A History of the Crusades-Vol 3 (14 page)

1201: Civil War in the North

For the next quarter of a century the
Christians of Northern Syria were distracted by the Antiochene War of
Succession; and long before it was settled, the whole situation in the Orient
had altered. It was fortunate that neither the Seldjuk princes of Anatolia nor
the Ayubites were in a position to embark on a war of conquest there. The death
of the Seldjuk Sultan Kilij Arslan II had been followed by a long civil war
between his sons. Nearly ten years passed before one of the younger sons, Rukn
ad-Din Suleiman of Tokat, succeeded in reuniting the family lands. There had
been a Seldjuk raid on Cilicia in 1193, and again in
1201,
distracting Leo at the critical moment
when Bohemond III lay dying. But when Rukn ad-Din had time to spare from wars
with his brothers and the decadent Danishmend princes, he used it to attack
Georgia, whose great Queen Thamar seemed a far more dangerous menace to Islam
than any Latin potentate. At Aleppo Saladin’s son az-Zahir was far too nervous
of his uncle al-Adil’s ambition to risk any foreign enterprise. The Antiochenes
were free to continue their quarrels without any Moslem interference. From Acre
King Amalric watched the civil war in the north with growing impatience. His
sympathies were with Leo and the young Raymond-Roupen rather than with the
truculent Bohemond, but he never attempted any active intervention. His main
preoccupation was to prevent the outbreak of war with al-Adil. There were
rumours of a huge Crusade gathering in Europe. Till it arrived, peace must be
kept. Al-Adil on his side could not count on the loyal support of his nephews
and cousins unless serious Christian aggression was to provoke a Holy War.

It was not always easy to keep the peace.
At the end of
1202
a Flemish squadron
put in at Acre. It had sailed round past Gibraltar under the castellan of
Bruges, John of Nesle. A few days later a handful of knights arrived in ships
from Marseilles, under Bishop Walter of Autun and the Count of Forez. They were
followed by a further group of French knights coming from Venice, including
Stephen of Perche, Robert of Montfort and Reynald II, Count of Dampierre. The
three parties altogether only numbered a few hundred men, a tiny proportion of
the great host that was now sailing from Dalmatia; but soon afterwards Reynald
of Montmirail, who had left that host at Zara, brought news that it would be
some time, if ever, before the whole expedition would appear in Syria. Like all
newcomers, the French knights were determined to go out at once to fight for
the Cross. They were horrified when King Amalric urged them to wait in
patience. Reynald of Dampierre insulted the King to his face as a coward, and,
as self-appointed leader, persuaded the knights to take service under Bohemond
of Tripoli. They set out to join him at Antioch, and passed safely through the
county of Tripoli. But Jabala and Lattakieh were still in Moslem hands. The
emir of Jabala was a peaceful man, on excellent terms with his Christian
neighbours. He offered the travellers hospitality, but warned them that to pass
safely through the territory of Lattakieh they must obtain a safe-conduct from
his suzerain, az-Zahir of Aleppo. He offered to write himself to the Sultan;
who would have granted the request, for he was interested in exacerbating the
civil war at Antioch. But Reynald and his friends would not wait. They pressed
on past Lattakieh, whose emir, thinking to do his Moslem duty, lured them into
an ambush and captured many of them and massacred the rest.

1205: Death of King Amalric

Amalric himself allowed occasional raids
against the Moslems. When an emir established himself near Sidon and began to
raid the Christian coasts, and al-Adil offered no redress, Amalric retaliated
by sending out ships to intercept and capture a rich Egyptian convoy sailing to
Lattakieh, and leading a raid into Galilee. Al-Adil, though he marched as far
as Mount Thabor to meet him, refused to do battle. Nor did he react violently
when the Christian fleet sailed to the Nile Delta and up the river past Rosetta
to sack the little town of Fuwa. About the same time the Hospitallers from Krak
and Marqab carried out raids, without any lasting success, against Hama, the
emirate of al-Adil’s great-nephew, al-Mansur.

In September 1204 a peace treaty to last
for six years was concluded between Amalric and al-Adil. It seems that the
initiative came from Amalric. But al-Adil on his side was anxious to end the
fighting. He may have been disquieted by the Christians’ superiority in
sea-power, but he was certainly aware that his empire would gain by the
resumption of settled trade with the Syrian coast. He was therefore ready not
only to abandon Beirut and Sidon finally to Amalric, but also ceded to him
Jaffa and Ramleh and simplified the arrangements for pilgrims going to
Jerusalem and to Nazareth. To Amalric, who could not expect now to receive any
effective help from the West, the terms were surprisingly good. But he was not
able to enjoy his enhanced prestige for long. On 1 April 1205, after a short
illness caused by a surfeit of fish, he died at Acre, aged little more than
fifty.

Amalric II was not a great king, but, like
his predecessor Henry, he learned from experience a political wisdom that was
very valuable to this poor and precarious kingdom; and his tidy legal mind not
only created a constitution for Cyprus but did much to preserve monarchy on the
mainland. As a man he was respected but not greatly liked. In his youth he had
been irresponsible and quarrelsome, and he always resented opposition. But it
was to his credit that though he would have clearly preferred to remain King of
Cyprus alone, he accepted and carried out dutifully the tasks that his second
crown laid on him. On his death, the two kingdoms were separated. Cyprus passed
to his son by Eschiva of Ibelin, Hugh I, a child of ten. The boy’s eldest
sister, Burgundia, had recently married Walter of Montbeliard, to whom the High
Court of the island entrusted the regency. In the Kingdom of Jerusalem the
authority passed automatically to Queen Isabella, who was not too deeply
distraught by the death of this latest husband to assume government. But she
herself did not long survive. The date of her death, like most of her life, is
shrouded in obscurity. Alone of the ladies of the Royal House of Jerusalem she
is a shadowy figure of whose personality nothing has survived. Her marriage and
her very existence were of high importance. Had she held political ambitions she
could have been a power in the land; but she let herself be passed from husband
to husband without consideration of her personal wishes. We know that she was
beautiful; but we must conclude that she was feckless and weak.

