Nevertheless, securing his agreement to become Baldwin’s heir was a delicate political operation. It required Fulk to turn over his lands to his son, travel one thousand miles to meet a woman he had never set eyes on and take her as his wife, and embrace the most challenging military post in the Christian world. To sweeten the deal, William had brought with him some truly magnificent gifts, including a fragment of the True Cross and a decorated sword, which were to be presented to the cathedral in Le Mans, at the heart of Fulk’s territories.12
