The Lady of Cassinca
This story began many centuries ago in the European continent, in the southern territories, a land bordering the Mediterranean sea…
Our story begins in the March of Montferrat, previously March of Western Liguria, and located in the North of the Italian peninsula that in the midst of the XIIth century was made of many realms, republics and fiefs. In Montferrat lived Maria. She was not of noble origin but not a peasant either; her father was the bailiff of the lords of Montferrat. Her family was wealthy enough that she was a well-educated, well-mannered and beautiful young woman.
She was auburn; had intense blue eyes enhanced by a fair skin of a pinkish carnation. She had a fit and slender figure. Maria was attractive, easy going and always attracted both genders by her wits and sense of humor. She was fearless, free-spirited, envisioning a better world, all of which was uncommon for a woman of the medieval age. Her pure reasoning was remarkable; she also was very sensitive, perhaps even psychic. She was curious, generous and pious: she liked to raise money for orphans and help peasant families tricked by sly yeomen, merchants or lords abusing their knowledge or their power.
She rode her own horse across the lands and spent time with the Lords’ sons, as they were children and young teenagers at the sophisticated Montferrat court. The reputation, the patronage and connections of the Montferrat court attracted a lavish and multicultural population of nobles and artists. She was close in age to Federico the fourth son, who adored her but she was smitten with Corrado, the second son of the Montferrat family. He had all the human virtues, very well educated, extremely clever and astonishingly handsome. She was also very close to their beautiful and intelligent sister Beatrice that enchanted medieval poets and troubadours such as Petrarca and Vaqueiras.
Corrado’s family, on his mother side, was from an old lineage and related to Frank kings and Roman emperors. His father and mother were rich and with powerful dynastic connections. They tried to arrange great marriages for their children that Federico and Corrado had managed to avoid.
Corrado and Maria not only shared qualities and ideals, but also attracted one another by their differences. They admired, respected and loved each other though and because they came from different societies. They seemed bonded together in spite of circumstances; against all odds and the patriarch William’s approval, they got married in 1179. The medieval nobility indeed looked down upon such a mediocre match. His eldest brother had married Sybilla, princess of Jerusalem, and the youngest one, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor. Federico, aggrieved by their marriage, entered the church with the support of his cousin and godfather Federico Barbarossa, as bishop of Alba in 1180. Father and son, except for their looks, were cut from the same piece of cloth. Their relation, thus, was tempestuous: made of love, profound admiration and total incomprehension. Leader of the Ghibellin party in Italy and his eldest son dead, William did everything to hinder Corrado’s future by Maria’s side. He bequeathed Corrado’s rights to the March of Montferrat to his younger brother Boniface. William blamed Corrado, favorite, cherished son of his mother, for her death of shock and sadness only months after his wedding. Finally, at 75 years of age, William left in 1185 for the Latin East, to protect his toddler grandson King Baldwin V of Jerusalem.
Baldwin V was an infant deprived of close family protection surrounded by murderers but for his old grandfather. Maria lost a child and sadly did not bear any other children. Maria parted ways as threats and pressure of the family intensified, and another prestigious marriage was arranged for Corrado. She left for Genoa with his moral and material support. His best friends welcomed her whereas he embarked to the Latin East to support his father and nephew. As he sailed via Constantinople, he stopped and helped the Byzantine emperor to defend his throne and there married his promised bride, Theodora.
Ligurian families had established and secured privileges in the Latin East, since the beginning of the XIth century, in the form of marriages, but also colonies in cities such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Tyr and Gibelet. In Genoa, Maria earned the confidence of Corrado’s closest friends, who assisted her unconditionally. Rosso della Volta, Ansaldo Bufferio and Enrico Deitesalve were accustomed to negotiating with the rulers of Egypt and European monarchs. Genoa was a crossroad to pilgrims, merchants and crusaders at the time of the 2nd Christian crusade. The commune contributed to the foundations of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The year of 1186 was a time for Genoese knights and merchants to acquire possessions and new status in the Latin East and this did not escape Ansaldo. Maria had a gift for dealing and communicating with people and she had learnt to manage funds with Corrado. They quickly credited her with a commercial and diplomatic expertise which would be of invaluable assistance to them, thus she travelled and assisted their commerce. Together with her friend, Mabilia, she learnt within a year, to negotiate and ship grains, wheat, wine and other goods and to hire seamen.
Maria was on board a Genoese merchant vessel acting on her friends’ behalf and with a personal agenda of trading activities along with the official diplomatic mission. They reached Constantinople by June of 1187 where Corrado was a Caesar and husband of the emperor’s sister. End of August, the young Baldwin died. His mother Sybilla crowned Queen of Jerusalem married Guy de Lusignan who in turn became King.
There is nothing like passion and though Corrado was capable of pretence and dissimulation, he could not resist any longer when he met again with Maria, his passion was still alive, strong and also reciprocated. This secret situation, its potentially catastrophic disclosure, on top of worrying news coming from Jerusalem urged him to flee Constantinople. Corrado boarded with Maria, the Genoese consuls and they arrived off Acre on the second week of July that same year.
