 Chapter 15 Historical Appendix 1. Guy de Lucerne The history of Guy and Sybil, after the story leaves them, is a sad one. Raymond Count of Tripoli, who had fancied himself sure of the Crown Matrimonial, never forgave either. He immediately entered into a secret alliance with Saladin, by which he promised to betray Guy into his hands in the next battle. On the 4th of July, 1187, Tripoli, who was standard-bearer, so behaved himself in battle that the king was taken prisoner. Sybil, in conjunction with the patriarch Heraculus, held Jerusalem until the 2nd of October, when she gave up the city to Saladin on terms including liberty of ransom to all who could afford it. The queen now retired to Ascalon, within whose fortified walls she and her little daughters remained until 1189, when Guy's ransom was affected on the hard terms that Sybil should capitulate at Ascalon, that Guy should abdicate, and that he should go beyond sea. Guy, who had been kept in chains a whole year at Damascus, consulted the clergy as to the necessity of keeping faith with Saladin. They were all of the Roman, but unscriptural opinion, that no faith need be kept with a panem. Instead of abdicating and going abroad, Guy, with Sybil and the children, marched to Acre, which he invested with 100,000 men who had flocked to his standard. The queen and princesses were lodged at Turin, looking towards the sea. An 1190 King Philippe of France arrived before Acre, and on June 10th, 1191, King Richard Edward de Leon, and at last, on July 12th, Saladin gave up the city to the allied forces. But the pestilence had been very rife during the siege. Baldwin archbishop of Canterbury, and numbers of French and English nobles, died in the camp, and among others the hero-queen, Sybil of Anjou, and her two fragile children. Raymond of Tripoli was dead also. He died in his sleep, unabsolved, and evidence of his formally apostatised Sunnahmetanism was found after his death. After thus taking last leave of all he loved, Guy, brave, rash, impetuous Guy, appears to have become almost reckless. Of course, by right Sybil was succeeded by her sister Isabel, but Guy still clung to his title of king, and the privilege is a pertinent to it, and disputed with Conrado of Manferrado, the husband of Isabel, the right to the customs of the port of Acre. Conrado was an extremely quarrelsome man, and Guy's opposition seems to have been personally directed to him, for on his death, which of course Guy and Corde Leon were accused of forwarding. Guy readily acknowledged Isabel and her third husband on condition of receiving the island of Cyprus as compensation for all his claims. King Richard had sold Cyprus to the Templars, but he coolly took it from them, and gave it to Guy, who, being apparently more honest of the two, paid a hundred thousand crowns to the Templars as compensation. This is the last that we hear of Guy de Luzon, except the mere date of his death, which occurred according to different authorities from one to four years after the session of Cyprus. Few historical characters have had less justice than them by modern writers than Guy de Luzon and Sybil his wife. In the first place, Guy as accused of having, in 1167-8, assassinated Patrick Earl of Salisbury, and returning from a pilgrimage to St. Iago de Compostella. King Henry II, we are told, was greatly enraged, and banished Guy from Poitou, whereupon he assumed the cross and set out for the Holy Land. Now the truth is, that in 1167-8, it is scarcely possible that Guy could be above ten years old. Either it was another Guy de Luzon, or the outrage was committed by persons of whom the child Guy was the nominal head. But all the circumstances tend to show that Guy's arrival in the Holy Land was little, if at all, before 1180, and that at that time he was a very young man. We next find Guy accused of such boundless ambition, that he not only induced King Baldwin IV to put up all the affairs of the kingdom into his hands, but even to promise him the succession after his death. But when Baldwin had bestowed upon Guy his sister and heir presumptive, Sybil, how could he either promise him the succession or lawfully deprive him of it? The reversion of the crown was hers. Baldwin did her accrual justice, and committed an illegal act, when he passed her over and abdicated in favour of her infant son. Then, on the death of Baldwin V, we are actually told that Sybil, urged by her ambitious husband, usurped the crown, usurped it from whom? Surely not from her own daughters, surely not from her younger sister? Matthew of Westminster distinctly remarks that there was none to succeed but his mother Sybilla. Sybil merely took back her own property, of which she had been unjustly deprived. Again with respect to her action at her coronation, poor Sybil comes in again for her share of blame. She had no business, we are assured, to choose Guy who had already proved himself an unsatisfactory governor, and in the interest of the kingdom, she ought to have married someone else. In other words, she