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Meanwhile, Raymond of Toulouse had been selected by the King and the barons of the principality as the ideal replacement for Bohemond: well titled, but landless and without ambition. They expected they could manipulate him and simultaneously keep themselves independent of Jerusalem's direct control. Not all the lords of Outremer agreed of course: some of them considered themselves candidates for the princely crown of Antioch, and they attempted to stop Raymond before he ever reached their land. He had smuggled himself from Europe aboard various ships, and divided his personal following into small parties so they were not easily spotted.
Once in Antioch, with the aid of the Patriarch, he double crossed his proponents and his opponents.
In the time between Raymond being sent for and before his arrival in 1136 in Outremer, Alice had marched back into Antioch and assumed the role of a sovereign, with everybody under her sway. She was supported in this by Melisende, who interceded with Fulk - by now in mortal terror of his queen - not to interfere with her actions. Alice also gained the support of a number of nobles. Meanwhile, the crafty patriarch of Antioch, Ralph, persuaded her that Raymond was to be her future husband, thus securing her favor and influence against his enemies within the clergy. Alice, says William of Tyre, was credulous enough to readily accept this false hope.
Raymond had meanwhile entered into negotiations with the patriarch, promising to swear fealty to him, in return for marrying Alice's daughter Constance in order to secure the principality. It was additionally agreed that if Henry, his brother, should also come to Antioch, the patriarch would endeavor to secure Alice as his bride, together with her two cities and the lands attached to them.
The agreement made, Raymond entered the city.
Alice permitted this, supposing that all the arrangements then being made were for her own wedding. But when he was conducted to the basilica of St Peters, Raymond instead married the Lady Constance. The young princess was not yet of marriageable age - under nine years old - but the cynical patriarch nevertheless bestowed her personally as the bride of Raymond.
Learning that she had been double crossed yet again, Alice surrendered Antioch and retired to her own domains, where she spent the rest of her brief life in fruitless hatred of the new prince.
Raymond, fittingly, in turn double crossed the Patriarch, eventually withdrawing his favour and support, aligning himself with the pontiff's adversaries.
Raymond appears to have been an able politician, spending ten years in profitable rule of his new principality, forgetting all thoughts of his homeland. Like most Franks in Palestine, he adopted his new land. William has left a vivid pen portrait of him: tall, young, handsome, his cheeks still covered with the downy beard of youth when he arrived in Outremer, affable and agreeable in conversation. A patron of letters, he was devoted in religious matters, and after his marriage careful to observe and maintain faithfulness in his conjugal relations - at least until the arrival of Eleanor. He was, however, too fond of gambling, and quick to anger and to act impulsively.
He pursued his interests in Antioch until the neighbouring state of Edessa fell to the Arabs in 1144, exposing both his lands and the whole kingdom to imminent danger.
Now he turned back to his relatives in Europe, sending them many gifts from the bazaars of his state to tempt them into aiding him in defending his lands.7
Not that they needed much tempting. In particular his niece, now eight years the wife of the saintly King Louis was eager to accept the bait Raymond proferred.
THE BORED AND THE BEAUTIFUL
Accounts agree that by the time her uncle Raymond asked for help from the West, the lively Eleanor was thoroughly bored with a husband who spent more than enough time on his knees in church.
Louis himself was ripe for the call to Crusade, troubled as he was by constant visions of a vocation to serve the Church. He volunteered to aid in the defence of Christendom without bothering to secure the assent of all his chief advisors.
The Pope Eugenius III issued the Papal Bull Quantum Praedecessors on December 1 1145. Its stated aim was to recover Edessa, and the Pope called mainly on the French and Italian knights to undertake the task. Non combatants - women - were expected to remain at home.
But to the consternation of counsellors such as Abbot Suger, Queen Eleanor did not share this assumption. She expected to participate actively in the journey.
It was impossible to stop her going - after all, she could raise more troops from her Duchy of Aquitaine than the king could from his lands.
Eleanor also played a vital role in securing the support of the reluctant barons, who muttered of folly and the waste of money and life involved in a crusade. She moved amongst them, cajoling, flattering, and leading the men towards a decision.
So successful was she that once more all of western Europe stirred itself for the great journey.
She was aided in her insistence by St Bernard of Clairvaux, that "honey tongued" preacher, who saw the venture as a task for all, and succeeded through the fire of his sermons in enlisting high and low, male and female, adults and the young for the journey.
The Crusade was launched by St Bernard at Vezelay in Burgundy in the Lenten period of 1146. 8
The basilica of Vezelay was a suitable turning point for such a venture: it combined the old and the new. The western door was crowned by a barely completed sculpture in the romanesque style, an art form which was even then the hallmark of a past era. The carving in antique style showed a departure: a triumphant Christ issuing his apostles forth into the world, just as St Bernard was about to charge anew the knights of Europe with the task of setting forth on the incompleted work of two generations before, the reclamation of the holy places. 9
So great was the immediate response, however, that the existing church proved inadequate. When Bernard of Clairvaux spoke, he did so beneath the limitless vault of Heaven rather than under the stone arches of Mankind, because the church was too small to contain the assembly.
Bernard, pale and shaking from his life of fasting, work and contemplation, rose to give the papal bull: he was flanked by the barons, the bishops, and, in their midst, the shining, newly shriven, king and queen. His words dissolved in the emotion of the
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