63. THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE LORDS OF SYRIA (1171 - 1173 A.D.)
Effigy depicting Duke Robert of Emèse, in the Church of Saint Peter of Dreux (c. 1280s). Being a non-contemporary piece, it does not actually depicts Robert's likeness - unlike the effigy of the Cathedral of Emèse -, but the most unusual aspect of the portrayal is that it emphasizes his role as a Crusader, him being depicted with sword and chainmail, and crown-less, not unlike a lowly knight. The leonine figure at his feet likely evokes Oriental exoticism associated with the memory of the Crusades in the Occident; in folk legends related to the Crusades, the meeting or the battle between the pious Christian knight and the noble lion is a common motif.
Of the Character and of the Aspirations of Robert of Dreux in Syria
In scholarly circles dedicated to the historiography of the Crusades, there is some debate to ascertain the causes of the decision of
Robert Capet of remaining in Syria, to effectively exercise his position as
Duke of Emèse, instead of returning to France, where he had lived most of his life. Indeed, ever since the establishment of this Crusader fief, during the *Second Crusade, he, then twenty years of age, had, by all means, abandoned it to its own devices under the rulership of his vassals, chief among them the Norman
Montforts, who had distinguished themselves during the war in Armenia.
Commentary from the primary sources usually attribute to Robert the general purposes of the Crusadist conduct: the yearning to live and die in the land where Christ had lived and died, the dedication to spiritual growth and, of course, the pious devotion to the war against the enemies of the faith. While we have no reason to doubt that these motives existed and were genuine, as were to many other Crusaders that preceded him, more mundane motivations are ignored by these sources, and they have kindled the curiosity of modern-day academics. It has been suggested that the root causes were in fact his worldly ambitions and his desire for renown and preeminence among the princes of Christendom, in face of his self-perceived failure to obtain noteworthy achievements in his homeland of France.
In point of fact, it seems that his relation with his elder brother,
King *Phillip II of France, then already known by the infamous sobriquet of “the Wrathful” due to his irascible demeanor, played a significant role in this decision. The French monarch, howbeit reverential to his dynasty, which he sought to aggrandize by placing his kinsmen in prestigious and relevant positions of political, ecclesiastical or diplomatic interest, harbored little fraternal love to his brothers; they were his vassals first, and siblings second. In the case of Robert, the County of Dreux was an appanage granted by Phillip in accordance to the dying wishes of their late father,
Louis VI, but then, over the years, Phillip demonstrated no particular favor towards Robert. The latter became bitter and disappointed over the years in regards to the lack of expected favoritism that he ought to receive being the King’s brother. Indeed Robert had accumulated a substantial allodial patrimony by marriage, most notably after he married
Agnes of Baudemont, who held in
suo jure various fiefs in the region of northwestern Champagne, but he had nonetheless expected grants from his liege, notably the lordships and castles in the regions of Montfort and Évreux, and then of the Vexin and Mortain, all of which were disputed in the wars of the French King with the Norman Kings of England.
Given the circumstances, we can infer that, now in advanced age, Robert, festering with resentment, overturned his perspectives and expectations, and decided that being a great lord in the Outremer would garner him greater reputation and esteem than being a lowly vassal of the ungrateful King of France.
It does not seem that coming to establish residence in Syria was Robert’s original intent when he came to the Outremer in the trucial pilgrimage, but one that emerged and grew during his stay. His wife Agnes returned to France in 1170, but in the same year she delegated the administration of all her fiefs to her elder son
Robert (II); two years later, she went again to the Holy Land and would thus never return to Europe. Considering that their son had no will to leave France, Robert Capet partitioned his inheritance already in 1175 A.D., provisioning in his testament that their firstborn son Robert and his respective heirs would inherit all the properties and titles in France, while the second-born son,
Henry of Dreux, would receive the whole of the Syrian inheritance. Considering that, at the time, Robert the younger was already married, but Henry was not, the latter’s designated successor was Robert Capet’s youngest son,
John, who was then aged six years. Henry was betrothed to
Alicia of Savoy, daughter of
Count Humbert III of Savoy, as early as 1171, in spite of the fact that she was, at the time, 5 years-old.
