So at the time of the infamous abduction, Guy was an anointed king, but one who derived his right to the throne from his now deceased wife (Sibylla died in early November 1190), and furthermore a king viewed by most of his subjects as a usurper—even before he’d lost the entire Kingdom through his incompetence. It is fair to say that in November 1190 Guy was not popular among the surviving barons, bishops, or commons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and they were eager to see the Kingdom pass into the hands of someone they respected and trusted. The death of Sibylla provided the perfect opportunity to crown a new king, because with her death the crown legally passed to her sister Isabella, and according to the constitution of the Kingdom, the husband of the Queen ruled with her as her consort.
The problem faced by the barons and bishops of Jerusalem in 1190, however, was that Isabella was still married to the same man who had betrayed them in 1186: Humphrey de Toron. He was clearly not interested in a crown, and it didn’t help matters that he’d been in a Saracen prison for two years. Perhaps more damning still, he was allegedly “more like a woman than a man: he had a gentle manner and a stammer” (according to the Itinerarium).
Whatever the reason, we know that the barons and bishops of Jerusalem were not prepared to make the same mistake they had made four years earlier when they had done homage to a man they knew was incompetent (Guy de Lusignan). They absolutely refused to acknowledge Isabella’s right to the throne unless she first set aside her unsuitable husband and took a man acceptable to them. We know this because the Lyon Continuation is based on a lost chronicle written by a certain Ernoul, who was an intimate of the Ibelin family and so of Isabella and her mother, and provides the following insight. Having admitted that Isabella “did not want to [divorce Humphrey], because she loved [him],” the Lyon Continuation explains that her mother Maria Comnena persuasively argued that so long as she (Isabella) was Humphrey’s wife, “she could have neither honor nor her father’s kingdom.” Moreover, Queen Maria reminded her daughter that “when she had married she was still under age, and for that reason the validity of the marriage could be challenged.” At which point, the continuation of Tyre reports, “Isabella consented to her mother’s wishes.”
In short, Isabella had a change of heart during the Church trial not because “a woman’s opinion changes very easily,” but because she was a realist—who wanted a crown. Far from being a victim manipulated by others or a fickle, immoral girl, she was an intelligent princess with an understanding of politics.
As for the Church court, it was not “corrupted” by Conrad or anyone else. It simply ruled based on the unalterable fact that Isabella had very publicly wed Humphrey before she had reached the legal age of consent. In short, whether she had voiced consent or not—indeed, whether she loved, adored, and positively desired Humphrey or not—she was not legally capable of consenting.
No violent abduction and no travesty of justice took place in Acre in 1190. Rather, a mature young woman recognized what was in her best interests and the interests of her kingdom: to divorce an unpopular and ineffective husband and marry a man respected by the peers of the realm. To do so, she allowed the marriage she had been forced into as an eleven-year-old to be recognized for what it was—a mockery. Isabella’s marriage in 1183 as a child prisoner of a notoriously brutal man, not her marriage in 1190 as an eighteen-year-old queen, was the real “abduction” of Isabella.
Glossary
Abaya: a black garment, worn by Islamic women, that completely covers the head and body in a single, flowing, unfitted fashion so that no contours or limbs can be seen. It leaves only the face, but not the neck, visible and is often supplemented with a mask or “veil” that covers the lower half of the face, leaving only a slit for the eyes between the top of the abaya (which covers the forehead) and the mask or veil across the lower half of the face.
Aketon: a padded and quilted garment, usually of linen, worn under or instead of chain mail.
Aventail: a flap of chain mail, attached to the coif, to cover the lower part of the face, secured by a leather thong to the brow band.
Battlement: a low wall built on the roof of a tower or other building in a castle, fortified manor, or church, with alternating higher segments for sheltering behind and lower segments for shooting from.
Buss: a large combination oared and sailing vessel whose design was derived from Norse cargo (not raiding) vessels. Busses had substantial cargo capacity, but were also swift and maneuverable. They could be two- or even three-masted.
Cantle: the raised part of a saddle behind the seat; in this period it was high and strong, made of wood, to help keep a knight in the saddle even after taking a blow from a lance.
Cervelliere: an open-faced helmet that covered the skull like a close-fitting, brimless cap; usually worn over a chain-mail coif.
Chain mail (mail): flexible armor composed of interlinking riveted rings of metal. Each link passes through four others.
