KING BALDWIN II.—KING FOULQUE—KING BALDWIN III.—EXPLOITS OF ZENGHI—RISE
OF NOURREDIN.
Baldwin du Bourg was elected to the vacant throne of Jerusalem, Eustace,
brother of Godfrey, having declined to contest it, magnanimously saying
to his partisans, “Not by me shall a stumbling-block enter into the
Lord’s kingdom.” Baldwin II. was well advanced in years, experienced in
council and in field, having been one of the companions of Godfrey in
the first crusade, and during the reign of Baldwin I. having held the
government of Edessa. In contrast with his predecessor, he was
painstaking in planning, cautious in executing, and withal a man of deep
religious devotion.
In April, 1123, while attempting the relief of Count Josselin, who had
been taken prisoner at Khartpert by Balek the Turkoman, King Baldwin II.
was captured and confined in the same city. A devoted band of Armenians
entered Khartpert in the disguise of merchants, and succeeded in
liberating Josselin, but the king was carried away to Harran for safer
keeping.
The absence of Baldwin II. was measurably compensated by the vigor and
astuteness of Eustace Grenier, who was elected to the regency. The
Egyptians had massed themselves in the plains of Ascalon for an advance
against Jerusalem. After a fast, which was so rigorously enforced that
mothers did not suckle their babes, and cattle were driven to sterile
places beyond their pasturage, the army of Christians marched from the
city at the sound of the great bell. The patriarch carried the wood of
the True Cross, another dignitary bore the Holy Lance, another a vase
containing milk from the breast of the Virgin Mary. The credulity which
devised these expedients of victory might readily see, as reported, a
celestial thunderbolt fall upon the army of the Infidels. It is enough
for history to record that the Christians were triumphant.
The Genoese and Pisans had often brought assistance to the crusaders and
great gain to themselves by the part they took in these holy wars. The
Venetians, however, having profitable commerce with the Saracens, were
not at first tempted to hazard a rupture with them. At length they too
sought the new adventure. In the warlike temper of the age, the Venetian
fleet, in command of the doge, Domenicho Michaeli, did not hesitate to
attack a returning Genoese fleet for the sake of its plunder. Having
robbed and murdered their coreligionists, they repeated the raid upon an
Egyptian fleet which was leaving the mouth of the Nile. With appetites
thus whetted, they proposed to the regency at Jerusalem to sell
themselves to the service of God for one third the territory they might
acquire conjointly with the crusaders. The terms being accepted, an
innocent child drew the lot which should show the will of Heaven as to
whether Ascalon or Tyre were the better prize. Tyre was indicated, and
six months after (July 7, 1124) fell to gratify the greed of Venice and
the pride of the people of Jerusalem.
A month later King Baldwin II. secured his liberation. In 1129 he
strengthened his throne by the marriage of his daughter, Melisende, to
Foulque of Anjou, son of the notorious Bertrade, who had deserted her
legitimate husband for the embrace of King Philip of France. This
monarch had put away his wife Bertha for this new union. Thus was
brought upon Philip the famous excommunication of the Pope. Two years
later (August 13, 1131) Baldwin II. died and was buried with Godfrey and
Baldwin I. in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Foulque ascended the throne. His first work was to settle a dispute for
the lordship of Antioch, which was accomplished only after bloodshed
between brethren. Next he baffled the Greek emperor, John Comnenus, who
attempted to gain for himself the kingdom of Jerusalem. Later he made
alliance with the Mussulman Prince of Damascus and fought against
Zenghi, Prince of Mosul. His queen, Melisende, by her rumored amours
brought him additional perplexity. King Foulque died from an injury
while hunting (November 13, 1143), leaving two children, Baldwin and
Amalric.
Baldwin III. succeeded his father at the age of thirteen, with Melisende
as regent. Effeminacy not only marked the government, but infected the
spirit of the people. The heroism of the founders of the kingdom seemed
to die in the blood of their successors, or, if danger fired the ancient
valor, it was without the light of discretion.
