Chapter 113: Becoming an Earl
Leonard's tent was indeed quite luxurious. Even if 10 people were squeezed in to face each other, it still seemed spacious.
However, when Garris said that he wanted to sort out the events of the past few months, Leonard's eyes became a little wandering.
"When do you plan to start?" he asked.
"Let's take it from His Majesty the Leper King's will," Garris replied.
Since the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the handover of the throne has shown various helplessness.
Not to mention too much, as soon as the Leper King ascended the throne, the matter of succession to the throne had already troubled the entire country.
Due to leprosy, the Leper King was unable to have children with women, and in Frankish tradition, women could not govern alone.
Therefore, the option that is most consistent with the law of inheritance and takes care of Frankish tradition is to let the Leper King's sisters inherit the throne, and then have their husband-in-law crown the co-king and preside over the government.
When the Leper King was crowned in 1174, Sibylla was the undisputed heir to the throne due to her age, and her marriage was also valued by everyone.
In 1176, Sibylla was married to William Langsward, the eldest son of the Marquis of Montferrat in Italy, to deepen her ties with the European nobility.
William Langsward died the following year, and Sibylla gave birth to a posthumous son, Baldwin V.
From this point on, the whirlpool of succession to the throne became increasingly grueling.
Baldwin V was too young, so Sibylla was still the undisputed heir to the throne, and she was unmarried, which aroused the greed of many nobles.
In order to prevent the kingdom from falling into civil war over inheritance, Sibylla married Guy, a knight from France, in 1180.
But after getting along with Guy, the Leper King realized Guy's insect nature, and felt deeply that if this person succeeded to the throne, the kingdom would not be able to survive.
But it happened that Sibylla also took the initiative at this time and refused to divorce Yi.
The Leper King chose to bypass Sibylla directly and instead appointed Baldwin V, the posthumous son of Sibylla who had previously given birth, as his heir. He also found someone he thought was more reliable as regent.
He also made a will that if Baldwin V dies before giving birth to an heir, the succession to the throne of Jerusalem will be decided by the four major European monarchs.
The four major European monarchs, namely the Pope, the King of France, the King of England, and the Holy Roman Emperor, are all European local powers.
To put it simply, the Leper King felt that there were too many insects in Jerusalem, and he really counted on these guys to help the kingdom.
Therefore, even if the throne of Jerusalem is reduced to a puppet of European powers, it can at least get foreign aid to help the country survive.
Then...just over half a year after the death of the Leper King, an eight-year-old child named Baldwin V died...the cause of death is unknown.
Immediately afterwards, the nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem directly refused to execute the Leper King's will.
Why should their king be decided by the four major European monarchs!
From this moment on, the division and destruction of the Kingdom of Jerusalem seemed to be a foregone conclusion.
Later, when Isabella was rushing from Karak Castle to Jerusalem to participate in the king selection, she was attacked by Bedouins on that rainy night.
Now, when Garris mentioned the Leper King's will again, he was accusing Guy's throne of not being orthodox enough. Leonard and other nobles had supported him through several successive tricks.
The cause of death of Baldwin V is unknown. Is it really that the cause of death is unknown?
The leper king's will was refused to be executed. Isn't there already a series of connections?
The Holy City of Jerusalem chooses a king, but Isabella is attacked on a rainy night.
This series of things happened in May 1186.
"I don't think Guy is worthy of being king."
Garris stated his point concisely and to the point, and then he continued.
"However, although I don't want to admit it, the current kingdom cannot withstand another division. We cannot fight another civil war in the kingdom with Saladin's watchful eye. Now is different from before."
What Garris was talking about was in 1153, when a civil war broke out between Baldwin III and his mother, Queen Melisende, over their power to rule.
However, the Muslim community at that time was still in a state of fragmented warlord rule and was unable to intervene in the civil war in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
"And there are some things you don't want me to put on the table."
Garris gave Leonard a look, and Leonard clapped his hands, signaling the escorting knights behind him to leave the tent.
Gareth also asked Charles, Clovis and others to leave the tent.
The conversation that will follow will involve the dark side of the kingdom. The more people who know about it, the worse the impact will be.
For Leonard, if those things spread, it would have an extremely terrible impact on the legitimacy of Guy's throne.
For Garris, only secrets that have not yet been known to the public can be used as a handle to blackmail others. Naturally, he is not in a hurry to make the scandal of Leonard and his group public.
The knights left the tent, and when they lowered the tent curtain, they could faintly hear a fierce quarrel breaking out inside. The four knights under Leonard's command stood on the right side of the tent door, and those who had received Garris' fist stood on the left side of the tent door.
