Melisende, born in 1105 and queen from 1131 until her death
in 1161, was the first and unquestionably the most forceful of Jerusalem’s
queens. She was not only the hereditary heir
to the kingdom, she tenaciously defended her right to rule against both her
husband and her son, weathering two attempts to side-line her, albeit more
successfully the first time. She was praised for her wisdom and her
administrative effectiveness as well as being a patron of the arts and the
church. Although largely forgotten, she ought to be remembered alongside her
contemporaries the Empress Mathilda and Eleanor of Aquitaine as one of the
powerful women rulers of the 12th century. Today Dr. Schrader looks at the first
half of her life, ending with the death of her husband in 1143.
Melisende of Jerusalem was born in 1105, the first of four
daughters, born to King Baldwin II and his Armenian wife, Morphia of Melitene.
At the time of her birth in Edessa, her father was Count of Edessa, but 13
years later in 1118 her father was elected by the High Court of Jerusalem
successor to Baldwin I. Some sources claim that her father was urged at this
time to set-aside his Armenian wife and seek a new, and better-connected bride
who might bear him sons as Morphia had failed to do. Baldwin refused. Furthermore, he designated his eldest daughter
as his heir, and she was given precedence in the charters of the kingdom ahead
of all other lords both sacred and secular.
In 1128, when Melisende was already 23 years old, her father
sent to the King of France, requesting a worthy husband for her. This appeal
was sanctioned by the High Court, as all subsequent searches for worthy
consorts of Jerusalem’s queens would be in the years to come. The King of
France proposed Fulk d’Anjou.
Although Anjou is small, it was a pivotal and powerful
lordship in the heart of France. Fulk’s mother had married Philip I of France,
and his daughter had been engaged to Henry I of England’s heir, William. When
the latter died in a shipwreck, the agreement was mutated so that Henry’s
daughter Mathilda married Fulk’s eldest son and heir Geoffrey. It was from this
marriage of Fulk’s son Geoffrey and Henry I’s heir Mathilda that the Angevin
kings of England sprang.
Meanwhile, however, Fulk had traveled to the Holy Land and
served with the Knights Templar. He responded positively to the proposal to
marry Melisende, although some sources contend that he insisted on being named
king, not merely consort. In fact, the terms may have been ambiguous, or at
least open to alternative interpretations. Certainly, Fulk had a reputation for
centralizing power and ruling unruly vassals with an iron fist. He was seen as
militarily able, however, a vital qualification for ruling the ever-vulnerable
Kingdom of Jerusalem.
In 1129, Fulk returned to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and
married Melisende, now 24 years old. He was at once associated with his
father-in-law in the government of the kingdom.
Nevertheless, in 1130 when Melisende gave birth to a son, named Baldwin
for his grandfather, the proud grandfather took the precaution publicly
investing his Kingdom to his daughter, his son-in-law and his grandson. This
was not a partitioning of the kingdom, but a means of binding his vassals to
his heirs. Furthermore, when he fell ill
the following year, he reaffirmed on his death-bed the succession of his
daughter Melisende, along with her king-consort Fulk and their joint son,
Baldwin. Melisende and Fulk were crowned jointly in the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher on September 14, 1131.
Despite this, Fulk evidently felt that he had become sole ruler of Jerusalem. Melisende was
abruptly excluded from the charters of the kingdom, suggesting she was excluded
from power, and the important contemporary chronicle of Orderic Vitalis
provides this revealing description of what happened next:
To
begin with [Fulk] acted without the foresight and shrewdness he should have
shown, and changed governors and other dignitaries too quickly and
thoughtlessly. As a new ruler he banished from his counsels the leading
magnates who from the first had fought resolutely against the Turks and helped
Godfrey and the two Baldwins to bring towns and fortresses under their rule,
and replaced them by Angevin strangers and other raw newcomers…; turning out
the veteran defenders, he gave the chief places in the counsels of the realm
and the castellanships of castles to new flatterers.[i]
While this was bad enough, he also appeared to seek the
removal of his wife, Melisende. The suspicion was that he wanted to push aside
the legitimate heirs of Jerusalem and replace them with his younger son by his
first wife, a certain Elias. His weapon
was a not-so-subtle attempt to sully her reputation with an accusation of
adultery. In 1134, Melisende was (conveniently)
accused of a liaison with the most powerful of the local barons, a certain
Hugh, Count of Jaffa.
While all chronicles agree that the charges were trumped up,
the very fact that King Fulk was presumed to be behind them induced Jaffa to
refuse to face a trial by combat, apparently fearing foul play. The failure to show for a trial by combat,
however, gave the king the right to declare him (and with him the queen)
guilty, and to attempt to forfeit his fief. (Which some historians suggest may
have been Fulk’s main motive in the first place.) What is notable about this incident
is that the bulk of the High Court ― and most significantly the Church ― sided
with Jaffa rather than Fulk. This underlines the degree to which Melisende was
viewed as innocent of wrong-doing, and the degree to which the local nobility
resented the Angevin influence described above.
