Prologue: From Crusader to King (1099 to 1100)
Robert Curthose (1051 - 1134), Duke of Normandy and later King of Jerusalem in Crusader garb as pictured by Henri Decaisne.
No ruler of Jerusalem has divided historical opinion as deeply or for so long as the assessment of the first King of Jerusalem, Robert of Normandy.
The many critics of King Robert I both in his lifetime and in the centuries since have engraved his many flaws in granite. He was too fond of women and drink, he was weak willed and lazy and prone to the influence of others he was beyond hopeless with money and though even his harshest chroniclers admit him a personally splendid and chivalrous soldier he has been accused of poor strategy. Naturally Robert's supporters paint a different picture, praising his tolerance, his courage, his generosity to his subjects and ability to work with Eastern Christians and Muslim leaders. To some the establishment of a stable, prosperous Christian principality in the Holy Land was achieved thanks to Robert. To others it was achieved in spite of him.
It was on a stroke of luck - good or bad depends on the interpretation - that Robert ascended the throne as originally he had every intention of returning to Normandy and resuming control of his duchy, perhaps with an eye to contesting his rights to the English throne against his brothers. Unfortunately for Robert he fell desperately ill in the port city of Jaffa in the late Summer of 1099 immediately prior to his return to Europe. The exact illness he suffered from has never been conclusively proven but the most reliable surviving accounts suggest typhus. Whatever the truth the Duke of Normandy was imprisoned within in a sickbed for many weeks, followed by moths more of convalescing. More than once his retainers believed him to be dying and it was of course impossible for him to take a ship or travel overland. If this period of illness had any solace at all it was that the future king developed a fondness for Jaffa, finding his enforced stay in the port city gave it a strange feeling of homeliness. Many decades later Robert still preferred to take solace from the Levantine sun in Jerusalem in his small castle in Jaffa rather than retreat to the far richer and grander Acre.
Robert was through the worst of his illness by the Spring of 1100 but little closer to returning home. Some of the more malicious or mischievous historians have suggested that he had already squandered much of the treasure he won on the First Crusade and was hoping to rebuild his fortunes but even for the notoriously spendthrift Robert this seems unlikely. People lingering near death and with prelates hovering at their bed ready to administer the last rites are not legendary for throwing magnificent parties or drowning themselves in jewels or rings. Rather the exhausted prince evidently saw his recovery as a sign from God. Robert was perhaps not the most theological of the great princes of the First Crusade but all evidence suggests he was sincerely pious; struck down by plague and yet spared by the Lord he sought penance in the Holy Land. He founded a monastery dedicated to St Audoen near the town of Lydda, which again suggests his finances were far from depleted. He also, when sufficiently recovered took up arms against the Muslims during the first siege of Arsuf.
Robert, always at his best as a knight impressed the other crusaders with his bravery and skill as a warrior but he still might have left his debt to God done had Godfrey of Bouillon lived. The first Christian ruler of what would soon be the Kingdom of Jerusalem - though Godfrey was too pious to accept a crown himself - died on 18 July 1100 after falling ill during a visit to Caesarea.
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Godfrey is a difficult man for historians to get a handle on, encrusted as he is by centuries of hagiography but his death after less than a year plainly hit the nascent Levantine state hard. Godfrey had never married and had no children leaving a lacuna as to who would take charge - and for that matter what position they would take. Godfrey had sternly refused the title of king and had reigned as merely 'Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre'and there were many including the imperious Pisan Patriarch of Jerusalem Daimbert who saw the future of the 'kingdom' as a Church fief. For the fighting men however on which the safety of the frail state depended there must be a king.
The obvious candidate for the throne was Raymond of Tolouse one of the greatest princes of the First Crusade and a great leader who commanded a strong following amongst the Provençals and other southern Frenchmen in the Crusading armies. Raymond however was far away in Constantinople seeking aid for building what would later become the County of Tripoli and in any case had little popularity outside his own retinue. He was widely seen as a creature of the Roman emperor Alexius. Many of the Lorrainers instinctively turned to the prospect of Baldwin of Edessa taking power in Jerusalem. Not only was he Godfrey's brother and therefore the heir of familial loyalty he had proven himself a superb and cunning prince, having carved out a rich and formidable state in the north around the ancient city of Edessa.
There were two great princes of the Crusade closer still than Baldwin however. Boehmund, the Prince of Antioch and the most agressively ambitious of all his peers was already aligned with his nephew Tancred and with the ambitious Patriarch Daimbert and they were at first inclined to offer him the throne before Baldwin, regardless of Godfrey's wishes. What stopped them was the third and last of the great Crusading princes and the only one yet to take a fief in the Holy Land: Robert of Normandy.
The Crusader armies had spent an unforgiving July toiling away at the walls of Haifa, a city valiantly defended by its mostly Jewish inhabitants. With the aid of a Venetian fleet the vital port finally fell and the Crusaders quickly fell to argument as to who would take such a prize. The late Godfrey had planned it for Geldemar Carpenel but Tancred wished it for himself. Robert of Normandy who had the largest cohort of the army and the highest rank was able to prevent a break by his personal bonhomie. Tancred would take the city but Geldemar was grandly compensated by Robert. Ever since historians have suspected that Tancred and Robert must have come to a separate secret arrangement before Haifa fell, hidden even from Daimbert but publicly at least Robert emerged from the debate with his already grand reputation aglow. Tancred was later to bitterly regret this early alliance with Robert (and vice versa) but at the time the two Normans were strong comrades.
At the end of July Robert made his move, marching on Jerusalem. Messages had been sent to Baldwin and even to Boehmund (Daimbert after vacillating between the two great Norman princes had chosen to back the wrong horse) but they arrived far too late, or not at all in the case of the Prince of Antioch who had been captured by the Turks and spirited away to a lonely imprisonment in Anatolia. Robert was popular, of great noble heritage and came at the head of a powerful army and when he entered Jerusalem in August opposition to his candidacy evaporated. On 5 September 1100 to popular acclaim Robert assumed the title King of Jerusalem.
So why had it happened? In 1099 Robert had been eager to depart as soon as possible for distant Normandy yet just a year later he had solemnly taken a throne in perpetuity in the East. Undoubtedly the illness that nearly carried him away changed his mind, an enforced period helpless in the Levant with little to do but think. He was also present to witness Godfrey's poor personal rule which may have ignited ambitions of his own to do better. It is unlikely that Robert planned to depose Godfrey but the Lorrainer was always in poor health and Robert may have been encouraged (and encouraged by others) to view a lucrative throne as a matter of simply waiting. His prospects at home were far more dicey where his brother William Rufus was firmly in charge of England - and functionally in charge of Normandy - and their youngest brother Henry a formidable candidate waiting in the wings.
Finally we cannot just discount the importance of genuine piety. Robert had been struck down and spared and as a man of his age he perhaps saw the actions of the Lord intended for him to remain in Palestine.
Anachronistic late Medieval painting of the capture of Jerusalem, 1099.
Greetings all and welcome to this timeline! his will be a mix of (in-universe) history book style and narrative elements, assuming my creativity holds up!
I'm far from an expert on the Crusades but I have always found them fascinating and after many happy hours whiling away on Paradox games I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing a proper timeline. The POD assumes that Robert Curthose avoided the dismal fate of his counterpart in OTL and ended up becoming King of Jerusalem. We shall be following the ups and downs of his dynasty in the East.
Any questions, comments and suggestions are as always appreciated!
