to the sky in a terrifying scene. The blaze raged for 54 days.

Shirkuh did not give up, however. He fought until Amalric was forced out of Egypt, conquered Cairo himself, executed Shawar, and ruled Egypt for ... two months. He was succeeded by his nephew, a name better known to modern readers: Saladin.

Amalric would continue to invade Egypt. Tomorrow we'll return to see how his reign was going.

Nur ad-Din

Born into the Zengid Dynasty, Al-Malik al-Adil Abu al-Qasim Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd bin Imad al-Dīn Zengī, known as Nur ad-Din, became Emir of Aleppo in 1146 when he was 28 years old.

He set out to eliminate the Frankish kingdoms that had been created by Crusaders. He attacked Antioch and rebuffed attempts to recover the County of Edessa, which had fallen to the Zengid Dynasty in 1144. An attempt to recapture Edessa by the Franks led to Nur ad-Din executing the male population of Armenian Christians and enslaving the women and children.

(The illustration shows in dark orange Zengid territory when Nur ad-Din became Emir. The lighter orange shows how the territory expanded by 1174 when Nur ad-Din died.)

The Second Crusade in 1148 was an attempt to recover Edessa. They were unable to do so, and looked for another suitable goal. Aleppo was too far, so attacking Nur ad-Din directly was not feasible. They considered Damascus, but a siege there lasted only four days before the Crusade gave up.

After the departure of the Crusade, Nur ad-Din prepared another attack on Antioch. This led to the Battle of Inab in 1149, during which Prince Raymond of Antioch was killed, along with the husband (at the time) of Agnes of Courtenay, and many Franks. He conquered so much of the territory around Antioch that he was content to leave the city itself alone. (Antioch soon after became part of the Byzantine Empire, which Nur ad-Din was not prepared to go against.) He was able to march all the way to the Mediterranean, a symbolic goal.

In 1163, the new King of Jerusalem, Amalric I, began an offensive against Egypt. Egypt at the time was weakened by a series of very young Fatimid caliphs who were undermined and overruled by their viziers and other powerful nobles. Amalric failed, but it motivated Nur ad-Din to attack the Crusaders in Syria to draw their attention and forces away from Egypt.

What followed was a dance of shifting alliances between Turks and Franks. I'll explain soon.

Amalric Ascends

Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, contracted dysentery in 1162 after taking some pills from a Syriac physician. He was only 33 years old, and healthy prior to the pills, so poison was suspected, but no investigation turned up any sign of wrongdoing. Trying to get home from Antioch, he got as far as Beirut. He summoned his nobles to him, announcing his younger brother, Amalric, as his heir. He died on 10 February 1163.

Amalric was 27, and therefore unlike Baldwin at his ascension needed no regent (besides, his mother Queen Melisende had died on 11 September 1161) and was ready to rule. Unfortunately, the High Court refused to recognize him as king until he got rid of his wife, Agnes of Courtenay, for reasons on which historians cannot agree.

Amalric and Agnes already had children, and the need for an heir was a concern. Amalric gained papal agreement from Pope Alexander III that his children would be seen as legitimate even if his marriage was annulled. The marriage was annulled, presumably on the grounds of consanguinity.

Eight days after Baldwin's death, he was interred in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. On the same day in the same place, Amalric was crowned (see illustration) by the patriarch, Amalric of Nesle, the chief spokesman who told him he had to give up Agnes. (Although king and patriarch often worked together, this king excluded this patriarch from his councils, possibly because of the Agnes decision.)

One of Amalric's first pieces of legislation was the Assise sur la ligece ("Assize on liege-homage"). This declared all lords to be vassals of the king. This change allowed the vassals of Amalric's vassals to appeal directly to the king if they felt their overlords were not being fair or trustworthy. It disallowed the seizing of fiefs by lords, but allowed the king to confiscate fiefs from anyone.

Amalric's chief military goal during his reign was to conquer Egypt. This was not just a "land grab." The Crusaders were constantly threatened by Muslim neighbors, chief of whom was Nur ad-Din, Emir of Aleppo since 1146. Nur ad-Din also saw the strategic importance of Egypt: if he could control it, he would have the Crusader states surrounded.

The next decade saw these two men working against each other over Egypt. So let's learn more about Nur ad-Din next time.

Agnes of Courtenay

Some women in the Middle Ages became pawns as wives to powerful men. Some women had power in their own right and wielded it despite opposition from their husbands, like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Queen Melisende of Jerusalem. Agnes of Courtenay, who became Melisende's daughter-in-law, found herself in similar straits.

