Defender of Jerusalem
Defender of Jerusalem: A Biographical Novel of Balian d’Ibelin
Copyright © 2015 Helena P. Schrader. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or retransmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by Wheatmark®
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ISBN: 978-1-62787-273-7 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-62787-274-4 (ebook)
LCCN: 2015908915
Contents
Cast of Characters
Genealogical Charts
The Ibelin Family in the 12th Century
Kings/Queens of Jerusalem 1131–1212
The Greek (Byzantine) Emperors in the 12th Century
Maps
Map of the Holy Land Today (Modern Israel)
Kingdom of Jerusalem
Baronies of Jerusalem
City of Jerusalem in the Twelfth Century
Introduction and Acknowledgments
Defender of Jerusalem
Historical Note
Note on Leprosy
Glossary
Additional Reading
Also by Helena P. Schrader
Cast of Characters
(Names in bold are historical figures.
Names with * appear more than once.)
Royal House of Jerusalem
Baldwin IV, King of Jerusalem, 1174-1185
Agnes de Courtenay, his mother by King Amalric, and widow of Hugh d’Ibelin, her second husband
Maria Comnena*, Baldwin IV’s stepmother, Dowager Queen of Jerusalem, great-niece of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I
Sibylla of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV’s sister, widow of the Marquis de Montferrat
Isabella of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV’s paternal half-sister, daughter of Maria Comnena* and King Amalric
Baldwin V, King of Jerusalem, son of Sibylla by Marquis de Montferrat, nephew of Baldwin VI
House of Ibelin
Balian, third son of Barisan, 1st Baron of Ibelin, Lord of Ibelin from 1177, known to the Arabs as Ibn Barzan (son of Barisan)
Maria Comnena,* Dowager Queen of Jerusalem, his wife
Helvis, John, Margaret, and Philip, their children
Baldwin (“Barry”), eldest surviving son of the 1st Baron of Ibelin, older brother of Balian, Lord of Ramla and Mirabel
Elizabeth, his second wife
Eschiva*, his daughter, wife of Aimery de Lusignan*
Godfrey, his son
Thomas, his son
Henri, youngest son of the 1st Baron of Ibelin, younger brother of Balian and “Barry”
Eloise, his wife
Household of Balian d’Ibelin
Rahel, a Coptic serving woman
Beth, a converted Muslim
Mathewos, an Ethiopian, marshal of Ibelin
Dawit, his son, Balian’s squire, 1176-1181
Tsion, his daughter, Dawit’s sister Daniel, Balian’s squire, 1176-1181
Ernoul*, Balian’s squire, 1181-1188
Gabriel, Balian’s squire, 1181-1187, Tsion’s husband
Father Michael, Balian’s confessor
Roger Shoreham, senior sergeant, father of Daniel, Gabriel, and Father Michael
Georgios, a groom of Greek descent
Centurion and Thor, Balian’s destriers
Rufus, one of Balian’s palfreys
Knights of Ibelin and Nablus
Sir Bartholomew, feudal tenant of Ibelin
Sir Arnulf, feudal tenant of Ibelin and father of Balian’s squire Ernoul*
Sir Adrian, son of Sir Arnulf and older brother of Ernoul*
Sir Galvin, a household knight of Scottish origin
Sir Walter, a household knight, formerly Balian’s squire
Sir Constantine, Constable of Nablus
House of Lusignan
Aimery*, third son of Hugh, Lord of Lusignan, Constable of Jerusalem
Eschiva*, his wife, daughter of the Baron of Ramla, niece of Balian d’Ibelin
Guy, fourth son of Hugh de Lusignan, second husband of Sibylla of Jerusalem,* Count of Jaffa from 1180, King of Jerusalem from 1186
Other Barons of the Crusader States
Bohemond III, Prince of Antioch
Theodora Comnena, his wife, sister of Maria Comnena*
Maria of Antioch, his sister, wife of Manuel I, Byzantine Emperor*
Raymond, Count of Tripoli, Lord of Galilee
Eschiva, his wife, Lady of Tiberias
William and Ralph, Eschiva’s sons by her previous marriage
Joscelin de Courtenay, brother of Agnes de Courtenay,* titular Count of Edessa
Humphrey de Toron II, Constable of Jerusalem
Reynald de Châtillon, Lord of Oultrejourdain
Stephanie de Milly, his wife, widow of Humphrey de Toron III, son of the above Constable, and widow of Miles de Plancy
Humphrey de Toron IV, her son by Humphrey III, and husband to Isabella of Jerusalem*
Reginald, Lord of Sidon
The lordships of Beirut, Sidon, Botron, Gibelet, Jubail, Scandelion, Nazareth, Haifa, Caymont, Caesarea, Bethsan, Arsur, Blanch-garde, Bethgibelin, and Hebron existed historically, so reference to lords of these baronies is accurate, although details of names and personalities are lacking.
