Queen Melisende and King Fulk
Scandal in the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Shortly after Baldwin returned to Jerusalem in August 1131, he fell ill and his condition rapidly deteriorated. Realizing that he would soon die, Baldwin requested to be sent to the palace of the patriarch of Jerusalem in the Holy Sepulchre. Once there, he summoned his eldest daughter, Melisende, her husband and his son-in-law, Fulk V of Anjou, their infant son, Baldwin, the Patriarch of Jerusalem and several leading nobles to his bedside.
Fulk had an amicable relationship with King Baldwin, though he greatly anticipated becoming King once his father-in-law passed on. Fulk wasn’t the most handsome noble in the Kingdom; he had red hair and he wasn’t very tall. However, the Levantine nobles overlooked his appearances and chose him to marry Melisende because he was the head of one of the most powerful families in Western Europe and also because he had considerable military experience.
Baldwin could have handed the crown to Fulk, but he decided else wise. The decision Baldwin made would have “profound consequences for Melisende, Fulk and the future Kingdom of Jerusalem” (Jonathan Phillips). He committed the Kingdom of Jerusalem to Melisende, Fulk and his grandson, Baldwin. For the first time ever, the Kingdom would be ruled by a triumvirate.
To Fulk, that was more than just a slap in his face. He did not relinquish his title of Count of Anjou simply to marry into the royal family of Jerusalem. He did so with the goal to become King. Only then could he work to strengthen relations between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Angevin Empire so that he could attract more highly seasoned and skilled warriors to settle in the Holy Land. He neither wished for nor anticipated sharing the power with his wife.
In the Middle Ages, men were the patriarchs and figureheads in society. While there were a few women who ruled (the Empress Matilda of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine) they were the exception to the rule. Even their reign was heavily guided by influential male nobles in their court. It was highly expected that a crown would be handed down to a son-in-law or eldest son.
Baldwin knew that Fulk would have made a good king, so why did he make the decision that he had made?
Even before King Baldwin’s passing, it looked as if “two parties developed within the kingdom” (Malcolm Barber). Fulk brought with him his own men, “replacing the older established families with what Orderic Vitalis called ‘Angevin strangers’” (Malcolm Barber). The Levantine nobles referred to it as the Angevin invasion and they undoubtedly feared that Fulk would supplant them in favor of his own men.
Baldwin realized that possibility and certainly did not want to see his nobles, who devoted their entire lives defending the Kingdom of Jerusalem, be set aside by foreigners who knew very little about the Levantine climate and politics. He also wished create his own dynasty, even if that meant passing the crown on to a woman.
Melisende was not any woman, though. Baldwin saw a strength and level of intelligence in his eldest daughter that very few women possessed. Those traits were the making of a good leader. Melisende also had close relations with all the Levantine nobles as she grew up in their presence. Those were reasons enough for Baldwin to crown his daughter Queen of Jerusalem.
Scandal in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Were Queen Melisende and Hugh of Jaffa Lovers?
Fulk and Melisende were crowned King and Queen on 14 September 1131, but Fulk was determined to rule in his own right and was not inclined to share the power with his own wife. Melisende, though, was no meek woman who would easily cave in to her husband’s demands. She was astute, well versed in the political and economic landscape of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, especially so since she was of royal blood. Furthermore, since Melisende grew up in the royal court, she had cultivated close friendships with many of the Levantine nobles, especially with Hugh of Jaffa.
Ever since Melisende assumed the crown jointly with her husband, Fulk, and possibly even before then, Hugh had decided to hate Fulk. When Fulk became King, he did not strip Hugh of his lordship and title, so why did Hugh hate him so intensely? It was because of Hugh’s dedication to Melisende. It was even rumored amongst the nobility that Hugh was Melisende’s lover.
Hugh was the son of Hugh II of Le Puiset and a blood relative of Baldwin II, thus giving him an automatic in with the royal family of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was born in Apulia while his parents were en route to the Holy Land. Not much is known about Hugh’s early life, but Baldwin II welcomed him into his family when Hugh was a young child and treated him like a son.
In the 1120s, when Hugh came of age, Baldwin granted him the County of Jaffa. Shortly after that, Hugh married Emma of Jaffa, the widow of royal constable Eustace Grenier, and they had two sons: Eustace (the future lord of Sidon) and Walter (the future lord of Caesarea).
As a boy, Hugh was favored at court and since he spent a good deal of his childhood in the royal household, he most likely cultivated a close friendship with Melisende. As a young man in the early 1130s, Hugh was a handsome and highly skilled warrior. “In him the gifts of nature seemed to have met in lavish abundance; without question in respect to physical beauty and nobility of birth, as well as experience in the art of war. He had no equal in the Kingdom,” wrote William of Tyre (quoted in Jonathan Phillips, Holy Warriors).
Hugh refused to obey royal commands and openly defied King Fulk. Fulk, in turn hated Hugh and, undoubtedly wished to punish this arrogant and hotheaded count but Jaffa was the wealthiest county in the kingdom so Hugh proved to be no easy rival to deal with.
As tensions mounted between the two men, Fulk began to suspect that Hugh was being more than just friendly with the Queen. It was no coincidence that at the same time, rumors of Melisende’s infidelity with Hugh echoed throughout court. Hugh’s antipathy towards King Fulk gave Fulk and his friends at court reason enough to suspect Hugh and Queen Melisende’s friendship as more than just a friendship.
These rumors created scandal in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. They also threatened to destroy Fulk and especially Melisende’s reputation. If it was discovered that Melisende had a sexual relationship with Hugh, according to a law laid down in the 1120 Concordat of Nablus, she would have had her nose slit or cut off and Hugh would have been castrated (Jonathan Phiilips). However, there was no evidence that Melisende ever shared an intimate relationship with Hugh.
Sources Used
Barber, Malcolm. The Crusader States. New Haven and London; Yale University Press, 2012
Philips, Jonathan. Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades. New York; Random House, 2009