Joscelin II, count of Edessa

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joscelin_II_of_Edessa

Joscelin II of Edessa (died 1159) was the fourth and last ruling count of Edessa.

The young Joscelin was taken prisoner at the Battle of Azaz in 1125, but was ransomed by Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem. In 1131, his father Joscelin I was wounded in battle with the Danishmends, and Edessa passed to Joscelin II. Joscelin II refused to march the small Edessan army out to meet the Danishmends, so Joscelin I, in his last act, forced the Danishmends to retreat, dying soon after.

Joscelin II ruled the weakest and most isolated of the Crusader states. In 1138 he allied with Antioch and Byzantine emperor John II Comnenus to attack Zengi, atabeg of Aleppo, although Zengi defeated them. Back in Antioch, sentiment against the Byzantine Empire, which John was trying to extend into the northern Crusader states, led to a riot, engineered by Joscelin. John was forced to return home.

In 1143 both John II and Fulk of Jerusalem died, leaving Joscelin with no powerful allies to help defend Edessa. In 1144 Zengi invaded and captured Edessa itself. Joscelin fled to Turbessel, where he held the remnants of the county west of the Euphrates. When Yarankash, a Frankish slave, assassinated the violent, cruel, brutal, and drunk Zengi in September 1146, Joscelin managed to recapture Edessa in October 1146 and held it briefly thereafter, but with no help from the other Crusader states, the city was again lost in November, as Joscelin's expedition was driven out by Zengi's son Nur ad-Din. The Second Crusade, called in response to the fall of Edessa, eventually shifted its focus to Damascus. In 1150 whilst on route to Antioch, where he was looking to enlist help, Joscelin was taken prisoner by a group of brigands who then sold him to Nur-ed-Din. Joscelin was taken to the city of Aleppo where he was led before a hostile crowd and publicly blinded. He spent the remaining nine years of his life in captivity in a Muslim prison. He eventually died in the dungeons of the Citadel of Aleppo in 1159.

His daughter Agnes of Courtenay married Amalric I of Jerusalem. After her divorce from Amalric, she held the lands and incomes of the County of Jaffa, while Joscelin's son Joscelin III held the nominal title Count of Edessa, being in reality the lord of a small seigneurie near Acre.

Joscelin II's grandchildren Baldwin IV and Sibylla were in turn monarchs of Jerusalem, as was his great-grandson Baldwin V.

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-http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/EDESSA.htm#JoscelinII
1. JOSCELIN de Courtenay (-Aleppo [1159]). William of Tyre names him and specifies his parentage[51]. He succeeded his father in 1131 as JOSCELIN II Count of Edessa. "Gozelillus magni Gozelini filius comes Edessanus" donated property to the Knights Hospitallers by charter dated May 1134[52]. "Goscelinus comes Edessanus" donated property to the Knights Hospitallers, with the consent of "uxoris Beatricis et filii Goscelini", by charter dated 1141, subscribed by "Rogerius constabularius…"[53]. "…Ioscelinus de Cortenai…" subscribed the charter dated 1144 under which "Balduinus…sancte Ierusalem rex Latinorum quartus" granted privileges to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, signing third among the subscribers[54]. Zengi atabeg of Aleppo captured Edessa in Dec 1144 and installed Kutchuk Ali of Arbil as Governor[55]. Count Joscelin attempted to rebuild his principality in his lands west of the Euphrates, with Turbessel as his capital, and rejected the suzerainty of Raymond Prince of Antioch who had failed to help relieve the besieged Edessa. He attempted to recapture Edessa in Oct/Nov 1146 after the murder of Zengi 14 Sep 1146, but was forced to flee to Samosata[56]. He was captured by Turks in Apr 1150, handed to Nur-ed-Din, blinded and imprisoned at Aleppo[57]. The Chronicle of Patriarch Michel le Grand records that "Djoslin" was captured while out hunting by Turks who took him to Aleppo where he was imprisoned and blinded by "Nour-Eddin" and later died, adding that his territories which were captured were "Azaz, Thelbascher, Bir, Raban, Marach, Béhesni, Hassan-Messour, Samosate, Kharkhar et Koghtha", while his wife and two daughters retained possession of "Roum-Kalah"[58]. William of Tyre records the pleasure shown at the death of Raymond de Poitiers Prince of Antioch in 1149 by Joscelin, whom he describes as "vir supinus, a patria degener honestate, sordibus effluens, libidine dissolutus" when recounting his capture by Turks in Antioch and being taken to Aleppo where he died in prison the night of his arrival[59]. The primary source which confirms the date of death of Joscelin II has not yet been identified.

m (1132 or after) BEATRICE, widow of GUILLAUME de Zerdana Lord of Sahyun, daughter of ---. William of Tyre records that "Joscelinus junior, ex sorore Levonis Armeni" married "Wilelmi de Saona viduam…Beatricem", but does not record her parentage[60]. The same chronicler describes her as "mulier pudica, sobria et timens Deum", and specifies that she was left with one son "impubere" and two daughters after her husband´s capture[61]. The Lignages d'Outremer name "Biatris qui avoit esté feme dou seignor de Saone" as the wife of "Joscelin…conte de Rohais"[62]. "Goscelinus comes Edessanus" donated property to the Knights Hospitallers, with the consent of "uxoris Beatricis et filii Goscelini", by charter dated 1141, subscribed by "Rogerius constabularius…"[63]. After her husband's capture, she successfully defended Turbessel against Nur-ed-Din, but was obliged to sell her territories to Emperor Manuel I (although they fell to Nur-ed-Din within a year) and retired to Jerusalem with her young children[64]. The Chronicle of Patriarch Michel le Grand records that "la femme de Djoslin et ses deux filles" retained "Roum-Kalah" after the capture and death of her husband, but sent to Dzowk for "Krikor catholicos des Arméniens" to come and occupy the fortress as she "voulait traverser la mer et revenir chez ses parents où se trouvait son fils" on condition that, if her son was still alive and wished to return, the katholikos would surrender the castle to him[65]. The same source adds that Joscelin [III] sold the fortress "pour une somme d´argent" as he was convinced it was impossible to retain it against the Turks.

Count Joscelin II & his wife had three children: