Papal and royal controversies In 1159, two rival candidates
were elected to become
pope:
Alexander III and
Victor IV. King Baldwin III, the leading barons, the patriarch, and the bishops held a council in
Nazareth to deliberate on the matter. The bishops could not agree on which of the two they should recognize as pope. Baldwin was eager to avoid a
schism in his kingdom and persuaded the council to remain neutral. Hamilton believes that Amalric's predecessor, Fulcher, would have never allowed the king to make such a decision for him, and concludes that Amalric "does not seem to have had a very forceful personality". Later that year the clergy agreed to recognize Alexander as pope. King Baldwin III died childless on 10 February 1163. The
High Court, with Patriarch Amalric as the spokesman, refused to recognize Baldwin's brother,
Amalric, as king unless he repudiated his wife,
Agnes of Courtenay. Baldwin's brother had married Agnes in 1157 despite the objections of Patriarch Fulcher, who had declared that, as third cousins, they were
too closely related. The demand was accepted. Patriarch Amalric promptly
annulled the marriage on the grounds of
consanguinity and
crowned his namesake on 18 February. Hamilton believes that the official reason for the annulment "masked some more deep-seated animosity" of the lords towards Agnes. He argues the new king must have held the patriarch at least partly responsible for this humiliating condition because, even if he were just a mouthpiece for the barons, the patriarch had the final say in the matter according to
canon law. On 29 August 1167 the patriarch celebrated the king's marriage to
Maria, a grandniece of Byzantine Emperor
Manuel I Komnenos, at the
Cathedral of Tyre.
Ecclesiastical policy Patriarch Amalric suffered no retaliation from his namesake the king but found himself mostly ignored through most of his pontificate. The only monarch to invite him to witness a
royal charter was Queen Melisende, who had appointed him. Amalric spent most of his tenure as patriarch
conveyancing church property and settling related lawsuits. Clergy in the crusader states frequently took part in warfare, but Amalric never did in so during his 23-year-long pontificate. Hamilton concludes that the patriarch was not interested in military affairs: though the kingdom was almost constantly at war while he was patriarch, Amalric never accompanied the royal army as the bearer of the
True Cross. After the Christian defeat at the
battle of Harim in 1164, Amalric wrote an
encyclical offering
indulgences to those who would come to help the Catholics in the Levant; this remained his only contribution to the kingdom's political life. In 1169 Patriarch Amalric offered to go to Europe to personally help recruit aid. He, Archbishop Ernesius of Caesarea, and
Bishop William of Acre carried letters to Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa, Kings
Louis VII of France and
Henry II of England, Queen
Margaret of Sicily, and Counts
Philip I of Flanders,
Theobald V of Blois, and
Henry I of Champagne. Two days after the prelates set out, however, their ships ran into a severe storm that drove them back to
Acre. Though he escaped unharmed, Amalric was replaced as the head of the embassy by Frederick of la Roche, now the
archbishop of Tyre. The king and the patriarch worked together cordially on the
ecclesiastical organization of the kingdom, setting up the new
bishoprics of
Petra and
Hebron in 1168. They proposed the restoration of a bishop to the former Orthodox
see of Jaffa, controlled by the canons of the Holy Sepulchre. The canons complained to the papacy that the restoration of a bishop in Jaffa would cause them financial hardship. Pope Alexander upheld the patriarch's right to restore the see but made it a condition that the canons should be compensated. The plan was then set aside. Hamilton believes that, despite his cooperation, the establishment of the new bishoprics was not to the patriarch's liking because it meant the transfer of revenue from him to the new bishops. Amalric received a confirmation from the pope that the other Orthodox sees without bishops, namely
Jericho,
Nablus, and
Darum, would remain under the control of the patriarchate. Amalric tried to offset his losses by usurping some of the revenues of the Holy Sepulchre, causing the pope to reprimand him after the canons complained. The
abbot of Josaphat also lodged a complaint after the patriarch and the canons demanded
board when they visited Josaphat, leading to a violent altercation with the Josaphat monks and even death. Alexander ruled in the abbot's favor.
Old age King Amalric died in 1174. Though he had left a young son,
Baldwin IV, there was a debate about the succession because the boy had been exhibiting symptoms of
leprosy. Unlike in 1163, Patriarch Amalric played no role in determining the new king. He had been excluded by King Amalric from any active role in the government, had grown old, and had never had the temperament. The High Court agreed that Baldwin IV was the best choice, and Amalric
anointed him and
crowned him in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on 15 July. The new king's mother, Agnes of Courtenay, became very influential. This must have been to the patriarch's detriment, argues Hamilton, as she must have resented him for having prevented her from becoming queen. He remained out of favor at court and his place on public occasions was taken by Bishop
Albert of Bethlehem. The year 1177 saw the arrival of the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem,
Leontius, as the representative of the Byzantine emperor, Manuel I Komnenos. Theodosius Goudelis, an acquaintance and biographer of Leontius, wrote that Amalric attempted to have Leontius assassinated, which Hamilton considers improbable. Amalric was, however, hostile to Leontius; and while King Baldwin was anxious that Leontius be treated well in order to win Byzantine protection, Amalric only acquiesced to royal demands so far as to allow Leontius to celebrate the
Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the presence only of the Orthodox canons. Manuel soon recalled Leontius to avoid a conflict with Amalric and Pope Alexander. During Baldwin IV's reign the
Ayyubid ruler
Saladin united the Muslim-ruled lands of
Egypt and
Syria, encircling the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He invaded the kingdom in 1177, while the Frankish army was on campaign in northern Syria. The young king, though inexperienced and gravely ill, rode out to meet Saladin with the few knights who had remained in the kingdom. Patriarch Amalric was left in charge of Jerusalem, but the city was stripped of troops. The Franks, though severely outnumbered, decisively defeated Saladin at the
battle of Montgisard. The ailing king's sister and
heir presumptive,
Sibylla, unexpectedly married
Guy of Lusignan, a knight from
Poitou, in early 1178, and a dangerous rift appeared in the kingdom's nobility between those who supported Guy and those who opposed him. The
Third Lateran Council, the most important council of the Catholic Church in decades, was held in March 1179. Both Amalric and the
Latin patriarch of Antioch,
Aimery of Limoges, were too old to embark on a long sea voyage. The prior of the Holy Sepulchre, Peter, represented Amalric. The delegates from the crusader states included Archbishops
William of Tyre and
Heraclius of Caesarea; the
bishops of Sebastea, Bethlehem, and
Tripoli; and the
abbot of Mount Zion. Their ranks were too low for their voices to be heard, and the interests of the crusader states went ignored. Hamilton believes that Western aid might have been secured if the two patriarchs had attended, as they would have taken precedence over all the prelates except the pope. Amalric died on 6 October 1180. Ten days later, Agnes chose the archbishop of Caesarea, Heraclius, to succeed him, spurning William of Tyre. Heraclius was accused of many moral failings but took political initiative, which "must have been a welcome change" according to Hamilton. ==Assessment==