Chausses: mail leggings to protect a knight’s legs in combat.
Cincenelles: Apparently some kind of fly. According to the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi (Book 5, Chapter 44): “At Ibelin flies called cincenelles ravage[d] the faces of the army with their stings, so that they look[ed] like lepers.” I have not been able to find a modern word for the insects.
Coif: a chain-mail hood, either separate from or attached to the hauberk.
Conroi: a medieval cavalry formation in which the riders rode stirrup to stirrup in rows that enabled a maximum number of lances to come to bear, but also massed the power of the charge.
Crenels: the indentations or loopholes in the top of a battlement or wall.
Crenelate: the act of adding defensive battlements to a building.
Emir: Saracen rank or title similar to barons in the Frankish armies. Emirs controlled territory or administrative units that generated substantial income and were required to raise troops to serve under the Sultan. Unlike barons in the feudal West, however, their fiefs or iqtas were not hereditary, but held only at the pleasure of the Sultan. In theory, the Sultan could dismiss them, but he was also dependent upon them and the troops they could muster, making the relationship much more complex. Emirs had no religious function.
Faranj: Arab term for crusaders and their descendants in Outremer.
Fief: land held on a hereditary basis in return for military service.
Fetlock: the lowest joint in a horse’s leg.
Frank: the contemporary term used to describe Latin Christians (crusaders, pilgrims, and their descendants) in the Middle East, regardless of their country of origin. The Arab term “faranj” derived from this.
Destrier: a horse specially bred and trained for mounted combat; a charger or warhorse. These horses had to have the strength to carry a man in full armor at a gallop, but sprinting (for a charge) was more important than endurance, and high spirits and temper were valued. Over time the horses were increasingly trained to take part in battle by kicking and biting, thereby becoming an additional weapon of the knight.
Dromond: a large vessel with two to three lateen sails and two banks of oars. These vessels were built very strongly and were consequently slower, but offered more spacious accommodation than galleys.
Garderobe: a toilet, usually built on the exterior wall of a residence or fortification, that in rural settings emptied directly into the surrounding ditch or moat, or in cities into an external pottery drainage pipe leading down to the city’s sewage system.
Hajj: the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the five duties of a good Muslim.
Hauberk: a chain-mail shirt, either long- or short-sleeved, that in this period reached to just above the knee.
Iqta: a Seljuk institution similar to a fief in feudal Europe, but not hereditary. It was a gift of land or other sources of revenue from an overlord to a subject that could be retracted at any time at the whim of the overlord.
Imam: a Muslim religious leader and scholar who leads prayers in the mosques.
/> Jihad: Muslim holy war, usually interpreted as a war against nonbelievers to spread the faith of Islam.
Kettle helm: an open-faced helmet with a broad rim, common among infantry.
Lance: a cavalry weapon approximately fourteen feet long, made of wood and tipped with a steel head.
Madrassa: A Muslim theological seminary.
Malik Rik: Saracen term for King Richard.
Melee: a form of tournament in which two teams of knights face off across a large natural landscape and fight in conditions very similar to real combat, across ditches, hedges, swamps, streams, and so on. These were very popular in the late twelfth century—and very dangerous, often resulting in injuries and even deaths to both men and horses. The modern meaning of any confused, hand-to-hand fight among a large number of people derives from the medieval meaning.
Merlon: the solid part of a battlement or parapet between two openings or “crenels.”
Muezzin: The man who calls Muslims to prayer, usually from a minaret, five times a day.
Outremer: A French term meaning “overseas,” used to describe the crusader kingdoms (Kingdom of Jerusalem, County of Tripoli, County of Edessa, and Principality of Antioch) established in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.
Pommel: 1) the raised portion in front of the seat of a saddle; 2) the round portion of a sword above the hand grip.
Palfrey: a riding horse bred and trained to be calm, with comfortable gaits, and capable of traveling long distances.
Parapet: A wall with crenelation built on a rampart or outer defensive work.
Quintain: a pivoted gibbet-like structure with a shield suspended from one arm and a bag of sand from the other, used to train men for mounted combat.
Rampart: an earthen embankment surmounted by a parapet, encircling a castle or city as a defense against attack.
Saracen: a collective term meaning “easterner” that referred to any of the ethnically diverse Muslim opponents of the Franks.
Scabbard (also sheath): the protective outer case of an edged weapon, particularly a sword or dagger.
