An obscure battlefield death that changed the course of history

I am sure that Rania and/or Koby have already posted about the historical events occurring on June 29th, but here goes my entry. A significant death occurred on June 29, 1149, when Raymond, Prince of Antioch, was slain at the battle of Inab after foolishly engaging a much larger force. Raymond was the uncle of our Eleanor, and her supposed partner in incestuous infidelity during her brief stay in Antioch during the Second Crusade. This is highly unlikely; the best discussion of her supposed bad behavior can be found in Ralph Turner’s biography in which he demonstrates how sexual slander was the weapon of choice against women in the MA, and guess what, it still is.
But---drum roll here—Raymond’s death was probably not the most significant one to happen on the battlefield that day. IMHO, that would be Renauld, the Lord of Marash, one of Raymond’s vassals. Why? Because Renauld left a young widow named Agnes de Courtenay. Agnes was very beautiful and very unlucky. She was widowed at fourteen and she was fifteen when her father, the Count of Edessa, was captured by the Saracen emir, Nur al-Din, who refused to ransom him, instead ordering him blinded and thrown into an Aleppo dungeon, where he eventually died. Although Agnes no longer had a marriage portion to tempt would-be suitors, when she was in her early twenties, she caught the eye of the young lord of Ramla, Hugh d’Ibelin, who was willing to marry her anyway. Unfortunately for Agnes, Hugh was then captured by the Saracens. When Agnes went to appeal to the Count of Jaffa, the King of Jerusalem’s brother, hoping to gain help in raising Hugh’s ransom, the count became just as smitten with her as Hugh had been. One chronicler claims that she was taken by force, but she married the count, Amalric, instead of Hugh, and during six years of marriage, she gave birth to a son, Baldwin, and a daughter, Sybilla. Amalric became King of Jerusalem on his brother’s unexpected death without heirs, but Agnes’s bad luck continued to dog her and Amalric was compelled to end their marriage as a condition of becoming king; it was elective.
So Agnes never wore a crown herself, although she probably thought she wore one of thorns, for she became very bitter, not surprisingly. But her two children would both be crowned and her son Baldwin would tragically go down in history as the Leper King. The turmoil and political in-fighting that ravaged the kingdom due to his illness set the stage for Saladin’s triumph at Hattin. Had Baldwin been healthy, Hattin would never have occurred, for as great as the victory was for Saladin, it depended upon the circumstances that had led to the king in 1187---Guy de Lusignan---making one of the most bone-headed and reckless blunders in military history. Magically cure Baldwin of his leprosy, no Hattin. Remove Baldwin and his sister completely from the equation, again no Hattin. And that is what would have happened if Renauld of Marash had not died on that June day in 1149 due to another foolish military mistake, this one made by Raymond of Antioch.
Had Renauld survived, he and Agnes would have remained married and she would not have been placed in a situation where she aroused the lust of the Count of Jaffa. And of course, no Hattin, no Third Crusade, and the history of England, France, and Germany would have been dramatically changed, as well. There is a great line in The Lion in Winter in which Eleanor reminds her sons that she’d have stayed married to the French king if she’d given him sons instead of daughters, saying wryly, “Such is the role that sex plays in history.” That could apply to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, too.
In other happenings, on this date in 1509, Margaret Beaufort died. I will heroically refrain from commenting further. And in 1613, the Globe Theatre burned to the ground; fortunately it was rebuilt the following year. Even more fortunately, it has now been recreated in magnificent detail on the banks of the Thames . I stayed on in London after my Richard III tour ended last September, and my friend John Philipps took me and Stephanie and her husband, Steve, to the Globe to see Macbeth. It was a wonderful day, a delightful experience in quasi-time-traveling, made all the better by having such a knowledgeable guide in John; for example, he alerted us that we needed to rent cushions to soften those hard wooden benches. When readers ask me what to see if they have limited time in London, I’ve always advised them to be sure to visit the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and at least one of the city’s great museums. Now I’ve added a matinee performance at the Globe to my recommendations.