Joscelin III of Edessa (1139 – after 1190) was the titular
Count of Edessa
The County of Edessa (Latin: ''Comitatus Edessanus'') was one of the Crusader states in the 12th century. Ferdinandi, Sergio (2017). La Contea Franca di Edessa. Fondazione e Profilo Storico del Primo Principato Crociato nel Levante (1098-115 ...
, who during his lifetime managed to amass enough land to establish the ''
Seigneurie of Joscelin.''
Early life
He was the son of
Joscelin II
Joscelin II of Edessa (died 1159) was the fourth and last ruling count of Edessa. He was son of his predecessor Joscelin I of Edessa and Beatrice, daughter of Constantine I of Armenia.
Biography
In 1122, Joscelin I was captured by Belek Ghazi. ...
and his wife
Beatrice of Saone Beatrice of Saone was countess of Edessa from 1134 to 1150. Her first husband, William of Zardana, died in 1132 or 1133, leaving her in the possession of the fortress of Saone in the Principality of Antioch. She soon married her late husband's clos ...
. He inherited the title of Count of Edessa from his father, Joscelin II, although
Edessa
Edessa (; grc, Ἔδεσσα, Édessa) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, founded during the Hellenistic period by King Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Seleucid Empire. It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroene ...
had been captured in 1144 and its remnants (including the
Lordship of Turbessel) conquered or sold years before he took the title.
Joscelin lived in the
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establishe ...
and managed to gather enough land around
Acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
to set up the ''
Seigneurie of Joscelin.''
Royal Guardian
His sister,
Agnes of Courtenay
Agnes of Courtenay ( – ) was a Frankish noblewoman from the Crusader states. Agnes's parents, Joscelin II of Edessa and Beatrice of Saone, lost the County of Edessa in 1150. As the widow of Reynald of Marash, Agnes married Count Amalric of ...
, had been the first wife of King
Amalric I
Amalric or Amaury I ( la, Amalricus; french: Amaury; 113611 July 1174) was King of Jerusalem from 1163, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. He was the second son of Melisende and Fulk of Jerusalem, and succeeded his older brot ...
before he succeeded to the throne, and was the mother of
Baldwin IV and
Sibylla. In 1164 Joscelin was taken captive by
Nur ad-Din Zengi
Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Zengī (; February 1118 – 15 May 1174), commonly known as Nur ad-Din (lit. "Light of the Faith" in Arabic), was a member of the Zengid dynasty, which ruled the Syria (region), Syrian province (''Shām'') of the Seljuk E ...
at the
Battle of Harim
The Battle of Harim (Harenc) was fought on 12 August 1164 at Harim, Syria, between the forces of Nur ad-Din, and a combined army from the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, the Byzantine Empire, and Armenia. Nur ad-Din won a cru ...
. He remained a prisoner until 1176 when Agnes paid his ransom of 50,000 dinars, probably with support from the royal treasury. His nephew Baldwin then made him
seneschal of Jerusalem
The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...
. He faced some rivalry from the king's paternal kindred, led by
Raymond III, Count of Tripoli
Raymond III (1140 – September/October 1187) was count of Tripoli from 1152 to 1187. He was a minor when Assassins murdered his father, Raymond II of Tripoli. Baldwin III of Jerusalem, who was staying in Tripoli, made Raymond's mother, Hodierna ...
.
![Miiliya-castle-38](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Miiliya-castle-38.jpg)
In 1180 Joscelin went as an ambassador to the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
. After the betrothal of Baldwin's half-sister
Isabella
Isabella may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Isabella (surname), including a list of people
Places
United States
* Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...
to
Humphrey IV of Toron
Humphrey IV of Toron ( 1166 – 1198) was a leading baron in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He inherited the Lordship of Toron from his grandfather, Humphrey II, in 1179. He was also heir to the Lordship of Oultrejourdan through his mother, Step ...
that year, the
Toron
Toron, now Tibnin or Tebnine in southern Lebanon, was a major Crusader castle, built in the Lebanon mountains on the road from Tyre to Damascus. The castle was the centre of the Lordship of Toron, a seigneury within the Kingdom of Jerusalem ...
estates passed to the crown in exchange for a money fief. Baldwin IV granted part of them,
Chastel Neuf
Hunin ( ar, هونين) was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village in the Galilee Panhandle part of Mandatory Palestine close to the Lebanon, Lebanese border. It was the second largest village in the district of Safed, but was depopulated ...
, to Joscelin, and awarded Agnes an income from the
usufruct
Usufruct () is a limited real right (or ''in rem'' right) found in civil-law and mixed jurisdictions that unites the two property interests of ''usus'' and ''fructus'':
* ''Usus'' (''use'') is the right to use or enjoy a thing possessed, directl ...
, or produce, of Toron. Agnes died in late 1184, a few months before her son.
