Amalric of Jerusalem

Amalric
King of Jerusalem
Reign1163–1174
Coronation1163
PredecessorBaldwin III
SuccessorBaldwin IV
Born1136
Died11 July 1174(1174-07-11) (aged 38)
Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem
SpouseAgnes of Courtenay
Maria Komnene
IssueBaldwin IV of Jerusalem
Sibylla of Jerusalem
Alix of Jerusalem
Isabella I of Jerusalem
HouseAnjou
FatherFulk, King of Jerusalem
MotherMelisende, Queen of Jerusalem

Amalric (Latin: Amalricus; French: Amaury; 1136 – 11 July 1174) was King of Jerusalem from 1163, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. He was the second son of Queen Melisende and King Fulk, and succeeded his older brother King Baldwin III. During his reign, Jerusalem became more closely allied with the Byzantine Empire, and the two states launched an unsuccessful invasion of Egypt. He was the father of three future rulers of Jerusalem, Sibylla, Baldwin IV, and Isabella I.

Older scholarship mistook the two names Amalric and Aimery as variant spellings of the same name, so these historians erroneously added numbers, making Amalric to be Amalric I (1163–74) and King Aimery (1197–1205) to be "Amalric II". Now scholars recognize that the two names were not the same and no longer add the number for either king. Confusion between the two names was common even among contemporaries.[1]

  1. ^ George Francis Hill, A History of Cyprus, vol. 2 (Cambridge University Press, 2010 [1947]), p. 45 n. 1.

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