Isabella left five daughters, Maria of
Montferrat, Alice and Philippa of Champagne, and Sibylla and Melisende of
Lusignan. Maria, who was now thirteen, succeeded to the throne; and John of
Ibelin, lord of Beirut, was appointed regent. Whether he was nominated by the
dying Queen or elected by the barons is unknown. But he was the obvious
candidate. As Isabella's elder half-brother he was the child's nearest male
relative. He owned the richest fief in the little kingdom and was the accepted
leader of the barons; and he combined his father Balian's gallantry and wisdom
with a Greek subtlety inherited from his mother, Maria Comnena. For three years
he governed the country tactfully and quietly, undisturbed by Saracen wars or
by the embarrassment of a Crusade. Indeed, as Amalric had ruefully foreseen
when he made his treaty with al-Adil, no Western knight would trouble now
willingly to come to Palestine. The Crusade had found a richer hunting-ground
elsewhere.

BOOK II

MISGUIDED CRUSADES

CHAPTER
I

THE
CRUSADE
AGAINST
CHRISTIANS

‘
She
that
was
g
r
eat
am
o
n
g
th
e
n
ati
o
ns, and prin
cess
among
th
e
p
r
o
vin
ce
s,
h
o
w
is
she
become
tri
but
ar
y!
.
. . ,
all
he
r
frien
d
s
have
d
ealt
trea
c
her
ou
sly
with her,
th
ey
ar
e
become
her
ene
m
ies.’
LAMENTATION
s
1,
1,
2

In
November
1199
Count
Ti
bald
o
f
Champagn
e
invited
his
fri
e
nd
s
and n
eighbou
r
s
to a
tournam
e
nt
a
t
his castle
o
f
Ecri
o
n
th
e
Aisn
e.

Wh
e
n th
e
jou
sts
w
ere
over,
conversation
am
ongs
t th
e
l
o
rd
s
turn
e
d
to
th
e
n
ee
d
of
a
new Crusad
e.
It
was
a
matter
on
w
hic
h
th
e
Count felt strongl
y
; for
h
e
was
th
e
n
ep
h
ew
of
Coeur-d
e
-Lion
and
Phili
p
Au
g
u
s
tus
a
nd
broth
e
r
t
o
Co
unt H
e
nry who had
r
e
i
g
n
e
d
in
Pal
est
in
e
.
On his
sugges
t
i
o
n
an
it
inera
nt
preacher, Fu
lk
of
N
e
uill
y
,
was call
e
d
in to talk to
th
e guests
.
F
ir
ed
b
y
his
eloquence
the
whole
company
vowed
t
o
tak
e
th
e C
r
oss;
and
a
messeng
e
r wa
s
sent
to
r
epo
rt t
he
pious
d
e
cision to the Pop
e.

Inno
ce
nt
III had
be
e
n
on
th
e
P
apal
thron
e
fo
r rath
e
r
mor
e
than a
ye
ar.
H
e
was
p
a
ss
i
on
atel
y
ambitious
t
o
es
t
ablis
h th
e
transcendental
authority of the See, but at the same time he was pru
d
e
nt
,
far
-
sig
ht
e
d
and
clea
r-h
e
ad
e
d,
a la
wyer
who
like
d a l
eg
al basis fo
r
hi
s
claims
and a p
o
liti
c
i
an
w
h
o
was
ready
t
o use
what
eve
r
in
s
trum
ent
l
ay
n
e
ar
es
t t
o
his hand
.
H
e
wa
s
tr
o
ubl
e
d
b
y
t
he si
tuati
on
in
th
e
East.
On
e
of
his
fi
r
st
action
s
had
been
t
o exp
r
ess
publicl
y
his
d
es
ir
e
fo
r
a new
C
ru
sade; a
nd
in 1199 h
e
wrote
to
th
e
Patri
a
r
ch
A
y
mar
of
J
e
rusal
e
m t
o as
k
fo
r a
d
e
tail
e
d
r
epo
rt
o
n th
e
Frankish
kin
gdom.
Th
e
Kin
gs of
Jerusal
em
were
his
vassals;
an
d
his
d
es
ir
e
to
succ
o
ur
th
e
m w
as
e
nhanc
e
d b
y
th
e ac
ti
ve
polic
y of
t
he Emperor
H
e
nr
y
V
I, wh
ose
b
es
towal
of
c
ro
w
ns to
C
y
prus and
Arm
e
ni
a
wa
s
a
n
i
mplici
t
c
h
a
ll
enge
t
o
Papal aut
h
o
ri
ty
in th
ose
parts. Exp
e
rien
ce
had
shown that kings and emperors were not wholly desirable on Crusading
expeditions. The only Crusade to be a complete success was the First, in which
no crowned head had taken part. A Crusade of barons, more or less homogeneous
in race, would avoid the royal and national rivalries that had so greatly
damaged the Second and Third Crusades. Such jealousies as arose would be petty
and easily controlled by an able Papal representative. Innocent therefore gave
a warm welcome to the news from Champagne. The movement that Tibald had
launched not only would bring effective help to the East but also could be used
to strengthen the unity of Christendom under Rome.