Jerusalem, the City of Herod and SaladinBesant, Walter
History
Jerusalem, the City of Herod and Saladin
Besant, Walter
Jerusalem -- Description and travel; Jerusalem -- History
The domestic relations of Fulke were somewhat complicated, but they
bear a certain special interest for English readers.[62] His father,
Fulke, the Count of Touraine and Anjou, was married three times, and
had one child from each marriage. His third wife, Bertrade, the
mother of King Fulke, ran away from him, and became the mistress of
King Philip of France, by whom she had three children. One of them
was that Cæcilia who married Tancred, and, after his death, Count
Pons. Fulke, by means of his mother’s influence, making a wealthy
marriage, was the father of that Geoffrey Plantagenet who married
Matilda of England, and produced the Plantagenet line. His daughter
Matilda was also betrothed to William, the son of Henry I., and, on
the drowning of that prince, she went into a convent, where she
remained. Another daughter, Sybille, married Thierry, Count of
Flanders. By his second wife, Milicent, Fulke had two sons, Baldwin
and Amaury, both of whom became, in turn, Kings of Jerusalem.
Footnote 62:
See Genealogical Table, p. 268.
In the first year of King Fulke’s reign died that stout old warrior,
Jocelyn of Edessa. His end was worthy of his life. In the preceding
year he had been besieging a fort or castle near Aleppo, and had
ordered a certain town to be undermined. While he was personally
superintending the works, the tower suddenly fell and buried the old
count beneath its ruins. They extricated him, but his legs and limbs
were broken, and he never walked again. He retained, however, his
power of speech and his lofty courage, and when, next year, the news
came that the Sultan of Iconium was besieging in force one of his
strong places, he sent for his son and ordered him to collect all
the men and knights he could, and march at once to the rescue. But
young Jocelyn, who was, like most of the Syrian-born Christians,
little better than a cur, refused flatly, alleging as an excuse the
disproportion of numbers. The old man, sorrowful at heart on account
of his son’s cowardice, and foreboding the troubles which would
surely come after his own death, ordered his litter to be prepared,
and was carried at the head of his own army to the relief of the
fort. The news reached the Saracens that old Jocelyn was coming
himself, and at the very mention of his name they broke up their
camp and fled. “And when he heard this, the count ordered those who
carried his litter to place it on the ground; then raising his hands
to heaven, with tears and sighs, he returned thanks to God, who had
visited him in his affliction, and had thus favoured him by
suffering him once more, and for the last time, to be formidable to
the enemies of Christ. And while he poured out his thanks to heaven,
he breathed his last.” There was now no one left of the old
crusading chiefs, and their spirit was dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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