Agnes was born c.1136, daughter of Count Joscelin II of Edessa (a second cousin of Melisende) and Beatrice of Saone. She was married to Reginald of Marsah, who was killed in the Battle of Inab (along with several others) in 1149.

Her next husband was...well, there historians disagree. She came to Jerusalem and married Amalric, Melisende's son, in 1157. When Amalric was about to succeed his brother and become King of Jerusalem, there was opposition to the marriage from Fulcher of Angoulême, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. 

William of Tyre (who was a contemporary and writing a history of the Crusader states) claims it was because the two were too closely related. A later chronicler claims she was essentially abducted by Amalric because she was betrothed to another, Hugh of Ibelin, and that the objection was the impropriety of Amalric's abducting her.

Modern historians have other theories. One is that she was already married to Hugh of Ibelin, and therefore Amalric's actions made the two guilty of bigamy. Another theory was an objection from the Jerusalem nobles that she would wind up wielding too much power and give favors to exiles from Edessa. Also, it might have been that Amalric could make a more advantageous match.

Whatever the case, Amalric did not let a wife stand in the way of the kingship: he had the marriage annulled in 1163 (see them being separated in the illustration) rather than be excommunicated for bigamy or reasons of consanguinity.

Immediately after the annulment, she married Hugh of Ibelin, removing from Amalric any responsibility for supporting her. Hugh died c.1169, and Agnes (only in her 30s) married Reginald Grenier, heir to the Lord of Sidon.

But Agnes was not done with the Kingdom of Jerusalem. She had given birth to two children with Amalric: Sibylla of Jerusalem and Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. Let's go back to Amalric and what happened when he died.

Amalric

Queen Melisende and Fulk of Anjou had a second son, Amalric, born in 1136. When his grandfather, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, was on his deathbed in 1131, he conferred the kingdom on Melisende, Fulk, and the elder son, Baldwin III. Fulk tried to cut Melisende out of authority, but she had enough regard from the local nobles that he had to offer peace and cooperation. It is possible that she, in turn, accepted reconciliation because she only had one son, whereas Fulk had adult children from an earlier marriage and might have tried to put them in the line of succession.

Amalric is seen as the result of that reconciliation, a "spare" to follow the "heir."

Fulk died in 1143, and Melisende became co-ruler with her son, the 15-year-old Baldwin. Years later, when she and Baldwin continued to be at odds, she named the 15-year-old Amalric the Count of Jaffa, giving him power and making him beholden to her.

A year later, in 1152, Baldwin took the bold move of besieging his mother and her most loyal advisors in the Tower of David. Baldwin was successful. He managed to depose his mother and return Jaffa to Baldwin's own control. Two years later, in 1154, Baldwin gave his younger brother Jaffa and Ascalon.

Melisende was retired to Nablus, 30 miles  north of Jerusalem: sufficient territory to give her an income, but no fortifications that she could hide behind if she tried to stir up trouble for Baldwin.

Amalric married Agnes of Courtenay in 1157, the daughter of Melisende's second cousin. William of Tyre wrote that the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fulcher of Angoulême, objected because the couple were too closely related. A later chronicle of the lineages of the Crusader families states that the marriage was inappropriate in another way: Agnes, recently widowed, had been about to marry another, Hugh of Ibelin, but Amalric married her instead. A more recent historian claims Agnes was already married to Hugh, and Amalric kidnapped her to marry her, making them bigamous.

Amalric, like Baldwin, kept good relations with the Byzantine Empire, especially through Manuel I Comnenos (Baldwin was married to Manuel's niece, Theodora). They had no children, and so when Baldwin was nearing death, he named Amalric as his heir.

Tomorrow I want to take a look at Agnes of Courtenay, her life, her marriage to Amalric, and what happened when Amalric wanted to be King of Jerusalem. It didn't work out in Agnes' favor.

Baldwin vs. Melisende

The young King Baldwin III of Jerusalem really wanted to be seen as a military commander. To do this, he would have to take steps to overcome people's (and his mother's) memories of his previous lack of success with the Second Crusade and in Bosra.

A year after the Second Crusade debacle over Damascus he had his chance. The Prince of Antioch, Raymond of Poitiers, and others were killed in the Battle of Inab against Nur al-Din and Unur of Damascus. Antioch was pillaged.