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Emèse, sometimes called “
La Chamelle”
[1] was, herself, an impressive metropolis, rivaling, in size and prosperity, Aleppo and Antioch, all of them paling only to Damascus. Like other cities of the Levant, it existed since time immemorial, having been founded by Aram, grandson of Noah by his son Shem
[2]; she grew under the reign and the heirs of Sampsiceramus but saw its apogee after it was incorporated into the Roman Empire. It was, in fact, during the twilight years of the Roman Era that the Christian faithful received the revelation of the head of John the Baptist, found concealed in a holy grave; the Arabs a couple centuries took it to Damascus, where it remains to this day in the appropriately named Basilica of Saint John the Baptist
[3].
During the Crusader Era, it seemed fated to be reduced to a shadow of its former self, having suffered through consecutive generations of warfare and rapine and declining commerce and tourism. Even worse, then, it suffered a severe earthquake in 1157, which demolished many of its buildings and of neighboring cities and towns. When an even more devastating earthquake happened a mere thirteen years later, in 1170, one so massive that was felt from Antioch to as far as Balbec, it seemed like a divine coup de grace against the beleaguered urban center, whose various districts were levelled. When Robert did visit the seat of the duchy for the first time, it was a veritable ruin.
Reconstruction of Emèse and other large settlements such as Ramât [Syr.
Hama] and Chayzèr [Syr.
Shayzar] began immediately, and, unsurprisingly, it was undertaken according to the urbanistic and architectural patterns adopted in France, but using the materials available in the region. As it was the norm in the Outremer, stone was plentiful for masonry, as was clay to make bricks and mortar, but for woodwork the builders brought cedar from the mountains of Phoenicia. Unlike in Europe, slave workforce was readily available and abundant, and thus hundreds of Saracen and Turcoman captives were employed over the following years to undertake the physical labors, overseen by Christian Syrian
ruasa [
4] or Armenian captains subordinate to the Frankish bailiffs or provosts, and thus the destroyed cities were rapidly rebuilt in the very own image of the French ones. During Robert’s reign, immigrants from France, especially from the regions of Champagne and Anjou, and also from Italy, would be encouraged to settle in Emèse, and their descendants will constitute a significant part of the Latin-Levantine demographics [
5].
It did help Emèse the fact that it was situated in a privileged geographic and climatic position; in a fertile plain near the Orontes valley, whose agricultural fields were supported by an aged but reliable irrigation system, the regional farms were dedicated to the production of wheat, millet, cotton and exotic fruits, all of which had substantial value in the European markets; the city itself produced many handicrafts, from jewelry to textiles, all of which became treasured exports to France and Italy as well.
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Robert of Emèse was deeply proud of his heritage; a scion of the kings who had inherited the Carolingian
oriflamme. Moved by tremendous ambition, he would endeavor to accrue prestige and wealth to his principality in the Orient, and to leave his own mark of grandeur in History.
His political ambitions were manifested not long after he became resident in Emèse. Ever since he arrived, he witnessed Archbishop Bernard’s downfall, Manuel’s invasion and the resultant destitution of the Bohemondines, and the establishment of a Rhõmaîon government in Tyre. These latter events created a seething dissatisfaction and resentment among many of the Frankish nobles, especially because they came to perceive
Prince Raymond III of Jerusalem and Galilee as a subservient and weak lackey of the Greek Emperor instead of the champion of the Latin cause that he was supposed to be. They feared even that Manuel was about to dethrone and expel the Frankish lords from the Outremer; indeed, regardless of the fact that Bohemond II of Tyre had been formally accused and condemned by a court years before was seemingly irrelevant, because to most of the Franks, Manuel was regarded as a tyrant and imperious monarch.
It was in this scenario of disaccord that Robert saw the perfect opportunity to rise into prominence; his dynastic pedigree, his wealth and his personal charisma were tools that allowed him to easily ascend to the apex of the Latin-Levantine political preserve, as an active member of the Court of Grandees, not to little chagrin of some members of the established Frankish nobility - those that the French chroniclers at the time derisively called
poulains or
pulani - who saw him as an opportunistic adventurer. Soon enough it became clear, at least to Raymond and his own associates, that Robert had designs towards the princely throne, and the animosity between them and the nobles of Emèse grew immediately. What they did not fathom is that this was just the beginning of his stairway to even grander majesty.