ought to have committed sin in the interest of her subjects. Lastly, a wholesale charge of poisoning is brought against both Guy and Sybil. Probabilities are thrown overboard. They are accused of poisoning young Baldwin V, and Guy is charged with the murder of his wife and children, though their death entirely destroyed his claim to the royal title. The truth is that in the 12th century, any death not easily to be accounted for was always set down to poison, and the nearest relatives, totally irrespective of character, were always suspected of having administered it. Men of Guy's disposition, impulsive, rash and generous even to a fault, loving and self-sacrificing, are not usually in the habit of murdering those they love best, and considered merely from a political point of view, the simultaneous deaths of Sybil and her children were the worst calamities which could have fallen upon Guy. 2. The Royal Family of Jerusalem Melisandre, Queen of Jerusalem, eldest of the four daughters of Baldwin II and Morsi of Armenia, succeeded her father in 1131 and died in 1141 or 1144. She married Folk V, Count of Anjou, married 1128, died at Acre by accident November 1142. He had previously been married to Ermengard of Maine by whom he had four children, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Healy, Count of Maine, Sybil, Countess of Flanders, and Alice, Crown Princess of England. Issue of Queen Melisandre 1. Baldwin III, born 1129, died February 1162 without issue. Married Theodora Comuna, daughter of Isaac I, Emperor of the East. 2. Almory I, born 1132-6, died July 11th, 1173. Married A. Agnes de Quartonet, daughter of Jocelyn, Count of Edessa, divorced. B. Maria Comuna, daughter or niece of Manuel I, Emperor of the East, living 1190, character imaginary. Issue of Almory I by Agnes. 1. Baldwin IV, the leper, born 1158, abdicated 1183, died March 16th, 1185. Never Married. 2. Sybil I, crowned September 1186, died at Acre during the siege, 1190, character historical. Married A. Guglielmo, marquis of Montferrata, died 1180. B. Gaide Lousson, married 1183, died September Fabian, 1193, I.B., 1194, Morary, Woodward and Coates, crowned Cycle, 1195, Roger de Hevedon, 1196, Anderson, character historical. B. Maria III, Isabel I, character historical. Married A. Humphrey de Tours, married Cirque 1183, divorced 1190, died 1199. The legality of the divorce was very doubtful and caused many subsequent counterclaims to the throne. B. Conrado, marquis of Montferrata, Count of Tyre, married 1190, assassinated at Tyre, April 27th, 1192. C. Henry, Count of Champagne, married 1193, died at Acre by accident, 1196-7. D. Amory de Lousson, brother of Gaide, married 1197, died 1205, character imaginary. Issue of Sybil I by Guglielmo. 1. Baldwin V, born 1180, crowned November 20th, 1183, died at Acre, 1186, character imaginary. B. Gaide, 2. 3. Daughters, died with mother, during Siege of Acre, 1190. Some writers ascribe four daughters to Sybil. Issue of Isabel I by Conrado. 1. Marie, or Violante, the first. Married, Jean de Brienne, third son of Arard II, Count of Brienne and Agnus de Montpellard, Emperor of the East, 1233, died March 21st, 1237. By Henry. 2. Alex I, died Sir 1246, married A, Hugh de Lousson, son of Amory de Lousson and Esquine de Bellin, died 1219. B. Bohemond IV, Prince of Antioch, divorced. C. Raule, Count of Soissons, died Sirk 1246. 3. Philippa, married 1214, Arard de Brienne, Lord of Remeru, living 1247. By Amory. 4. Sybil, married Leon I, King of Armenia. 5. Robert, abbot of St. Michael. 6. Amory, died Young. Issue of Marie I. Violante, married at Brindisi, 1223-5. Frederick II, Emperor of Germany, died 1228-9. From this marriage the emperors of Germany and Austria derive the empty title of Kings of Jerusalem. They have no right to it since the posterity of Violante became extinct in the second generation. The Kings of Italy, on the contrary, have a right to the title, being descendants of Anna of Cyprus, the heir-general of Alex I. 3. House of Lousson. It will be perceived from the following table that in the story the three Williams, sons of Count Geoffrey, have been made into one, and that the sisters, Alex and Elaine, are fictitious characters. The House of Lousson begins about AD 900, with Hugh I, surnamed Levenou. Eighth in descent from him we find, Hugh VIII, died 1164. Married Burgon, daughter of Geoffrey de Rancón. Issue. One, Hugh IX, died 1206. Married Mahoud, daughter of Wolverine III, Count of Ingolayme. Two, Geoffrey, Count de la Marche, living 1210. Character imaginary. Married A, Eustécy de Chabot. B, Clements, daughter of Hugh Viscount de Chateau-Hillroute. Character imaginary. Issue of Hugh IX and Mahoud. Hugh X, Lebrun, killed at Massura, 1249. Married Isabel, Countess of Ingolayme, and widow of John King of England. Married 1217-21, died 1246. From this marriage spring the House of Valence, earls of Pembroke, famous in English history. Issue of Count Geoffrey and Eustécy. One, Guillaume, surnamed Allagrande Dent, died issueless before 1250. Married