ABSTRACT
The rebellion of Count Hugh of Jaffa is an interesting episode for several reasons. It shows the tensions in accommodating newcomers into the political structure of the kingdom of Jerusalem and reveals the twists and turns in the legacy of King Baldwin II. Note the change in the terms of Fulk’s kinship. In i(a) he married Melisende (in 1129) in the expectation of ruling in his own right. In i(b), two years later, he is made to rule alongside his wife and son. It also demonstrates the agenda of William of Tyre who, writing c. 1170-85, was concerned to justify the settlers’ defence of the Holy Land to those in the West. Here, he chose to blur an episode, distant to his own time, that reflected badly on the relationship between the Franks of the East and newcomers from Europe. The account of Orderic Vitalis, an Anglo-Norman monk who composed this section of his Ecclesiastical History in c. 1136-41, provides a complement to William of Tyre’s version and probably reveals the real reason behind Hugh of Jaffa’s revolt.
