Guy of Lusignan
Guy of Lusignan was king of Jerusalem, first as the husband and co-ruler of Queen Sibylla from 1186 to 1190, then as disputed ruler from 1190 to 1192. He was also lord of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194. As king, Guy was highly unpopular amongst the nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and is often blamed for the fall of the kingdom to Saladin.
Guy, a Frankish Poitevin knight, was the youngest son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan. After killing Patrick, 1st Earl of Salisbury, in a failed attempt to kidnap Eleanor of Aquitaine, he was banished from Poitou. After arriving in the Holy Land at an unknown date from 1173 to 1180, Guy was hastily married to Sibylla, the sister of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, in 1180 to prevent a political coup. As Baldwin's health deteriorated due to his leprosy, he appointed Guy as regent in 1183. However, Guy proved to be unpopular and incompetent as a leader, and Baldwin IV resumed power later that year. He stripped Guy of his inheritance, naming Baldwin V, Sibylla's son by her first husband William, as his co-king and eventual successor instead. Baldwin IV died in 1185, followed shortly by the sickly Baldwin V in 1186, leading to the succession of Sibylla. Sibylla was told to annul her marriage to Guy in order to ascend to the throne on the condition that she would be allowed to pick her next husband, but astonished the court by choosing to remarry and crown Guy. Guy's reign was marked by increased hostilities with the Ayyubids, ruled by Saladin, culminating in the Battle of Hattin in July 1187—during which Guy was captured—and the fall of Jerusalem itself three months later.
Following a year of imprisonment in Damascus, Guy was released by Saladin and reunited with his wife. After being denied entry to Tyre, one of the last crusader strongholds, by Conrad of Montferrat, Guy besieged Acre in 1189. The siege, during which Guy's wife and children died during an epidemic, developed into a rallying point for the Third Crusade, led by Philip II of France and Richard I of England. Conrad married Sibylla's half-sister Isabella and entered a bitter conflict with Guy over the kingship of Jerusalem. Despite Richard's support for the widower king, the kingdom's nobility elected Conrad king in 1192, and Richard compensated Guy for the dispossession of his crown by giving him lordship of Cyprus. The Assassins killed Conrad days after his election; Guy ruled the Kingdom of Cyprus until he died in 1194 when he was succeeded by his elder brother Aimery.
Early life
Born, Guy was a member of the House of Lusignan, the youngest son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan and his wife, Burgundia of Rancon. The family's land holdings were in Poitou, which was a part of King Henry II of England's territories within the Kingdom of France. Both the Lusignans and the Rancons had a long history of involvement in the Crusades, starting with the participation of Guy's great-grandfather Hugh VI of Lusignan at the Battle of Ramla in 1102. Guy's grandfather, Hugh VII of Lusignan, and maternal uncle, Geoffrey the Poitevin, both took part in the Second Crusade. Guy's father also came to Jerusalem on a crusade, dying in Muslim captivity in the 1160s after the Battle of Harim.On 27 March 1168, Guy and his brothers ambushed and killed Patrick, 1st Earl of Salisbury and governor of Poitou, who was escorting Eleanor of Aquitaine to Poitiers. They captured Patrick's nephew William the Marshal, then a knight-errant serving in his uncle's household, and allowed Eleanor to pay for his freedom. The brothers were subsequently banished from Poitou.
Guy went to Jerusalem at some date between 1173 and 1180, initially either as a pilgrim or Crusader. He also may have arrived with the French Crusaders of 1179. In 1174, his older brother Aimery married Eschiva, daughter of the powerful nobleman Baldwin of Ibelin, and entered court circles. Aimery also obtained the support of King Baldwin IV and of his mother Agnes of Courtenay, and he was appointed Agnes's Constable in Jaffa and later Constable of the Kingdom. Aimery's success likely facilitated Guy's social and political advancement whenever he arrived. However, as King Baldwin had leprosy, he was not expected to live much longer, making the kingdom's succession uncertain.
Marriage and countship
During the Holy Week in 1180, Raymond III of Tripoli and Bohemond III of Antioch, two of the most powerful men in the kingdom, were preparing to invade Jerusalem. Historian Bernard Hamilton believed they wished to force King Baldwin to have his sister, Sibylla, marry Baldwin of Ibelin, Aimery of Lusignan's father-in-law, and then to abdicate. They would therefore remove the King's mother, Agnes, from power and promote a local noble to the throne instead of a foreigner. Guy and Sibylla were hastily married at Eastertide to prevent this coup. The ceremony was noticeably hurried; the wedding was canonically invalid and there was no public notice.From 1180, Guy held Jaffa and Ascsalon alongside Sibylla and had four daughters with her. Their marriage split the nobles into two factions: One faction supporting Guy primarily composed of Sibylla's maternal kin, and one faction opposing him, composed primarily of Sibylla's paternal kin. To prevent the opposing party from setting up a rival claimant, King Baldwin took his mother's advice and, in October 1180, betrothed his half-sister Isabella, the stepdaughter of Baldwin of Ibelin's brother Balian, to Humphrey IV of Toron. From March 1181, both Guy and Sibylla were associated with Baldwin IV in public acts such as charters.
Baldwin IV's leprosy worsened quickly; by 1183, he had become blind and could no longer walk unsupported or use his hands. Having developed a deadly fever, Baldwin summoned the High Court to his bedside in June and made Guy regent. Since Guy was next in line to the throne and Baldwin was not expected to survive, this regency was supposed to be permanent. The King kept only his royal title and his authority over the city of Jerusalem, but he made Guy swear that he would not crown himself king or alienate parts of the royal demesne as long as Baldwin was alive.
