Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 416 The Difference Between Political Animals and Politicians
The story goes back to the First Crusade, which resulted in the Franks establishing four Crusader states in the Levant.

They are the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa.

Of these three countries, the Principality of Antioch was established by the Norman nobles of Sicily, and the other three were established by French nobles.

For the Catholic world, these four countries are actually enclaves, and can basically only rely on their own strength to resist the surrounding hostile forces, although occasionally the empire will send troops to help.

But many times the empire could not save itself.

In order to strengthen their respective alliances, the marriages among the four Crusader states were never severed.

There were even several kings of Jerusalem who served as rulers of the County of Edessa before their coronation.

As for the County of Tripoli, the mother of its supreme ruler, Count Raymond III, was the daughter of Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem.

In other words, Raymond III, who had the royal blood of Jerusalem, had a right to the throne that was once close to that of Baldwin V.

When Raymond III was young, there were rumors that King Baldwin II of Jerusalem intended to list him as the heir to the throne, thereby turning the County of Tripoli into a territory directly under the royal family and strengthening the integration process of the Crusader Kingdom.

Of course, the matter came to nothing. In the eyes of the ministers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, instead of unifying the Crusader states in the Levant, it would be better to directly marry the princess to a European noble and thus obtain European reinforcements. Therefore, they supported Fulk of the House of Anjou to take control of Jerusalem.

For the princes of the County of Tripoli, rashly allowing the Count of Tripoli to become the King of Jerusalem would not enhance their authority or expand their territory.

Instead, they should worry about whether the Count of Tripoli would harm their interests for the benefit of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Under the European feudal system, especially before modern times, the real power held by European monarchs was relatively limited compared to that in the East.

In this case, even if a king is supported, it often means that it is difficult to change the deep-rooted distribution of interests in the local area.

The profits are not much and the risks are high, this is what many European vassals thought.

By the time Raymond III came of age, the Kingdom of Jerusalem had a clear line of succession, so Raymond III naturally had nothing to say.

Then, he ran into bad luck and was imprisoned in 1164 during a war with the Muslim Zengid dynasty, from which he was not released until eight years later.

Later, the original lord of the Galilee territory died, and his widow, Madame Esquiva de Brais, the real owner of the territory, was betrothed to Raymond.

This allowed the County of Tripoli to merge with the territory of Galilee to a certain extent, but their marriage did not produce any offspring.

Under these circumstances, Raymond loved his wife deeply and raised the children she had with her first husband as his own.

Those children were the three brothers of the Saint-Omer family, Hugh, William, and Ralph.

In the absence of biological children, even Raymond III's godson was considered a potential heir, not to mention the three brothers who were already taken care of by Raymond?

If the appeal is based on bloodline, Raymond III's paternal relatives are in France, and his maternal relatives are the current Queen Isabella of Jerusalem.

Isabella was the granddaughter of Raymond III's mother's sister. Simply put, Raymond III was Isabella's cousin, and Isabella was Raymond III's cousin-in-law.

For the princes of Tripoli, if they want to support the representative of their interests, the former is too far away and the latter is tantamount to direct surrender.

In addition to the relationship with the nobles in the Galilee territory, he might as well just support Hugh, William and Ralph.

At the same time that the King's Council of the Kingdom of Jerusalem received the news, it quickly passed various resolutions to prepare for the subsequent abolition of feudal domains and establishment of counties.

In a reception room in Tiberias, Ralph's fingers holding the intelligence were trembling in the flickering candlelight, and his knuckles were pale in the candlelight.

But this did not stop him from speaking loudly in front of his supporters:
"In the past, those who lost their lands would be stripped of their noble status! Now, our manors passed down from generation to generation will be abolished! We cannot tolerate the ancient traditions being changed overnight! Who are we? We are nobles! We are born nobler than others! We must unite and fight against the unjust king!"

Inspiring words resounded in the living room, and along with this exciting sound was everyone's applause. They wanted to unite to defend their interests!

"Today, the members of the House of Commons are all untouchables with no noble blood, and the seats in the House of Lords are all held by the Ibelin family and the Seton family. There is no member who can speak for us! Not only must we unite, we must also form our own party and return to the center of power! We must let those untouchables understand that without us, they can only survive under the oppression of those workshop owners for the rest of their lives!"

The smaller the temple, the more evil spirits may arise; the shallower the pond, the more turtles may dwell there; the Kingdom of Jerusalem was a small country with a population of one million, but the power conflicts within it had never ceased.

Today, these failed nobles have not yet reached the heights of the British and French feudal nobles of later generations. At least they have not waved the beggar's bag of the proletariat as a banner and thought highly of themselves.

But one day the nobility might develop into what is described in the Declaration.

[In order to win over the people, the nobles waved the beggar's bag of the proletariat as a banner. However, every time the people followed them, they found that their buttocks were marked with the old feudal emblems, so they laughed and dispersed.]

However, the nobles who are gathering now may not reach that day, or perhaps they will wake up earlier?
After the big gathering was over, the three brothers had another discussion in private. Compared with their previous confidence, they seemed a little nervous.

"He...he really stood up in front of the crowd?" His voice was hoarse, as if there was sand in his throat.

"Some say the door blocked the shells like a shield, sparks flew around him, and he didn't even turn his head."

William looked up suddenly, his eyes red.

"Ridiculous! It must be a rumor. Those stupid people are scaring themselves! There are no such people in the world. They are all lies!"

