A sad affair for Louis..the kingdom seems to be suffering through a great deal of sectarian strife, a war to remind everyone where there priorities are might be in order.
Eastern Ambition: An Antioch AAR
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Finally carved out the time to catch up on this tale, RossN. I'm not too much of a CK guy (this marks the second active CK AAR I read), but I am greatly enjoying it. The question of how Byzantium would have been affected by a powerful Christian Crusader state on its southern border is fascinating.
Vann
Vann
Louis II (" ~ the Brief"), King of Aleppo and Syria, and so on (1253-1255)
Part 7
Louis II was a child of ten when his father abdicated and as might be expected the kingdom was put under regency - in this case by none other than Marshal Henri de Poitou, the senior soldier in the kingdom. Prince Henri was the son of the late Raymond II; there were closer relatives but none at Court as distinguished.
Gilles of Aleppo was a great partisan of Henri (and probably worked directly for him) and his pained attempts to cover up his heroes flaws have greatly muddied the waters of history. Trying to get a true picture of the Regency has, sadly, driven more than one eminent historian to drink.
Prince Henri, Regent of Aleppo (1253-1263)
Euphrates' Rebellion
Guy, Duke of Euphrates was a de Poitou, and one who had quite as good claim to the throne (in his opinion) as Louis. He was also a bitter rival of regent and after smouldering for several months, moved into outright rebellion in March 1255.
Henri had access to the considerable reserves of the Royal demesne and was easily able to raise a larger force, but despite his superior numbers he chose not to offer pitched battle, but instead march directly on Guy's wealthy seat of Mosul. He believed (correctly) that Baalbek, with its massive fortifications, could hold out forever against Guy while he ran wild in the Dukes back yard.
The Death of Louis II
We now come to one of the most controversial aspects of Aleppon history: the death of Louis II on 23 May 1255. The young man was found in his bed - apparently the victim of poisoning
Anyone who has seen The Tragedy of Henry, Prince of Aleppo by Shakespeare* cannot fail to remember the scene where Henri orders his mistress (Louis's maid) to poison the wine of the young King. Certainly a great deal of suspicion must fall upon the Regent. Louis was growing older and more forceful and Henri was certainly ruthless; his near trial for black magic has cast a rather lurid light over his character. He stood to gain by the removal of Louis, in favour of his seven year old brother Yves, not least several more years in control.
On the other hand there has never been any direct evidence that Henri was guilty. He was hundreds of miles away - fighting to defend the King's patrimony as Gilles loyally reminds us. The King had any number of other enemies. A black cloud might follow him for the rest of his days, but despite the certainly of many of his contemporaries there were never any public accusations.
Henri finished off the war the following month, and in a remarkable act of clemency allowed Guy to go free, passing the Duchy on to his son Renaud. He then swiftly returned to pay fealty to his new King: Yves I, the third monarch Aleppo had seen in as many years.
The Azerbaijan War and later years
The much feared attack by the Azerbaijani Turks finally happened in May 1256. The war was particularly unfortunatly timed as Aleppo was at the time without allies, none having been gained since the death of Louis II.
Henri marched his army south, and after heavy battle took the isolated Turkish province of Safed. The main Turkish forces were coming from the north, picking off isolated Aleppon regiments. However before the main armies could face each other a rebellion flared in Azerbaijan. Rather than press his luck - for the two forces were equal in men and resources - Henri chose to accept a white peace with the splintered foe. He had taken Safed, afterall and to fight on risked losing - or worse the Dukes of Aleppo seizing land for themselves rather than the Crown.
The next few years were quiet ones in Aleppo, as the kingdom recovered under Henri's rule. The days of the regency were numbered however. In 1263 Yves finally came of age and assumed his full duties and responsibilities as king.
*Supposedly. Recent research suggests it may in fact be the work of William Henry Ireland.
EmprorCoopinius: Thank you. Gad you like it. 
Specialist290: Tell me about it. Aragon all over again...
Fulcrumvale: Heh, well safe to say no one would have become rich selling pork in 13th century Aleppo.
CrackdToothGrin: Glad you like it. I'm sure Gilles descendants worked at The Weekly World News.
