ABSTRACT
By 1186 Guy of Lusignan was clearly unpopular with a substantial section of the baronage in the kingdom of Jerusalem. As regent for the ailing Baldwin IV in 1183, he had failed to impress his critics and ended by quarrelling with the king,' but his problems began with his marriage to the Icing's sister, Sibylla, in 1180. As these three excerpts illustrate, the circumstances of the marriage were controversial, and Guy, a younger son from a reasonably prominent French provincial seigneurial family. was Sibylla's social inferior. William of Tyre (document 1a),2 who was writing in or before 1184, damns with faint praise, describing him as 'satis nobilis' - 'noble enough' - and ascribes the marriage to an ill-judged pre-emptive move by the king to thwart the ambitions of his relatives, Bohemond ill of Antioch and Raymond III of Tripoli. The English writer, Roger of Howden (document 1b),3 has a scurrilous story that he could have picked up from a member of Patriarch Eraclius' s entourage when the patriarch visited England in 1185 or from English crusaders who accompanied the patriarch to the East only to return home when they discovered there was a truce with the Muslims and no fighting to be done.• With document 1c' we have a story designed to explain the antipathy of the Ibelins for the Lusignans. This comes from the Chronique d'Emoul et de Bernard le Tresorier and could well be part of the authentic work of Balian of Ibelin's squire, Ernoul. Some aspects of the story-the emperor covering Baldwin of Ramla in gold coins being the most obvious - stretch our credulity, and it has to be said that no other source mentions Baldwin's ambition to marry Sibylla. On the other hand, some of the information can be corroborated: Baldwin did go to Constantinople to raise his ransom; the ransom was huge, with Muslim sources putting it at 150,000 dinars; Aimery of Lusignan did marry Baldwin's daughter, and the marriage had taken place before 1176.6
la At about the same time the lord Bohemond, prince of Antioch, and the lord Raymond, count of Tripoli, entered the kingdom with their armed followers. Their corning struck fear into the lord king who was afraid that they might attempt to bring about a political upheaval: namely that they would deprive him of the kingdom and would seek to lay claim to it for themselves. For the king was afflicted by his illness worse than usual, and every day the signs of his leprosy were becoming more and more evident. His sister, who had been the marquis's wife, still remained a widow and was awaiting the duke as we have said. 7 The king was aware of the arrival of these nobles and was distrustful of it, even although each was his kinsman. He therefore hastened the wedding of his sister. She could have been given in marriage much more suitably and far more to the advantage of the kingdom, since nobler, wiser and indeed richer men could have been found either among the visitors to the kingdom or among the residents. But the king was insufficiently mindful that violent impulse serves everything badly, and for various reasons that had cropped up she was given unexpectedly to a noble enough young man named Guy of Lusignan. He was the son of Hugh Le BrunS and came from the diocese of Poitiers. Contrary to custom, the ceremony took place during Easter. Then the aforesaid nobles, seeing that their coming was regarded with suspicion by the king and his people, completed their prayers in the customary fashion and returned home.
