Amalric (French: Amaury; 1136 – 11 July 1174), formerly known in historiography as Amalric I, was the king of Jerusalem from 1163 until his death. His Muslim adversaries described him as the bravest and cleverest of the Crusader kings.
Amalric was the younger son of King Fulk and Queen Melisende. His elder brother, King Baldwin III, served as their mother's co-ruler. Melisende made Amalric the count of Jaffa, and he took her side in her conflict with Baldwin until Baldwin deposed her in 1152. From 1154, Amalric was fully reconciled with his brother and was made count of both Jaffa and Ascalon. In 1157, he married Agnes of Courtenay despite the misgivings of the Church and had two children with her, Sibylla and Baldwin. When his brother died in 1163, Amalric was obliged to leave Agnes in order to be recognized as king. He was crowned on 18 February.
Amalric's reign was marked by a ceaseless struggle with the Muslim atabeg of Damascus and Aleppo, Nur al-Din Zengi, and persistent attempts to subjugate Egypt. In his first invasion he induced the vizier, Dirgham, to pay tribute, and in the following two he supported the rival vizier, Shawar, against Dirgham and Nur al-Din's general Shirkuh. Nur al-Din took advantage of the king's expeditions to Egypt to wreak havoc on the kingdom and the northern crusader states, Antioch and Tripoli, and Amalric had to intervene in the north as well. Throughout his reign Amalric sought support of Western European rulers in his struggle against the Muslims of Syria and Egypt, but concluded the most concrete alliance with the Byzantine emperor, Manuel I Komnenos, whose grandniece Maria became Amalric's second wife. They had a daughter, Isabella.
In 1167, Amalric again prevented Shirkuh from seizing Egypt and took Alexandria. Without waiting for the Byzantines, and in contravention of his treaty with Shawar, he invaded Egypt in 1167–68 with the intention to conquer it, but it fell to Shirkuh instead. Shirkuh died in 1169, and Amalric launched an invasion in concert with Manuel, but the two armies cooperated poorly and failed in their attempt. Shirkuh's successor, Saladin, emerged as a major threat. Amalric's only son, Baldwin, started exhibiting symptoms of leprosy during Amalric's lifetime. Amalric sought a husband for his daughter, Sibylla, but her suitor, Count Stephen I of Sancerre, declined and left the kingdom. While trying to take advantage of the confusion in Syria following the death of Nur al-Din in 1174, Amalric caught dysentery and died on 11 July. He was succeeded by his son, Baldwin IV.
Contents
Youth
Childhood
On his deathbed in 1131, King Baldwin II conferred the Kingdom of Jerusalem–one of the crusader states established by the Latin Christians who invaded the Levant and defeated its Muslim rulers–on his eldest daughter, Melisende; her husband, Fulk of Anjou; and their infant son, Baldwin. Fulk was considerably older than Melisende and had adult children in Europe from his first marriage, including Count Geoffrey V of Anjou and Countess Sibylla of Flanders. He excluded Melisende from power until she and the barons forced him to acknowledge her as co-ruler in 1135. Fulk was eager to be reconciled, and historian Malcolm Barber suggests that Melisende agreed because the succession of her family rested on only one son. The couple consequently conceived Amalric in late 1135 or early 1136. To the north of the kingdom were three more crusader states: the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa. Antioch and Tripoli were ruled by the families of Melisende's sisters Alice and Hodierna.
Amalric's father, King Fulk, was fatally injured in a horse-riding accident on a family outing near Acre in 1143. He died on 10 November. Queen Melisende seized power and was crowned again on 25 December, this time alongside her elder son, the 13-year-old King Baldwin III. In 1144, the Turkic Muslim atabeg of Mosul, Imad al-Din Zengi captured Edessa. This prompted the Second Crusade, which failed in its objective to conquer Damascus, one of the greatest Muslim-held cities. Melisende continued to withhold power from Baldwin after he reached the age of majority; by 1151, their relationship had broken down. In 1151, Melisende bestowed on Amalric the County of Jaffa as part of her endeavor to consolidate her position against Baldwin. Amalric became his mother's most important partisan besides the Church.
