The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (review)

"The reason for the loss of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was the seizure of this caravan," wrote the continuator of William of Tyre with reference to Prince Reynald of Châtillon's attack on a caravan traversing his territory en route from Cairo to Damascus in the winter of 1186-87 (the Eracles, c. 22). This aggression broke the treaty he had made with Saladin some months earlier and led in a quick succession of events to Saladin's decisive victory over the Franks at Hattin on July 4, 1187. Professor Hamilton has spent nearly two decades researching the background for this long and involved story, and the result is a highly authoritative historical account and reinterpretation of the reign of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (1174-1185). His conclusions are that Baldwin played a central role in holding his kingdom together to the very end of his reign despite having come to the throne as a minor, and having been afflicted since boyhood with increasingly severe symptoms of the leprosy (evaluated in an appendix by Piers Mitchell) that killed him in his twenty-fourth year. Because of his illness and compromising family affairs (the annulment of the marriage of his mother, Agnes of Courtenay, to his father and predecessor, King Amalric of Jerusalem; and the appropriateness and leadership potential of the suitors of Sibyl, his younger sister and immediate heir), the question of his succession was constantly in the air. The author does an admirable job of identifying all those who were considered, approved, or rejected as candidates for the role of future king, and also those who became deeply involved in political intrigue, not to mention treason in the case of Raymond of Tripoli, in their struggle for power and the crown. Baldwin IV wished to retire and attempted on several occasions to secure a competent regent, but without enduring success, and in the end he died in office letting the kingship devolve on his five-year-old nephew, Baldwin V, who followed him to the grave a year later. Leadership was in default, and in view of the broad array of political influences and personal intrigues that compromised the stability of the realm in the decades leading up to Hattin, the author has made an excellent case for interpreting the evidence in Baldwin IV's favor. That evidence is, of course, the sources, both western and eastern, and in particular William of Tyre's Chronicle and that attributed to Ernoul. Hamilton makes it quite clear that William "was not an impartial observer of events at court" (p. 168) and that Ernoul was out "to place the blame for the loss of the kingdom on the people who were in power in 1187" (p. 9). Both were highly critical of Agnes, whom Ernoul accused of taking such influential figures as Aimery of Lusignan and Heraclius as her lovers, and whom William hated because she prevented him from becoming patriarch. It is an understanding of the relationships between people and the consequences thereof which the author has so ably conveyed in this volume. Although the book was published a year before September 11, 2001, there is something eerily familiar about the way in which the ranks of the opposition were infiltrated. Speaking of the Assassins, he writes, "They entered the service of Islamic princes and were often required to remain there for years, attaining positions of trust, before they were activated by their religious superiors to strike down their employers" (p. 71). Contemporary politicians might find room for this meticulous and thought-provoking study in their bookshelves.