J. Passepartout: Did't have much choice, unless I wanted a civil war.
JimboIX: Could be.
Vann the Red: It was eliminating the Turks of Rum that saved the Empire. There is a strong Turkish Emirate (Azerbaijan) but it is more interested in me than the Byzantines!
Specialist290: Tell me about it.
Aragon all over again... Fulcrumvale: Heh, well safe to say no one would have become rich selling pork in 13th century Aleppo.
CrackdToothGrin: Glad you like it. I'm sure Gilles descendants worked at The Weekly World News.
J. Passepartout: Did't have much choice, unless I wanted a civil war.
JimboIX: Could be.
Vann the Red: It was eliminating the Turks of Rum that saved the Empire. There is a strong Turkish Emirate (Azerbaijan) but it is more interested in me than the Byzantines!
I wonder if Henri might drop dead of an unfortunate winter fever some time in the near future?
SUPPOSEDLY by Shakespeare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????
I agree with Fulcrumvale, it seems likely we are going to see more than one King X the Brief.
I agree with Fulcrumvale, it seems likely we are going to see more than one King X the Brief.
Having just finished your Aragon AAR, I think that, in light of present circumstances, that analogy seems to be rather appropriate.
Also, I'm wondering if, even despite his official dismissal as Regent, Henri might still try to remain the "power behind the throne"--he certainly seems like the type who would be rather adept at manipulation...
Also, I'm wondering if, even despite his official dismissal as Regent, Henri might still try to remain the "power behind the throne"--he certainly seems like the type who would be rather adept at manipulation...
Yves I ("~ the Strong"), King* of Aleppo, Syria, Jerusalem** and so on (1255-1298)
** From 1268 on.
Part 8
Yves, the fifth king of Aleppo, was never meant to be king in the first place, and certainly not at the age of seven. Only the abdication of his father and murder of his brother had left him in a position to inherit. His earliest years on the throne, under Henri's regency have already been detailed.
An unhappy childhood under the stern administrations of his great-uncle and a distant mother had left him with a healthy paranoia. Unlike his brother Yves was never in danger of being (successfully) poisoned, but his attitude often made him a difficult liege and he never enjoyed the easy popularity of Roger or Raymond.
Queen Carlóta
In 1266 Yves married the headstrong Carlóta Trencavel, the beautiful and headstrong daughter of the Duke of Toulouse. In view of later events, Carlóta has sometimes been seen since as a malign power behind the throne, but there is no real evidence of this.
To Jerusalem
The Third Crusade of the 1190's and the Fourth Crusade of the 1220's had proved a great, if indirect, boon to the Kingdom of Aleppo. The utter collapse of the Abbyuid Sultanate had left the former Kingdom of Jerusalem clogged with petty Muslim and Christian statlets, most of them paying allegiance to either the Abbasid Caliphate (itself in deep decline) or the King of France.
In any case Aleppo had become quite strong enough to assert its dominance in the area. In Febuary 1264 Yves went to war with El-Arish, and by extension the Abbasids. The goals were twofold: control of rich seaports like Acre and Ascalon and even more importanly Jerusalem itself. The goal that had eluded previous kings was now in Yves grasp. A year after the start of the war the holiest city in Christendom was once again in Christian hands. A piece of the True Cross - that same piece that had been taken by Saladin at the Horns of Hattin and had traveled across the Muslim world since was placed with all due reverence in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
There is a strange story about the capture of Jerusalem. As the King and his armies lay camped close to the city Yves was visited at night by the abbot of a nearby Orthodox monastery. The Abbot (whose name history does not record) presented Yves with a ring and cloak that had once belonged to the Emperor Heraclius and had lain in the monastery for six hundred and thirty five years. He said that the All-holy Virgin herself had come to him in a dream requesting him to pass the relics to Yves, saying that if the King wore trhem Jerusalem would surely fall, as indeed it did.
This at any rate is the account of Gilles of Aleppo.
A Third Crown
The early mastermind of the war, Prince Henri had 'retired' in 1264; he became Count of Irbid. His eldest son was the Duke of Damascus, so Yves had decided against giving him a Duchy of his own - Irbid was a safe reward to get rid of Henri without either angering, nor greatly increasing the power of his family.
