People/Latin Crusaders and Crusader states

d. 1159 · Last effective Count of Edessa

Joscelin II

Other names · Joscelin II of Edessa

Last effective count of Edessa, who lost the city to Zengi in 1144 and died a captive in Aleppo after 1150.

Joscelin II
Verified biography·Histoire d’Outremer / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

BIOGRAPHICAL DOSSIER

Life and historical role

01

Life and political setting

Joscelin II succeeded his father as count of Edessa in 1131. The county was divided across both sides of the Euphrates, possessed limited military resources and depended on complicated relations with Armenian communities and neighbouring Muslim powers. Joscelin usually ruled from Turbessel rather than the vulnerable city of Edessa itself.

02

Role in the Crusades

Edessa fell to Zengi in 1144 while Joscelin was away with his field army. In 1146 he tried to recover the city during Nur al-Din's absence from Aleppo, but the attempt ended in disaster when he failed to take the citadel. Turkmen captured him in 1150; he was taken to Aleppo and died after a long imprisonment.

Method note

Biographical information is linked to the sources shown on the page and to the connected event records. Disputed dates are given as approximate, gaps are not filled by conjecture, and later literary or visual depictions are not treated as contemporary portraits.

CONTEXTUAL READING

Related cases

28 November – 24 December 1144 · Edessa

Zengi's capture of Edessa

While Count Joscelin II was away from the city, Imad al-Din Zengi besieged Edessa in November 1144. The city was entered on 24 December through walls brought down by mining, and the citadel surrendered two days later. The fall of the first crusader state's capital gave rise to the Second Crusade.

Open record →October – November 1146 · Edessa

Second capture of Edessa

After Zengi's death in September 1146, Joscelin II entered Edessa in October 1146 with the support of its Armenian population but could not take the citadel. Nur al-Din Zengi soon arrived and routed the Franks and the inhabitants trying to flee with them; the city's Christian population suffered heavy losses.

Open record →April 1150 · Aleppo region

Captivity of Joscelin II

Joscelin II, the last count of Edessa, was seized by Nur al-Din's Turkmen allies in spring 1150 while travelling to Antioch. He was blinded and imprisoned in Aleppo, where he died in 1159; the county's remaining castles were soon sold to Byzantium or changed hands.

Open record →