Salâh ad-Dîn Yûsûf, a respected warrior had united the divided Muslim states prior to signing peace with the Franks. When a Frank prince repeatedly and provocatively attacked Saracen caravans, he decided however to break the peace and take control of the region. When the Genoese anchored, they sensed an unusual situation, realized the Saracens had taken Acre and were further surprised as the patrol boat approached. Maria and Corrado, the cleverest merchant and most knowledgeable diplomat of Italy, figured out a stratagem. It was to stick to their identity as Genoese merchants. They hoped Salâh ad-Dîn would let a Genoese merchants’ vessel cross the line and carry on trading: “We are Christians, and Genoese merchants, as soon as we heard of the victory Salâh ad-Dîn had accomplished; we came with trust for our safety to his land”. The argument convinced Salâh ad-Dîn to let them pass.
They sailed up the coast to Tyr, where Corrado landed with Ansaldo and some of his Genoese companions, and saved the city from an impending sedition. They sent Rosso and Maria to negotiate with the Frank kings to raise a European crusade and organize a Genoese fleet to come to their aid. Rosso was accustomed to diplomacy with the greatest rulers of the time; he would deal with Richard the Lion Heart and Philip of France. Maria and her friend Mabilia were among the few feminine Genoese pioneers who contracted expeditions of crusaders and trade. Genoa would become the leading port of the 3rd crusade. The commune participated in the crusades, not only sending warriors and support for the fighting people but trading with the Latin Orient.
In the meantime, Corrado assumed command of the leadership and the defense of the last free city of the Kingdom of Jerusalem against Salâh ad-Dîn. He organized the inhabitants, the remaining forces of Tyr, who were about to surrender and those who had managed to flee from the battle of Hattin. The details of the disaster of the battle had made their way to their ears. Salâh ad-Dîn beheaded all the Templar and Hospitaller Knights and held captive many prisoners from the nobility, including Guy de Lusignan, new King of Jerusalem, William the elder of Montferrat and the Lord of Gibelet.
The Embriaci, Lords of Gibelet, had surrendered their town in exchange for Salâh ad-Dîn freeing their Lord. Salâh ad-Dîn marched away from Tyr, hurrying to lead the assault on Jerusalem. After the fall of Jerusalem, the Saracen leader decided he would return and lay siege to the fortress and did so in November 1187. He presented Corrado’s aged and captured father, before the walls of the city, offered to release him if they surrendered Tyr. Corrado bluffed that his father had lived a long and rich life already, and aimed at him with his crossbow. The brave patriarch encouraged his son to stand firm, even when the Saracen threatened to kill him. Maria also managed to return to Tyr and was on the city ramparts, during its siege bringing provisions, water and support to the inhabitant for Corrado.
Tyr Fortress was enclosed by large fortified stonewalls, with numerous towers facing both land and sea. It was however not only a mere fortress but also a settlement. Ordinary people lived in the quarter outside the old city alongside the Genoese traders, such as farmers and artisans. They strengthened their quarters outside the old city, in the secondary zone, with ramparts, ditches, and a wooden palisade. During the attacks the inhabitants retrieved into the fortress.
Maria was on the palisade that collapsed during an assault. She was badly hurt. She miraculously landed alive at the feet of the fortress. Her left thigh deeply wounded; her leg broken, her knee and ankle were twisted. She begged Salâh ad-Dîn for mercy as he approached: he gave her a cup of rose water, as a sign of trust, and had her carried away to his camp to be taken care of. There was no doubt by her looks and posture that she was of noble condition. Salâh ad-Dîn had a good reputation when it came to the treatment of female hostages. She was not a pilgrim; she would and could not say who she was. She identified herself as the widower of a Genoese merchant who could pay for her ransom providing he would set her free. Salâh ad-Dîn either enjoyed perpetuating a myth of chivalry about himself or expected some sort of information in exchange. He offered her his heart, that she refused excusing herself cleverly, as he was “not a Christian”. He kept her with twenty other prisoners, including Corrado’s father, for ten months. They allowed Maria to treat their injuries and take care of an orphan toddler whose noble mother had died of puerperal fever. She took the child into her protection, as eventually both parents died.
The ruler of Egypt was not a murderer but a diplomat known to treat noble prisoners well, as negotiations commonly included exchange, payments of ransoms or surrender of fiefdoms. During the months of captivity, William grew a profound affection for Maria as he got to know and respect her for how she kindly took care of him and passionately raised the orphan. Then again, she was a natural charmer and fair looking. They formed some sort of a three-generation family compensating for the loss of children and grandson as William, Renier and Baldwin had died. They also shared the common love and admiration of Corrado. In 1188, after months of tough battles, Salâh ad-Dîn released the prisoners and abandoned the siege of Tyr, unable to defeat the strong resistance of the fortress.