Now, in among the disaffected nobles of Syria, that is of Damascus and the Damascanese and the
Houran, Robert found natural allies, opposed as they were to Raymond and the Franks established in Palestine. Robert realized that they seemed to believe that Raymond had accepted a genuine vassalage towards Constantinople, to his benefit only, and in detriment of the God-given mission of vanquishing the infidel, and also feared that the Rhômaîoi, now too close for comfort in the newly created “
Catepanate of Syria”, were about to impose direct imperial rule over the Crusader State. The Italo-Normans, in particular, bitterly remembered that the same name of “Catepan” had been used to refer to the Emperor’s lieutenant in southern Italy, and were grimly suspicious that Rhomaîoi desired to conquer Syria from them.
As for Raymond, it seems that he, truth be said, was regarded by Robert himself as a lesser evil; his conduct in the war against the Bohemondines had demonstrated an unassertive character and timid demeanor, and his conduct in the future war against the Saracens in Egypt would be a testament to this perceived pusillanimity. However, his favorites with whom he shared the temporal power in the Crusader State, namely the Counts of Tiberias and Acre, the Viceduke in Transjordania and the Marquis of Tortosa, all constituted a formidable network of alliances. More concerning even, especially to the rulers of Damascus and the other lords of the Damascanese, was the fact that the Templarians, under the tenancy of
Gerard of Aigremont, had demonstrated a clear political affinity towards the Provençals.
It seems, then, that as early as 1171 A.D., Emèse initiated rapprochement with Damascus, but there are no extant documents describing it, so it ought to have been an informal agreement. This friendship of convenience became a alliance once Robert brokered a marriage contract between
Mabel of Damascus and
Simon [III] of Montfort, thus uniting Emèse and Damascus.
In any event, Robert also made overtures to the Rhõmaîon Emperor: in early 1172 A.D., he himself voyaged to Constantinople from Emèse - supposedly to undertake pilgrimage and to become acquainted with the “queen of cities”, with a small retinue of nobles, but whose actual purposes were diplomatic and political rather than religious: to introduce the French prince to the Emperor. There, according to the chronicle of
Niketas Choniates, Robert was received with honors in the imperial court, befitting his standing as a royal prince of the Franks, and to his position as Duke. Cognizant of the performative role of the ceremonies, he formally paid homage to Manuel, and pledged his undying support to the cause of Christ in the Holy Land.
Robert knew all too well that he needed recognition from the established potentates of the Orient; and, to Manuel, he wanted to be regarded as a friendly and compliant Latin-Levantine peer. It seems that his charismatic presence did garner him approval from the Basileus, and he was formally confirmed in his capacity as the suzerain lord of Emèse and the associated demesne. It was in this very encounter that Robert was gifted with a reliquary vial, covered in enamel, gold and ivory, supposedly containing the milk of the Virgin Mary, one that, a few generations later, would be gifted by one of Robert’s successors in Emèse to the King of France.
Of the Creation of the Catepanate of Syria
As it happened, after the Tyrian War, the political situation of Damascus was a bizarre one:
Count Roger [II], still a minor, had been brought to Constantinople to be educated in statecraft and liberal arts - a figment of diplomatic rhetoric that barely disguised the fact that he was a hostage with various other Frankish scions -, and while the Countess dowager Mabel remained in Damascus, having received the Basileus’ pardon because she did not raise arms against the Emperor when he came to the Orient, the regency and actual government of Damascus had been entrusted by Manuel to his nephew,
Andronikos Kontostephanos, one of his most loyal agents. Indeed, Damascus, being the largest and wealthiest metropolis of Syria, was highly regarded, and Manuel hoped, with this expedient, to directly interfere in the local Syrian politics, so as to keep the Franks at bay, and, perhaps, to enforce their terms of vassalage to his own imperial person. However, it must be said that, while more recent historiography rejects the premise that Manuel was masterminding a plan to abrogate the political rule of the Crusader State, there is a certain consensus that he intended to compel the Franks to join him in yet another campaign against the Fāṭimids in Egypt, and thus, it was convenient to have administrative, logistical and naval bases from whence to launch this new campaign.