Members of the Militant Orders and Church Leaders
Odo de St. Amand, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, 1171-1179
Arnold de Toroga, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, 1179-1184
Gerard de Ridefort, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, 1184-1189
Roger des Moulins, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, 1177-1187
Heraclius, Archbishop of Caesarea and Patriarch of Jerusalem, 1180-1190
Sister Adela, a Hospitaller nun
Saracens
Salah ad-Din Yusuf, Sultan of Egypt and Damascus
Al-Adil, Salah ad-Din’s brother
Farrukh-Shah, Salah ad-Din’s nephew
Al-Afdal, the eldest of Salah ad-Din’s seventeen sons
Husam al-Din Lu’lu, admiral and emir
Other Characters of Note
Ibrahim, a slave serving the King of Jerusalem
Godwin Olafsen, a Norse armorer
Map of the Holy Land Today (Modern Israel)
Kingdom of Jerusalem
Baronies of Jerusalem
City of Jerusalem in the Twelfth Century
Introduction and Acknowledgments
THIS IS THE SECOND BOOK IN a three-part biographical novel of the historical figure Balian d’Ibelin, based on the known facts about his life. The first volume was published under the title Knight of Jerusalem and covered the period 1171–1177.
The historical Balian was born in the mid-eleventh century in the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was the younger son of the first Baron of Ibelin, and as such did not inherit land or title. Volume I of this biographical novel describes how Balian, as a landless knight, seeks his fortune at the court of King Amalric I of Jerusalem. The King offers him the dubious honor of serving in the household of Prince Baldwin, a boy afflicted with leprosy. Balian accepts the post, and thereby becomes one of the few friends of the isolated prince. In this capacity he meets Queen Maria Comnena of Jerusalem, a young Greek princess who is King Amalric’s second wife, but their relationship is formal and platonic.
When King Amalric dies unexpectedly, the leper boy is crowned King Baldwin IV, but so long as he is a minor little changes except that the widowed Queen Maria retires to a convent. In 1176, however, on reaching the age of fifteen, Baldwin takes over the government of his realm, dismissing the Regent Raymond Count of Tripoli and welcomi
ng back to his court his disgraced mother, Agnes de Courtenay, as well as his stepmother Maria Comnena. Balian is rewarded for his years of devoted service with the constableship of the city of Ascalon, and he takes over the defense of this vital border outpost. Here Queen Maria seeks him out and they become lovers—but Balian, conscious of his lowly status, does not believe they could ever receive the necessary permission from the King for a marriage.
In November 1177 the Kurdish leader, Salah ad-Din, who has seized control in both Cairo and Damascus, invades the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the south and marches on Ascalon. King Baldwin rides with 376 knights (according to contemporary chronicles) to relieve Ascalon and is immediately trapped in the city by the overwhelming numbers of the enemy. When the King realizes, however, that Salah ad-Din has taken the bulk of his army farther north, apparently heading for Jerusalem itself, he sorties out of Ascalon and joins forces with the Templars from Gaza. Although the towns of Lydda and Ibelin (historically Ramla) are sacked, on November 24 the Christian forces overtake Salah ad-Din and decisively defeat him at the Battle of Montgisard. Salah ad-Din has to flee on a camel, and almost all his troops are killed or captured. Balian and his elder brother play a decisive role in this critical battle.
