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Miles of Plancy

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Miles of Plancy (French: Milon, Latin: Milo; died October 1174) was a French-born nobleman who rose to high offices in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Around 1168 he became seneschal, then in 1173 lord of Oultrejordain, and finally the unofficial regent of the kingdom in 1174.

Miles hailed from Champagne, and was a relative of the royal family of Jerusalem.[1] Historian Jean Richard asserts that Miles was related to the Monthlérys,[2] who were the maternal kin of King Baldwin II (r.  1118-1131);[3] historian Bernard Hamilton thus interprets Miles as the third cousin of King Amalric.[1]

Miles came to the kingdom in the 1160s,[4] and became a trusted adviser of King Amalric. His influence was particularly evident in Amalric's campaigns in Egypt.[5] Miles accompanied the king to Egypt in 1168. The royal army took and plundered Bilbais and massacred its inhabitants before moving on to besiege Cairo, the capital. William of Tyre, who chronicled the events, writes that Cairo could have been taken by storm, but Miles advised the king to exact a tribute from the defenders instead. The reasoning was that a city taken by storm is open to plunder by the army, while tribute belongs solely to the king. The Egyptian vizier, Shawar, agreed to pay the tribute, but asked for time to collect it; he actually used the time to fortify the city, and its inhabitants grew resolute to resist when they heard of the massacre at Bilbais.[6] Shawar also requested help from the Syrian ruler Nur ad-Din. Nur ad-Din sent an army led by his general Shirkuh, and Amalric retreated on 2 January 1169.[7] William insists that it was the avarice of the king, encouraged by Miles, that doomed the attempt to capture Cairo.[6] Instead, Egypt fell to Shirkuh,[7] who was soon succeeded by his nephew Saladin.[8]

Amalric appointed Miles to the office of seneschal in 1169.[9] In December 1170 Saladin appeared with a vast army at Darum, about 9 miles (14 km) south of Gaza. The king assembled an army to confront him, but they were shocked when they saw the size of Saladin's force and could not prevent him from breaking into Gaza.[10] Gaza's citadel was defended by Miles,[10] who refused to allow the inhabitants of the city to take shelter in it; many were killed or captured by Saladin's army.[11] No major battle took place, and Saladin returned to Egypt.[10]

In 1165 Philip of Milly resigned the lordship of Oultrejordain to his elder daughter, Helena, and joined the Order of the Temple.[12] Helena's husband, Walter III Brisebarre, was forced by King Amalric to surrender his ancestral lordship, Beirut. Hamilton proposes that the king wished to prevent the union of two great fiefs. After Helena's death, Oultrejordain passed to Beatrice, her minor daughter by Walter. Walter ruled Oultrejordain in Beatrice's name until Beatrice died, when the fief passed to her aunt, Stephanie of Milly.[13] In early 1174 the king allowed Miles to marry Stephanie,[5] who was by then the widow of Humphrey III of Toron.[13] Historian Hans E. Mayer dates Miles and Stephanie's wedding to the period between 24 March and 18 April.[14] The marriage made Miles one of the most powerful lords in the kingdom.[14][15]

King Amalric died on 11 July 1174.[16] His son, Baldwin IV, was 13 years old,[17] and was suspected of having leprosy.[18] The succession was deliberated for a few days, and the High Court convened to elect the new king. Hamilton presumes that Miles, as seneschal, presided over the meeting. Baldwin IV was elected unanimously according to William of Tyre.[16] Because he was a minor, a regent was needed to rule in his name. According to law, which Hamilton presumes to have been set at this time, the regency belonged to the minor king's nearest male relative on his father's side. The High Court apparently did not decide on this occasion who this was in the case of Baldwin IV, and so the regency devolved on Miles in his capacity as seneschal.[19]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Hamilton 1992, pp. 136–137.
  2. ^ Richard 1979, p. 152.
  3. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 32–33.
  4. ^ Barber 2012, p. 264.
  5. ^ a b Barber 2012, p. 265.
  6. ^ a b Barber 2012, p. 251.
  7. ^ a b Barber 2012, p. 252.
  8. ^ Barber 2012, p. 254.
  9. ^ Barber 2012, pp. 264–265.
  10. ^ a b c Barber 2012, p. 257.
  11. ^ Lyons & Jackson 1984, p. 42.
  12. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 91–92.
  13. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 92.
  14. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 33.
  15. ^ Hamilton 1992, p. 137.
  16. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 32.
  17. ^ Hamilton 1992, p. 136.
  18. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 38.
  19. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 84.

Sources

[edit]
  • Barber, Malcolm (2012). The Crusader States. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300189315.
  • Fulton, Michael S. (2024). Crusader Castle: The Desert Fortress of Kerak. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-3990-9129-9. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  • Hamilton, Bernard (1992). "Miles of Plancy and the fief of Beirut". The Horns of Ḥaṭṭīn. Proceedings of the ... conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East. Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi. ISBN 978-965-217-085-9. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  • Hamilton, Bernard (2000). The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521017473.
  • Lyons, Malcolm C.; Jackson, D.E.P. (1984). Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War. Oriental Publications, University of Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31739-9. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  • Richard, Jean (1979). The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Europe in the Middle Ages: selected studies. Vol. 11A. Translated by Janet Shirley. North-Holland Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-444-85092-8. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
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