Countship
In 1152, King Baldwin III besieged his mother, Queen Melisende, and her most loyal men, including Amalric, Viscount Rohard the Elder, and Philip of Milly, in the Tower of David in Jerusalem. Although they put up a defense, Melisende was deposed; by the end of April, Baldwin was the sole ruler of the kingdom. Based on charter evidence, Mayer concludes that Baldwin punished Amalric for siding with their mother by depriving him of the County of Jaffa in 1152. The king conquered Ascalon from Fatimid Egypt in 1153 and forced the Egyptians to pay a tribute. He granted both Ascalon and Jaffa to Amalric. Historian Hans E. Mayer dates Amalric's acquisition of the double county to shortly after July 1154.
In 1157, Amalric married Agnes of Courtenay, whose father, Count Joscelin II of Edessa, was the dispossessed second cousin of Queen Melisende. Agnes was a widow since the death in battle of her first husband, Reynald of Marash. The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Fulcher of Angoulême, objected to Amalric's marriage with Agnes. According to contemporary chronicler William of Tyre, Fulcher disapproved because of the couple's kinship; but the late-13th-century Lignages d'Outremer states that Agnes had been betrothed to the lord of Ramla, Hugh of Ibelin, and that Amalric married her when she came to marry Hugh, which the patriarch deemed uncanonical. Mayer argues that Agnes had already been married to Hugh in 1157, making her marriage to Amalric bigamous and, in Barber's opinion, possibly the result of an abduction. The historian Bernard Hamilton rejects this interpretation and states that a bigamous marriage would have resulted in the excommunication of both Amalric and Agnes. Fulcher died in November 1157, possibly before the couple married.
In 1159, Amalric accompanied King Baldwin to Antioch, where they welcomed Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Baldwin and Manuel were allied through Baldwin's marriage with Manuel's niece Theodora. Both Baldwin and Amalric placed a great value on good relations with the Byzantine Empire, a Greek Orthodox state that claimed suzerainty over the Christian states in the Levant. Amalric and Agnes had a daughter, Sibylla, between 1157 and 1161 and a son, Baldwin, in 1161. The children were named after Amalric's siblings.
Accession
Amalric's mother, Queen Melisende, died on 11 September 1161. His brother, King Baldwin, barely outlived her. He came down with dysentery while visiting Antioch in late 1162 and died in Beirut on 10 February 1163. Baldwin and Theodora had had no children, and Amalric was thus his heir. The chronicler Ernoul relates that Baldwin named Amalric as his heir.
Having convened to discuss the succession, the High Court refused to recognize Amalric as king unless he repudiated his wife, Agnes. Their spokesman was the patriarch, Amalric of Nesle. According to William of Tyre, the patriarch objected because of the couple's kinship. Barber describes this story as "so unlikely that historians have been unwilling to accept it at
face value". Hamilton notes that such an objection to an established marriage was "extremely unusual", and argues that behind it stood a "deep-seated animosity" of the barons towards Agnes. Amalric accepted the High Court's demand, and his marriage to Agnes was annulled on the grounds of consanguinity. Cardinal John of Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio, the legate of Pope Alexander III, was present. Amalric obtained papal confirmation of the legitimacy of his children, Sibylla and Baldwin, and exoneration of Agnes from any moral censure. On 18 February, the day of Baldwin III's funeral, the patriarch crowned Amalric in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Early in his reign Amalric strengthened his position against his most powerful vassals (tenants-in-chief) by passing the Assise sur la ligece. This legislation enabled the vassals of the powerful vassals to appeal directly to the king if their lord did them injustice. 13th-century jurists John of Ibelin and Philip of Novara believed that the assise resulted from Amalric's war with the lord of Sidon, Gerard Grenier, who had unjustly seized a fief from one of his vassals, but contemporary chroniclers Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir say that it was Baldwin III who defeated Gerard.
