AMALRIC, the name of two kings of Jerusalem. AMALRIC I., king from 1 162 to 1174, was the son of Fulk of Jerusalem and the brother of Baldwin III. He was twice married; by his first wife, Agnes of Edessa, he had issue a son and a daughter, Baldwin IV. and Sibylla; while his second wife, Maria Commena, bore him a daughter Isabella, who ultimately carried the crown of Jeru salem to her fourth husband Amalric of Lusignan (Amalric II.).
The reign of Amalric I. was occupied by the Egyptian problem. It became a question between Amalric and Nureddin which of the two should control the discordant viziers who vied with one another for the control of the decadent caliphs of Egypt. For some five years a contest was waged between Amalric and Shirguh (Shirkuh), the lieutenant of Nureddin, for the possession of Egypt. Thrice (I164, 1167, I168) Amalric penetrated into Egypt; but the contest ended in the establishment of Saladin, the nephew of Shirguh, as vizier—a position which, on the death of the puppet caliph in I171, was turned into that of sovereign. The extinction of the Latin kingdom then seemed imminent, and envoys were sent to the West with anxious appeals for assistance in '09,1171 and 1173. But though in 1170 Saladin attacked the kingdom and captured Aila on the Red Sea, the danger was not so great as it seemed. Nureddin was jealous of his over-mighty subject, and his jealousy bound Saladin's hands. This was the position of affairs when Amalric died, in 1174; but, as Nureddin died in the same year, the position was soon altered and Saladin began the final attack on the kingdom. Amalric I., the second of the native kings of Jerusalem, had the qualities of his brother Baldwin III. (q.v.). He was something of a scholar, and it was he who set William of Tyre to work. He was perhaps still more of a lawyer; his delight was in knotty points of the law, and he knew the Assises better than any of his subjects.
William of Tyre is our original authority: see xix. 2-3 for his sketch of Amalric. Rohricht narrates the reign of Amalric I., Ge schichte des Konigreichs Jerusalem, c. xvii.–xviii.