In the past, Baldwin's father and grandfather had each been in a position to assume the regency of Antioch, and Baldwin took up the mantle. He marched his troops north to lay siege to Harim, a city taken by Nur al-Din, but was unsuccessful. He sent an advisor with a troop of knights to protect another city, Azaz. He himself could not stay in Antioch (William of Tyre recorded that affairs in Jerusalem needed his attention).

Around this time, however, the split between Baldwin and his mother, Queen Melisende, began to widen. (See the illustration in which he is admonishing her.) Troops loyal to Melisende refused to march to Antioch, perhaps wanting to prevent Baldwin from achieving victory.

There was also a problem in the kingdom's chancery. Melisende wanted to make Ralph the Englishman, the current chancellor of Jerusalem, the archbishop of Tyre. There was opposition to this from the bishops, and Melisende abandoned the conflict with the Church by giving up on Ralph and dismissing him. She could not appoint another with the consent of her co-ruler. Baldwin decided to keep Ralph as his advisor after Melisende dismissed him.

After this incident, the two co-rulers issued charters separate from each other through chancery. Melisende's charters mentioned Baldwin's name; Baldwin dropped Melisende's name from his pronouncements.

Melisende's most loyal supporters were in the southern part of the kingdom. Baldwin tried to consolidate power in the north, in the coastal cities of Acre and Tyre. When Melisende granted land in that area to the Hospitallers, however, Baldwin did not object, probably to maintain good relations with that particular fighting force. He found his own method of passive retaliation by re-fortifying Gaza in the south.

Baldwin made one very smart move. Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenos asked for the six fortresses of the County of Edessa (it was an exchange, but the details are not important for us). Baldwin, seeing how difficult it was to defend these, gave them willingly. Within months they were lost to the Turks, and Baldwin avoided the blame for their loss.

Then Melisende made a move that disturbed Baldwin: she named her younger son, Amalric, as the Count of Jaffa without Baldwin's approval. Amalric was 15, and giving him a title of his own was not an unknown thing for a prince, but Baldwin may have seen this move—and the fact that Melisende was including Amalric's name in her charters—as an attempt to set brother against brother. 

Before we go further to see the definitive clash between Melisende and Baldwin, we should learn about Amalric. See you next time.

Baldwin and the Second Crusade

After the defeat and embarrassment of the Bosra incident, Queen Melisende tried to keep her son and co-ruler, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, out of the spotlight. Charters issued from the throne after this included her younger son, Amalric, as if he were equal to Baldwin in authority.

When Pope Eugene III called for a Second Crusade in 1148 after the fall of Edessa, France and Germany responded. It would seem to be easier now, since the First Crusade established a foothold in the Middle East. The German forces were led by King Conrad III. They arrived in Jerusalem in April and met Baldwin (a male needed to lead the military, so this was one official function Melisende could not perform), along with the Templars.

Because Edessa had been so thoroughly damaged that it would be difficult to defend if re-taken, the Crusaders decided to attack and conquer Damascus instead. Damascus was controlled by Unur, an ally of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, so Melisende should have been against this course of action. If Baldwin could lead the army along with the Crusade on a successful military mission, his people would see his value and he could become more popular than his mother.

Melisende went with the army to Palmarea, one of their cities near Acre, where on 24 June 1148 they met up with the French contingent led by King Louis VII, who was accompanied by his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. All agreed to lay siege to Damascus.

They first approached Darayya, a city a few miles southwest from Damascus, but for some reason did not conquer it, deciding instead to move southeast of Damascus. This new location had little in the way of provisions or even water, and behind them Muslim forces prevented them from going back to Darayya. With the news that more Muslim forces were approaching, and with constant attacks on their hastily constructed defenses, the Crusaders started to panic. They retreated in disorder to save their lives.

Accusations of betrayal arose. Michael the Syrian (1126 - 1199), the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, wrote that Damascus had offered Baldwin 200,000 gold dinars if he could get the Crusade to withdraw from Damascus. The story continues that the dinars were delivered, only to turn out to be gold-plated copper. (There is no proof of this story.)

The failure of the attempted Siege of Damascus (pictured) gave Melisende the opportunity to further reduce Baldwin's authority. Charters after this do not even carry his name.

It was only a year later that he tried, again, to manage a military campaign. Would it surprise you that he was unsuccessful? His mother's confidence in him was steadily deteriorating. A serious clash was forthcoming, which we will see forming tomorrow.