Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 113 Becoming an Earl

Leonard's tent was indeed quite luxurious. Even with 10 people squeezed in and facing each other, it still seemed spacious.

However, when Gellis mentioned that he wanted to sort out the events of the past few months, Leonard's eyes became a little vague.

"When are you going to start?" he asked.

"Let's start with the will of His Majesty the Leper King," Gailis replied.

Since the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the transfer of the throne has shown helplessness.

Without going into too much detail about what happened before, as soon as the Leper King ascended the throne, the issue of succession to the throne had already troubled the entire country.

Because of his leprosy, the Leper King was unable to have children with women, and according to Frankish tradition, women could not rule alone.

Therefore, the choice that best complies with the law of inheritance and takes into account the traditions of the Franks is to let the leper king's sisters inherit the throne, and then have their husbands crowned co-kings to preside over the government.

When the Leper King was crowned in 1174, Sibylla was the undisputed heir to the throne due to her age, and her marriage was also highly valued by everyone.

In 1176, Sibylla was married to William Longsward, the eldest son of the Marquis of Montferrat in Italy, to deepen her ties with the European nobility.

The following year, William Longsward died, and Sibylla gave birth to a posthumous son, Baldwin V.

From this point on, the vortex of succession to the throne became increasingly grinding.

Baldwin V was too young, so Sibylla was still the undisputed heir to the throne. However, she was unmarried, which aroused the greed of many nobles.

In order to prevent the kingdom from falling into civil war over the right of succession, Sibylla married Guy, a knight from France, in 1180.

But after getting along with Guy, the Leper King realized Guy's insect nature and felt that if this man inherited the throne, the kingdom would be doomed.

But Sibilla also got angry at this time and refused to live with him and asked for a divorce.

The Leper King chose to bypass Sibylla and instead make Baldwin V, Sibylla's posthumous son, his heir. He also found someone he thought was more reliable to be the regent.

He also made a will that if Baldwin V died before having children, the succession to the throne of Jerusalem would be decided by the four great monarchs of Europe.

The four great monarchs in Europe are the Pope, the King of France, the King of England, and the Holy Roman Emperor, all of whom are native European powers.

To put it simply, the Leper King felt that there were too many insects in Jerusalem, and if he really relied on these guys, Wang Guotong would be able to succeed.

Therefore, even if the throne of Jerusalem became a puppet of European powers, at least foreign aid could be obtained to help the country survive.

Then...just over half a year after the death of the Leper King, Baldwin V, an eight-year-old child, died...the cause of death is unknown.

Immediately afterwards, the nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem directly refused to execute the will of the Leper King.

Why should their king be decided by the four great monarchs of Europe!
From this point on, the division and destruction of the Kingdom of Jerusalem seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

Later, when Isabella rushed from Karak Castle to Jerusalem to participate in the king selection, she was attacked by Bedouins on a rainy night.

Today, Gellis brought up the will of the Leper King again to accuse Guy of not being legitimate on the throne. He said that the nobles including Reynald had used several despicable means to support him.

The cause of death of Baldwin V is unknown. Is it really unknown?
The will of the Leper King was refused to be executed. Wasn't it possible that there had been collusion in advance?

The king was chosen in the holy city of Jerusalem, and Isabella was attacked on a rainy night.

This series of events happened in May 1186.

"I think Guy is not worthy of being king."

Having made his point succinctly, Gillis went on to say more.

"But, although I don't want to admit it, the kingdom can't stand another split. We can't fight another civil war under Saladin's watchful eyes. Things are different now."

What Gellis is talking about is that in 1153, a civil war broke out between Baldwin III and his mother, Queen Melisende, over the authority to rule.

However, the Muslim community at that time was still in a fragmented state of warlord separatism and was completely unable to interfere in the civil war in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

"And there are some things you don't want me to put on the table."

Gellis gave Reynard a look, and Reynard clapped his hands, signaling the guard knights behind him to leave the tent.

Garys also asked Charles, Clovis and others to leave the tent.

The conversation that is about to take place will involve the dark side of the kingdom, and the more people who know about it, the worse the impact will be.

For Reynald, if those things were to spread, it would have an extremely terrible impact on the legitimacy of Guy's throne.

For Garys, only secrets that are not yet known to the public are suitable as handles to threaten others. Naturally, he is not in a hurry to make the scandal of Leonard and his gang public.

The knights left the tent, and when they lowered the tent curtain, they could vaguely hear a fierce quarrel breaking out inside. The four knights under Reynard stood on the right side of the tent door, and the one who had been punched by Garys stood on the left side of the tent door.

