A History of the Crusades-Vol 2 (48 page)

1166-7: The
Adventures of Andronicus Comnenus

Some of the Frankish lords thought that a
better bargain could have been made. But Amalric was unwilling to risk his
forces further in Egypt without safeguarding Frankish Syria against Nur ed-Din’s
attacks. While he was still in Egypt Nur ed-Din had led a raid into the
territory of Tripoli but without capturing any important fortresses. It was
necessary to reorganize the defence of the country. The chief problem was
always man-power. The resident families were reduced by death or by capture.
Visiting Crusaders like Thierry of Flanders could only be used for specific
campaigns. Amalric therefore mainly depended on the Military Orders, to whom in
1167 and the succeeding years a large number of fortresses with the surrounding
lands were handed over. The gifts were particularly important in Tripoli, whose
Count was still a captive and where there were few great noble families.
Tortosa and almost the whole of the north of the county passed to the control
of the Templars, while the Hospitallers, who probably already held Krak, known
after them as ‘des Chevaliers’, were given charge of the Buqaia. In the kingdom
the Templars, already installed at Gaza in the south, were given Safed in the
north, while the Hospitallers acquired Belvoir, which commanded the fords of
the Jordan to the south of the Sea of Galilee. In Antioch Bohemond III followed
Amalric’s example. The Templars’ holdings round Baghras, on the Syrian Gates,
were increased, and the Hospitallers were allotted a huge wad of territory at
the south of the principality, most of which was actually in Moslem hands. Had
the Orders been less irresponsible and jealous, their power might well have
preserved the kingdom’s defences.

While the Orders were to lead the defence of
the realm, Amalric also sought a closer alliance with Byzantium. In August
1167, when he had just come back from Egypt, news reached him that his
ambassadors to Constantinople, the Archbishop of Caesarea and the Butler Odo,
had landed at Tyre with the Emperor’s lovely young grand-niece, Maria Comnena.
He hastened to meet her; and their marriage was celebrated pompously in the
Cathedral of Tyre by the Patriarch Amalric on 29 August. The Queen was given
Nablus and its territory as her dower. With her were two high officials of her
uncle’s Court, his cousins George Palaeologus and Manuel Comnenus, who were
empowered to discuss with Amalric the question of an alliance.

Good relations between the Frankish princes and
the Emperor had recently been endangered by the irresponsibility of another of
Manuel’s cousins, Andronicus Comnenus. This prince, the most brilliant and
handsome of his family, had already been in disgrace for seducing one of his
relatives, the Emperor’s niece Eudocia, of whom gossip said that the Emperor
himself was too fond. He had moreover proved himself an unwise governor of
Cilicia in 1152. But in 1166 he was appointed again to this post. His
predecessor, Alexius Axuch, who had been sent out when Coloman was captured,
had failed to carry out the Emperor’s orders to reconcile the Armenians; and it
was hoped that Andronicus’s personal charm, together with extensive subsidies,
would be more successful with Thoros. But Andronicus, though already aged
forty-six, was more interested in adventure than administration. He soon had
occasion to visit Antioch. There he was struck by the beauty of the young
Princess Philippa, Bohemond’s sister. Forgetful of his governmental duties he
stayed on in Antioch wooing Philippa in a series of romantic serenades till she
was dazzled and could refuse him nothing. Bohemond was furious and complained
to his brother-in-law Manuel; who angrily recalled Andronicus and reinstalled
Constantine Coloman in his place. Coloman was also ordered to proceed to
Antioch and to try to capture Philippa’s affection. But the Princess thought
him plain and short and middle-aged in comparison with her splendid lover.
Andronicus, however, whose motive had largely been to annoy the Empress whom he
detested, found it prudent to abandon Antioch and his mistress. Taking with him
a large share of the imperial revenues from Cilicia and Cyprus, he rode
southward and offered his services to King Amalric. The deserted princess was
married off hastily to an elderly widower, the Constable Humphrey II of Toron.

