Not long afterward the Saracens caught him stealing horses. Thus he entered Aleppo in grand style, bound to the hump of a camel. There he marked time in chains for sixteen years. Neither the king of Jerusalem nor Manuel Comnenus nor the citizens of Antioch seemed anxious to buy his freedom. During those years the lady Constance died.
No more was Reynauld out of prison than he contrived to wed Lady Étienne de Kerak, by which he acquired the vast and remote seigneury of Moab. He had long dreamt of capturing Muslim traffic on the Red Sea. Further, he wished to assault Mecca. So now with trees cut from the forests of Moab he transported five galleys, plank by plank, on the backs of camels, to the gulf of Akaba. Once they were assembled he went about doing what he liked best. Down the coast of Africa he went to sack Aidib, seized merchantmen from India, destroyed a pilgrim vessel bound for Jedda. Saladin’s brother, Malik, sent the admiral Husam al-Din Lulu in pursuit. Reynauld’s fleet was caught near al-Hawra. Certain of these Franks were beheaded in Cairo, others ceremoniously executed in Mecca. Reynauld himself escaped capture and traveled by land to the fortress of Kerak. It is reported that Saladin vowed to kill Brins Arnat with his own hands.
During the month of November a host of Turks surrounded Kerak. By chance they arrived when lords and ladies had gathered to celebrate a royal wedding. Humphrey, son of Lady Étienne, would marry Isabella, sister of the leper king. So there was dancing and feasting high in the keep when Saladin’s army appeared beneath the walls. Lady Étienne sent a message to let him know her son was marrying. And she reminded Saladin that when she herself was a child he had carried her in his arms. After such a long time who could avouch the truth of this? According to a Syrian Frank attached to the house of Ibelin, the Turk was for a while held captive at Kerak. However it may be, Saladin wished to know where the young couple would spend their wedding night and he forbade attacks against this turret. So the Lady Étienne sent out to him delicacies from the wedding feast, such as mutton, bread, wine, and roast beef. Meanwhile fighting continued along the ramparts, merriment within the castle.
By repute Humphrey was gentle and attractive, some said girlish, who got from his ancestors a talent for scholarship but little courage. He learnt Arabic with ease, interpreting if Turks and Franks needed to converse. Lord Conrad de Montferrat years after this marriage resolved to have Isabella for himself and Humphrey did not know what to do. They say that a champion of Lord Conrad, one Guy de Senlis, threw down a glove at Humphrey’s feet and the miserable husband did not dare pick it up. Much is made of Helen surreptitiously abducted in ancient days, yet some thought it more infamous that Lord Conrad took Isabella with her cowardly husband present.
Now as bombardment continued those who were defending Kerak lost hope. However, Saladin withdrew when the count of Tripoli approached. With this Frankish host was the dying leper king, mute, nearly blind, with neither hands nor feet, carried on a palanquin to celebrate the wedding of his sister. The curtains of his litter were drawn when they brought him through the gate, his flesh poisoning the air. Those nearby held their breath.
From throughout the realm high barons arrived to await King Baldwin’s death. In our year of grace 1185 he went to sleep with God. They buried him between the Holy Sepulcher and Mount Calvary where kings of Jerusalem have been laid to rest since the days of Godfrey de Bouillon. Many wondered at the source of his leprosy. Some ascribed it to the incestuous marriage of his parents because his mother Agnes, a lascivious woman panting for men and gold, was third cousin to his father Amalric. Who shall decide? Are we not girdled by falsities of superstition?
Ibn Jubayr, a Spanish Muslim who traveled in those days from Andalusia to Damascus, observed with grave surprise how Arab caravans would pass unmolested through Frankish land, even as Christian merchants did business in Syria. Perhaps wiser than sovereigns, they went about buying and selling while armies surged to and fro. Unluckily, here was Reynauld de Chatillon. When he learned of a caravan passing not far away he rode out from Kerak and took it, an hour Christendom would lament because it carried the sister of Saladin. Woe to the Holy Land. Some assert that Reynauld de Chatillon by himself roused greater fury in the Saracen heart than one hundred years of war.
Now with the leper king in Paradise the crown of Jerusalem went to a foolish knight, Guy de Lusignan. Histories from those days account him skillful in the use of weapons, well versed at flattery, excelling at courtly gestures. Because of such attributes he caught the eye of Baldwin’s elder sister, Sibylla. She loved Guy de Lusignan and slept with him. How the leper king heard of this is not recorded, only that he knew. He had Guy de Lusignan tortured and would have stoned him to death but for certain Templars who counseled moderation. Then he granted life to Sibylla and to this knight she loved. And because no son or daughter would succeed him on the throne, he permitted them to marry. This ill suited noble and citizen alike. They despised Guy de Lusignan as much for the vacancy of his soul as the impoverishment of his mind. Therefore in the city of Nablus barons of high lineage gathered to consult, worried that a simpleton might be their governor. Next came word from Sibylla, commanding them to be present at her coronation. They refused. And since Nablus was but ten leagues distant, the gates of Jerusalem were shut. Patriarch Heraclius and
