Daily Medieval

The King of Jerusalem, Aimery of Lusignan , had a problem with his seneschal, Ralph of Saint-Omer: he accused the seneschal (who had hopes o...

King Amalric I of Jerusalem, and his first wife, Agnes of Courtenay , had three children. When Amalric was forced to put Agnes aside via an...

In 1173 King of Jerusalem Amalric I tried to make an alliance with the Order of Assassins . They were a sect of Shi'ite Islam whose goa...

On the morning of 29 June 1170, the inhabitants of what are now western Syria, central southern Turkey, and Lebanon were rocked by one of th...

January 1169 saw the death of Bertrand of Blancfort, the master of the Templars . Bertrand was not as keen on invading Egypt as was Amalric...

Yesterday's post introduced the phrase more muris in pera , "like a mouse in a wallet." It was said by William of Tyre about ...

(I said we would get back to Amalric, but I've discovered a side story that I would rather not put off.) King of Jerusalem Amalric I di...

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 vizie...

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 Ale...

Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, contracted dysentery in 1162 after taking some pills from a Syriac physician. He was only 33 years old, and ...

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 oppositi...

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 d...

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 overcom...

One of the reasons King Amalric of Jerusalem wanted Philip of Milly to be Grand Master of the Templars, especially after the death of Bertr...

After the death of Templar Grand Master  Bertrand de Blanchefort , King Amalric I of Jerusalem saw a chance to help himself out. Bertrand ha...

Formed about 1120 by Hugues de Payens and eight others—including André de Montbard, the uncle of St. Bernard of Clairvaux —the Poor Fellow-S...

When William of Tyre was asked by King Amalric of Jerusalem to raise and tutor his son, Baldwin (1161 - 1185), he noticed something unusual...

The First Crusade founded several Christian territories in the East. In order of their founding, they were the County of Edessa, the Princip...