Knight-Sentinel of Outremer
Conspiracies were beginning to sprout like weeds from among the vassals of the Twin Kingdoms, most especially among those lords who had inherited estates in the west of Europe. Perhaps it was that very distance that led them to it; no sooner were they out of sight of the towers of Jerusalem than they forgot where their loyalties laid. I wasn't my father, to hold them all through personal magnetism and force of arms - I would hold them through cleverness and the power of my mind, or not at all. Speaking of which, I had begun to notice a pattern. Intuitively I felt that in the aftermath of a major war there should be a time of peace and reconstruction, and yet no sooner did our armies return home than Lord Mayor Ogier would join me in my council chamber with a new sheaf of reports on those who were plotting to break our Kingdom. I spoke with Chancelior Anthinos and he assured me that we had naught to worry about from our neighbours - Qinnasrin, Rum and the Seljuq were all warring with my mother's relatives in Sicily and Antioch. The Christians seemed to have matters well in hand and felt they had no need for our assistance, which freed us to look to our own concerns.
Word came that the Boy Caliph had died an old and broken man in the court of Sanaa. Stripped of his religious authority, his courtly ways and authoritative mannerisms were treated as objects of amusement and entertainment for all; save perhaps for the new Caliph who tolerated him as a useful tool. Without followers or support, his decadence could be not only tolerated but encouraged and so in time a son was born who would inherit his father's claims. Ilyas ibn al-Amir was the last of the Fatimid dynasty, an angry, greedy, envious man with no natural talent at securing the loyalty of supporters but a willingness to do
anything to secure what he considered 'his', no matter how underhanded. To augment his raw ambition he had a vast chest of gold secured from his father's and grandfather's years ruling over Egypt, set aside for a moment of greatest opportunity. I asked Ogier to keep an eye on him. Not because I felt overly threatened, but if I had learnt one thing since taking the throne it was to burn out my enemies root and branch before they could come to endanger the Kingdoms in my charge. Did that make me paranoid, or merely wary? Only history could be my judge, but I laid the foundations for a small change in inheritance law and waited for my vassals to come around in support of it.
Ilyas ibn al-Amir, last of the Fatimids
Over the years of the great Mohommetan invasion of Egypt I had been under immense strain in holding the Kingdom together and in ensuring that my son's armies were kept supplied and well equipped across the broad fronts of the war. On more than one occasion I had sought solace with my lover in the privacy of the Tour de Cecile; yet the increased financial pressures also meant that my husband spent more time in Jerusalem as the Royal Seneschal than his duties as Comte de Ghutah required. He never actually accused me of anything, but he began to approach Onfroy with increasing suspicion and hostility. Day after day he would hound him and demand that he account for his daily activities until at last Onfroy became so incredibly stressed that his health failed. Despite all the aid the finest Christian physicians could give him, he only seemed to weaken day by day until at last he died. Mindful of the public's eyes on me I dared not show more than incidental sadness, though for weeks after I wept inside.
As such I was in no mood to hear the Iskandariyan emissary out when he came to my court. He brought news of the ascension of a new Doge to rule over the Republic. I extended my courtesies to Doge Ladron courteously yet cautiously, somehow suspecting that there was more to his visit than simple ceremony. Sure enough he soon asked if I would recognize his master's legitimate claim to Sullum. I had considered the matter in earlier years with earlier Doges - it seemed to be a regular concern of theirs - yet as before I was very aware of the Misrian ambitions held by each and every Doge. Another de Boulogne who felt more secure in the loyalties of her vassals might be willing to grant the Navarrese what he sought, but for now I simply put him off with vague promises indicating I would transfer my vassal's allegiance to Iskandariya as he asked, once the security of the Realm was ensured. Satisfied with this, he left me be and carried my words back to his master.
Meet the new Doge, same as the old Doge
Iskandariya was restless and there was a growing faction that sought independence. The four lords that already subscribed to this plot were not inconsiderable in might, yet this was augmented by their geography; in greatest part their power bases were distant enough from Jerusalem that it would pose some difficulty in getting the manpower to suppress them if they rose. So long as they were permitted to continue plotting against us, they would win new lords to their banner until the conspiracy became more difficult to quell short of open violence. I was resolved that this should not come to pass - and there was one thing that had been proven to unite the Kingdoms behind the crown in the past, regardless of my own personal tastes. After lengthy discussion (and some open arguments) with my son, Prince Andre reluctantly gave his approval to my plans. We needed a short victorious war against the infidel, and he would lead an expedition to chastise the Banu-Suleim Emirate for their duplicity and secure Tobruk as a de jure part of the Kingdom of Egypt.