Now, Andronikos, who held the title of
Megas Doux - the commander-in-chief of the imperial navy - was an accomplished commander, with an extensive military record, but had a much less impressive administrative acumen, and did not seem to be up to the task, even more so due to the antipathy of the Frankish elite ruling in Syria. While he had previously acted as governor of Hellas, the Peloponnese and Crete, administering a far-away province inhabited by a multi-ethnic and even multi-confessional populace was another task altogether, and, to be fair, he did not seem to care much about it. Even Niketas Choniates, who usually depicts him as a heroic personage dedicated to the defense of the imperial honor and dignity, records that the Patriarch of Antioch transmitted to Constantinople some complaints about Andronikos erratic composure during the years of 1172 and 1174 A.D., involving corruption and debauchery. Oddly enough, the contemporary Frankish sources scantly mention his presence, but they do give attention to the fact that, as per the Basileus’ will, Andronikos had positioned himself in Damascus with a bodyguard of Turkoman mercenaries, widely renowned for their savagery and bellicosity, and who routinely preyed upon the locals. Another Frankish source, writing two centuries ahead, however, attests the existence of a folk tale among the rural population that describes the Countess dowager Mabel seducing the Greek lieutenant named “
Drurios” and convincing him, now maddened by passion, to march against Babylon to obtain the diadem of the Babylonian queen, a folly which results in his untimely death. Perhaps this legend arose from the circumstance that Mabel, in spite of her demotion, remained active in Damascus and in the Outremerine politics as a whole, and left her mark in the local consciousness during her rule over Damascus.
As for Andronikos, his premature death in 1174 A.D., while he was preparing for the Egyptian campaign, aroused Manuel’s suspicions of treachery against the Franks, but he soon quelled his wrath, once he found out that Andronikos’ death, while caused by foul act, owed no relation to the Franks, but rather to the hand of a Syrian young woman against which the Greek general had attempted to force himself. To his malicious advance she responded by stabbing his throat. She would never be found, but the infuriated Turkoman horsemen, when they found out about the murder, exacted revenge upon the hapless Damascene citizens with bloody furor, until some sworn-brothers of the Knights of Saint Michael, in patrol from a nearby tower, retaliated against them. The engagements lasted for two whole days, until Mabel, having gathered a small army of Norman knights, fell upon the Turks while they feasted in the comital palace and contained them after a brief slaughter.
Out of necessity, a dispirited Manuel granted the rulership of Damascus and the command of Kontostephanos’ dispersed soldiers to
Andronikos Dalassenos Rogerios, the
Catepan of Syria, who would then lead the campaign against the Fāṭimids in 1174 A.D.
Established in Tyre, the newly-created “Catepanate of Syria” was Constantinople’s latest attempt of political-administrative growth, inspired in the defunct
Catepanate of Italy - a gubernatorial unit, smaller than a Theme, headed by a “Catepan” [Gre.
Katépanõ], who held absolute administrative and military powers and under the immediate authority of the Emperor - and, from its very beginnings, it aroused the indignation of some of the Franks, especially those in Syria. Of Bohemond’s knights and bailiffs, either Normans and Lombards, only a few remained in the County of Tyre, for most of them preferred to profess fealty to other lords, chief among them being those of Tripoli and of Emèse.
Ostensibly to maintain order in the region and to protect the Jerusalemite holy places, the Catepan commanded a standing army of fifteen hundred spear-men and five hundred archers, likely from the various subject races of the Empire, such as the Greeks, the Bulgarians and the Pechenegs, among others; the Frankish sources usually give more attention to the presence of Turkish soldiers, who, despite having converted to Christianity and adopting the Greek customs and dress, still went to battle using the same tactics that their savage forefathers used, and came to settle, during this period, in the environs of Tyre and of Damascus by imperial decree.
We know today that this Catepanate of Syria would to be short-lived, not in the least because of the hostility and antipathy of the native Franks to the Rhõmaîon presence in the Outremer, but, in the following years, it would play an important role in Manuel’s imminent war into Egypt.
Of the Marriage between Damascus and Emèse
In 1172 A.D. Mabel of Damascus married Simon of Montfort, the most formidable vassal of Emèse, a match arranged by none other than Duke Robert himself. That Simon was many years her senior and that both of them had sons of their own to succeed in their respective realms was irrelevant to Robert, who desired, above all, to associate Damascus to Emèse, and form a bloc of alliance able to oppose that of the Provençals.
In spite of the fact that Mabel had fallen from grace, she still enjoyed the loyalty and respect of the knights of Damascus, and held greater legitimacy towards the rule over the fief than the Greeks - at least according to the Frankish perspective. While no source mentions it clearly, it is apparent that Robert, from that year onward, endeavored to restore Mabel to power, likely expecting to secure his own influence over Damascus, in detriment to that of the Greeks.
