The Crusades - People Flashcards
His appeal sent to Pope Urban II at Piacenza in March 1095 helped to prompt the First Crusade, but he was deeply unsettled by the arrival of huge western armies at Constantinople. A subsequent dispute concerning the overlordship of Antioch soured relations between the settlers and Byzantium for decades to come.
Alexius Comnenus, Byzantine emperor (1081-1118)
Papal legate on the First Crusade and a key figure in preserving the strength and morale of the crusading army until the siege of Antioch. Died of illness just after the capture of the city.
Adhemar of Ley Puy (d.1098)
After the death of her husband, Prince Bohemond II, in 1130, she tried hard to rule Antioch in her own right. She incited opposition to intervention from Jerusalem and intermittently held power until the arrival of Raymond of Poitiers in 1136. Her machinations enraged William of Tyre who called her a ‘malicious and scheming woman’.
Alice, princess of Antioch
Described as a strong, sober, legally-minded and clever man, always curious to learn; however, he was also fat (he had breasts that hung down to his waist), taciturn, greedy for money and, before he was king, a serial philanderer. An energetic and powerful ruler, he dominated his nobles, led five campaigns into Egypt and journeyed to Constantinople in person to swear homage to Manuel Comnenus. He died just before another invasion of Egypt, aged only 38.
Amalric, king of Jerusalem (1163-74)
The count of Boulogne took part in the First Crusade and founded the county of Edessa in 1098. When his brother Godfrey of Bouillon died in 1100 he became king of Jerusalem. He repelled Egyptian attacks in his early years and then extended the boundaries of the kingdom into Transjordan (1115) and led the capture of several cities on the coast. A tall man and a great warrior, he was said to have struggled against the sins of the flesh; he nonetheless died childless.
Baldwin I, king of Jerusalem (1100-18)
Succeeded his cousin Baldwin I as count of Edessa and then as king in 1118. He was a tall man with a thin blond beard to his waist, a formidable warrior and an extremely pious individual with callouses on his knees from constant kneeling. The rival candidacy of Baldwin I’s European-based brother Eustace meant a difficult start to his reign, compounded by holding the regency of Antioch and imprisonment by the Muslims in 1122-23. On his release he led numerous campaigns against Aleppo, Damascus and Egypt and he launched a crusade appeal in 1127 to attack Damascus. He married his eldest daughter Melisende to Count Fulk V of Anjou to ensure the succession of his line.
Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem (1118-31)
Son of King Fulk, and a minor when he came to the throne. His mother Melisende acted as regent, but she refused to hand over power until 1152, causing near civil war in the kingdom. Described as a tall, dignified and well-educated man, he was also pious, generous and abstemious. He was said to be too keen on dice and games of chance for a king. He led the move towards more positive relations with the Byzantine Empire (1150 onwards) and captured Ascalon in 1153. These successes were offset by the failure of the Second Crusade (1148) and Nur ad-Din’s takeover of Damascus (1154).
Baldwin III, king of Jerusalem (1143-63)
The leper-king ruled from the age of 13 and was severely afflicted by this chronic condition. By his late teens he was blind, his nose had disappeared and his limbs were badly deformed. The need for regents caused real tensions in the kingdom, although he took part in some military campaigns, notably the victory at Montgisard (1177). A brave, intelligent youth, he succumbed to his illness aged 23.
Baldwin IV, king of Jerusalem (1174-85)
The son of William of Montferrat and Sibylla of Jerusalem. He succeeded his uncle, Baldwin IV, but was only eight years old and under a regency of Count Raymond of Tripoli. A sickly child, he died after barely a year on the throne.
Baldwin V, king of Jerusalem (1185-86)
He worked closely with Saladin and was the quadi al-askar (judge of the army) from 1188 until 1193. His account of Saladin’s life is a clear, readable and personally-observed portrait of a man he greatly admired and provides a valuable Muslim perspective of the events of the Third Crusade.
Beha ad-Din (d.1234)
The most prominent churchman of the twelfth century. A Cistercian monk, abbot of Clairvaux and advisor to kings and popes for much of his adult life. A man of real austerity whose devotional practices often left him psychically debilitated. The author of many letters and theological tracts, he also wrote In Praise of the New Knighthood for the Templars and was a strong advocate of the order. His emotive and powerful preaching arouse Europe to the Second Crusade (1145-49), but when the expedition to the Holy Land failed he had to face a harsh backlash from those he had assured were ‘the lucky generation’.
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
The greatest warrior of the First Crusade. A Norman from southern Italy who took part in a failed invasion of the Byzantine Empire in the 1080s. A lack of prospects in Italy led him to set up the principality of Antioch during the First Crusade in contravention of oaths sworn to Alexius Comnenus. Imprisoned by the Muslims of northern Syria from 1100 to 1103. He travelled to the West in 1106-7 to raise a new crusade - against the Greeks. His attack in 1108 did not succeed and he returned to southern Italy where he died.
Bohemond of Taranto, prince of Antioch (1098-1111)
A minor living in the family lands in Norman Sicily when he succeeded to the title of Antioch in 1119. After reaching his majority in 1126 he travelled to the Levant to claim his position. He married Alice, a daughter of Baldwin II of Jerusalem, and fathered Princess Constance. He died in battle in 1130.
Bohemond II, prince of Antioch (1126-30)
He led the largest contingent on the Second Crusade and proved himself a brave and fearsome warrior. His forces lacked discipline, however, and most were lost in Asia Minor. He laid the blame for the failure of the Second Crusade at the door of the Franks, accusing them of being bought off by the Damascenes (1148). He died before he could be crowned emperor in Rome, hence the royal, rather than the imperial title of his predecessors and those who followed him.
Conrad III, king of Germany (1138-52)
