Fulk V of Anjou

in the crusade of 1129.

Why is it important? Baldwin II undertakes this campaign in part to sort of smooth over the transition to Fulk of Anjou, who marries Melisande, his daughter, I believe, and becomes king of Jerusalem by marriage, beginning a long and not necessarily great tradition of people trying to marry into the Jerusalem crown.

So that's part of it.

And also, just because this crusade focused on Damascus, and I think that's going to be a recurring theme when the crusaders somewhat inexplicably decide to end the Second Crusade by going after Damascus, even though Damascus and Jerusalem were not on terrible terms At that point, there is still this idea that Damascus is important and we should try to take it to secure our position here.

And Henry wasn't giving it back.

So Fulk obviously comes back and is upset with Henry.

Yeah.

So he's ready to turn against him again.

Remember Count Elias of Maine, who paid homage to Henry and kept Maine more or less as a buffer between Normandy and Anjou? He passed away the year earlier.

And Count Fulk V of Anjou pounced before Henry had time to react.

Now, Folk V was also nicknamed Folk the Ill-Tempered to give you an idea as to what Henry was up against.

The chronicles tell us little, but we know that with Henry came utter devastation around Maine and into Anjou.

What's more is that, as historian Charles Spencer writes in his book The White Ship, it, quote, sparked a rebellion and a war that lasted from 1111 until 1113.

Similarly, the war stemmed from foreign opportunism with France, Flanders, and Anjou forming an international conspiracy to diminish Henry and break his and his heir's hold on the southern side of the Channel, end quote.

So essentially, a failed attempt on William Clito resulted in a war between Henry and King Louis VI of France, Count Robert II of Flanders, yes, the same one who rode so many times with Curthose in the First Crusade, and Count Fulk V of Anjou.

But there was also a smattering of Norman rebels in there too, including... you probably guessed it, the dreaded Robert of Belem, who saw an opportunity to strike back at his old nemesis.

The second generation of Franks was now coming of age, men and women born in the East who had never seen the ancestral lands of France or Germany their parents had left behind.

Under capable rulers like King Baldwin II and his successor, King Fulk of Anjou, the Kingdom of Jerusalem consolidated its power, building a network of magnificent castles and securing its borders.

The Italian city-states of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa established lucrative trading posts in the coastal cities, bringing a new level of wealth and prosperity to the kingdom.

Life settled into a strange but stable routine, a unique frontier culture where a French-speaking nobility ruled over a diverse populace, all living under the constant humming tension of a perpetual holy war.

In the years just before Edessa fell, that crown had passed through difficult hands.

King Fulk, an able and experienced ruler who had come from the West to marry into the royal line, had died in a hunting accident in eleven forty-three, thrown from his horse while chasing a hare.

He left behind his widow, Queen Melisende, a strong-willed and capable woman of the royal house, and their young son, Baldwin III, who was still a boy.

Power in Jerusalem therefore rested with the queen and her council, while the boy king grew toward the age when he would want to rule in his own right, a tension that would matter a great deal later on.