As for Simon, his family had, ever since their departure from France, substantially increased their fortunes. After the *Second Crusade he had relinquished his ancestral property in Montfort-l’Amaury to King *Phillip II of France, and abdicated of Évreux in favor of his son Amaury [III] - an act that sought to solve the uncomfortable feudal situation that the Montforts saw themselves, being vassals to both the King of France and the King of England (in his capacity as Duke of Normandy), but, in time, would serve to foster further conflict between the two crowned princes, because Phillip II claimed Évreux to himself after Amaury received fiefs in England
[6] - in exchange for being placed by King Phillip as the regent of Emèse. And Simon did benefit from his new position in Outremer; the money-fiefs of the fertile provinces of Gravanssour and Ioannine
[7] gave him plentiful revenues from the land but he had long since realized that, in the Orient, money came mainly from trade, and he then erected towers and placed his knights to exact tolls from the pilgrims and merchants, and also taxed important industries and productions such as salt, marble and cotton.
Duke Robert, in reward for his service, granted to Simon the office of Seneschal hereditarily and in perpetuity and gave his family the most privileged position in Emèse, and, accordingly, they would rise even more into prominence among the noble families of the Outremer.
With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that this alliance between Emèse and Damascus, soon to be joined by other Frankish nobles dissatisfied with the current situation, would fundamentally change the balance of power in the Outremer, and, at last, pave the way for the future formation of the Crusader Kingdom of Syria under the Capetians.
In the next chapter: The Byzantines and the Franks of the Outremer will invade Fatimid Egypt again. Can they succeed this time?
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Notes:
[1] "La Chamelle" is an historical name for Homs, likely owing to the fact that the promontory where its historical citadel was constructed made it appear like the hump of a camel from those viewing her from far away.
[2] In-universe, due to the ecclesiastic influence in western historiography, Biblical narratives are commonly used as authoritative historical sources.
[3] The cathedral is in fact the (extant) Umayyad Mosque of Homs, itself adapted from an ancient Christian basilica dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, revered in both Christianity and Islam.
[4] "Ruasa" is the plural of "ra'is", which, in the context of the Frankish Outremer, are local leaders - usually Muslim, but sometimes they refer to Syrian Christians as well - who are co-opted as provincial agents of the Frankish elite over the native Palestinian and Syrian populations.
[5] The immigration of French people to Syria will probably be detailed in a future installment.
[6] This is a significant divergence in relation to OTL, where the Montforts kept both fiefs, and remained vassals to both the Kings of France and of England, and they eventually banded to the side of England during the reign of King Henry II - Simon IV of Montfort would later on marry into the Anglo-Norman aristocracy, becoming Earl of Leicester. ITTL, they effectively surrender all their French fiefs to King Phillip, thus enlarging the French royal demesne, but a dispute will arise from the inheritance over the Norman fief of Évreux, which will be claimed by Phillip as well.
[7] Ioannine is OTL As-Salamiya; in-TL, the Crusaders believe that the name of the city is an homage to the Biblical figure Salome, granddaughter of Herod the Great, who, in the gospels, is responsible for the execution of John the Baptist. For this reason, the Franks changed the name of the city to homage John the Baptist instead.
Comment: This chapter, as you might have realized, is dedicated to fleshing out a character who is poised to play a more significant role in the TL, Count Robert I of Dreux. He's a mildly interesting, if fairly obscure character IOTL, who apparently even attempted to usurp the royal throne from Louis VII of France. We don't know a lot about him, but he was the progenitor of the future ducal house of Brittany, and his sons held important ecclesiastical offices (such as Henry of Dreux, mentioned in this chapter, who was historically one Bishop of Orleans); he and his successors seem to have been ambitious and were interested in the dynastic game of thrones in Medieval France, so I hope to be doing them some justice in this fictional narrative.
I had some doubts about the direction I was taking the narrative, so, after sketching some scenarios, this was the one I found the most interesting to explore, in which a scion of the royal house of France becomes a monarch in the Outremer - unlike what happened IOTL, in which the historical Kingdom of Jerusalem was governed by a series of ducal and comital-level dynasties, such as the Angevins and the Lusignans - and, thus, we can expect they will have significant political and diplomatic connections to their kingdom and to the other royal houses of Europe. Let's see how this will play out.