Prince Andre sent the Royal Household west to deliver our declaration of war to the Emir while massed just across the border. For the first time the Kingdoms fought a war that had little to do with the enemy we fought save that it gave us a pretext, and so it was important that we not strain our vassal relations further by calling up already-taxed levies. Despite the fact that the Emirate could swiftly levy more men than rode in the Royal Household, our men were better trained, better armed and rode in among the levies before they could prepare themselves or unite. The Royal Household defeated their infidel enemies comprehensively and in detail, forcing the Emir to yield title to his most valuable port city by 20 November 1152, or so Andre reported. Yet I had successes of my own to report. With the sudden upsurge in support for the crown, the conspirators put their independence ploy into abeyance once more - furthermore our friends among the lesser families in Iskandariya provided Ogier with all the proof he needed of the Doge's corruption for us to hold him to task.
The Doge, finding himself without a choice, paid the price for his crimes and reaffirmed his loyalty to the crown with a pledge of political support. This proved sufficient to give the Crown the votes I required to pass the law of primogeniture succession in Egypt. While the Kingdom of Jerusalem would be divided evenly among my male children - with the crown going to my eldest, Andre - all royal holdings in Egypt would now go to my eldest - which is also to say Andre. It may have been my father's vision to see the Twin Kingdoms independent and allied, but that dream died with my brothers. If the de Boulogne family were to survive in an increasingly hostile world we needed a single Crown as powerful as we could make it; for the last Fatimid was gaining in power, and had become Sheikh of Sanaa and the Shia Caliph of Aden's State Inquisitor. With him whispering poison into the Caliph's ear, could it be too long before he would take some manner of action against us?
Depraved? Still?
Within weeks it seemed we had another Jihad to deal with. While Andre acquainted himself with the military situation, I met with Chancelier Anthinos who reminded me that the Shia were much reduced as a result of my father's campaigns. While the Sunni war was a grave enough threat that we and all our allies were struggling to repel a series of attacks on three (and ultimately four) fronts, the only surviving Shia state in the known world was Aden. Far from a grave crisis that would threaten to change the face of Outremer, this war was actually remarkably... convenient. It would not do to have it finish too early, although obviously that was not a thought I could share with Andre. It was his soldiers who would do the fighting and dying, so I simply indicated I felt no need to test our alliances again so soon and directed that the levies of Egypt and Jerusalem should be mustered in defense of the separate Kingdoms. Meanwhile the Orders Militant and the Royal Household were to become our arm of attack, under Andre's direction to bring battle to Aden itself. My father was renowned and loved for his wars against the infidel; might I not secure some of his popularity if I acted in kind?
Around that time Anthinos brought me word that through his research he had uncovered documents supporting my ancestral claim on Antioch by right of blood over that of the present Duke. I was a bit uncertain as to why my blood claim would be viewed as being more valid than my cousin's, but he informed me there were grounds to question his legitimacy. Was this an opportunity I wanted to pursue? I considered the benefits of what he suggested at length; it would mean uniting more of Outremer beneath the Crown, both strengthening my family and the Christian grip on the Levant. On the other hand it would risk alienating certain other Christian states that otherwise would be more likely to aid us in time of need. I cannot say for sure what I would have decided, for when he heard of the discussion Andre sent word casting doubt upon my chancellor's motives for suggesting this. While it grieved him to cast doubts upon the man who had been his tutor for much of his childhood, he feared that I might be unaware that Anthinos nursed his own ambitions in that direction and hoped to persuade me to name him vassal lord of Antioch. Further there was some indication that he was taking gold from some unknown person in the east in the hopes of weakening our position. As there was no iron-clad proof of his treachery I said nothing of this to Anthinos, but merely decided to leave Antioch be for the time being. He seemed disappointed, but after some discussion agreed to honour my directions and even to step down as Chancelier at my insistence. Ogier had died in the fighting as well, so I appointed a local convert named Hashmaddin to the role.
