The Crusades and the Near East
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Of course, any exact details of Latin legal rulings on the subject may have been lost when Saladin burned the laws of the kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187.24
Aside from the canons of the Council of Nablus in 1120, the only detailed legal information about marriage in the Levant largely stems from later thirteenth-86
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century works of Philip of Novara and John of Ibelin.25 Interestingly, the Assises of Antioch which outline laws of succession in the principality survive today only because a copy was translated into Armenian c.1250, potentially with a view to using Latin customs as a legal model. The rise of the Mongol Empire at this time, however, hampered the attempts of the Hethoumid dynasty to create a more solid legal infrastructure for the kingdom of Cilicia.
Before going on to look at the later twelfth century, consideration must be given to the role of marriage in some of the more celebrated early diplomatic relations with noble Armenian families, and how these set precedents for later interaction between the two groups.
After the First Crusade, certain high-profile Latins who married Armenian women in order to secure new claims to property and cement alliances, but evidence for those lower down the social scale is limited: such matches may have been possible only for ‘a select few’.26 Marital relationships were just as fluid as other types of alliance in the early period of settlement, as the case of Baldwin of Boulogne (I of Jerusalem) underlines. On his arrival in the East, he was ‘adopted’
Rupen I d. 1095?
Konstandin d. 1102
Thoros d. 1104?
Thoros I (Lord of the
Beatrice m. Joscelin I
Leon I (Lord of the mountains) d. 1139
Arda? d. 1118
Mountains) d. 1129
of Edessa d. 1131
m. 1 Beatrice/Cecilia of Rethel?
m. Baldwin I of
m. 2 Anon.
Jerusalem, d. 1118
Joscelin II of Edessa
m. Beatrice of Saône
Agnes of
Joscelin of
Isabelle of Courtenay
Courtenay
Edessa
m. Thoros II
Thoros II (Lord of the Mountains) d. 1168
Mleh (Lord of the
Stephane d. 1165
m. 1 Isabelle of Courtenay
Mountains) d. 1175
m. Rita of Hethoum
m. 2 Anon. daughter of Thomas the
m. Anon. niece of
Regent
Nerses Shnorhali
Rupen III (Lord of the
Leon I of Armenia d. 1219
Mountains) d. 1187
m. 1 Isabelle of Antiochia d. 1207?
Anon. m Isaac
Rupen II (Lord of the
m. Isabelle of Toron
m. 2 Sybil of Lusignan
Doukas Comnenus
Mountains, usurped by
d. 1195
Mleh) d. 1170
Alice m. 1 Hethoum of Sassoun d. 1193 Philippa m. 1 Shahinshah of Sassoun d. 1193
m. 2 Raymond of Antioch d. 1198
m. 2 Theodore Lascaris
Anon.
m. 1 Raymond VII of Toulouse
m. 2 Thierry of Flanders
Raymond-Rupen d. 1222
Stephanie d. 1219
Zabel d. 1252
m. Helvis of Ibelin
m. John of Brienne d. 1237
m. 1 Philip of Antioch d. 1222
m. 2 Hethoum I of Armenia d. 1269
Figure 4.1 Marital alliances between Rupenids and Frankish settlers Note: This diagram shows select, high-profile relationships only. For further detail, see W.H. Rüdt-Collenberg, The Rupenides, Hethumides and Lusignans: The Structure of the Armeno Cilician Dynasties (Paris: Libraire C. Klincksieck, 1963).
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by the ruler of Edessa, and later married an Armenian princess often referred to as ‘Arda’.27 According to Albert of Aachen, she was the daughter of Taphnuz, brother of the Rupenid prince Konstandin.28 The match was not a success and Arda was put aside after a few scant years, only to be reinstated briefly after Baldwin’s subsequent bigamous marriage to Adelaide of Sicily turned sour.
Contemporary historians gave a number of reasons for the divorce, although Fulcher of Chartres, Baldwin’s apologist, said little.29 Guibert of Nogent spun a tale about Arda’s capture by pirates while travelling with her household from Edessa to Jerusalem c.1100. Concerned about her potential infidelity, Baldwin reputedly put her aside in order to live a celibate life.30 Guibert’s account is somewhat discredited by the fact that Arda was not immediately dismissed on her arrival in the Holy Land: she was still queen in 1102. Baldwin’s remarriage to Adelaide of Sicily in 1113 also demonstrated his lack of commitment to a supposed celibate ideal.
