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massive loss of life of his followers and superhuman feats of concealment on his part.3
Amongst his accomplishments on his journey was the loss of one of Europe's most famous beauties, Irene the Dowager Margravine of Austria. She joined in his progress apparently as the closing phase of a life of earthly pleasure, seeking the piety of crusade during her autumn years. William's army was defeated by bad planning and dry marches as it crossed the familiar route past Dorylaeum. The Turks fell on the disordered troops as they broke ranks to race for water at the town of Heraclea.
Nearly all were killed or captured. The aged Ida was probably crushed to death in the stampede for water, but legend had it that she was captured and placed in a harem, where eventually she gave birth to the great Moslem warrior Zengi.4
The crusades of William's grandaughter Eleanor were to prove equally spectacular, and equally disastrous for the cause of Christendom in the East. It was a characteristic of the dynasty that it lived the feckless life of the grasshopper.
Unusually for this family, Eleanor's father, William X, did not emulate his father in taking the Cross, but he seems to have shared the family traits of impetuosity and willfullness, dying while excommunicated over a dispute with a local bishop.
THE OUTREMER CONNECTION
The tale of the Eleanor's involvement with crusading has its immediate origins in the melodramatic career of her uncle, Raymond of Toulouse and Antioch.
Raymond was the image of the knight errant: handsome, free spirited, rich and a reckless gambler with his life and the lives of others.
He was also the close friend of Eleanor, long before she became the wife of King Louis of France.
Raymond of Toulouse lived a luxurious life, in keeping with his playboy image. He had charmed Eleanor when she was still a child, growing up in the sunlit courts of southern France. Later, he dazzled the rulers of Europe, as he wandered from domain to domain. He was trained to knight service under the special tutelage of Henry I of England, who gave him the accolade.
But Raymond could not find his place in Europe. It was by a chance, lucky for him but unfortunate for Bohemond II Prince of Antioch, that he found his niche in the colonies of Palestine.
In 1130 Bohemond was killed in a skirmish with the Moslems, his severed head sent back to his widow in his capital.
This widow was the formidable Princess Alice, daughter of King Baldwin of Jerusalem.
Alice's life shows a noble woman very much in control of her own political program, acting as military leader, diplomat and head of state, with ultimately no quarter given in the bloody business of running a country. Her sister was Melisende of Jerusalem, who in 1131 passed her father's throne to Fulk Count of Anjou by an arranged marriage made in May 1129. As described above, Melisende was throughout this time engaged in a notorious love affair with Hugh le Puiset, which was eventually to result in the death of her lover and her subjugation of her husband to her wishes.
But at the moment of Bohemond II's death, all that was in the future.
The widowed Alice showed herself to have been made of the same stern stuff as her sister.
She set out to take over the rulership of Antioch in her own right, with the unquestioning aid of a compliant new husband.
Instead, she had to contend with Raymond, and with the highest officials in the land, who aimed to dupe her out of her inheritance. Like the strong minded lady of Outremer she was, she refused to accept her fate.
Amongst the people she had to fight against was her father King Baldwin, who made it clear he wanted Alice out of Antioch, with a strong man to take her place.
Alice should have waited for the king to appoint a regent, as was his right as overlord. Instead, she immediately intervened personally and took charge of the princedom. People feared for what she might do to her two year old daughter, who had the hereditary right to the throne. These fears may have had justification, for shortly afterwards, Alice tried to give her underage daughter in marriage to the Greek empire in order to secure Byzantium's support for her rule.
Her most desperate step was to send a splendid horse as a gift to Zengi, Saracen ruler of Aleppo, offering to do him homage in return for his support over her claim to Antioch.
Neither ties of family, of motherly affection, nor religious conviction could override her determination for what was hers by right of marriage and inheritance.5
Unfortunately for the envoy in charge of the Princess's gift to Zengi, Alice's father Baldwin and her brother in law Fulk caught him before he had fairly begun the journey: the poor man was hanged.
Alice responded by sealing the gates of her city in her father's face. A distribution of treasure from the city's exchequer seems to have won her the temporary favour of the locals. Unfortunately, her knights were not so easily bought: they opened the gates to her father. She took refuge in a tower, to surrender at last only when guaranteed her safety, and buying her freedom by kneeling shame faced before her father.
He banished her to the lands of her dowry, Lattakieh and Jabala.
King Baldwin died in September 1131: his replacement was Fulk.
But the northern nobles, and particularly Alice, had their reasons not to accept him as the real heir to the throne. They wanted to establish their independence from Jerusalem. For Alice, it meant her chance to seize Antioch back again.
Alice organised opposition to Fulk amongst the northerners, reclaiming the title of regent of Antioch. The court appointed guardian of Alice's daughter Constance was Joscelin of Edessa, who had died a month after Baldwin, so there was a crucial interregnum.
Alice struck.
She negotiated with Joscelin's successor, Joscelin II of Edessa. Joscelin II was in a vulnerable position, as the barons of Antioch refused to confirm his regency, wishing as they did to preserve Antioch's independence. Alice negotiated with Joscelin, offering him the prospect of independence if he supported the break from Jerusalem. Joscelin agreed, and was joined soon afterwards by Pons of Tripoli, who saw his county gaining its freedom if the others were successful.6
Alice continued to gather support amongst a number of lords of Outremer, but a majority of her own barons betrayed her, summoning Fulk and his army from Jerusalem, rather than acceding to a woman's rule.
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