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dependent upon them.
A document from neighbouring Arsur from the following century indicates the flow in cash and goods required to maintain the county. The lord of Arsur calculated that his annual expenditure was 2,448 bezants, of which he spent 1,500 bezants on his knights. As well, he gave out 127 litres of oil to his subjects of which the bulk, 100 litres, went to the knights. Vegetable distribution totalled 22 modii (one modii the equivalent of 176 litres) of which 16 modii went to the knights; wheat 137 modii (knights 100); and oats 145 modii (knights 120).1
Most cash payments and produce thus went to the key fighting men, the knights.
The remainder of the money and goods had to suffice to support the lesser ranks of fighting men, the sergeants, and the remainder of the household.
The lady played an essential role in this social contract, as it was part of her duties to maintain the flow of produce in return for military service.
The Lady of Caesarea had a rather doubtful start in life: like other women of Outremer her life was subject to sudden changes in fortune over which she often had little control.
Her birth was blighted and elevated simultaneously in that she was the "niece" of the Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem, Arnulf Malecorne of Rohes. Arnulf, who Runciman describes as "undoubtedly corrupt" had secured his election in 1112, at the moment when the last cities of the Moslems around Jerusalem, including Caesarea, were falling to the Westerners. Arnulf was to play a key role in shaping the new kingdom of Jerusalem, and it was through his firm agency that the original plan of the kingdom as a theocracy governed by a secular ruler was abandoned.2
Like many ladies of her rank, Emma seems to have been virtually auctioned off to a politically suitable spouse. Emma's husband Eustace was a seasoned warrior, who used her marriage to secure his power.
Crusading men like him were a tough lot, and any smoothing of their attitudes towards the treatment of women generally seems to have been rather superficial, according to incidents such as an account of a tournament related by Usamah. Popular fetes known as communal festivities were held in cities such as Acre, Tiberias and Jerusalem, and marked the importation of old customs from Europe. There was a great deal of noisy and rather coarse merrymaking, which shocked some of the sober minded Moslems.
One witnessed by Usamah saw the knights ride outside the city of Tiberias to joust with lances. They dragged along two aged women. The women were placed at one end of the tournament ground and at the other was hung a pig. The women were then ordered to partake in a footrace come obstacle course: the horsemen accompanied them, obstructing their steps. The poor women fell with every step, then stumbled to their feet as the spectators shouted with laughter. One finally reached the other end and was able to claim the pig as her prize.3
Everything in Eustace's life points to him as being the kind of man who would have appreciated such one sided sport, as is suggested by his participation in the conquest of Caesarea.
Before marrying Emma, Eustace had taken charge of Sidon, one of the four great tenancies of the Crown, after participating in its siege in 1101. This made him one of the great barons of the new land, committed to sending 100 knights to serve the king whenever called upon to do so. The conquering Franks worked in concert with a number of allies, including the Genoese, who extracted a promise that this and future conquests would earn them one third of the booty and a right to a street in the bazaar of every captured town. Eustace allowed the noble Moslems to flee the city: the majority of poor people were forced to stay, and were soaked for 20,000 bezants by the Crown. They were relatively lucky.4
For when the Franks turned their attention their attention to Caesarea on May 2 they were not so merciful. The ancient Byzantine walls proved no match for their siege machines, and when the walls were breached on May 17, the citizens were butchered in the Great Mosque near the southern or Jaffa Gate. The interior of the old Byzantine church was turned into a lake of blood. Only a few girls and infants were spared.5
Emma's husband was a man whose hands were stained with the blood of innocents, and who had risen to his position with the ruthlessness of tyranny.
Like many other Crusading marriages, Emma's actual union took place amongst an atmosphere of danger and bloodshed, none of which seems to have daunted the women of Outremer: the human instinct for the celebration of mutual commitment seems able to survive even the most trying circumstances.
The description of a contemporary Frankish marriage - probably very similar to Emma's - is contained in the observations of Ibm Jubayr. In the city of Tyre he saw Christian men and women formed in two lines at the bride's door. Trumpets, flutes and all kinds of musical instruments were played until she emerged proudly assisted by two of her male relations, each of them holding one of her hands.
Her garb was elegant, a beautiful dress which trailed in traditional style with a long train of golden silk. On her head she wore a golden fillet covered with a net of woven gold. A similar arrangement covered her breast.
She walked proudly, with tiny steps, like a dove, or floating like a wisp of cloud.
Before her went Christian notables in their finest clothes, their trains falling likewise behind them. Behind were her peers amongst the Christian women, also richly apparelled and ornamented.
Leading all was the orchestra, as the bridal procession passed along the street between ranks of Christian and Moslem onlookers.
And thus everyone went on to the groom's house, where the party feasted.6
As a noble lady with important connections, Emma's marriage ritual would have been similarly elaborate. With the solemnisation of marriage to Emma came Eustace's confirmation as lord of Caesarea.
Emma's first days as lady of the county must have been paradoxical.
The memory of massacre must have been all too fresh when she first entered the city, as the bride of a grim warrior twice her age, who had married her to secure his title to the barony. Perhaps the arrival was sweetened a little by the thought that she was the wife of one of the realm's richest barons, and was now wealthy in her own right should she survive him: her "uncle" the patriarch had given her as a wedding present a valuable estate at Jericho formerly owned by the Holy Sepulchre.7
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