Joscelin III, Count of Edessa

Who was Joscelin III, Count of Edessa?

Joscelin III of Edessa was the titular Count of Edessa 1159 – after 1190. He was the son of Joscelin II and his wife Beatrice. He inherited the title of "Count of Edessa" from his father, Joscelin II, although Edessa had been captured in 1144 and its remnants conquered or sold years before he took the title.!

Joscelin lived in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and managed to gather enough land around Acre to set up the Seigneurie of Joscelin. His sister, Agnes of Courtenay, had been the first wife of King Amalric I before he succeeded to the throne, and was the mother of Baldwin IV and Sibylla. In 1164 Joscelin was taken captive by Nur ad-Din Zengi at the Battle of Harim. He remained a prisoner until 1176 when Agnes paid his ransom of 50,000 dinars, probably with support from the royal treasury. His nephew Baldwin then made him seneschal of Jerusalem. He faced some rivalry from the king's paternal kindred, led by Raymond III, Count of Tripoli.

In 1180 Joscelin went as an ambassador to the Byzantine Empire. After the betrothal of Princess Isabella I of Jerusalem to Humphrey IV of Toron that year, the Toron estates passed to the crown in exchange for a money fief.