Fulk

Also known as Fulk V of Anjou

Count of Anjou, twice a crusader and already widowed with grown children in France, Fulk was chosen by Baldwin II as the western prince capable of holding Jerusalem after his death. He arrived in 1129 to marry Melisende and was crowned jointly with her in 1131. He was a skilful soldier but a political outsider — the native-born poulain barons resented his Angevin retinue, and his early attempt to rule without his wife triggered the 1134 revolt and the settlement that chastened him for the rest of his reign.

Militarily he remained formidable. To seal the southern frontier against Fatimid Ascalon he built a ring of royal castles — Beth Gibelin, Blanchegarde, Ibelin and the refortified Yibneh — that slowly strangled the port's raiding range. In the north he intervened in the succession of Antioch, and in 1137 he was trapped at Montferrand with Raymond II of Tripoli until Byzantine intervention forced Zengi to withdraw. The frontier he left behind was broader and better fortified than the one he inherited.

His end was abrupt and undignified. On 10 November 1143, hunting with Melisende on the plain near Acre, his horse stumbled chasing a hare; Fulk was thrown and his own saddle struck his head. He lingered three days and died without regaining consciousness. The kingdom passed to their son Baldwin III, then thirteen, under the regency of the queen whose authority Fulk had spent a decade learning not to challenge.

Preceded by Baldwin II. Succeeded by Baldwin III.

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