Meanwhile, Queen Maria has become pregnant and Balian, unwilling to let his child be born a bastard, is forced to request permission from the King to marry Maria, expecting that he and the Dowager Queen will instead be forced to flee to her family in Constantinople. King Baldwin, however, loves Balian well and approves the marriage. Furthermore, he puts pressure on Balian’s elder brother to transfer the comparatively insignificant barony of Ibelin to Balian in exchange for permission to set aside his blameless wife, Richildis. In May 1178, Maria gives birth to a daughter, Helvis.
Thus at the end of Volume I, Balian is no longer a landless knight but Baron of Ibelin, husband of the Dowager Queen of Jerusalem, and father of his first child. This volume opens in June 1178. I wish to thank my test readers for their careful and constructive criticism of the draft manuscript, my editor Christy Dickson for her meticulous and professional editing, and Mikhail Greuli for his inspired cover!
Helena P. Schrader
Addis Ababa
2015
Chapter 1
Jerusalem, June 1178
“JERUSALEM IS DYING,” THE PATRIARCH MURMURED in a low, grave voice, pitched not to carry beyond the man he was addressing. The gold-encrusted robes of office seemed too heavy for the frail old man, causing him to stand hunched over. So many rings adorned his gnarled fingers that the one with the crosses of Jerusalem was all but lost among the shine and gleam of the others.
“That’s why I came,” the man answered vigorously. The speaker, Balian d’Ibelin, was exceptionally tall, dark-haired and well tanned. He was not yet thirty and was dressed for riding in leather hose and boots, a hauberk of chain mail, and a marigold-colored cotton surcoat emblazoned with the red crosses paté of Ibelin. Beside him his slender wife, swathed in flowing white gauze to protect her from the Palestinian sun, waited anxiously. Both were coated in dust from the road.
“Yes, it is good for the High Court to gather,” the Patriarch conceded, with a glance to the other men waiting in the anteroom to the King’s chambers.
“I wish to see His Grace,” Ibelin insisted.
The Patriarch shook his head firmly. “That’s not possible. He has been shriven.”
“It’s no use, Ibelin,” Raymond, Count of Tripoli and former Regent of the realm, interposed, pushing himself off the window seat facing the inner courtyard of the royal palace. “We’ve all been denied access.” He gestured toward the men in the room, all of whom were important barons: the Constable Humphrey de Toron; the King’s maternal uncle, seneschal of the Kingdom and titular Count of Edessa, Joscelin de Courtenay; and the lords of Hebron, Caesarea, Jubail, and Caymont. “Your brother was here earlier, but he too was turned away. He was in no mood to wait.”
Ibelin did not answer. He could well imagine that his older brother, Baron of Ramla and Mirabel and known to his family as “Barry,” had not wanted to wait. Barry was not a patient man. Instead of answering, Ibelin led his wife to a large carved chest, where she could sit down and unwrap the veils that had protected her face from the burning sun. Automatically the men in the room turned to watch her, enjoying absently the beauty of her well-proportioned face. From the day she had arrived at the court of Jerusalem as the bride of the then King, Amalric I, her classical Greek beauty had aroused admiration. She was a princess of the Imperial Greek family, Maria Zoë Comnena.
Her expression now was worried. “Who has given the orders to isolate the King from his most important counselors?” she asked. “His doctors?”
“Ah,” Tripoli opened with a cynical smile, his eyes reflecting admiration for the Dowager Queen’s ability to slice to the heart of the matter. “No, not his doctors.” He paused before adding in a sour tone: “His mother.”
Queen Maria Zoë drew in her breath and held it, but her eyes glinted with indignation. There was arguably no one in the world she hated more than her first husband’s first wife, the mother of the now dying King, Agnes de Courtenay.
