The Assassination of Miles of Plancy

No One Likes A Jerk Who Is Too Big for His Britches

It’s another episode of medieval crime, or ‘why complaints about modern violence is nonsense.’ This time, it is a historical murder mystery, since the crime was never solved, though, as we will see, there are suspects.

Picture It

It’s a warm evening in October of 1174. Miles of Plancy is swaggering down a quiet street in Acre. He is rich from toll fees and the unofficial regent for little Baldwin II. He has a lot to swagger about.

But what is this? His attendants and guards are missing. Someone as important as a regent should have guards, but they have been sent on errands by the arrogant Miles.

A shadow slips free of the warm stone walls and glides behind Miles. It is an assassin, and he raises a steel dagger that glitters in the dying light.

He plunges the knife into the regent’s back. Miles jerks back, the pain sudden and fleeting. Was an artery hit? Perhaps it spurts blood, but more likely the cut is clean and causes only leaking.

The assassin turns on his heels and melts into the golden evening. Perhaps he catches the last boat to France. Maybe he reports to his employer.

Miles bleeds out on the hard dirt streets of Acre all alone.

How Did This Happen?

Miles was not destined to die this way. He worked for it.

He was a French lord who arrived in Jerusalem in 1169 to help King Almaric fight Egypt. Almaric was a touchy one who insisted that Miles make a treaty with the Egyptian head. This did not turn out well for the Crusades in the end, but Almaric was pleased with the late-comer’s work.

The king made Miles Seneschal of Jerusalem, a position that made him a judicial force in the insanely litigious Frankish society he moved in. He also allowed him to marry Stephanie of Milly, an extremely fortunate marriage. Stephanie was a widow who had Montreal and Outrejordan, fiefs that got rich off charging caravans for crossing them. (That’s how my character Eric gets his money, and it was pretty common.)

Stephanie’s inheritance of Montreal was controversial and might have been involved in a feud with the Brisebarre family. Also, the other Frankish lords did not appreciate the newby being their judge.

Miles did not make things easier for the lords to accept. He was famously insulting to the other lords, arrogant to everyone, and generally a pompous piece-of-work who liked to flaunt his riches and power.

When Almaric died in 1174 and Miles presumed that he would be regent, the others were pissed. Rumors flew around Jerusalem that someone was out for Miles’s blood. Miles scoffed at the threat and kept being an arrogant jerk.

A Duke named Raymond came forward as the preferred regent of the country, but still, Miles sniffed.

A couple days after Miles was murdered, Raymond was appointed regent.

Now, to be clear, just because someone benefits from something doesn’t mean they had made the thing happen. A chronicle of the time accused the Brisebarre brothers William and Guy since there was bad blood between Stephanie’s husband and them over Montreal.

And that’s possible. Why not? No one was caught or officially tried.

It could have been anyone. You can never know.

Conclusion:

Would the new-comer Miles ever have been given a chance at the regency if he had made himself pleasant? Maybe. It has happened before.

History is full of contingencies. We’ll never know exactly what triggered the assassination or what its effects are. Life is too complicated for that.

But his rudeness was a factor, and people in power should remember that politeness can get you more than being a jerk can.

Sources:

https://academic-accelerator.com/encyclopedia/miles-of-plancy

https://www.medievalists.net/2022/12/true-crusader-crime-what-bloody-man-is-that-murder-government-and-power/