Young Baldwin III. inaugurated his reign by a foolish expedition to take
Bozrah, which had been offered in surrender by its traitorous
commandant. To accomplish this it was necessary to break a fair and
useful alliance which the Christians had made with the Sultan of
Damascus, the rightful lord of Bozrah. On reaching Bozrah, instead of
the keys of the city, there was placed in the hands of the king an
announcement from the wife of the treacherous governor that she herself
would defend the walls. The perplexity of the king and his equally
callow advisers was followed by an ignoble retreat. The enemy pursued
not only with sword, but with fire. The wind, which seemed to the
retreating army to be the breath of God’s wrath, covered them with smoke
and cinders, while the flames of the burning grass chased their fleeing
feet. The Christians would have perished had not, say the chronicles,
the wood of the True Cross, raised with prayer, changed the direction of
the breeze and beaten back the pursuers.
At this time there was felt the need of an astute mind at the head of
the kingdom. Christian progress had been arrested, and events of evil
omen were thickening.
The star of Zenghi, the ruler of Mosul, the father of Nourredin, and the
forerunner of Saladin, had arisen. This redoubtable warrior had
conquered all his Moslem rivals on the Euphrates; he had swept with
resistless fury westward, capturing Aleppo (1128), Hamah (1129), and
Athareb (1130). Though the Moslems had been assisted by Baldwin II., yet
the Oriental writers sang of how the “swords of Allah found their
scabbards in the neck of His foes.” In 1144, one year from young
Baldwin’s coronation, Zenghi appeared before the walls of Edessa, which
since the early days of the crusades had been in the possession of the
Christians. This city was the bulwark of the Christian kingdom in the
East; it is thus described in the florid language of the place and time:
“I was as a queen in the midst of her court; sixty towns standing around
me formed my train; my altars, loaded with treasure, shed their splendor
afar and appeared to be the abode of angels. I surpassed in magnificence
the proudest cities of Asia, and I was as a celestial ornament raised
upon the bosom of the earth.”
Had old Josselin de Courtenay been living, Edessa would have given a
stubborn and possibly a successful defence, for the terror of his name
had long held the Moslems at bay. Once, while lying on what he thought
to be his death-bed, this veteran heard that the enemy had laid siege to
one of his strong towers, and commanded his son to go to its rescue. The
younger Josselin delayed on account of the few troops he could take with
him. Old Josselin ordered the soldiers to carry him to the front on his
litter. The news of his approach was sufficient to cause the quick
withdrawal of the Moslems; but an invincible foe was upon the warrior,
for, with hand raised in gratitude to Heaven, he expired.
Josselin II. of Edessa was unworthy of such a sire. His weakness being
known, he inspired neither terror in his foes nor respect among his own
people. Zenghi surprised Edessa with a host of Kurds and Turkomans. To
Oriental daring he added the careful engineering learned from his
Western antagonists. Quickly the walls were surrounded by movable towers
higher than the ramparts; battering-rams beat against the foundation,
and storms of stones, javelins, and combustibles swept away the
defenders. In vain the city held out for a while in expectancy of aid
from Jerusalem. On the twenty-eighth day (December 14, 1144) it fell.
The news spread a dismay which could have been surpassed only by the
capture of Jerusalem itself.
The report of Zenghi’s death two years later gave to the Christians a
ray of hope for at least fewer disasters. That hope was quickly
extinguished by the exploits of Nourredin, his son, whose deeds stirred
the prophetic spirit of Moslem imams to foretell the speedy fall of the
Holy City. At the same time they excited the superstitious fears of the
Christians, who saw in comets, as well as in the flash of Nourredin’s
cimeters, the signs of Heaven’s displeasure, and interpreted the very
thunders of the sky as the celestial echo of his tramping squadrons.
The tidings of the fall of Edessa was the immediate occasion of the
second crusade.
Before considering this, let us note briefly the influence upon Europe
of the first crusade and of the kingdom of Jerusalem which it had
established.