ABSTRACT
Raymond’s death left the Franks of northern Syria deeply vulnerable and King Baldwin III marched north, as kings of Jerusalem had done in the past (1119, 1130), to restore order. The disaster at Inab prompted appeals to the West for a new crusade and senior ecclesiastical gures, including Abbot Suger of Saint Denis, Bernard of Clairvaux and Pope Eugenius set up a series of meetings to plan a new expedition. The prospects of Louis of France or Conrad of Germany leaving their lands again so quickly were remote, and in the atmosphere of bitterness and despondency generated by the defeat at Damascus – not to mention the exhaustion of men and resources – no response was forthcoming. One consequence of this lack of reaction in the West may have been Baldwin’s decision in 1150 to sell the remaining Frankish castles in the county of Edessa to the Byzantines. Given the poor relations between the Greeks and Latins over recent decades this may seem strange. But, it is important to indicate that this tension had not involved the
kingdom of Jerusalem; rather, it had formed between the Byzantines and the western crusaders and the Byzantines and Antioch. In any case, Baldwin probably felt he could not defend the isolated Edessan castles and, in light of the lack of help from western Europe, it was worth trying to build a more positive relationship with Manuel Komnenos. This move, however small, can be seen to signal the early stages of closer collaboration between the Greeks and the Latin settlers. As a fellow-Christian possessed of both substantial resources and a strategic interest in northern Syria, Manuel was an appropriate ally to work with against the Muslims. As we shall see, a better relationship with the Greeks became a key aim of the rulers of Jerusalem over the next thirty years.