Reign
Vizierate of Shawar
Amalric's chief aim as king was to conquer Egypt. Its government was in disarray: Dirgham and Shawar, rival viziers, fought for power while the Fatimid caliph was sidelined. Zengi's son Nur ad-Din unified the Muslim principalities of Syria by bringing the great cities of Damascus and Aleppo under his rule; if he were to conquer Egypt as well, the crusader states would be encircled. Although his lords were preoccupied with extending their own holdings, Amalric could not ignore Egypt, and in this had the support of the masters of the military orders, the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar.
In 1163, the Egyptian government failed to pay the tribute. In response Amalric came with a large force within 35 miles (56 km) of the capital, Cairo, and besieged Bilbais. Dirgham, who had driven out Shawar, desperately attempted to fend off the invaders by opening the floodbanks on the Nile, but ended up agreeing to pay an even larger tribute and surrendered hostages as guarantees. After returning to Jerusalem, Amalric wrote to King Louis VIII of France that it was only the annual flooding of the Nile that prevented him from taking Bilbais.
Shawar appealed to Nur ad-Din for help against Dirgham. Nur ad-Din dispatched Asad al-Din Shirkuh, one of his most able generals, who helped Shawar defeat Dirgham and seize power. Shirkuh then decided to conquer Egypt for himself, forcing Shawar to request help from Amalric. After Shawar offered a once again increased tribute, the king undertook his second Egyptian expedition, fully financed by Shawar, in July 1164. The invasion ended in Shirkuh's defeat and Amalric's restoration of Shawar to power.
Nur ad-Din could not afford to allow Amalric to control Egypt. The king's southern expedition left the kingdom and the northern crusader states undefended, which allowed Nur ad-Din to act. In the battle of Artah on 10 August 1164 he destroyed a large Christian army and captured Prince Bohemond III of Antioch, Count Raymond III of Tripoli, Joscelin III of Edessa, and the Byzantine governor of Cilicia, Constantine Coloman. On 12 August, he captured Harim. Amalric's brother-in-law Count Thierry of Flanders arrived with numerous knights, but this failed to deter Nur ad-Din. Amalric returned to Jerusalem in October, and immediately hurried north with Thierry. Raymond declared that, during his captivity, Amalric should rule Tripoli. The king thus stopped at Tripoli to establish his rule, and then proceeded further north to install governors in the cities of Bohemond's principality.
Dynastic concerns
King Amalric was determined that his son and heir apparent, Baldwin, should receive a good education. Amalric appointed William of Tyre, one of the kingdom's most eminent scholars, to tutor Baldwin when the boy reached the age of nine. William discovered that Baldwin did not feel pain in his right arm. The king employed Arabs to treat the boy and teach him to ride. One of them was Abu Sulayman Da'ud, a physician whom he had sought out during his campaigns in Egypt. No diagnosis was made, but Hamilton is certain that Amalric must have been informed that the symptoms pointed to the early stages of leprosy.
Amalric empowered Archbishop Frederick to arrange a marriage for Amalric's 11-year-old daughter, Sibylla during the prelate's mission in Europe. The king was then aged 33, the age at which his brother had died; and his 8-year-old son, Baldwin, had seven more years until the age of majority. Amalric had no kinsmen who could rule in Baldwin's name if Amalric died unexpectedly, as his father and brother had; Hamilton argues that the king's solution was to find a capable son-in-law. He chose the well-connected Count Stephen I of Sancerre, brother of the count of Blois and relative of both the French and the English royal house. Stephen agreed and arrived in Jerusalem with Duke Hugh III of Burgundy, bringing gifts from King Louis VII of France.
Hamilton discusses the possibility that Baldwin's symptoms had already appeared by the time Sibylla's marriage was first discussed and that Amalric thought that Sibylla and Stephen might succeed to the throne. Stephen was invited by the High Court to give his opinion on the inheritance of a fief; in Hamilton's opinion this points to Stephen being considered a possible future king. For unknown reasons Stephen refused to marry Sibylla and returned to France. Baldwin remained Amalric's only son. The king's marriage to Maria Komnene produced two daughters, of whom one died in childhood. The other, Isabella, was born about 1172.