1168: Alliance
with Byzantium

Amalric, charmed by Andronicus and impressed by
his personal bravery, gave him the fief of Beirut which was then vacant. Soon
afterwards Andronicus went to Acre, the dower of his cousin, the widowed Queen
Theodora. She was now twenty-one and at the height of her beauty. It was a case
of love on both sides. They were too closely related ever to marry; but the
Queen shamelessly came to Beirut and lived there as his mistress. When Manuel
heard of this new liaison, probably from the ambassadors that had escorted
Queen Maria to Palestine, his rage was unbounded. His next ambassadors to
Palestine secretly demanded the extradition of the culprit. Their instructions
fell into Theodora’s hands. As Amalric was known to be seeking Manuel’s
good-will, Andronicus thought it wise to depart. He gave out that he was
returning home; and Theodora came once again from Acre to bid him good-bye. As
soon as they were together they abandoned all their possessions and fled
unattended over the frontier to Damascus. Nur ed-Din received them kindly; and
they spent the next years wandering round the Moslem East, even visiting
Baghdad, till at last a Moslem emir gave them a castle near the Paphlagonian border
of the Empire, where Andronicus, excommunicated by the Church, settled down
happily to the life of a brigand. Amalric was not sorry to see them go; for it
enabled him to take back his sister-in-law’s rich dower of Acre.

Amalric had apparently sent back to Manuel with
George Palaeologus a proposition for the conquest of Egypt. Manuel’s next
embassy, led by two Italians, Alexander of Conversano, Count of Gravina, and
Michael of Otranto, brought back his conditions, which were, it seems, a share
in the spoils of Egypt and a completely free hand in Antioch, and perhaps the
cession of other Frankish territory. The terms were high; and Amalric therefore
sent the Archdeacon of Tyre, William, the future historian, to Constantinople,
to resume discussions. When William arrived there he learnt that the Emperor
was campaigning in Serbia. He followed him and met him at Monastir. Manuel
received him with his usual lavish generosity and brought him back to his
capital; where a treaty was made, by which the Emperor and the King would
divide their conquests in Egypt. William returned to Palestine late in the
autumn of 1168.

Unfortunately, the barons of the kingdom would
not wait for his return. News from Egypt emphasized the insecurity of Shawar’s
rule there. He was known to resent the Frankish garrison at Cairo, and he was
late in paying his tribute. There were rumours, too, that his son Kamil was
negotiating with Shirkuh and had asked for the hand of Saladin’s sister. The
arrival in Palestine in the late summer of Count William IV of Nevers with a fine
company of knights encouraged those that wanted immediate action. The King
summoned a council to Jerusalem. There the Grand Master of the Hospital,
Gilbert of Assailly, urged vehemently that there should be no more delay; and
the majority of the lay baronage agreed with him. The Count of Nevers and his
men, who had come to fight for the Cross, added their support. The Templars
flatly opposed any expedition and announced that they would not take part.
Their opposition may have been due to jealousy of the Hospital, which had
already decided to take Pelusium as its portion, as a counter to the Templar
fortress of Gaza. But the Temple was also financially connected with the
Moslems and with the Italian merchants, whose trade was now greater with Egypt
than with Christian Syria. King Amalric agreed that some action would soon be
needed, in view of Shawar’s weakness and unreliability; but he wished to wait
till the Emperor’s help was available. He was overruled. Against the vigorous
determination of the Hospitallers and his own vassals, who saw no reason why
the Greeks should share in the spoils, he gave way. An expedition was planned
for October.

1168: Amalric
advances on Cairo

William of Tyre came back with his treaty from
Constantinople to find the King already gone. Amalric had given out that he was
to attack Homs, so as to deter Nur ed-Din from action; and indeed Nur ed-Din,
who had troubles of his own in north-east Syria, was anxious to avoid a war
with the Franks. Shawar also did not realize what was on foot till the Frankish
army marched out from Ascalon on 20 October, to arrive ten days later before
Bilbeis. He was horrified. He never expected Amalric so wantonly to break his
treaty with him. His first ambassador, an emir named Bedran, met the King at
Daron, on the frontier, but was bought over by him. The next ambassador, Shams
al-Khilafa, found the King in the desert a few days out from Bilbeis. He
reproached Amalric bitterly for his perfidy; to which the King replied that he
was justified by the negotiations that Shawar’s son Kamil was conducting with
Shirkuh; and anyhow, he said, the Crusaders newly come from the West had
determined to attack Egypt and he was there to restrain them. He might, he
added, retire if he were paid another two millions of dinars. But Shawar now
suspected the King’s good faith. To Amalric’s surprise he decided on
resistance. His son Taiy, who commanded the garrison at Bilbeis, refused to
open his gates to the Franks. But his forces were small. After three days of
desperate fighting, of which Amalric had not thought the Egyptians capable, the
Frankish army entered the fortress on 4 November. There followed an appalling
massacre of the inhabitants. The protagonists were probably the men from
Nevers, ardent and lawless like most newcomers from the West. Their Count had
died of fever in Palestine before the expedition started; and there was no one
that could control them. Amalric tried to restore order; and when at last he
succeeded he himself bought back from the soldiers the survivors that they had
taken captive. But the harm was done. Many of the Egyptians who disliked Shawar
had been ready to welcome the Franks as deliverers; and the Coptic communities,
particularly numerous in the Delta cities, had hitherto worked with their
fellow-Christians. But Copts as well as Moslems had perished in the slaughter.
The whole Egyptian people was united in hatred of the Franks. A few days later
a small Frankish fleet, manned mainly by westerners, which was to sail up the
Tanitic mouth of the Nile, arrived in Lake Manzaleh and fell suddenly on the
town of Tanis. The same scenes of horror followed; and it was the Copts above
all that suffered.