Albert of Aachen justified Baldwin’s actions on the grounds that Taphnuz had failed to provide the agreed dowry: having promised 60,000 bezants he produced only 7,000.31 The divorce, however, seems to have taken place long after Taphnuz feared retribution for non-payment during Baldwin’s purge of rebellious nobles in Edessa and fled to his mountain strongholds.32 In 1102, Arda was present at Jaffa where she, along with other nobles, was fooled by a Muslim ruse that the head and legs of Gerbod of Winndeke in fact belonged to her husband Baldwin.
Albert records her distress at these events, and Fulcher of Chartres further mentions how she and her counsellors sent to Tancred, Baldwin’s old enemy, for aid.33
Much later, William of Tyre’s account detailed how Arda was forcibly deposited with the convent of St Anne in Jerusalem.34 He accused her of infidelity after she had been put aside by her husband. In William’s view, Baldwin’s motives were pecuniary, but if a need for ready cash was the true reason for the divorce, it seems surprising that the king waited so long to remarry.35 The marriage to Arda had also failed in another key area, the succession; but his new wife Adelaide was probably in her late thirties and also unlikely to produce an heir.36 It seems likely, therefore, that the divorce resulted from another cause: the gradual devaluation of the Armenian connection once Baldwin had left northern Syria and become King of Jerusalem.
Other significant early matches were those of Baldwin of Bourcq and Joscelin of Courtenay, who, like Baldwin of Boulogne, were both counts of Edessa.37
Baldwin of Bourcq married Morfia, daughter of Gabriel of Melitene, an Armenian prince of the Greek Orthodox faith.38 According to an anonymous thirteenth-century Edessan chronicler, this event occurred within a year of his assumption of the title. Gabriel had apparently offered Morfia to Bohemond in the first instance, but the match went awry after Bohemond was captured by the Danishmend Malik-Ghazi in 1100 while on his way to the defence of Melitene.39 Matthew of Edessa, Fulcher of Chartres and Michael the Syrian support the notion that Gabriel was intending to turn Melitene over to Bohemond in return for his help.
Although they do not specifically mention a marriage, Fulcher alludes to ‘pledges 88
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of mutual friendship’.40 Asbridge suggests that Gabriel may not have intended to give the city to Bohemond in its entirety and was hoping to hold it as a fief from him, but if a marriage agreement was on the cards, this might indicate that the arrangement was intended to be a little more permanent.41 As it stood, Baldwin of Bourcq came to Gabriel’s rescue, and it was he who received Morfia’s hand. Their four daughters subsequently infused the dynasties of three out of the four ‘crusader states’ with Armenian blood. Melisende, the eldest, became Baldwin II’s heir, and after her marriage to Fulk V of Anjou in 1129 produced two sons, Baldwin and Amalric, who went on to rule the kingdom successively.
Alice married Bohemond II of Antioch, and her daughter Constance made a dynastic alliance with the West to produce four children, including Bohemond III of Antioch (who later had to fend off Armenian attempts to interfere with the succession to his principality) and Maria (
who became Empress of Constantinople). Morfia’s daughter Hodierna married the Count of Tripoli, Raymond II. Although this dynastic branch was to end with their son, Raymond III, the relationship through the maternal line was sufficient to allow the son of Bohemond III of Antioch (also called Bohemond) to inherit the county, despite opposition from his nephew Raymond-Rupen.42
The success of Baldwin’s match was not just measured in dynastic terms, however. Morfia’s father provided a ready source of cash and military support during his time as Count of Edessa and King of Jerusalem. The dowry was 50,000
gold bezants, at the time ‘a very large and very much needed sum of money’,43
and according to William of Tyre, Baldwin was able to extort yet more money from his father-in-law when stricken with poverty after his ransom from captivity.
