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THE SUCCESSION TO THE THRONE.

The count, however, showed the careful prudence of a wise man, and the thoughtful disinterestedness of a good one. While he pointed out the difficulties under which the country laboured, and the terrible responsibility which must rest upon any one assuming the reins of government at such a moment, he expressed his readiness to accept the proposal of the king upon certain conditions, calculated not less to promote the best interests of the kingdom, than to secure himself against loss and false accusation. An infant prince was heir-apparent to the throne; failing him, two collateral heiresses presented themselves, both daughters of Almeric, the father of Baldwin. The one, Sybilla, claiming in right of elder birth; the second, springing from a more legitimate union. The first wife of Almeric was Agnes de Courtenay, who had been betrothed to Hugh of Ibelin, Lord of Ramla, from whom Almeric had carried her off, and had married her, notwithstanding the vehement opposition of the Church, being then merely Count of Jaffa and of Ascalon. On his accession to the throne, however, after having had two children by her as Count of Jaffa, Almeric was forced to divorce his wife, Agnes, who united herself immediately with Hugh of Ibelin, while the king entered into a second marriage with Mary, daughter of the Sebastocrator, Isaac. By the second wife he had only Isabella, now married to the young Humphrey de Thoron. The marriage of Almeric and Agnes had been declared unlawful, not on account of the espousals of Agnes to Hugh of Ibelin, but upon pretence of relationship within the canonical degrees of prohibition. Nevertheless, at the time the sentence of divorce was pronouced, it was formally settled that the act was not to be considered as bastardising the children

for the pure and undoubted text of William of Tyre down to 1183, ten years after the period when Mr. Mills makes it cease, is given in the "Gesta Dei per Francos," and this is, perhaps, the most important part of that author's writings, as it refers entirely to events which he witnessed, and transactions in which he took an important share. The reign of Baldwin the Leper prepared the way for the fall of Jerusalem, and the conquest of the Holy Land, by Saladin, and therefore everything that took place under that monarch has an important bearing upon the life and actions of Richard Coeur-de-Lion. But even had such not been the case, I think I should have been tempted to enter at large into this remarkable part of the history of Palestine, as nothing deserving the name of a narrative of those transactions has been given in the English language that I know of. Mr. Mills, either from want of information or neglect, dismisses the whole history of Baldwin in less than two pages.

THE COUNT OF TRIPOLI AND THE REGENCY.

181

already born. Notwithstanding this arrangement, it was felt by everybody, as the death of Baldwin approached, that the claim of his sister Isabella to the crown of Jerusalem might not be altogether powerless against her half sister, born in what was considered both an incestuous and adulterous union before their father had ascended the throne of Jerusalem. Such being the situation of the royal family, and the infant son of Sybilla, who had been already crowned as heir-presumptive, being a delicate and sickly child, the Count of Tripoli insisted upon the following conditions, before he would accept the regency: First, that he should have no charge of the young prince, lest, in case of his death, any evil practices should be attributed to him. Next, that the principal castles and fortresses of the kingdom should be placed in the keeping of the Knights of the Temple and Hospital, that he might not be suspected of aspiring to the throne. Thirdly, that some city or territory might be assigned to him as a security for the expense of keeping up the large army which was necessary for the defence of the kingdom. Fourthly, that the government should be conferred upon him for ten years; or, in case of the death of the young king, till the Pope, the Emperor of Germany, the King of France, and the King of England should have decided between the claims of the two sisters, Sybilla and Isabella, and declared the one or the other the queen of Jerusalem.

The king and his nobles consented to these just and wise provisions. The charge of the child was committed to Jocelyn de Courtenay, the uncle of Sybilla; Berytes and its territory was made over to the Count of Tripoli as a security for all his expenses, and the infant prince was carried in the arms of Balian of Ibelin to the holy sepulchre, where he was once more crowned King of Jerusalem. This ceremony took place before the death of Baldwin, but at what particular period we cannot discover; for the events of those times are very obscure, and dates are not preserved with that degree of accuracy which enables us to arrange chronologically many of the most important events of this period.

After appointing the Count of Tripoli regent, Baldwin totally disappears from history, and we only further know that he died at the end of the year 1185, having called all the barons of his realm around him to witness the spectacle of his de

THE REGENT'S TRUCE WITH SALADIN.

182 cease. Shortly after the Count of Tripoli assumed the reins of government, but whether previously to the death of Baldwin, or subsequently, it is difficult to say, he was induced to enter into a treaty with Saladin for a suspension of arms during four years. This measure, however, was taken with the consent of the Grand Masters of the Temple and the Hospital, and the principal nobles of the land. Nor was the motive which induced them to make peace with the infidel a light one, as an excessive drought had for many months afflicted the kingdom of Jerusalem, the rivers and the wells were dried up, and the grain which was sown gave no return. Well knowing the periodical famines by which the country had been scourged, the Count of Tripoli feared that he might be attacked by the Mahommedan forces while the armies of Palestine were disheartened and weakened by dearth, and appears to have been fully justified in seeking a truce, which he might have found great difficulty in obtaining if Saladin had not at the time been intent upon a projected expedition against the Prince of Moussoul, if not actually marching to besiege his capital city.