“My sister has only the best interests of my beloved nephew at heart,” the Count of Edessa hastened to rebuff the unspoken accusation that hung in the room. Edessa was an empty title. The county had been lost to the Saracens almost half a century earlier, and Joscelin had distinguished himself only by gorging himself both literally (on sweets) and figuratively (on the royal treasury) ever since his nephew had appointed him Seneschal of Jerusalem. He was only in his early forties, but he was both balding and flabby.
“No doubt,” Tripoli agreed with sarcasm before adding caustically, “As we can see by the fact that she’s kept you away from him.”
Queen Maria Zoë looked down to mask her smile, but Ibelin frowned slightly, while Edessa spluttered in indignation and the aging Constable Humphrey de Toron made reproving noises in his throat.
“Excuse me,” Ibelin broke in. “We’ve been riding since daybreak. I need to seek out a privy.”
The others nodded absently as he withdrew, and Tripoli turned to the Dowager Queen. “You should not have risked such an arduous journey so shortly out of childbed, my lady, although you look the picture of health,” he noted honestly and admiringly. His own wife was much older and would not have been up to the exertion. “Your daughter is well?”
“Yes,” the Dowager Queen answered proudly; the disappointment of giving birth to a daughter had faded rapidly in light of her husband Balian’s delight. If he did not care, why should she? “We’ve named her Helvis, after my lord husband’s mother.”
Beyond the door Ibelin made his way not to the closest garderobe, but to the large gardens that backed up against the southern wall of the royal palace. The gardens were enclosed by the massive city wall to the west and a tall protective but not defensible wall to the east and south. Ibelin had served for five years in the royal household and knew the royal palace intimately—including the fact that there was a narrow stairwell that led directly down from the King’s apartments to the garden. The dog-toothed, pointed arch over the door to this stairwell opened in the northwest corner of the garden, nearly hidden behind three tall cypress trees that stretched heavenwards.
Ibelin made his way to this door and tried it. To his relief, it was not locked. He slipped inside the stairwell and closed the door behind him. Here he stood for several seconds, letting his eyes adjust to the dark. Then he started up the stairs, feeling his way by using the tip of his boot to find the next step, one at a time. Eventually he reached the landing and found the door with his hand by feeling for the wood set firmly in the stone frame. He found the iron handle and pushed down on it. This handle moved but the door did not budge; it was locked.
He knocked firmly. As expected, there was no answer, but after a pause he knocked again.
“Is someone there?” an anxious voice asked through the door.
; Ibelin felt a surge of relief; the voice was familiar. It belonged to Ibrahim, the Syrian slave who had served the King almost his entire life.
Ibelin leaned toward the wooden door and spoke in a low voice. “It’s me, Balian d’Ibelin.”
“Lord Balian? Allahu Akbar!” The key turned in the lock and the door opened to reveal the old slave in his long kaftan and Muslim skullcap, bowing over his hands in welcome. The room behind him was in shadow. All the shutters had been closed over the windows, although the intensity of the afternoon sun ensured that it was not really dark. At this time of year, the shade could not entirely block out the heat, either, and without fresh air the temperature was stifling. The room smelled badly, too—of sweat and medicine and stale air.
“I came as soon as I received word the King was ill, but I was denied access—”
Ibrahim silenced him by holding a long, elegant finger to his lips. “I understand,” he assured Ibelin. “His mother guards him jealously, but he has asked for you. He will be pleased—no, grateful—that you have come. Only—” Ibrahim looked anxiously over his shoulder toward the large four-poster bed, enclosed in heavy damask curtains,“he is—is losing consciousness. Or rather, it comes and goes. Sometimes he seems to know what is going on around him. At other times he is oblivious. And other times still, he sees things we do not. He has spoken to his father as if he were in the room with him. And once he reared up in his bed and gasped out: ‘My lord, I am unworthy to be the defender of your tomb’—as if he thought the Prophet Jesus stood in front of him.”
“Let me see him, Ibrahim, whatever state he’s in—before I am discovered and tossed out again by Dame Agnes.”
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