Jerusalem, the City of Herod and SaladinBesant, Walter
History
Jerusalem, the City of Herod and Saladin
Besant, Walter
Jerusalem -- Description and travel; Jerusalem -- History
One more military expedition King Fulke was to make. Allied with the
Emir of Damascus, he laid siege to the town of Baucas, which Zanghi
had taken. The legate of the pope, Alberic of Ostia, was with the
army, and exhorted them to courage and perseverance. After an
obstinate resistance, the town capitulated on honourable terms.
The legate had come from Rome to act as judge between the Patriarch
of Antioch and the bishops. It is not easy to make out how these
quarrels arose, nor is it edifying to relate the progress of
squabbles which were chiefly ecclesiastical. Alberic of Ostia had
been recalled, and a new legate, Peter, Archbishop of Lyons, sent
out in his stead. The charges against the patriarch were chiefly
that he refused to submit to Rome. William of Tyre gives the whole
story of the trial and consequent deposition of the patriarch. He
was taken to a monastery as a prisoner, and kept there for some
time, but succeeded in escaping to Rome, where he pleaded his own
cause, and was on the point of being reinstated, when he died of
poison.
In the last year of King Fulke three important fortresses were
built, that of Kerak in Moab, that of Ibelin, and that on Tell es
Safiyeh. The fortress of Ibelin, about ten miles from Ascalon, was
on the traditional site of Gath. The citadel built on Tell es
Safiyeh, about eight miles from Ascalon, and called Blanchegarde,
was made the strongest place in Palestine, and played an important
part in the subsequent wars.
One day in 1144, Fulke, walking with the queen in the neighbourhood
of Acre, put up a hare in the grass. Calling for a horse and a
lance, he rode after it; and the horse falling, brought him down
with such violence that he fractured his skull. He lingered four
days in a state of insensibility, and then died, leaving two sons,
of thirteen and seven years respectively, by his wife Milicent.
GENEALOGY OF FULKE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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