[1] Baldwin also sent William of Bures and Guy Brisebarre to arrange the marriage of his heiress, Melisende, with Count Fulk V of Anjou.
[3] The third embassy, undertaken by Archbishop William I of Tyre and Bishop Roger of Ramla,[8] was to secure the approval of Pope Honorius II for the marriage, since it would result in Fulk becoming king of Jerusalem upon Baldwin's death.
A papal legate, Bishop Gerard of Angoulême, was present when Fulk, having accepted the marriage proposal, made his vow at Le Mans in May 1128.
[2][10] Hugh did not personally meet the pope, however, but only a papal legate, Matthew of Albano, at the Council of Troyes in January 1129, where the rule of the Templars was approved.
[2] The Gesta Ambaziensium dominorum records "innumerable knights and foot soldiers and many men of consular rank", i.e., counts.
[2] The contemporary Damascene chronicler Ibn al-Ḳalānisī places the total force raised by both Hugh and Fulk at 60,000 men, mostly infantry.
[5] Thomas Asbridge estimates the size of the combined army (including the crusader states' forces) at 2,000 knights and 10,000 infantry.
[19] According to Ibn al-Ḳalānisī, the Turcoman auxiliaries in the Damascene army looked forward to fighting infidels, an attitude that seems to presage the rise of jihadist politics among the Muslims.
[18] Hugh did not arrive in the Kingdom of Jerusalem until several months after the Council of Troyes, which Christopher Tyerman cites as a possible cause of the delay.
[21] This depends on the claim by Ibn al-Athīr that Baldwin II had negotiated an agreement with conspirators within Damascus to hand the city over to him.
On a specified Friday, the vizier of Damascus, Abū ʿAlī Ṭāhir ibn Saʿd al-Mazdaqānī, was to lock the people in the mosque and open the gates to the crusaders.
[18][22] In any case, no such handover occurred because the emir of Damascus, Tāj al-Mulūk Būrī, had the vizier and the Assassins who supported him massacred on 4 September 1129.
[18] This in turn propelled Ismāʿīl al-ʿAjamī, the Assassin commander of the town of Banyas, to surrender his fortress to the crusaders and take refuge with his men in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
[2][18] Learning of this, Tāj al-Mulūk Būrī sent his elite cavalry—a mixed force of Turcomans, Bedouins and the ʿaskar of Hama under Shams al-Khawāṣṣ—to attack the foragers at a place called Burāq in the Marj al-Ṣuffar some twenty miles south of the main position.
[27] Following the defeat, Baldwin II gave the order to attack, but the troops were prevented from advancing by a sudden thunderstorm and the ensuing fog.
[19] According to Michael the Syrian, who may be relying on the lost contemporary chronicle of Basil bar Shumna, Damascus paid 20,000 dinars and offered annual tribute in return for the crusaders' withdrawal.
[2] In examining the crusaders' defeat, Tyerman points out the logistical difficulties inherent in an attack on Damascus, which would require long supply lines across enemy territory.
[19] The failure of the crusade marks the end of a period of aggression that included the capture of Tyre and siege of Aleppo (1124) and three campaigns against Damascus.