As the noise inside became louder and louder, the knights seemed to faintly hear the sounds of hands inside.
It seemed like something had been smashed, and something seemed to be torn apart.
The expressions on the faces of the four knights headed by Clovis were a bit unbearable, as painful memories had reawakened.
As for the four knights opposite Clovis, even if they knew what was going on in the tent, they didn't want to go in. As long as they didn't hear Leonard shaking people in a loud voice, they just pretended not to hear it.
After all, Garris wouldn't really injure or kill an old man in his sixties.
But if these four young knights get involved, I'm afraid they will be beaten one to five again.
When Garris got off the carriage, he had already proved that his military power was not on the same level as that of the knights.
Simply put, it is better to be beaten by one person than by five people.
But it's still pretty hard to stretch.
So these knights had nothing to say and tried to chat to resolve the embarrassment.
"Uh, were you kidding when you were in the tent earlier? Are you really going to follow Garris? No, why is that?" Clovis, a knight, asked.
The corner of Clovis's mouth twitched. A few hours ago, the scene where Garris kicked the sword into the stone was still vivid in his mind.
Time passed little by little with the noise in the tent and the chatting outside the tent.
Before sunset, the tent curtain was opened.
Garris helped Leonard out of it. The knights could see that Leonard's left eye was black and blue. It was obvious that they had really done something inside.
The conversation between the two was full of tension from the beginning.
The purpose of Garris coming to Leonard is that he needs to reach a peace agreement with Leonard.
After all, war is about to break out next year. If Garris cannot ensure smooth plowing this autumn, people will starve to death next year.
The nobles of Leonard's faction don't have the ability to accomplish anything now, but they still have enough ability to do bad things.
Secondly, the peace agreement demanded by Guerris is not an acknowledgment of the current status quo.
In front of Leonard, he drew a simplified map of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and drew a circle in the northern part of the Transjordan territory.
In short, because of the two consecutive assassinations of Leonard and others and other armed conflicts, Leonard had to cut off at least a quarter of the Transjordan territory as compensation.
Such a large area of land would almost be considered a county in mainland Europe.
Of course, Leonard was not happy about this. After all, the attack on Isabella was an act of their entire faction. Why was Garris staring at him picking out the wool by himself?
There is no important land! It's a life-threatening situation!
Following Garris's verbal threats, Leonard's temper became violent and his mind was a little confused for a while, so he naturally took action.
Naturally, there is no need to mention the result of Leonard's action.
After taking action, Gairis threatened again. He said: "I am not afraid of fighting. I am happy when I hear about war. What kind of fight is Transjordan? It's nothing more than cold weapons and a few fights. Jerusalem is a fight. Both sides have thousands." People, there are city walls, heavy cavalry, and I heard there are also trebuchets!”
The meaning of this is nothing more than that if there is a real quarrel, Garris and Isabella will go to Luo with a knife, make a painful statement of interests, directly shake people in the Holy City of Jerusalem, and start a civil war.
As far as the legitimacy of Guy's throne is concerned, if Garris really makes those facts public, civil war in this kingdom will begin.
Leonard's expected second expedition to Jerusalem naturally came to nothing. His dream of leading his troops into the Islamic holy city of Mecca and planting a cross on Kalba's chamber during his lifetime could no longer be realized.
Leonard, who is in his sixties, has been imprisoned in Aleppo for seventeen years,
He dreamed of planting a cross in Mecca, the holy land of those pagans!
He will give those pagans the ultimate humiliation that will be unforgettable for thousands of years!
I want to beat them to the ground so that they will never be able to raise their heads or speak!
Now, Garris and Leonard have completely intimidated each other.
Gehrys was worried that the nobles in Jerusalem would cause conflicts and affect the autumn plowing in his base.
Leonard was worried that Garris would instigate civil war in the kingdom and dash his dreams.
Therefore, in the end, both sides reluctantly reached a verbal truce agreement.
This verbal truce agreement is less effective than a piece of paper wiping your ass.
But at least it can still be maintained until Garris completes next year's spring harvest and Leonard completes the next year's war with Saladin.
Because of Gareth's unpredictable prophecy, Leonard? Do you still want to settle accounts later? happy!
When the Battle of Harding begins next year, Leonard's head will be cut off and hung on a spearhead!
By that time, Gehrys would not take the initiative to tear up the agreement. The defenders of Karak would probably not take the initiative to ask Gehrys for help in defense.
As for Leonard? Who is that person? Really unfamiliar.
(End of chapter)