Thereafter Yves continued to make war on his own terms, and did it well.
By 1266 Yves was in a position to make his mother Duchess of Ascalon. The following year war with Anjou gained the old territory of Outrejordan for Yves (though not the ducal title itself, which Anjou stubbornly kept). Clearly Christian success was having an impact on the Muslim world: The citizens of Farama, Beiruit (both 1266) and Hebron (1267) converted to the Catholic faith. Significantly all had been fiefs of the old Kingdom of Jerusalem.
So the Kingdom itself: on 20 October 1268 Yves took the final step and was crowned King of Jerusalem by the Patriarch. Though blood claimants of the old royal line existed, the Pope had bowed to the reality and recognised the King of Aleppo. It was the greatest day of Yves' life, and he was still only twenty five years old.
The next decade was one of consolidation. The Hospitiliars and the Templars returned to Palestine; in Baalbek and Beershab respectively. Castles were built across the new territory, new duchies created, though much of Palestine remained directly in the royal demense. Even as the kingdom prospered Yves was eyeing the two remaining coastal cities not in his control: Tyre, ruled by the Aragonese and Jaffa, ruled by Flanders. In May 1275 Yves yielded to temptation and went to war with Aragon. Though no one suspected it at the time the war would last nearly a decade.
At the beginning of 1279 Yves and Aleppo were more powerful than they ever been and the future seemed assured. Already however the first storm clouds could be seen on the horizon...
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JimboIX: Two very brief kings in a row!
Fulcrumvale: Heh. Actually, in an instance of uncharacteristic longevity Henri lives into his late seventies and dies in 1288.
J. Passepartout: Probably, though Yves is a pleasant(ish) exception.
EmprorCoopinius: Yeah... but keep reading.
Specialist290: Hmm, well Yves is pretty savvy. Henri got 'kicked upstairs' early on.
Fulcrumvale: Heh.
Actually, in an instance of uncharacteristic longevity Henri lives into his late seventies and dies in 1288.J. Passepartout: Probably, though Yves is a pleasant(ish) exception.
EmprorCoopinius: Yeah... but keep reading.
Specialist290: Hmm, well Yves is pretty savvy. Henri got 'kicked upstairs' early on.
Interesting times in the Levant and told in a very entertaining manner. Jerusalem falls and then rises again minus the poor de Lusignan. This time however it looks as though the Kingdom has no great Muslim foe to confront it.
Well he's already done quite better than his next of kin, however unfortunate his later years appear to possibly be. Good luck weathering the storm.
My oh my, I wonder what this could be? Nepotism? Heresy? Induced insanity? Regicide?
I'm w/ Fulcrumvale on that question. I'm also wondering if there's an indirect connection between her and some of the events in the upcoming storm... Actually, I have this vague suspicion that the next few years might just be a "Time of Troubles" for the Kingdom of Aleppo in general.
Yves in old age
"The great problem of the Kingdom of Aleppo...[was that] it had no tradition, no real history. It had been constructed from the top on down. In the reign of Yves I it was just eighty years old. The nobles did not consider themselves 'Aleppons' as their counterparts in Blois or Warwick might think of themselves as being French or English. They were very largely Frankish, but neither that, nor their common faith owed much to the crown of Aleppo itself. Blood ties seemed to actively make the matter worse as many a noble felt entitled to a crown... In ruthless self interest, disloyalty and the making of mischief the brave knights of Aleppo could give lessons to the Venetians."
~The Oriental Franks, Peter Rochefort (New York, 1987)
1279 was to be the Annus horribilis of Yves’s reign. Early in the year Léon, the Marshal of Aleppo died and Sa'ud, the Patriarch of Antioch and the senior ecclesiastic in the kingdom retired. Their replacements would soon prove to be of inferior quality. The conversion of the city of Tyre to the faith was one small bright spot in the gloom.
In May a minor ecclesiastic in Aleppo proper had accused a maidservant to the Queen of being a witch. In the manner of such things fingers were soon pointed at Carlóta herself. For the second time in a generation a member of the Aleppon court had been 'revealed' as a practioneer of black magic. This time however the stakes were vastly more serious.
