Then the leech addressed King Baldwin. Sire, if you resolve to take no man’s life for the sake of thine own I beseech you to provide a captive bear, which is a beast of no use except to be baited. Let this animal stand erect on hinder paws so that steel may be thrust into him. Then after he is dead I may by inspecting his vitals measure the degree of his injury at bottom, and to some degree thine own.
To this the king responded. If need be, do as thou wilt.
It was done. Thus the leech discovered how perilous it would be if King Baldwin’s injury drew together before the rudiment healed. Again we perceive how our Lord most graciously extended His hand.
During the seventh year of Baldwin’s reign it became customary to exchange tokens of spiritual friendship with churches in Europe. Anseau, who was precentor of the Church of the Sepulcher, despatched to the canons of Notre-Dame a splinter from the True Cross. This inestimable relic had belonged to the king of Georgia who adored and guarded it. Upon his death the sorrowing queen shaved her head, took the veil, and retired to Jerusalem accompanied by this holy sliver of wood. Also, she carried a huge amount of gold that she distributed among various monasteries. And to the poor she gave innumerable alms. Because of her saintliness the patriarch of Jerusalem asked her to govern a community of nuns, a request she dutifully honored. These nuns at length fell into want. They lacked food and other necessities. So in order to sustain them the widowed queen of Georgia sold the most precious item known to mankind. By the helm of goodness does our Lord govern His universe.
During the summer of 1110 there came to the port of Joppa a Norse fleet numbering fifty or sixty vessels. Their captain a handsome youth named Sigurd, son of King Magnus Barefoot. This youth with his brother Eystein ruled Norway after the death of their father, slain while pillaging Ireland. These adventurers wintered first in England as guests of King Henry. Next winter they spent in Galicia and battled the Moors in Portugal. Next they sailed to Apulia, thence to Palestine. Baldwin greeted them joyously, conversed, and escorted them to Jerusalem. He ordered a fine banquet and gave Sigurd many relics. Later he accompanied Sigurd to the river Jordan. He entreated these Norse to remain, if only long enough to help capture Sidon. For if they did, he said, they would go back to their own land offering praise to our Lord. So the Norse agreed. Documents relate how they fought valiantly at Sidon. Now, the governor of Sidon plotted to murder King Baldwin but did not succeed, thanks to native Christians who launched an arrow with a message into the Frankish camp. All the same, having no use for a dagger in the back or tainted meat, Baldwin looked about shrewdly while the siege continued. Anon, Sidon was captured. In this way, helped by Norse warriors, King Baldwin established himself on the Syrian coast.
Presently it seemed to the Norse that they should go home. They embarked for Constantinople, which in their language they call Micklegarth. It is said that Alexius entertained them at great expense. They in return gave him their ships. Certain of these Norse chose to become vassals of the emperor and live out their lives in Constantinople. Others traveled north through savage countries to Denmark, whence they sailed to their icy homeland. And since they had been inspired by God to visit Jerusalem, Sigurd was called Jorsalfarer. The head of this devout sovereign, Sigurd Jorsalfarer, rests forever in Oslo, lodged in a wall of Akershus Castle.
King Baldwin during the year of our grace 1111 thought to seize the ancient city of Tyre. So he constructed among other engines a tower on wheels equipped with a battering ram. Misbelievers in the city commended their black souls to Allah because walls trembled when struck by the ram. But according to the narrative of Ibn al-Qalanisi there was some mariner who devised grapnels to catch the ram and Turks pulling on ropes affixed to these hooks contrived to wrench the tower aside. Now the Franks brought up a ram sixty cubits long with an iron head. Turks emptied jars of excrement on those who operated it, which sickened and choked them. If that were not enough, the mariner called for baskets of asphalt, resin, oil, and reed bark, had them set afire and dropped on Christian soldiers. Sergeants threw water and vinegar at the flame, Turks threw boiling oil. A Frankish knight wearing chain mail was seen rolling across the stones like a blazing torch. No chronicle preserves this martyr’s name. We wonder at such inequity, yet it is not within us to measure the compass of God’s work.
After several months at Tyre but little accomplished, with news of Toghtekin approaching from Damascus, King Baldwin thought better of his idea and retreated.
Some years having gone by since he married the Armenian princess, he wearied of her. She had not brought the dowry he expected, nor had she borne children. He dismissed her as adulterous, charging that she had given her body to infidels on a voyage from Lattakieh to Joppa. Who can be sure? Abbot Guibert speaks of how contrary winds swept her vessel to an island peopled with Barbars who murdered a bishop in her retinue, murdered others, and for a long time held the queen captive. As for the truth, God knows. However it was, King Baldwin pushed her from his bed, compelled her to go and live with nuns at the convent of Saint Anne in Jerusalem. It is known that she escaped this constraint and made her way to Constantinople where she wallowed in unspeakable vice. Such are the narrow streets of destruction.
In the providential year 1112 came word that Countess Adelaide of Sicily, a