Deliberately playing on cultural differences, he reputedly claimed that he had pledged to shave off his beard if he could not pay his debts. William explained that all eastern Christians nurtured the beard and saw it as shameful and an insult if even one hair was plucked from it.44 Shocked that Baldwin had been reduced to making such a pledge, and described as ‘a simple man, and ignorant of their collusion’, Gabriel decided to pay up rather than let a man he regarded as a son suffer dishonour.45 William lauded the cunning of Baldwin’s strategy and ridiculed eastern cultural practices, but the story emphasised how the ties created by marriage provided continuous support beyond a dowry alone; in this case at least until Gabriel was killed.46
The relationship between Baldwin II and Morfia appears to have been relatively stable until her death c.1126. There is no hint of mooted divorce for a wealthier or better-connected bride, despite Baldwin’s move to Jerusalem and the lack of a male heir. She retained her position as queen and was present at her husband’s coronation. In an episode which suggests a genuine attachment as well as signifying the queen’s political agency, the Anonymous Syriac Chronicle specifically credited Morfia with masterminding a brave rescue attempt with Godfrey Almuin when her husband and Joscelin of Courtenay were in captivity at the hands of Balak. Several Armenians went in disguise to the castle, and once they had control of the gates killed the inhabitants and gained control of the fortress. As the news 89
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spread, we are told, all the other Armenians in the town joined with them. Joscelin managed to break through the ring of Muslim defenders, but the king remained in the castle and on Balak’s return was forced to hand it back. The Armenian ringleaders were tortured and flayed alive.47
These early marriages between crusaders and Armenians set a precedent for further links with established families who were respected by the crusaders as independent Christian aristocrats, rather than Syrian Jacobites, whom Jotischky asserts were seen as weak and corrupt after their years of subjection to the Muslims, or the Greeks, who, although fabulously wealthy, had ambitions of overlordship and were not to be trusted.48 MacEvitt agrees that ‘the Franks of Edessa perceived Armenian families as an avenue to bolster their own political standing, perhaps to a greater extent than their peers in Antioch, Jerusalem, or Tripoli did’.49 Edessa, in Armenian lordship when the crusaders arrived, was secured by the Franks through a combination of warfare and dynastic alliance.
Following the example of Baldwin of Bourcq, a number of his retinue entered into marriage with local Armenians. One of his cousins, Galeran of Le Puiset, married the daughter of Ablgharib, Lord of Bira, and was given the fief of Saruj.50
Baldwin’s cousin and successor Joscelin I of Edessa married Beatrice, a daughter of the Rupenid Konstandin (1093–1100). The date of this marriage is not certain, but it presumably took place before 1113, when her son Joscelin II was born, and when her husband lost Baldwin’s favour and decamped for Jerusalem.51 Joscelin had become ruler of Marash in 1104, and after returning to grace in 1118 became the third Count of Edessa. On the whole, he seems to have been a popular ruler with the Armenians, and had a great reputation as a skilled warrior.52 On Joscelin’s journey back to Edessa after his escape from imprisonment in 1123, Fulcher of Chartres recorded how an Armenian peasant and his family led the count to safety.53 It seems that Joscelin may have taken a second Latin wife at some point after his capture, as the Anonymous Syriac Chronicle records him marrying the daughter (probably, in fact, the sister) of Roger of Salerno, Prince of Antioch, receiving with her the fortress of Azaz.54
Joscelin’s wife Beatrice was sister to a powerful Rupenid prince, Leon I (Lord of the Mountains, 1129–39) and there is evidence to suggest he may have married a sister of Baldwin of Bourcq, securing dynastic alliances on both sides.55 Rüdt-Collenberg refers to her as Beatrice/Cecilia of Rethel, and there seems to be some confusion over her exact identity. Contemporary sources confirm that Baldwin had a sister, usually named Cecilia, who married Roger of Salerno in 1109–10.
According to Fulcher of Chartres, the marriage was not a good match, as he accused Roger of ‘adultery with many others while married to his wife’.56 Orderic Vitalis described how, as a widow following the Battle of the Field of Blood in 1119, Cecilia took on the trappings of lordship, knighting squires at Antioch in order to protect the city. However, he appears to have confused her with Cecilia of France, Tancred’s widow, who subsequently married Pons of Tripoli.57
Interestingly, the latter, too, had Armenian contacts. On the death of the great Armenian prince Kogh Vasil, among the gifts distributed to princes (including 90
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Tancred), Cecilia of France was the recipient of his wife’s diadem.58 In any event, Asbridge suggests that Cecilia of Bourcq may have remarried after Roger’s death, as a woman bearing the name is styled as ‘Lady of Tarsus and sister of the king of Jerusalem’ and described as holding lands in Cilicia in a charter of 1126.59 He proposed that these lands may have been held in dower, or given to her by Baldwin II on a remarriage as part of the redistribution of land undertaken in the aftermath of the Field of Blood in 1119, but admits there is no direct evidence for this.60
If Cecilia of Bourcq was holding lands in Cilicia at this time, it is possible she was the aforementioned wife of Leon, although his own lordship was largely confined to eastern Cilicia during the rule of his brother Thoros I (Lord of the Mountains, 1102–29).61 The wife taken into captivity along with Leon and their two sons by John Comnenus in 1137 is unlikely to have been Cecilia.62 Three other sons, Stephane, Konstandin and Mleh, were reputedly sent to Joscelin of Edessa for protection because he was their maternal uncle. This suggests that they were progeny from a previous marriage: but the sources may have interpreted the relationship incorrectly, as they were also cousins to Joscelin.63 Either Baldwin had one sister who married twice, whom he used in marriage policies in the Levant, or the sources are simply in error: unfortunately, the evidence is too slim to know for certain.