In 1185, Joscelin became guardian of his young great-nephew,
Baldwin V
Baldwin is a Germanic name, composed of the elements ''bald'' "bold" and ''win'' "friend".
People
* Baldwin (name)
Places Canada
* Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario
* Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District
* Baldwin's Mills, ...
, while Raymond III was regent. Raymond feared that, if he were the child's personal guardian, he would be blamed if he died in his care, because he had a claim to the throne himself. Joscelin, as the king's maternal grandmother's brother, had no claim, but rather had strong family interests in keeping him alive. Additional support came with the arrival of Baldwin's paternal grandfather,
William V of Montferrat
William V of Montferrat (occ./piem. ''Guilhem'', it. ''Guglielmo'') ( 1115 – 1191) also known regnally as William III of Montferrat while also referred to as William the Old or William the Elder, in order to distinguish him from his eldest s ...
, from Italy. However, Baldwin seems to have been sickly, and died at Acre in 1186. Joscelin and William escorted his coffin to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Raymond went to Nablus to attempt a coup with
Balian of Ibelin Balian or Balyan may refer to:
People
*Balian of Ibelin (disambiguation), a name shared by several members of the Ibelin family from the crusader kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus
*Balian Buschbaum (born 1980), German pole vaulter
*Roger Balian, 20t ...
to install Isabella as queen. This failed, and Sibylla was crowned, also crowning her second husband,
Guy of Lusignan
Guy of Lusignan (c. 1150 – 18 July 1194) was a French Poitevin knight, son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan and as such born of the House of Lusignan. He was king of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla of Jerusalem, and King o ...
.
In 1186, Guy and Sibylla granted Chastel Neuf and Toron, with other territory, to Joscelin. He, in turn, gave them as the dowry of his elder daughter,
Beatrice, whom he betrothed to Guy’s younger brother, William of Valence. Her younger sister, Agnes, was to marry one of Guy’s nephews, but if Beatrice died while still a minor, William was to marry Agnes instead.
At the
Battle of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of t ...
in 1187, Joscelin commanded the rearguard with Balian of Ibelin. Both escaped the disastrous defeat and fled to
Tyre. All his estates were captured by Saladin. Joscelin joined in the
siege of Acre Siege of Acre may refer to:
* Siege of Acre (1104), following the First Crusade
*Siege of Acre (1189–1191), during the Third Crusade
* Siege of Acre (1263), Baibars laid siege to the Crusader city, but abandoned it to attack Nazareth.
*Siege of A ...
in the
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...
. He last witnessed a charter on 25 October 1190, after Sibylla's death. There is a strong likelihood that he died during the siege. A month later, Isabella, who was now claiming the crown from Guy, restored Humphrey of Toron's claim to Chastel Neuf and Toron (should they be reconquered) when she accepted the annulment of their marriage. If Joscelin was still alive, he made no recorded objection. However, this seems to have ended the prospect of his daughters' Lusignan marriages. He was definitely dead by October 1200.
Joscelin's ''seigneurie'' was acquired by the
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
, in 1220.
[Strehlke, 1869, pp]
43
44, No. 53; pp
47
49, Nos. 58-59; Cited in Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p
248
No. 934; Cited Frankel, 1988, p. 259
Marriage and children
After his release from captivity in 1176, Joscelin married Agnes of Milly, (
de) third daughter of Henry "the Buffalo" of Milly, (
de) Lord of
Petra
Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...
, (and a sister of
Stephanie of Milly and
Helvis de Milly (fr)); by whom he had two daughters:
#
Beatrix de Courtenay
Beatrix de Courtenay (died after 1245) was a Titular Countess of Edessa and Countess consort of Henneberg as the wife of Otto von Botenlauben. She was the eldest daughter of Agnes of Milly ( de) and Joscelin III, Count of Edessa, who sold Chastel ...
(d. aft. 1245), betrothed to William of Valence, brother of Guy of Lusignan, in 1186, but married
Otto von Botenlauben
Otto von Botenlauben or Botenlouben (1177, Henneberg – before 1245, near Bad Kissingen), the Count of Henneberg from 1206, was a German minnesinger, Crusader and monastic founder.
Otto von Botenlauben was the fourth son of Count Poppo VI ...
# Agnes de Courtenay, betrothed to a nephew of Guy of Lusignan in 1186, but married, by 1200, William of Amandolea, a Norman from
Calabria
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
, who became
Lord of Scandeleon
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Nielen, Marie-Adelaïde (ed.), ''
Lignages d'Outremer
The ''Lignages d'Outremer'' ("Lineages of Outremer") describe the pedigrees of the most important Crusader families.
A first version was written in 1270 and is available in two manuscripts of the 14th century. A later version was produced in 130 ...
''. Paris, 2003.
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joscelin 03 Of Edessa
1190s deaths
1st house of Courtenay
Counts of Edessa
1139 births
Ambassadors to the Byzantine Empire
Christians of the Third Crusade