The Crusades, the Genoese and the Latin East - DSpace at ...

There was some similarity between the Ibelin family and the de Biblio in the context of
the Latin East. Mas Latrie already remarked about this; He wrote that `les families de Giblet et
d'Ibelin, presque egales en noblesse et en richesse, s'etaient liees par de nombreux mariages. '462
This impression is a result of a comparison between the families at a later period, probably in the
second half of the thirteenth century when the families were established in Cyprus. This
speculation, however, may be seen as part of Mas Latrie's attempt to identify the author of the
Continuation of William of Tyre commonly known as Ernoul as a descendant of the de Biblio.
More recently, Ruth Morgan suggested this identification again, but this idea was criticized by
Peter Edbury. 463 It may be added that had the chronicler Ernoul descended from the de Biblio, one
would have expected a more detailed account of the history of the de Biblio in this chronicle.
Sadly, this is not the case.
It would be a mistake to assume that people such as Hugh of Ibelin, Balian of Nablus and
Hugh II de Biblio acted independently of each other and that it was a coincidence that they
followed similar patterns of behaviour when they were trying to promote their position
in local
society. These people had innovative nature part of the spirit of a generation of settlers in the
Latin East. The quest for a name or new titles had sometimes proved to be rather complicated.
Edbury mentioned that Balian of Ibelin `had made an excellent marriage' when he married Maria
Komnena and gained possession of Nablus for as long as Maria lived. Balian was not supposed
to, but he nonetheless `took to describing himself as lord of Nablus, but it was a title he was
studiously denied in documents emanating from the royal chancery. '464 In the case of the de
Biblio, the alteration of their surname signifies some major changes including the break between
the de Biblio and their noble clan, the Embriaci in Genoa. The 1168 charter reveals that the name
Byblos was not easily accepted in Genoa, Hugh II is referred to as Hugo Ebriacus, Dei gratia,
Gibelleti dominus. This title means that on the one hand he was recognised as the unequivocal
lord of Gibellet. On the other hand, the document refers to him by his Genoese surname and the
new name of Byblos is not mentioned at all. Interestingly, the Genoese notary who copied the
original charter had also described Hugh's seal at the bottom of the document. It reads, sigillum
Guilielmi Ebriaci, which means that Hugh used his late father's seal. It is hard to imagine that
approximately five years after Hugh succeed his father as the lord of Gibelet, Hugh did not yet
have a seal of his own. The reason might be that during the negotiations with Genoa in 1168
Hugh of Byblos had deliberately reverted to his noble Genoese surname, maybe because it was
462
Ernoul. Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trdsorier, ed. Louis de Mas Latrie , (Paris, 1871), p. 502.
463
Ruth M. Morgan (ed. ) La Continuation de Guillaume de Tyr (1184-1197) in Documents relatifs ä
1'histoire des Croisades, vol. 14 (Paris, 1982), pp. 44-5. Peter Edbury, The Conquest ofJerusalem and the
Third Crusade, Sources in Translation (Aldershot, 1996), p. 5, n. 8.
464
Peter Edbury, John of 1belin and the Kingdom ofJerusalem, p. 10.
130