woman could accumulate such endless heaps of precious utensils:[1] and at this time, indeed, he received her to his bed, but shortly after he put her away. It is said that she was afflicted with a cancerous complaint, which preyed upon her womb,[2] This, however, is well known, that the king had no issue; nor is it wonderful, that a man, to whom leisure was burdensome, should be averse to the embraces of a wife, as he passed all his time in war. By these exertions he effected, that his admirable and nearly godlike valour should operate as an incitement to the present race, and be matter of astonishment to posterity. He died, during an expedition into Arabia, in the month of April, and was publicly buried at Jerusalem, near his brother, as the fourth month was adding to the seventeenth year of his reign. He was a man who gained his reputation by repeated labours, and on whose fame envy hath cast no shade, except it be, that he was too sparing of his money; though there is a ready and well-founded excuse for such a fault, if it be considered, that the necessary largesses to such as remained with him, prevented him from purchasing the favour of those who departed.
He was succeeded by his kinsman, Baldwin, prince of Edessa, already celebrated for his former campaigns, whom he had, when dying, named as king. He bravely defended the kingdom for many years, and augmented it with the sovereignty of Antioch, which he obtained when Roger,[3] the son of Richard, was killed. He governed both countries with laudable conduct; with less presumptuous haughtiness, per-
- ↑ Among a variety of instances adduced of her wealth, it is stated, that the mast of the vessel which conveyed her to Palestine, was covered with pure gold. Alb. Aquens. ap. Gesta Dei, p. 373.
- ↑ Fulcher assigns a different reason for her being divorced. The king, being extremely ill and thinking he should not survive, recollected that he had another wife living, to whom he had been previously married at Edessa. Du Chesne, t. iv. 864. He had been twice married before. His first wife, an English woman, accompanied him on the Crusade, and died in Asia: the second, daughter of Taphnuz, an Amienian nobleman, following him, by sea, to Jerusalem, was taken by pirates; and being suspected of improper conduct during her absence, was, on her arrival at Jerusalem, about a.d. 1105, repudiated, and shut up in the convent of St. Anne. Alb. Aquens. ubi sup. Guib. Abbat. Opera, p. 452.
- ↑ Roger, prince-regent of Antioch, son of Richard, seneschal of Apulia, married Hodierna, sister of Baldwin II. He was slain in 1119."—Hardy.