Naturally Carlóta vigorously protested. She was, she claimed, suspected for nothing more than her foreign birth and language difficulties (the Queen spoke Occitan and her inability - or indifference to - master the French of the Aleppon court had proved unpopular). Undoubtedly there was some snobbish resentment, but it possible to read too much into this. Previous queens had been English and Polish and Raymond's first (Greek) wife had never managed to learn a word of French over a decade in Outremer. Carlóta may, or may not, have been guilty of something but there was more to her downfall than simple prejudice.
Given her birthplace some historians believe Carlóta was secretly a Cathar, and it was this that had provoked the calls of black magic. Certainly at the time the term 'Cathar' was studiously avoided, possibly because of the memory of the claims against old Henri (still very much alive in 1279 and careful to keep his head low over in Irbid). Regardless, Yves used the same reasoning that had worked for his great grandfather Roger: the defendant was not guilty of black magic for the simple reason that black magic as commonly thought, did not exist.
This time it didn't work. The Church took a stand and not only excommunicated Carlóta, but Yves himself. The Kingdom of Aleppo, the bastion of Oriental Christendom and home to the holy cities of Jerusalem, Antioch and Damascus was under interdict. The irony did not go unnoticed, as Daud ibn Bakkar, a Muslim scholar of Acre noted on a journey to Jerusalem:
Fears were expressed that Prince Hamelin, the youthful heir to the throne was open to the corruption of his parents. Fortunately the threat was gone before the end of 1279; disease and bad luck had left Hamelin heir to the Duchy of Toulouse and in the September of that year he was shipped back to Europe to take his ducal seat, at the age of eight.
Meanwhile the Kingdom of Aleppo stumbled on. There was another revolt by Euphrates in 1281 and one by Tabriz in 1282. In both cases the rebels had claimed to be acting in the highest of motives: to liberate Aleppo from the tyranny of Yves and Carlóta and their sorcerous ways. Both were crushed but the kingdom had been greatly assailed.
Yves might have felt a foreign war would unify the nobles. Peace had been reached in Aragon in 1282 but Flanders still controlled Jaffa, a situation Yves could not allow to continue. The war, which lasted between 1285 and 1287, did indeed win Jaffa for Aleppo. Whether it united the nobles on the other hand... much can be drawn from the fact that Yves, unable to trust his vassals in the field, used only soldiers from his personal fiefs.
Carlóta died in 1288, but it brought the kingdom no relief. Deeply depressed Yves married again, to a Castilian noblewoman named Jimena. As might be expected the union proved an unhappy one and after her adultery was conclusively proven in 1295 the King had her beheaded.
The year of the marriage might almost have been interpreted as an omen. Henri, former Marshal and Regent finally died of old age. Born 1210 to (the then) Prince Raymond II of Antioch he had lived the entire life of the Kingdom of Aleppo. To some observers his death might be seen as symbolic; the death of Aleppo, even of hope itself. Notably his sons in the Duchy of Damascus took it as sign to rise in rebellion. Ruthlessly crushed, the proudest duchy in the East and the city of St. Paul was handed over to Humbert, the adolescent bastard son of the King - a sign of the times if ever there was one.
The last few years brought some slight relief. Yves married Theodora, the gentle daughter of the Greek Emperor. It is to be hoped it brought some comfort to the King, for he was clearly dying. Worn out by disappointment and grief, prematurely aged in body and soul he died 6 March 1298.
When word was received that the liberator of Jerusalem had died there were scenes of wild celebration in the streets.
The Kingdom of Aleppo 1298
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ComradeOm: Well the Turks and Persians are still strong, but indeed there is no obvious archenemy to fight (and stop the kingdom flying to pieces). And I do feel a little sorry for the de Lusignans, wherever they are now.
JimboIX: True. And he did stick around for 43 years.
EmprorCoopinius: Thank you.
Fulcrumvale: If only!
Specialist290: I'm relieved its over that's all!
J. Passepartout: Heh, ok.
JimboIX: True. And he did stick around for 43 years.
EmprorCoopinius: Thank you.
Fulcrumvale: If only!
Specialist290: I'm relieved its over that's all!
J. Passepartout: Heh, ok.