Latin Empire AAR

          He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand acquired.

It has been one hundred and five years since the taking of the Most Holy Jerusalem from the Saracen forces of the Levant as decreed by Pope Urban II – and the world has changed in such a dramatic way that it can only be seen in the light of the LORD’s will.

Following the taking of Holy Jerusalem, the first crusaders had established the first Kingdom of many to protect the Christians of the Eastern rite –  the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Principality of Antioch, the Principality of Tripoli, and the County of Edessa joined Holy Jerusalem as sister kingdoms to protect the Eastern rite Christians, and expand their demense in order to push-out the Saracen powers. These territories, for us back in Europe, were the new Outremer – or the Lands over the sea.

Yet the infighting between the sister-kingdoms, some flat-out allying with Saracen powers to oppose crusading efforts, started the downfall of the ‘Outremer’. It finally came to a head in the year of our Lord one thousand one hundred and forty-four when Zengi, a Turkish warlord, had brought down the County of Edessa and sent Joscelin II into exile – while simultaneously ruling as Warlord of Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus. A new powerful enemy, the Turkish Zengids, arose out of the callousness of the initial crusader kingdoms, and would forever haunt the efforts to build a stable Outremer.

It was from this fall of Edessa that an official papal-sanctioned crusade was decreed to liberate Edessa from the oppressive and tyrannical Saracen forces of Zengi. This was to be the second glorious victory of Christendom, once again proving that the LORD was on their side and that there was no force they could not defeat. But it was not – and the Second Crusade did not liberate Edessa from Zengi’s grasp nor Outremer unite under Jerusalem’s guidance to better defend themselves. It was an utter complete failure of an armed pilgrimage, and it was the first sign that the LORD was displeased with the efforts of Christendom to carry out His will. And Christendom’s response to this divine will, divine judgement? Apathy. For the next fifty years, Christendom chose apathy instead of righteous, holy, and pious readjustment to better appreciate the LORD’s critiques of Christendom.
Now only three kingdoms remained, and Jerusalem was engulfed in conflict with itself and the Saracens following Fulk’s death one year after Edessa’s fall. Civil war between Baudouin III and his mother, Melisendre; Nur al-Din, son of the Warlord Zengi, ever expanding the power of Damascus; and Jerusalem reproaching Romania given Europe’s apathy towards Outremer.  It was these times that soon decided the fate of the rest of Outremer, as the Saracen Nur al-Din made his intention know to wipe the Christian presence off the face of the Holy Land.

Baudouin IV was potentially the one to change the face of Outremer and bring it back from potential encirclement and annihilation. He was the son of Amary, who was brother to Baudouin III, and Agnes de Courtenay. At first many in Christendom thought that the LORD had cursed the d’Anjou lineage – as Baudouin was afflicted with leprosy that would affect him until the end of his days. He was, much like his father and uncle, initially written off as yet another petty King who was to send Jerusalem further into cooperation with the schismatic Romanians and fail to expand Jerusalem. Yet something happened that changed, and nearly appeared to have altered the course of the Levant from Saracen dominated to, once again, Christendom rising.

The LORD also seemed to smile upon him, as the first martial encounter Baudouin had with the Saracen warlord Saladin was a glorious, unprecedented and divinely-aided victory at Montgisard at the age of sixteen. It echoed back to the harrowing struggles of the first crusaders, facing insurmountable odds in fighting for the LORD – and coming out of it with righteous victory as per the LORD’s wishes. Saladin was pushed back to his dominions, as he ruled over both Egypt and Damascus following the death of Nur al-Din, and never again doubted the power of Jerusalem at the helm of a righteous King.

Clearly the LORD, Almighty, had blessed Baudouin with Leprosy so that he may come closer to the LORD and reflect the story of Job alongside its message; that if it is the will of God that we must suffer for doing what is right it is all the better for it. For through this suffering inflicted upon Baudouin came not only a great, devastating victory against the Saracens but also a brief renewal of power for Jerusalem.