Disinheritance
The powerful nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, namely Raymond III of Tripoli, Bohemond III of Antioch, and the grand masters of the military orders, refused to cooperate with Guy. Not wanting to anger them, Baldwin failed to give Guy any training in military leadership before making him regent. Baldwin unexpectedly recovered from his sickness and, now believing Guy to be incompetent and foolish, returned to Jerusalem to resume power. Finding that the coastal climate was better for his health, Baldwin offered Jerusalem to Guy in exchange for Tyre. Guy refused, likely because Tyre was more wealthy, leaving Baldwin deeply offended.The wedding of Sibylla's half-sister, Isabella, and Humphrey IV of Toron was celebrated in Kerak in late 1183. Saladin attacked during the ceremony and laid siege to the castle, hoping to capture the newlyweds. The defence of the castle and the King's half-sister within it could not be entrusted to Guy, who was not able to effectively command the troops. Although Heraclius, along with the grand masters of the Templars and Hospitallers, tried to mediate in Guy's favor, it did not work; Raymond and Bohemond convinced the King to dismiss Guy from the regency. Since Guy's removal from power was essentially disinheritance, the nobles discussed the kingdom's succession. They accepted Agnes's proposal that Sibylla's five-year-old son from her first husband, Baldwin V, be crowned co-king. The coronation took place on 20 November, and the boy received the homage of all the barons except for Guy, who was not invited.
Conflicts
Despite his leprosy, Baldwin went with his troops to relieve the siege at Kerak. Although he was disgraced, Guy still led the men of Jaffa and Ascalon. After the battle, he went directly to Ascalon and asked Sibylla to join him there; the King wanted to annul Guy's marriage to her, which could not happen if the couple refused to show up in court. Guy and Sibylla refused to leave Ascalon despite the King's summons, foiling his plan to make them annul their marriage.Early in 1184, Baldwin ordered Guy to attend him as a vassal in Jerusalem, but Guy refused to go, citing poor health. When Baldwin sent for Guy again, Guy insisted that the King should see him in person and deliver his command with his own voice. Baldwin had himself carried to Ascalon in the company of the High Court, where Guy refused to let him into the city. The King was then welcomed in Jaffa, where he installed a governor, thereby depriving Guy of half his county.
In late 1184, Guy massacred the Bedouin people of the royal fief of Darum, who were under royal protection and gave Baldwin information about the Egyptians' movements. However, these Bedouin in particular could have also been giving information to Saladin. The King was very distressed by this, but he quickly developed another fever, bestowing regency on Raymond of Tripoli. On his deathbed, the King summoned the High Court to appoint a permanent regent for his nephew, Baldwin V, and Raymond was chosen; Baldwin IV died in March 1185.
Accession
Baldwin V died in 1186, only a year after his uncle. The High Court of Jerusalem ruled that neither Sibylla nor her half-sister, Isabella, could be crowned without the decision of the pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the kings of France and England. Joscelin of Courtenay, Sibylla's uncle and ally, convinced Raymond of Tripoli to go to Tiberias to prepare for a general assembly and let the Templars bring Baldwin's body to Jerusalem. Raymond and the nobles went to Nablus, the fief of Balian of Ibelin. According to the chroniclers Arnold of Lübeck and Ibn al-Athir, Raymond tried to become king at the assembly, but was not successful. Taking advantage of Raymond's absence, Joscelin then garrisoned Acre and Beirut.Meanwhile, Guy and Sibylla hurried to Jerusalem to attend her son's funeral. Heraclius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, the grand masters of the Templars and Hospitallers, and Raynald of Châtillon were also present. They decided to offer Sibylla the crown without waiting for the decision of the western monarchs. Sibylla announced that the kingdom had passed to her by hereditary right, but the nobles at Nablus did not acknowledge her queenship, claiming that crowning Sibylla would breach their oaths taken at Baldwin IV's deathbed. They forbade the coronation and sent two abbots to Jerusalem to tell her of their veto. The city gates were consequently barred before the ceremony to prevent interruption by Raymond's men. Sibylla was then acclaimed queen by the citizens of Jerusalem at Raynald's request.
However, before she was crowned, Sibylla agreed with oppositional court members that she would annul her marriage with Guy to please them, as long as she was given free choice in her next husband and her children with Guy were declared legitimate. The leaders of the High Court agreed, and Sibylla was crowned queen regnant. After crowning her, the patriarch gave Sibylla a second crown and asked her to choose a new husband. She shocked the attendees by choosing to remarry Guy, who was unpopular even among her supporters, and crowning him. However, there is no mention of Sibylla and Guy being anointed, which was expected at the time.
Guy's opponents wished to make Humphrey IV of Toron, Raynald's stepson, claim the crown on his wife Isabella's behalf; they believed Sibylla's legitimacy to be dubious since her parents' marriage was annulled and emphasized that Isabella was born after her father was crowned. However, Humphrey did not want to become king. He left Nablus at night and rode to Jerusalem to swear fealty to Guy. Sibylla initially turned him down, but after Humphrey explained his intentions, she led him to the King. Humphrey swore fealty to Guy, and most of the nobles followed shortly after, swearing fealty before 1187. However, Raymond of Tripoli returned to Tiberias without paying homage to Guy and Sibylla.