Umburg, daughter of the Viscount de Lémond. Character imaginary. Two, Guillaume, Lord of Merivant. Married Unknown. Three, Guillaume de Valence, died 1170. Four, Guy, Count of Jaffa, and Escalon, crowned King of Jerusalem, September 1186, died September 1193-6. See the previous article. Five, Amourie, died 1205. Married A, Esquine, daughter of Biudon de Bellon. Lord of Reims, died 1193. Character imaginary. B, Isabel I, Queen of Jerusalem. See last article. Six, Raoul de Soudin, died 1218-9. Married before August 31, 1199. Alice, Countess of Europe, living September 19, 1119. Issue of Guillaume, Lord of Marvant. One, Valence, married Hughes, Lord of Parthenay. Two, Alice or Aline, married Bartholome, Lord de la Haye. Issue of Amourie and Esquine. One, Guy, died young. Two, Jean, died young. Three, Hugh, died 1219. Married, Alex I, Queen of Jerusalem, see last article. Four, Bourgogne, married Gaultier de Montpellier. Five, Helioïs, Heloïs, married one. Eudes de Dampierre, two, Ruben, Prince of Antioch. For Issue of Amourie and Queen Isabel, see last article. Titles. Society was divided in the 12th century into four ranks only. Nobles, clergy, bourgeoisie, and villains. Two of these nobles and villains were kept as distinct as the case ever kept classes in India, though of course with some differences of detail. All titles, persons, knights, and landed proprietors belonged to the nobility. The clergy were recruited from nobility in Bourgeoisie, rarely from the villain class, were free men without land and usually with some trade or profession, and were despised by the nobles as men who had lifted themselves above their station and presumed to vie with their betters. The villains were always serfs, saleable with the land on which they lived, bound to the service of its owner, disposable at his pleasure, and esteemed by him very little superior to cattle. Education was restricted to clergy and noble women, with a few exceptions among the male nobility, but as a rule a lay gentleman who could read a book or write anything beyond his signature was rarely to be seen. No kind of title was bestowed in addressing any but nobles and clergy. The bourgeoisie was merely Richard Haberdasher, John the Clerk, or William the Brook. Whence come Clark and Brook as surnames, the villain was barely Hodge or Robin, without any further designation unless necessary, when the master's name was added. Such a term as Ralph Walter Servant, namely Ralph, servant of Walter, is not uncommon on medieval roles. The clergy, as is still the case in Romish countries, were addressed as father, and those who had not graduated at the universities were termed sir, with the surname Sir Green or Sir Dixon. It is doubtful, however, whether this last item stretches so far back as the twelfth century. Dan, the epithet of Chaucer, certainly does not. The names bestowed on the nobles consisted of three for the men and two for the women. Franchet must be remembered was the language of England as well as of France at this time. Only villains spoke English. The lowest epithet was Sir, gentlemen, which was applied to untitled land proprietors. The next, sire or messire, Sir, was the title of the knights, and the king was addressed as sire only because he was the chief knight in the realm. The highest, seneur, lord, was applied to royalty, peers, and all nobles in authority, especially those possessing territorial power. The ladies, married and single, were addressed as Dame and d'Amuselle. The English version of the last title, d'Amso, was used of the young nobility of both sexes. Among themselves, nobles addressed their relatives by the title of relationship with the epithet Belle, prefixed, which, when English began to be spoken by the higher classes, was translated fair. Fair father, fair brother, sound very odd to modern ears, but for centuries they were the usual appellations in a noble family, both in England and in France. They were not, however, used between husband and wife, who always ceremoniously termed each other Monsignor and Madame. It was only natural, and is what we ourselves do to this day, that our ancestors should address God in prayer by those terms which in their eyes were the highest titles of honour. In this light, though majesty is peculiar to Spain, yet seneur, messire, and belpère, obtained currency in most civilised countries, the first we have retained, and though we have degraded, lured into the title of our lesser nobility, we still use it as the special epithet of deity. It is only custom which has made the other names sound strange to our ears. We no longer prefix fair to father when we address the human relative, and it has also become unusual to transfer it to the divine father. Sir God would shock us. But in our ancestors eyes it was the most reverent and honourable of all titles, which was the reason why they chose it. Even so late as the 15th century, the maid of Orleans never spoke of God by any other term than messire. End of Chapter 15. End of Lady Sybil's Choice by Emily S. Holt