As the noise inside grew louder, the knights seemed to faintly hear the sounds of fighting.

It seemed as if something was smashed, and something was torn apart.

The four knights, led by Clovis, couldn't help but look sad, as their painful memories came back to them.

As for the four knights opposite Clovis, even though they knew what was happening in the tent, they didn't want to go in. As long as they didn't hear Reynard's loud voice calling people, they would pretend not to hear it.

After all, Garys wouldn't really injure or kill a man in his sixties.

But if these four young knights got involved, they would probably be outnumbered five by one again.

When Gellis just got off the carriage, he had already proved that his martial arts skills were not on the same level as the knights.

Simply put, it is better for one person to be beaten than for five people to be beaten.

But it's still pretty tough.

So the knights tried to make small talk and ease the awkwardness.

"Uh, what you said in the tent before, were you kidding? Are you really going to follow Garys? No, why is that?" asked Clovis, a member of the Cavaliers.

The corner of Clovis' mouth twitched. The scene of Garys kicking the sword into the stone a few hours ago was still vivid in his mind.

Time passed little by little with the noise in the tent and the chatting outside the tent.

Before sunset, the tent curtain was lifted.

Garys supported Reynard and walked out. The knights could see that Reynard had a black eye on his left eye, and it was obvious that they had really fought in there.

The conversation between the two was full of tension from the very beginning.

The purpose of Garys coming to see Leonard was that he needed to reach a peace agreement with Leonard.

After all, war is going to break out next year. If Garys cannot ensure a smooth autumn ploughing this year, people will starve to death next year.

The nobles of Reynard's faction do not have the ability to accomplish things now, but they are still capable of doing bad things.

Second, the peace agreement that Gellis is demanding is not a recognition of the current status quo.

In front of Reynald, he drew a simple map of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and drew a circle in the northern part of the Transjordan territory.

In short, because of two consecutive assassinations by Reynald and his men, as well as other armed conflicts, Reynald had to cede at least a quarter of the territory of Transjordan as compensation.

Such a large piece of land, if it were in mainland Europe, would almost be considered a countship.

Of course, Reynald was not happy about this. After all, the attack on Isabella was the act of their entire faction. Why did Gailis target only him and take advantage of him?
There is no place to live! There is life to live!
Along with Garys's verbal threats, Leonard's temper was also hot, and his mind was a little confused for a moment, so he naturally started to fight.

Needless to say, the result of Leonard's actions was obvious.

After the fight, Gelis threatened again, saying: "I am not afraid of fighting. I am happy when I hear about fighting. What kind of fighting is Transjordan? It's nothing but cold weapons and a few fights. Jerusalem is a real fight. Both sides have thousands of people, city walls, heavy cavalry, and I heard there are catapults!"

What this meant was that if the two countries really fell out, Garys would take Isabella to Rome with him, explain the pros and cons, and directly mobilize people in the holy city of Jerusalem to start a civil war.

Given the current legitimacy of Guy's throne, if Gairis were to make those secrets public, civil war would break out in the kingdom.

The second crusade for Jerusalem that Reynald had been looking forward to naturally came to nothing. His dream of leading his troops into the Islamic holy city of Mecca and placing a cross on the Kaaba in his lifetime would no longer be realized.

Reynald, who is in his sixties, has been imprisoned in Aleppo for seventeen years.
He dreamed of putting a cross in Mecca, the holy place of the pagans!
He would inflict upon those pagans an extreme humiliation that would not be forgotten for thousands of years!
They must be beaten to their knees and never be able to raise their heads or speak again!

Now, Garys and Leonard have completed the mutual deterrence.

Gellis was worried that the nobles of Jerusalem would start a conflict and affect the autumn plowing in his base.

Reynald was worried that Gérice would instigate civil war in the kingdom and shatter his dreams.

Therefore, in the end, the two sides reluctantly reached a verbal ceasefire agreement.

This verbal ceasefire agreement is less effective than toilet paper.

But at least it can be maintained until Gellis completes next year's spring harvest and before Reynald completes the war with Saladin next year.

Because of Gillis's foresight, Leonard? You still want to settle the score later? Le!
When the Battle of Harding begins next year, Leonard's head will be cut off and hung on a spear!
By that time, it would not be Garys who would take the initiative to tear up the agreement. The defenders of Karak would probably have to actively ask Garys for help in defense.

As for Leonard? Who is that person? I don't know him well.

(End of this chapter)