Genoa, back in 1096 was a small, poor fishing village of 4,000 inhabitants, which the participation of its fleet to the first crusade enriched enormously then. It grew as a free commune to a city-state and as privileges obtained from its participation to the crusades, Genoa established colonies. In Antioch, for instance, Prince Bohemond III, granted the Genoese commercial and legal privileges in his territory because they helped save Antioch from Salâh ad-Dîn ‘s troops. In this second crusade, Genoa expected great profits from their military enrollments and agreement to support France and England but also paid a heavy price losing distinguished noblemen in the crusades and financial losses to free the Kingdom of Jerusalem that had fallen in 1187.
The Franks held the Genoese in contempt calling most of them “adventurers, usurers, merchants, and corsairs.” Corrado however knew and compensated their loss in recognition of their support: within the years following 1189, by the instrument of charters, he granted the Genoese communities concessions, legal privileges including rights and properties as they settled in the Latin East. By 1189, Genoa had several fleets travelling from and to Tyr with supplies and new crusaders from European realms. In that background, Maria resumed negotiating and organizing shipping and supplies arriving in Tyr. Philip of France had negotiated provisions for eight months with Genoa, for 650 knights, 1300 squires and 1300 horses. The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were in a fragile state after the fall of the first kingdom. Whomever did not die or fall into Muslim captivity fled to Tyr and helped protect the city.
Tyr secured, Corrado’s entourage convinced him by the end of the summer of 1189 to help support the siege to reconquer Acre. Months passed with offensive operations, many small armies and fleets descended on the Levant from around Europe. No major success happened on neither the Christian nor the Saracen side. At this point, both armies in Acre had grown to several dozen of thousands of soldiers and casualties added up to half that number. In March 1190, Corrado travelled to Tyr in his own ship to return with further supplies for the Crusaders and to help the resistance against the Saracen fleet on the shore. Life in the city and the Christian camps outside the walls quickly became difficult after their containment by Salâh ad-Dîn . Food remained limited, the water supply became contaminated with human and animal corpses, and epidemics soon began to spread. At some point in July 1190 Queen Sibylla died of malaria, a few days after the death of both of her daughters, Alais and Maria.
In November 1190 the surviving barons and bishops of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, were eager to see the kingdom pass into the hands of someone they respected and trusted. The rightful ruler, Sybilla Queen of Jerusalem having died with no heirs, Isabella her half-sister was next in line to the throne. The peers of the realm did not rely on Isabella’s husband; they needed a king capable of leading the fight for recovery of the lost kingdom to protect it. The nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, seeing in Corrado a potential consort naturally turned to him, younger brother of Sybilla first husband and sworn defender of the kingdom. The High Court of the kingdom obtained the nullity of the marriage of Isabella of Jerusalem and her husband who had little choice in the matter. Sterility, consanguinity or adultery were some of the reasons to annul marriages, in this case the argument was that she was only 11 at the time of her wedding. She was an intelligent princess with an understanding of politics and recognized it was in her own interest and the interests of her kingdom to marry a trusted and respected lord. Jerusalem needed not only a legitimate queen but also a strong king. They naturally chose Corrado of Montferrat.
Maria and Corrado had gone through and overcome severe trials and separations: the pressure of family, Christian battles and an imperial marriage; one can argue should love not have prevailed? They had reunited and fought together thrice for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, for what they thought were virtuous ideals and a better world where they could start anew. Was this life journey a worthless trial doomed to fail? Was sacred and unconditional love not supposed to triumph? Was Corrado giving in to the “raison d’état”? Was Corrado a man that fled from one responsibility to another? Maria remained aloof from this ultimate ordeal, perhaps she resolved to wait for him in another lifetime or enlightened that her orphan child might be her unconditional love and not that man flying from one unsettled dream to another one. She moved on returning to her homeland.
In 1191, leaving Corrado and the Holy Land torn apart, Maria with the child as hers, embarked on a Genoese merchant vessel back to Liguria. Corrado’s brother, Federico had assumed his duties as Bishop of Alba for a year, then renounced his vows. He had always hoped and secretly waited for her to return. By 1182, he had left for Corsica where he settled in the region of Cassinca. Federico was a trustworthy, good and solid man. Since 1133 Pope Inocent II had split the Corsica dioceses between Pisan and Ligurian. Informed by his brother and father off her return and with their blessing. He offered to fetch them and sail together to Mariana in Corsica where they would be settled. He turned into her pillar as he took great care of them. They became the Lords of Cassinca and raised the child as their own.
In November 1191, Corrado and Isabella were married. The barons of the realm in April 1192, elected Corrado king of Jerusalem. He was however murdered uncrowned a few weeks later. Like his brother William Longspade before him, Corrado, died and left a widow pregnant with a daughter, Maria.
The same old story repeated and unfortunately, would repeat again generation after generation, lives after lives, until the characters of the lineage would release and redeem their suffering and fears settling into a softer incarnation.