| Name | 'Foulques V' "Fulk V" "the Younger" de ANJOU "King of Jerusalem" |
| Birth | 1082, Anjou, FRANCE |
| Death | 10 Nov 1143, Jerusalem, PALESTINE Age: 61 |
| Burial | Church of the Holy Sepluchare, Jerusalem, PALESTINE |
| Father | 'Foulques IV' "the Rude" de ANJOU (1043-1109) |
| Mother | Bertrade de MONTFORT (1059-1116) |
| 1 | Emmengarde du MAINE "Countess" |
| Birth | 1096, Maine, Normandy, FRANCE |
| Death | 1126, Maine, Normandy, FRANCE Age: 30 |
| Children | Norma Mathilde |
| Elias Heli | |
| 'Geoffrey V' "the Fair" "the Handsome" (1113-1151) | |
| Sybilla | |
| Isabel |
| 2 | Melisande de RETHEL "Queen of Jerusalem" |
| Birth | abt 1096, Edesse, FRANCE |
| Death | 1161 Age: 65 |
| Father | 'Baldwin II' "King of Jerusalem" |
| Marriage | 2 Jun 1129, Jerusalem, PALESTINE |
| Children | Baudoiuin "Baldwin III" (1130-) |
| Amaury |
Crowned King of Jerusalem in 1130
Fulk (Foulques) V. the Younger, born 1092, 9th Count of Anjou, 1109-1129, abdicated, and was King of Jerusalem, 1131-1142, married about 1108 (1) Ermengarde, daughter of Helias, Count of Maine, who died in 1126. Fulk V. died November 10, 1143 at Jerusalem. In Burke, pg. 88, it is reported that he was also married to Millicent ________, daughter of John, Earl of Comyn, who obtained the surname "De Burgh", from the town of which he was the governor. In the Oxford History of England (The Domesday Book and the Magna Charta), a genealogical chart shows Fulk V married June 2, 1129, (2) Melisende, daughter of Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem. She died September 11, 1161. From that marriage came Baldwin the III. and Amalric I., father of Baldwin IV., and Sibyl, who married (1) William of Montferrat, and father of Baldwin V., and Married (2) Guy de Lusignan.
Fulk was born between 1089 and 1092, the son of Count Fulk IV of Anjou and Bertrade de Montfort. In 1092, Bertrade deserted her husband and became the mistress of King Philip I of France.
He became count of Anjou upon his father's death in 1109, at the age of approximately 20. He was originally an opponent of King Henry I of England and a supporter of King Louis VI of France, but in 1127 he allied with Henry when Henry arranged for his daughter Matilda to marry Fulk's son Geoffrey of Anjou. Fulk went on crusade in 1120, and become a close friend of the Knights Templar. After his return he began to subsidize the Templars, and maintained two knights in the Holy Land for a year.
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Crusader and King
By 1127 Fulk was preparing to return to Anjou when he received an embassy from King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. Baldwin II had no male heirs but had already designated his daughter Melisende to succeed him. Baldwin II wanted to safeguard his daughter's inheritance by marrying her to a powerful lord. Fulk was a wealthy crusader and experienced military commander, and a widower. His experience in the field would prove invaluable in a frontier state always in the grip of war.
However, Fulk held out for better terms then mere consort of the Queen; he wanted to be king alongside Melisende. Baldwin II, reflecting on Fulk's fortune and military exploits, acquiesced. Fulk abdicated his county seat of Anjou to his son Geoffery and left for Jerusalem, where he married Melisende on June 2, 1129. Later Balwin II bolstered Melisende's position in the kingdom by making her sole guardian of her son by Fulk, Baldwin III, born in 1130.
Fulk and Melisende became joint rulers of Jerusalem in 1131 with Baldwin II's death. From the start Fulk assumed sole control of the government, excluding Melisende altogether. He favored fellow countrymen from Anjou to the native nobility. The other crusader states to the north feared that Fulk would attempt to impose the suzerainty of Jerusalem over them, as Baldwin II had done; but as Fulk was far less powerful than his deceased father-in-law, the northern states rejected his authority. Melisende's sister Alice of Antioch, exiled from the Principality by Baldwin II, took control of Antioch once more after the death of her father. She allied with Pons of Tripoli and Joscelin II of Edessa to prevent Fulk from marching north in 1132; Fulk and Pons fought a brief battle before peace was made and Alice was exiled again.
In Jerusalem as well, Fulk was resented by the second generation of Jerusalem Christians who had grown up there since the First Crusade. These "natives" focused on Melisende's cousin, the popular Hugh II of Le Puiset, count of Jaffa, who was devotedly loyal to the Queen. Fulk saw Hugh as a rival, and it did not help matters when Hugh's own step-son accused him of disloyalty. In 1134, in order to expose Hugh, Fulk accused him of infidelity with Melisende. Hugh rebelled in protest. Hugh secured himself to Jaffa, and allied himself with the Muslims of Ascalon. He was able to defeat the army set against him by Fulk, but this situation could not hold. The Patriarch interceded in the conflict, perhaps at the behest of Melisende. Fulk agreed to peace and Hugh was exiled from the kingdom for three years, a lenient sentence.
However, an assassination attempt was made against Hugh. Fulk, or his supporters, were commonly believed responsible, though direct proof never surfaced. The scandal was all that was needed for the queen's party to take over the government in what amounted to a palace coup. Author and historian Bernard Hamilton wrote that the Fulk's supporters "went in terror of their lives" in the palace. Contemporary author and historian William of Tyre wrote of Fulk "he never attempted to take the initiative, even in trivial matters, without (Melisende's) consent". The result was that Melisende held direct and unquestioned control over the government from 1136 onwards. Sometime before 1136 Fulk reconciled with his wife, and a second son, Amalric was born. - [1]
[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulk_V_of_Anjou