When the royal army moved against Jaffa, the southern lords,
many of them Jaffa’s vassals, held firm for Jaffa. Until Jaffa made a severe
tactical error: he sought military support from the Muslim garrison at Ascalon.
The later was all too happy to see the Franks fighting among themselves and
Jaffa beat off the royal army -- at the price of losing support among his own.
Many of his vassals (and his own Constable, Barisan d’Ibelin) deserted his
cause and reconciled with the king.
Yet just when Fulk seemed on the brink of complete victory,
the Church intervened to end the dangerously self-destructive civil war and
forced Fulk to offer astonishingly mild terms to the rebels. Hugh of Jaffa and
those men who had remained loyal to him were induced to surrender Jaffa and
accept exile for a mere three years, rather than the permanent loss of their
fiefs. Although not explicit, subsequent events suggest that Melisende was
behind this agreement and Fulk was anything but happy with it. Certainly,
before Hugh could leave the kingdom to begin his exile, he was stabbed in the
streets of Acre by a knight widely believed to be fulfilling Fulk’s wishes if
not his orders.
Hugh survived the attack and went into exile to die before
the terms expired just three years later. Yet sympathy for the
injured Hugh was so high that the Angevins found themselves in fear for their
lives. Indeed, no one was more outraged than Queen Melisende, and the
contemporary historian William of Tyre reports that Fulk feared for his life in
the company of the queen’s men. Fulk had won the battle but lost the war. He
had discovered he could not rule Jerusalem as he had Anjou. He could not impose
his own counselors and ignore the men (and their sons) that had conquered his
kingdom for him one bloody mile at a time. Most important, he could not replace
his wife at whim, but must recognize her as her father had intended as his
co-regent, his equal in power.
William of Tyre reports that after Jaffa’s exile Fulk “did
not attempt to take the initiative, even in trivial matters, without
[Melisende’s] knowledge.”[ii]
This assessment is underlined by the subsequent documentary evidence that shows
Melisende again jointly signing charters and otherwise actively engaged in the
administration of the kingdom. She made some spectacular grants at this time
(one presumes to her supporters), most especially to the Church. The
reconciliation was furthermore sufficient to bring forth a second son, Amalric,
who was born in 1136.
In 1138, when Fulk and Melisende’s son Baldwin turned eight,
he too was included in the charters of the kingdom, reaffirming his investiture
along with his parents as ruler of Jerusalem, restoring the situation as it had
been recognized by the High Court at the time of Baldwin II’s death. This
troika of rulers continued until 1143, when Fulk died suddenly at the age of 53
in a hunting accident. Significantly, at Fulk’s death there was no need for the
High Court to convene and elect a new ruler, because Melisende was already
crowned and anointed and recognized, not merely as regent for her 13-year-old
son, but as queen in her own right.
This outline of the events in the first 38 years of
Melisende’s life makes a mockery of modern commentary that dismiss medieval
women as “chattels” or pawns.
Melisende’s right to inherit the power ― not just the title ― of monarch
was not only recognized by the High Court (i.e. her vassals), but defended by
both her barons and the Church. Melisende wielded real power, and she won the
respect of her contemporaries. William of Tyre, for example, calls her “a very
wise woman, fully experienced in almost all spheres of state business,” who
took “charge of important affairs.”[iii]
The woman herself, her feelings, her temperament, her
motives, fears and dreams, are lost to us.
A few things are clear, however. First, in contrast to her
grand-daughter Sibylla, her virtue was considered unimpeachable; no one of
importance seriously believed she had committed adultery. Second, her intelligence
and abilities as queen were respected sufficiently for people to be willing to
fight for her right to rule jointly with her husband. Third, she must have been
sufficiently flexible and forgiving to reconcile with her husband despite his
attempts to first side-line and then dishonor her. That takes a very wise woman
indeed!
Melisende is a major character in:
Dr. Helena P. Schrader holds a PhD in History.
She is the Chief Editor of the Real Crusades History Blog.
She
is an award-winning novelist and author of numerous books both fiction
and non-fiction. Her three-part biography of Balian d'Ibelin won a total
of 14 literary accolades. Her most recent release is a novel about the
founding of the crusader Kingdom of Cyprus. You can find out more at:
http://crusaderkingdoms.com
Melisende is a major character in:
[i]
Orderic Vitalis, quoted in translation by Hans Eberhard Mayer, “Angevins versus
Normans: The New Men of King Fulk of Jerusalem,” Kings and Lords in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Ashgate
Publishing, 1994, p. IV-3
[ii]
William of Tyre, quoted in translation by Bernard Hamilton, “Women in the
Crusader States: The Queens of Jerusalem (1100-1190),” ed. Derek Baker,
Medieval Women, Basil Blackwell, 1978, p. 150.
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