Although the news that Gellis had returned from the dead and performed miraculous deeds had spread throughout the Levant more than ten years ago, not everyone had witnessed it.

Therefore, there are also many people who insist that all the miracles of Gellis were the result of packaging, and that he deliberately pretended to be cold and performed tricks in order to re-consolidate the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

As for the three brothers, since they have made up their minds to fight with Gailis, they must not admit that the other party is a saint or has any divine power.

Once you admit it, everything seems ridiculous.

"But he is still alive. Our actions have only helped to raise his reputation. So the person we killed was the prophet, Gairis, God's spokesman on earth."

The discussion fell silent at this moment.

Regardless of whether Gellis really performed a miracle, surviving the assassination attempt is already full of miraculous elements.

Once, twice, three times...

Each time, Gillis survived.

This time they even used artillery, but it failed to succeed, which made them feel suffocated.

Just when they were discussing how to deal with the situation, there was a knock on the door.

"Open the door and check the water meter!"

……

The actions of the Tripoli nobles were indeed premeditated, but it is hard to say how detailed and well-considered this plan was.

Rather, it was their desperate attack before facing Garys' ultimatum, so the subsequent struggles seemed rather petty.

Some of these ideas are difficult to understand for people from different cultures.

According to the traditional view of the Celestial Empire, when the world is about to be unified, a small piece of land is simply not enough to resist the general trend. Therefore, it is better to surrender early in exchange for an official position in the central government, so as to continue to maintain one's family wealth and interests.

But in many areas where there is no so-called powerful central government, isn’t it good to be a local tyrant?

Through the control of their own territories, they can enjoy various treatments that are much better than in the so-called central government.

The saying "It is better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of an ox" is exactly this truth.

And now that the princes of Tripoli have made their own choice, they will inevitably face the consequences of this choice.

Even after the trial by the noble court organized by the King's Landing Parliament, the news was released directly.

The whole country knew that Isabella was going to hang the three brothers of Saint-Omer. She invited the nobles and openly declared that if they did not come to Jerusalem, they would be accomplices of the three brothers of Saint-Omer.

This was the most explicit threat Isabella had ever issued, or rather, she was asking the princes of Tripoli to take sides.

Either support the original House of Saint-Omer or give up resistance and recognize the kingship of Jerusalem.

Generally speaking, in feudal society, monarchs should not force their subjects into a situation where they have to make a choice between two options, because that often means there is no room for maneuver, and that those who might have been neutral parties would join the opposition in large numbers.

After all, the lords under the feudal system are more opposed to strong monarchs.

But Isabella didn't care. Not only did she not care, she even left time for the princes of Tripoli to connect with each other.

In short, Isabella personally supported a faction of Tripoli nobles that opposed her, forced them into a corner, and allowed them to launch an armed uprising.

And in a sense, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for potential rebels.

Because the kingdom's main military forces are currently being mobilized and assembled at the Egyptian border or in Syria.

The territory of the County of Tripoli is located in the center of the Levant. If we start an uprising from here, the country will be empty and we may be able to strike directly into Jerusalem.

But so what?

Everything is going according to plan.

After the ultimatum was issued, part of the garrison left behind by Antioch was withdrawn, and in cooperation with the army directly under the kingdom, they began to launch continuous raids in the territory of Galilee and the territories of the County of Tripoli, carrying out a large number of small-scale rebellion wars.

The scale of this kind of battle was mostly only about a hundred people, fighting in company units. The purpose of the battle was to eliminate the last military force of the nobles of the County of Tripoli.

It can be said that while completing administrative unification, military command unification must also be completed.

From now on, there will be no more landed aristocrats in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, only landless aristocrats.

In the previous decade, both landed nobles and landless nobles were considered nobles, with the same management system and shared noble ranks.

But the difference between the two is that the landed nobles need to bear the obligation to pay taxes and provide military service, while the landless nobles do not have to bear those obligations and are eligible to receive a considerable annual pension from the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Of course, in Gellis's opinion, no matter what kind of nobility, one should try to avoid the situation of hereditary succession.

He tried to change it to a state where if there was no great merit, the title would be hereditary and demoted, thus avoiding the obstruction of centralization by the landed aristocracy and minimizing the squeeze on the kingdom's finances by the high annuities of the landless aristocracy.

During this process, some of the princes of Tripoli surrendered voluntarily and even expressed their willingness to become guides to the kingdom.

In a sense, these people are actually qualified political animals.

Political animals have three main principles.

First, individual interests take precedence over collective interests.

Second, short-term interests outweigh long-term interests.

Third, substantive interests are above all else.

Only by abandoning unnecessary things like moral integrity and strictly following these three rules can those people thrive and successfully survive in all kinds of changes.

Even Garys would not completely block the enemy's way to surrender.

When the economic base changes, for example, the land aristocracy is transformed into a commercial aristocracy, their political stance will naturally change.

Farmers who gain income from the land will inevitably support agrarianism. As for commercial capitalists, when their production is not as good as that of foreign countries, they will demand trade protection, but when they can dump their products, they will think of free trade.

Therefore, it is not to say that there is no such thing as transformation.

However, this kind of transformation is often not achieved overnight, but requires a very long time to achieve.

Politics is about interests, but interests are different from each other. One can go into politics for one's own personal interests, and then become a politician.

But entering politics can also be for the benefit of a certain group, from the nation to the country to the class, and then such a person can be called a politician.

This is actually the gap between Gairis and the princes of Tripoli.

It is the difference between a political animal and a politician.

(End of this chapter)