My son warns me of his half-brother's treachery
The Shia invasion of Egypt was defeated at length by the Misrian levies after a hard day's fighting in coastal Quzlum, while the Orders and Royal Household conducted themselves admirably in a swift and decisive conquest of western Aden. Andre brought back word of our victory and I smiled to see the happiness on his face; yet I was too sick to attend the victory feast and left him to stand in my stead. I was finding it harder to sleep at nights and was exhausted when Hashmaddin came to me with the news that the Duc of Lorraine was already reforming his conspiracies against us. I sent my new Spymaster Hashmaddin to reason with him and to try to get him to see my better side - but before he could even reach the coast I had recalled him and sent him off to the north east. It seemed a young man called Inal Alpoghu had decided that he was the only true heir to the old Province of Paletine from Roman days and was amassing an army within a Sunni court using nothing but his personal charm and promises of the rewards to come - though with the tacit support of the Seljuq given he had been allowed to wed one of his youngest sisters.
While my agents were still struggling without much success to organize the death of Count Raymond of Tripoli, this was far too dangerous a threat to be allowed to grow. I signed off on Hashmaddin's expenses and he hired a band of local daggermen to creep into the castle and kill him in his sleep. In the meantime I had to find a new war to secure the loyalty of the Kingdoms without appreciably draining our manpower or finances and I found it in An-Nekhel in the Sinai. Back in the Misrian Crusade my father had been surprised by the sudden appearance of a large army of Saqaliba fanatics behind his flank, and while they had not been causing noticeable strife since then the fact remained that there was a citadel of religious fanatics within our borders who had sworn our deaths. I sent the Household south to take them under siege and settled in for a nice long war; after all they couldn't possibly hold out for too long, could they? Our finances were becoming increasingly straitened and I liked the idea of fighting a war on the cheap whatever Andre's thoughts on the matter - though he was reassured that I had no intention of ordering an assault. I hadn't the money to risk needing to rebuild the Household; a second chest of gold had gone to Hashmaddin to hire a new crop of assassins after the first had been slain within the castle walls. The second fared no better, while the Tour de David was requiring increasingly expensive repairs to allow it to survive as the centre of the realm's governance. To make matters worse a new disease swept over the land, brought by traders from Italy; smallpox.
Things fall apart
The siege of the Saqaliba was under Andre's direction although he said he felt no need to oversee it in person. Poor lad, I knew he still had dreams in the night of the Ortokid blade that had narrowly missed taking his eye although he'd sooner die than admit it to me. He told me that the Saqaliba would be forced to surrender within months when their will broke. Then he told me they would surrender at the end of the year, or starve. When they still held out at the height of summer the next year, he was humiliated and requested my approval for an assault on the citadel. How did they keep holding out? I refused, for now, but I had new concerns with the Duc of Lorraine. Since his ambitions against me had been quelled - for now - he sought new avenues to power and murdered his wife to free the way for a new political match. This was not something I would tolerate. My patience with the Duc's endless conspiracies was up. I offered my daughter Alix in matrilineal betrothal to his heir, Guntrum.
When I received his agreement, I finally put an end to our work in Tripoli. My agents had new work to do in Lorraine to put an end to the old Duke's plotting once and for all - and not so coincidentally, secure my younger daughter's future within the Kingdoms. Raymond's guards were simply too good for my agents, and I didn't want to keep building hostility in the Levant. It would fall to a future generation of de Boulognes to return Tripoli to the Kingdom of Jerusalem; I had more important affairs ahead of me. In the end when the war against the Saqaliba was finally won we discovered their secret; ranks of bodies propped up on the battlements. It seemed the fanatics had been rationing, not simply their food but also their hungry mouths. As each month passed and the Household didn't leave another cohort would fall upon their swords while the number of figures on the wall never reduced to indicate their weakness. But before that would happen we had other concerns to address. A new religious revolt had broken out in the Egyptian province of Kharija under a firebrand cleric; Abdul-Wahab. The Templars and Hospitallers would have to deal with them; I would allow all my vassals to retain their levies until such time as they were needed.
Too much of a good thing?
in short: on a day to day a weird/bad ruler but in crisis (war)situations he really shines, (compare to Achilles from the troy movie)