Joscelin II of Edessa was the first count of the region not to continue the trend of Armenian intermarriage. He married Beatrice, widow of William of Saône, possibly receiving Zardana as a result.64 The marriage must have taken place after William’s death in 1132 or 1133,65 and it is possible that the previous alliance was not renewed as a result of recent conflict with Leon of Armenia. He was partly to blame for the death of Bohemond II of Antioch at Mamistra in 1130: Leon’s raiding had enticed the prince out on campaign, although Turks struck the decisive blow. John Kinnamos suggests that directly after Bohemond’s death the Antiochenes turned to Byzantium for a marriage alliance between the minor heiress, Constance, and the emperor’s son, Manuel, but reneged on the deal and entered into an alliance with Leon instead.66 By 1133 Leon had already captured Tarsus, Mamistra and Adana from the Franks although he did not hold them for long.67 When Raymond of Poitiers arrived and married Constance in 1136, he coordinated an attack on Cilicia with Baldwin of Marash and troops lent by King Fulk of Jerusalem. Joscelin II, a supporter of Constance’s mother Alice, sided with Leon against them but the union was short-lived. Leon was cap
tured and took an oath of fealty to Raymond, promising to restore his Cilician conquests along with a ransom, although Lilie could ascertain no concrete evidence of him returning lands.68 The situation took a further twist when Leon was removed from power and imprisoned by John Comnenus in 1137, dying in 1139. At that point Cilicia was almost under the complete control of the Byzantine Empire.69
The diplomacy of the Rupenid dynasty in this early twelfth-century period was therefore characterised by alternate attempts to support, pacify or pre-empt the aggression of encroaching Latins, with the aim of gaining independence from 91
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Greek overlordship and crushing potential opposition from other ambitious nobles. After the fall of Edessa to Zengi in 1144, however, the power balance in the area was in flux, and with the escape of Thoros II (Lord of the Mountains, 1145–68) from Byzantine custody, the Rupenids set about building a more secure lordship. Thoros was keen to re-establish links with the Latins, marrying Isabelle of Courtenay in 1149.70 Such a match was essential to the survival of the remaining Franks, especially when Joscelin II was taken captive in 1150. Beatrice of Edessa sold the majority of vestigial fortresses to the Byzantine Empire, but gave Hromkla to the Armenian Katholikos Grigor in 1150, which became the power-base of the katholikosate until 1292.71 Both William of Tyre and Sempad praised her character as well as her ability as a ruler.72
Thoros was ambitious, and sought to extend his influence beyond northern Syria in Cyprus and Byzantium. He took part in Reynald of Châtillon’s raid on the island in 1156 and after submitting himself to Manuel in 1157 fared rather better than his erstwhile ally, becoming governor of Cilicia.73 Thoros came into contact with western Europeans when he joined the unsuccessful 1157 campaign against Shaizar alongside the crusader Thierry of Flanders.74 He also influenced Antiochene affairs. Thoros’ rebellious activities reputedly encouraged Emperor Manuel Comnenus to contemplate a marriage between Caesar John Roger and the widow, Constance of Antioch, in 1152.75 Later, the Armenian baron helped the young Bohemond III to oust Constance from power and negotiated the prince’s release after the Battle of Harim in 1164.76 Thoros also married his daughter to Isaac Doukas Comnenus (d.1195), a Byzantine governor of Cilicia who later rebelled against the emperor and established himself as ruler of Cyprus.77 It was later rumoured that Isaac murdered his Armenian wife for her pro-Latin sensibilities, although this was probably circulated in an attempt to justify the Lionheart’s conquest of the island.78 The Colbert-Fontainebleau Eracles asserts that Isaac’s wife and daughter were taken captive by Richard and placed in the care of the Hospitallers, but this was probably a new wife from a marriage made c.1190, rather than his Armenian spouse.79 Western sources for the Third Crusade portray Isaac as fond of his half-Armenian daughter,80 but as his only heir, she was also an important pawn in Richard’s hands after the conquest of Cyprus. She joined him on the crusade under the tutelage of Berengaria, with whom she was sent back to France. She married Raymond VI of Toulouse in 1199.81 Isaac’s daughter later returned to the Mediterranean, and was perhaps the first person of Armenian blood to press a dynastic claim to Cyprus in Syria at the court of Aimery of Lusignan, taking part in the Fourth Crusade with a new husband Thierry, probably an illegitimate son of Count Philip of Flanders.82 She was, however, unsuccessful in her bid for power.