Amalric delayed a few days at Bilbeis, no doubt
to re-establish control over his army. He missed the chance of taking Cairo by
surprise, and only appeared before the walls of Fostat, the old suburb at the
south of the great city, on 13 November. Shawar, doubting his ability to hold
Fostat, set fire to it, and sent his ambassador Shams once again to the King to
say that sooner than let Cairo itself fall into Frankish hands he would bum it
too to the ground with all its wealth. Amalric, whose fleet was held up in the
Delta by barriers placed across the river-bed, saw that the expedition had gone
wrong. On the advice of his Seneschal, Miles of Plancy, he let Shawar know that
he could be bought off. Shawar played for time; he began to haggle over the sum
that he could afford. He paid 100,000 dinars down to ransom his son Taiy and
talked of further payments. Meanwhile the Frankish army moved a few miles
northwards and encamped at Mataria, by the sycamore beneath whose shade the
Virgin had halted on the Flight into Egypt. They waited eight days there, when
suddenly the news came that Shirkuh was marching into Egypt on the invitation
of the Fatimid Caliph.

Shawar had not wished to take so desperate a
step; but his son Kamil overruled him and forced his titular sovereign al-Adid
to write to Aleppo, offering Nur ed-Din a third of the land of Egypt and fiefs
for his generals. The young Caliph must have seen the danger of calling on a
protector in whose eyes he was a heretic and a pretender. But he was powerless.
When the invitation reached him, Nur ed-Din sent to Homs where Shirkuh was
residing; but his messenger found Shirkuh already at the gates of Aleppo. This
time Nur ed-Din did not hesitate. He gave Shirkuh eight thousand horsemen and a
war-chest of 200,000 dinars to use with the army of Damascus for the conquest
of Egypt, and he ordered Saladin to accompany him. Shawar, uncertain still
where his interests lay, warned Amalric, who moved with his army towards the
Isthmus, hoping to fall on Shirkuh as he emerged from the desert. But Shirkuh
slipped past him to the south. There was no alternative now for the Franks but
evacuation. Ordering his fleet to return to Acre and summoning the garrison
left in Bilbeis to join him, Amalric began his retreat on 2 January 1169.

1169: Shirkuh
wins Egypt for Nur ed-Din

Six days later Shirkuh entered Cairo. Leaving
his army encamped at the Gate of el-Luq, he went to the Palace, where the
Caliph gave him ceremonial gifts and promised money and food for his troops.
Shawar greeted him cordially. For the next days he visited him daily to discuss
financial arrangements and a partition of the vizierate. Shirkuh received these
overtures graciously; but his nephew Saladin, who was his chief adviser,
insisted on further action. The Caliph was persuaded to come in disguise to
Shirkuh’s headquarters. Then, on 18 January, Shawar was invited to join Shirkuh
on a little pilgrimage to the tomb of the holy as-Shafii. As he set out,
Saladin and his emirs fell on him. His escort was disarmed and he himself taken
prisoner. In less than an hour an order from the Caliph for his decapitation
had been produced and his head was lying at the Caliph’s feet. Then, to avoid
any attempt against himself, Shirkuh announced that anyone who wished could
pillage the late vizier’s house. As the mob rushed there, he and the Caliph
moved to the palace and quietly took over the government. Shawar’s rule had
been too unpopular and Shirkuh’s regard for legitimacy too scrupulous for any
of the provincial governors to oppose the new regime. Within a few weeks
Shirkuh was master of all Egypt. His emirs took over the fiefs that had
belonged to Shawar and his family; and he himself had the title of vizier and
king.