Joscelin I, Count of Edessa
Joscelin of Courtenay († 1131 ) was as Joscelin I of Edessa Count of Edessa. He ruled the County during the zenith of its existence, from 1118 to 1131. His military prowess held together the vast and fragile boundaries of the country.
Life
He was a younger son of Joscelin of Courtenay and Elizabeth of Montlhery. He reached the Holy Land with the smaller crusade of 1101, which took place at the successful First Crusade in the port. He soon became one of the most important followers of his cousin of Count Baldwin II of Edessa ( the mothers were sisters ). Baldwin appointed him commander of the fortress Turbessel on the Euphrates, an important outpost of the county in the fight against the Seljuks.
1104 he fell in the battle of Harran along with his men, Baldwin in the violence of the Muslims and was for three years, until 1107, held prisoner by them. In 1113 he received from Baldwin I, the Principality of Galilee.
When Baldwin II in 1118 in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as successor of Baldwin I. became king, he made Joscelin of Edessa in 1119 his successor as Count. This was the reward for the commitment Joscelin in the royal election in favor of Baldwin II
Joscelin was taken prisoner again in 1122, and as Baldwin II came to free him, this also was taken prisoner, so that Jerusalem was the new king. Joscelin succeeded in 1123 to escape and reached Baldwin release the following year.
1125 he participated in the Battle of Azaz, a victory for the Crusaders against the Atabeg of Mosul.
1131, during the siege of a small castle in the northeast of Aleppo, he was severely injured by the collapse of a pioneer trench, after which he handed over the government of the county to his son Joscelin II. A short time later, he received the news that the Danishmends Emir Ghazi marching against the city and fortress Kaisun. When his son of the city refused to help, he ordered his own army to break, with Joscelin was carried on a stretcher at the head of the army. As Ghazi of Joscelin Come heard - maybe he thought he was already dead - he raised the siege and retreated. Shortly afterwards, Joscelin died on the roadside.
Joscelin was married his first wife, a daughter of the Duke Constantine I of Armenia, in second marriage with Maria of Salerno, sister of Roger of Salerno, regent of Antioch.