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unfortunate family circumstances, and this relieved the king of the duty of having to provide for her care.
Agnes detested the Ibelin family, as her later actions make clear, and it was perhaps fortunate from her point of view that Hugh spent much of his time on campaign, and died within five years of their marriage.
The Ibelins took the side of Agnes' enemies in the dispute over the details of the succession to Amalric. Baldwin IV had been too young to take control himself immediately.
There was also a row centring on the claim of Miles de Plancy to the regency. Miles was overruled by the High Court and Raymond appointed in his place. Miles was assassinated, perhaps on Raymond's orders, shortly after.
Raymond was the implacable enemy of Agnes, amongst other things because he probably coveted the Crown for himself, and was suspected of leaguing with the Moslem enemies of the kingdom, with whom he claimed an understanding. The Arabs thought highly of him: Ibn al Athir describes this descendant of Raymond of St Giles as the wisest and most courageous man, but very ambitious and desirous of becoming king, something his illustrious grand sire had refused.5
The two surviving Ibelin brothers had united with Agnes' opponents, demonstrating this by creating a marriage to Maria Comnena by the younger of the brothers, Balian. Maria, it will be recalled, was the rival of Agnes, especially because Maria had a daughter Isabella by the late Amalric. Maria's daughter Isabella therefore had some claim to the throne in rivalry with Agnes' descendants.
Meanwhile, Agnes' daughter the newly widowed Sybilla in about 1179 had fallen in love with Baldwin of Ibelin, the elder brother of the family.
Once again, we have the spectacle of Agnes and her daughter in a sexual relationship with two brothers. And how Agnes must have gnashed her teeth at the thought of her daughter entering into a conjugal relationship with her bitterest enemies!
But before the marriage with Sybilla could be arranged, Baldwin was captured in battle by the Saracens. Sybilla assured him of her love while he was in gaol, but on his release she reneged, claiming that the huge ransom he owed was an impediment to marriage. Actually, thanks to Amalric of Lusignan, she had other things on her mind.
Baldwin set off to Constantinople, where he persuaded the Emperor to repay his debt: meanwhile Amalric raced back to France to fetch his brother Guy for Sybilla's inspection.
Thus, Baldwin's hopes were again dashed when he returned to Outremer early in 1180: Sybilla had already been betrothed to Guy of Lusignan.
Thus the circle of intrigue, lust and hatred was complete.
Baldwin the Leper was bitterly opposed to his sister's marriage with Guy. He sought to have it annulled. His attempt to do so, however, was foiled when the couple refused his summons to court: instead, they holed up in the fortress at Ascalon. This forced the king to abandon the case, as matrimonial disputes had to be held in the presence of the couple.6
Meanwhile, Balian's step daughter Isabella by his wife Maria Comnena had been married into the fringes of Agnes' faction.
Isabella was eight at the time of her marriage to Humphrey IV of Toron, heir to the huge landholding of Oultrejourdain.
Humphrey was a man out of time and place. He was thoughtful, artistic, gentle and loving, and would have been more suited to an eighteenth century salon or to Bloomsbury.
He was a complete contrast to his step father, Reynald of Chatillon, staunchest of Agnes' allies.
Reynald, red haired and handsome, had come east like so many others seeking fortune and adventure. He found it, in spades.
This knight errant had attracted the attention of Princess Constance, the heiress to Antioch, in 1151 when he had gone there in the service of King Baldwin.
By 1153, the Princess was a widow, and it was for Reynald's hand that she begged permission from Baldwin. In fact, they may have married in secret before the king gave his permission.
The nobles were outraged, because their candidates had been passed over in favour of an adventurer.
Their doubts were to prove well founded.
Reynald lives in the pages of history as infamy personified. To the Saracens, he became known as the Red Wolf of the Desert. To Saladin, saviour of Islam, he was the essence of evil.
One of Reynald's first acts as ruler of Antioch was to punish Aimery the Patriarch of Antioch, who had spoken out against the union. Aimery at first refused Reynald's demands for a share of his huge fortune, so Reynald gaoled him. The old man was beaten about the head, and then his wounds were smeared with honey. He was set to endure the heat of a summer's day chained to the roof of the citadel. He paid up.7
There was much more to come, including murderous attacks on peaceful pilgrimage vessels in the Red Sea and the sacking of the kingdom of Cyprus. Reynald never did anything that ever served more than his own short term purposes, usually centred on the gratification of his greed and pride. His rationality was not improved when he was captured by the Saracens and spent time as their prisoner, conceiving an insane hatred of everything to do with Islam.
Reynald was a bomb waiting to go off beneath the already fragile walls of Frankish defence.
Within months of his release from prison, he had remarried, to the widow of Miles de Plancy, Stephanie, heiress of Oultrejourdain. They had a hatred of Raymond in common: Stephanie blamed him solely for her husband's death, while Reynald merely hated him as an enemy. They indulged a desire for vengeance they shared with other powerful people, including the Grand Master of the Templars.
Raymond had alienated this highly influential individual over a trifling matter of money.
According to the author of the Estoire d'Eracles, the Grand Master Gerard de Ridfort arrived in the east as a humble knight errant from Flanders in 1173. At first, he was a great friend of Raymond, who because of their familiarity granted to Gerard the first rich marriage to come within Raymond's provenance.
Shortly afterwards, William Dorel lord of Botrun died leaving as his heiress his daughter by his first wife.
Soon after that a rich merchant of Pisa named Plivano arrived at Tripoli and asked for the marriage.
The Count, unwisely as it turned out, agreed despite his promise to Gerard. The
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