Snecka: a square-sailed warship or galley that was very swift and maneuverable but had only a single bank of oars in addition to the sail, and so a very low freeboard. These evolved from Viking raiding ships. Some, however, appear to have had battering rams, as is described in the attack of Richard I’s galleys on an Arab ship off Acre.
Sufi: Members of an Islamic mystical sect; Islamic scholars.
Surcoat: the loose, flowing cloth garment worn over armor; in this period it was slit up the front and back for riding and hung to mid-calf. It could be sleeveless or have short, wide, elbow-length sleeves. It could be of cotton, linen, or silk and was often brightly dyed, woven, or embroidered with the wearer’s coat of arms.
Tenant-in-chief: an individual holding land directly from the crown. A baron.
Turcopoles: troops drawn from the Orthodox Christian population of the crusader states. These were not, as was often claimed, Muslim converts, nor were they the children of mixed marriages.
Vassal: an individual holding a fief (land) in exchange for military service.
Also by Helena P. Schrader
A landless knight,
A leper king,
And the struggle for Jerusalem.
A Biographical Novel of Balian d’Ibelin, Book I
Buy Now!
A united enemy,
A divided kingdom,
And the struggle for Jerusalem.
A Biographical Novel of Balian d’Ibelin, Book II
Buy Now!
A crusader in search of faith,
A lame lady in search of revenge,
And a king who would be a saint.
St. Louis’ Knight takes you to the Holy Land in the 13th century: a world of crusaders, holy men, and assassins.
Buy Now!
Additional Reading
FOR MORE READING ON THE HISTORICAL Balian d’Ibelin, the crusader states, and the crusades, I recommend the following sources:
Barber, Malcolm, The Crusader States, Yale University Press, 2012.
Barber, Richard, The Knight and Chivalry, Boydell Press, 1970.
Bartlett, W. B., Downfall of the Crusader Kingdom, The History Press Ltd, 2010.
Boas, Adrian J., Crusader Archaeology: The Material Culture of the Latin East, Routledge, London, 1999.
Conder, Claude Reignier, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099 to 1291 AD, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1897.
Edbury, Peter W., John of Ibelin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, The Boydell Press, 1997.
Edbury, Peter W., The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade: Sources in Translation, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 1998.
Edbury, Peter W., The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191–1374, Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Edbury, Peter W., and John Gordon Rowe, William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East, Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Edge, David, and John Miles Paddock, Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight, Saturn Books, 1996.
Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S., Saladin, State University of New York Press, 1972.
Folda, Jaroslav, Crusader Art: The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1099-1291, Ashgate Publishing, 2008.
Gabrieli, Francesco, Arab Historians of the Crusades, University of California Press, 1969.
Hamilton, Bernard, The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Hamilton, Bernard, “Women in the Crusader States: The Queens of Jerusalem 1100–90,” in Medieval Women, David Baker (ed.), Basil Blackwell, 1978.
Hopkins, Andrea, Knights: The Complete Story of the Age of Chivalry, from Historical Fact to Tales of Romance and Poetry, Collins and Brown Ltd, 1990.
Jotischky, Andrew, Crusading and the Crusader States, Pearson Longman, 2004.
Maalouf, Amin, The Crusades through Arab Eyes, Schocken Books, 1984.
Miller, David, Richard the Lionheart: The Mighty Crusader, Phoenix, 2013.
Miller, Timothy S., and John W. Nesbitt, Walking Corpses: Leprosy in Byzantium and the Medieval West, Cornell University Press, 2014.
Morgan, Margaret Ruth, The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre, Oxford Historical Monographs, Oxford University Press, 1973.
Nicolle, David, Hattin 1187: Saladin’s Greatest Victory, Osprey Military Campaign Series, 1993.
Pringle, Denys, Secular Buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Archaeological Gazetteer, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ed., The Atlas of the Crusades, Facts on File, 1991.
Runciman, Sir Steven, The Families of Outremer: The Feudal Nobility of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099-1291, Athlone Press, 1960.
Stark, Rodney, God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, HarperCollins, 2010.
I also recommend the following websites/blogs:
http://DefenderofJerusalem.com
http://defendingcrusaderkingdoms.blogspot.com
http://Tales-of-Chivalry.com
http://helenapschrader.com
http://schradershistoricalfiction.blogspot.com
http://crusadesandcrusaders.com
http://realcrusadeshistory.com
Envoy of Jerusalem Page 67