Widow of Jerusalem: A Medieval Mystery by Alan Gordon Page A

fingers on the guitar strings never rested, providing a soft, subtle counterpoint to the conversation.
    “What do you know about Tyre?” he asked me at one point.
    “I’ve never been there,” I said. “I know what everyone knows, I guess. It’s on an island connected by a causeway. It’s an old city, mentioned in the Bible a few times.”
    “Humph, the Bible,” he said.
    “What have you got against the Good Book?” I asked.
    “Do you know how many times dwarves are mentioned in it?” he asked indignantly. “Once! And we’re lumped together with crookbacks, blind men, and the generally blemished, as if we were something to be passed over.”
    “Being passed over isn’t always a bad thing. I think the Old Testament mentions that at some point. And I’ve known a crookback or two who was quite decent. What was the question again?”
    “Tyre, ‘’tour knowledge thereof.’’
    “Um, conquered and reconquered over the years. Last bastion of Outremer remaining after Saladin went on his little rampage. And I gather that the succession is in dispute?”
    “That’s putting it mildly,” said Scarlet, the guitar twanging a discordant agreement. “I’ll give you the brief version. No, that’s impossible, there is no brief version. All right, the last undisputed king of Jerusalem was Baldwin the Fourth, who was a leper without issue. His sister,
    Sybil, married Guy de Lusignan. She had a son and, lacking much in the way of imagination, named him Baldwin. The Fourth named his nephew as his successor and stepped down. The boy was only five, so Raymond of Tripoli became regent.”
    “What number was he?”
    “Raymond? He was Raymond the Third.”
    “So, the Fourth abdicates, leaving the Fifth with the Third.”
    “hhu’ve got it,” smiled Scarlet. “Now, in 1185, six years ago, the Fourth dies, and the Fifth dies a month later. There is no named heir, but by all rights the kingdom should go to Sybil. Guy claimed it as her husband, but Raymond claimed it as the regent. The dispute goes on for a couple of years, then is rendered somewhat moot by Saladin s victory at the Horns of Hattin. Raymond fled, Guy was captured, Jerusalem fell, as did Acre, Ascalon, and everywhere else. Everywhere but Tyre.
    “Tyre held because one day Conrad of Montferrat showed up. There was a rumor that he was fleeing from Constantinople, but his arrival was opportune nevertheless. The defenses were disorganized, the city was flooded with refugees, and the plains were filled with infidels. Conrad took charge but insisted he be given absolute power in Tyre. The people went along with that. He made his first point by not just banishing Saladin’s envoys but having them thrown into the fosse at the base of the landwalls. He then organized the army and rebuilt the fortifications.
    “Saladin showed up with his armies and one person he thought would be useful: Conrad’s father, William the Old, who had been taken at Hattin. Saladin paraded the old man before the walls of Tyre and promised to trade him for the city.”
    “How did Conrad react to this challenge to his filial piety?”
    “He picked up a crossbow and took a shot at his father. Barely missed him. He shouted that he’d rather kill the old man himself than surrender a single stone of the city. I think he impressed Tyre more than he frightened Saladin, but the Turks withdrew rather than attempt the walls. Conrad became the peoples champion.”
    “But how did that play into the succession?”
    “Because Sybil had no surviving children,” replied Scarlet. “Saladin let Guy de Lusignan go, either because of a ransom paid, or because Saladin thought Guy and Sybil would cause more havoc inside the walls of Tyre than he could outside. But when they showed up, Conrad refused to let them in.”
    “A fine way to treat a putative king.”
    “Putative, but not crowned. And then Sybil died, and with her any claim Guy had to the throne of Jerusalem. Not that that’s stopping him,