The Arabian writers tells us that the sultan had determined never to lay down his arms till he had subdued the whole of Mesopotamia; but an illness with which he was seized, in the midst of his exertions for that object, brought him to the brink of the grave, and, lowering the pride of success, induced him to listen to the terms of peace which Ezzeddin now proposed. The Prince of Moussoul bowed the head before the genius and power of his great competitor, and acknowledging Saladin as his sovereign, agreed to join his troops to those of the sultan whenever he might be called upon to do so.

This event took place, it would seem, towards the end of the year 1185, or the beginning of 1186; but Saladin was still bound by the treaty which he had entered into with the Count of Tripoli, and we do not find any act of aggression on his part, though no occupation in any other quarter now prevented his troops from assailing the territories of the Franks. On the contrary, we are informed that abundant provisions of all kinds were poured into the kingdom of Jerusalem from the dominions of the sultan; and the people of Palestine, profusely supplied, in the midst of the total sterility of their

INTRIGUES OF SYBILLA'S PARTY.

183

own land, blessed the Count of Tripoli for his prudent foresight, and lauded his administration to the skies.

It would appear, however, that the friends of Guy of Lusignan were even now busy in calumniating the regent, and spreading abroad false and scandalous reports concerning him, both in Palestine and in Europe. Contemporary writers, who generally noted the rumours they received from day to day, declare that he administered poison to the young King Baldwin; but they combined this assertion, which we might not otherwise be able to disprove, with so many statements, evidently untrue, and contradicted by the best authorities, that we may safely reject it as unworthy of a moment's consideration, except as proving that the Count of Tripoli was systematically calumniated by his enemies. Thus William of Newbury shows himself totally ignorant of the fact that Raymond of Tripoli had refused the guardianship of the young king, who was at this time at Acre, under the especial care of Jocelyn de Courtenay, his maternal grand-uncle. The English historian places him in the immediate hands of the regent, and by misstating a matter of so much importance and notoriety, invalidates his whole testimony in regard to the other events which were taking place in the Holy Land.

It is evident from all that followed, that Sybilla, Guy of Lusignan, and those connected with them, although we have no cause to suppose that they machinated the death of the young king, watched his decaying strength with a view of providing for the future, and carried on various dark intrigues with those whose influence they thought best calculated to counterbalance the power of the regent. Jocelyn de Courtenay was naturally anxious to place his niece upon the throne, in case of the death of her son; the patriarch had long been devoted to her; the Grand Master of the Temple viewed with hatred and jealousy the authority of the Count of Tripoli; and some causes of dissension had evidently arisen between the last-named prince and the famous Renault de Chatillon, the particulars of which we do not exactly know.

The Arabian writers, however, supply several facts which may possibly throw light upon the subject. We find that the Lord of Carac, notwithstanding the existence of a truce, had been tempted by the appearance of a rich Mussulman caravan in the neighbourhood of his mountain-fortress, to plunder the

184

VIOLATION OF THE TRUCE.

merchants or pilgrims, and even to reduce many of them to captivity. Saladin remonstrated in vain, and it is by no means impossible that the Count of Tripoli also used his authority to force the refractory noble to make restitution. At all events, it is clear that he gave him no countenance in his proceedings; and when in September, 1186, Baldwin V. expired, Renault de Chatillon was found amongst the most enthusiastic supporters of Sybilla, and the most determined enemies of the regent.

The party of Guy of Lusignan, however, had studiously concealed their operations from the Count of Tripoli; and the moment the young king was dead, Jocelyn de Courtenay proceeded to visit the regent at Berytes, and represented to him that it would not be necessary for him to accompany the body of the deceased prince to Jerusalem, but, on the contrary, that it would be better to entrust the funeral to the Knights Templars, while he provided for the defence of the realm, which was already menaced by the gathering forces of Saladin.

The city of Tiberiad, possessed by the count, in right of his wife, was one of the most exposed points of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and likely to be attacked in the very outset of a war. The fact that Saladin threatened immediate vengeance for the breach of the truce by the Lord of Carac, and had sent messengers to every part of his dominions, summoning his troops to the approaching contest, was most likely already known to the Christians. Never doubting, it would appear, the good faith of Jocelyn de Courtenay, the Count of Tripoli, moved, probably, by the imminence of the danger, hastened to Tiberiad, while the corpse of the young king was carried to Jerusalem; and such was his confidence in the submission of all parties to the arrangement which had been entered into respecting the regency and succession, that he left Berytes undefended, and seems not to have entertained the slightest suspicion of all that was machinating against him.

The

*One of the best and most impartial accounts that we have of this particular period is that of Geoffrey Vinesauf, the author of Iter Hierosolymitanum. He mentions the existence of the truce between Saladin and the Christians exactly in the same terms as Bernard the Treasurer, and he recounts the violation of it by Renault de Chatillon almost in the words of the Arabian historian, Ibn-alatir. By a very natural mistake, indeed, he calls Renault Prince of Antioch, in which city he had ruled as regent during the minority of Boemond.