Rise of the Ayyubids
The death of Bertrand of Blancfort in January 1169 paved the way for a master of the Templars who would be more compliant with Amalric's desire to subjugate Egypt. In August 1169, Philip of Milly was elected the new master. Barber considers it obvious that King Amalric influenced the election, for he and Philip had been associated since the 1150s, when both supported Amalric's mother, Queen Melisende, against his brother, King Baldwin III. In the same month, Amalric confirmed his earlier deal with the Hospitallers and also recruited the Templars. In late 1169, Emperor Manuel sent a formidable force led by experienced men, and a large fleet.
Amalric was served by the animosity of the Egyptians for their new, foreign rulers, and by the unexpected death of Shirkuh. On 16 October the king left Ascalon, shortly after the Byzantine fleet set out from Acre. Sea floods hindered him, but he reached Damietta on 27 October. The Nile was blocked north of the city, and William of Tyre is confident that Damietta could have been taken by a quick attack. The siege of the city drew out, however, because the city was reinforced by boats from the south and siege engines had to be constructed. The defenders launched a fire ship towards the Byzantine fleet, burning six ships; the king averted a greater loss by rousing the crews.
As their food ran out and the torrential rains poured, the attackers became desperate. William's informants insisted that Manuel had not sent enough supplies, whereas the Byzantine chroniclers John Kinnamos and Niketas Choniates accuse the Franks of procrastinating. The Byzantine general Andronikos Kontostephanos proposed an all-out assault, but Amalric believed that the city walls had not been battered enough by the siege engines. Kontostephanos had been instructed to obey Amalric, but made preparations to attack without him. According to Choniates, Kontostephanos had grown tired of "talking into the ear of the dead". Before Kontostephanos could act, Amalric began peace negotiations. Patriarch Michael the Syrian, ever disdainful of the Greek Orthodox, writes that the Byzantines intended to deceive Amalric and seize Egypt for themselves, and that the king took the Egyptians' offer of gold and left after he realized the Byzantines' treachery. Nur ad-Din, meanwhile, again used Amalric's absence to plunder the kingdom. Amalric and his army returned on 21 December.
On 29 June 1170, a devastating earthquake hit the Levant, affecting Christians and Muslims alike. Amalric and Nur ad-Din made a temporary peace to allow their lands to recover; yet both were wary that the other would attack while the damage was being repaired. Amalric informed Louis VII of France and expressed concern that the enemy would seize Tripoli, Arqa, Gibelet, Latakia, Marqab, and Antioch. As administrator of the County of Tripoli, Amalric granted Arqa and Gibelacar to the Hospitallers to hold independently of the count on the condition that they repair the castles.
Assessment
William of Tyre, whom Amalric tasked with recording the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, left a detailed description of the king. Amalric was light-skinned with blond receding hair and, although he did not eat or drink excessively, considerably overweight. He shook with laughter when he was amused, but this was rare; whereas Baldwin was affable, Amalric was serious and taciturn. He was intellectually gifted but less refined than Baldwin, preferring a hunt to poetry. He enjoyed reading and debates with scholars, and was well-informed about the issues facing the crusader states. In battle he was daring, and in command composed and decisive. He regularly attended Mass, but William noted that not even the Church was spared from the king's "lust for money"; and he was promiscuous, pursuing even married women. The pro-Zengid chronicler Ibn al-Athir describes Amalric as "the bravest of their kings, the most outstanding for policy, cunning and intrigue".
Baldwin believes that the union of Egypt and Syria under Saladin might have been prevented if Amalric had not acted without his Byzantine allies in 1168. In the opinion of Baldwin, the failed attempt of the alliance to subjugate Egypt in 1169 marked a "turning point in Levantine history". Nevertheless, he considers Amalric "one of the best kings of Jerusalem, the last man of genuine capacity to hold the reins of government".