When William became King of England, he kept Eleanor imprisoned in order to keep Aquitaine under control. Meanwhile in the Holy Land, things were getting tense for Christians, due to Raynald de Châtillon’s treachery. The new King of Jerusalem, Richard Lionheart, had managed to keep the Saracens at bay but Pope Urban III was worried about the fate of the city and convinced several sovereigns to take the Cross. Henry II of England had been one of them, but he had died before he could fulfil his promise and William III reluctantly agreed to go. He appointed his wife Margaret of France regent and exacted an oath of allegiance from his brother Geoffrey as Duke of Brittany and Count of Poitiers. Constance bristled when she heard the news but she knew William would rather stay in his kingdom and be called a coward rather than go on Crusade and leave his brother behind, and so she let her husband swear allegiance to the King.
William and Philp left France together for Sicily, where they heard that William’s sister, Joan, had been imprisoned by her late husband’s bastard cousin Tancred, who had seized the throne. William freed Joan and managed to come to terms with Tancred. Then he sailed away, taking his sister with him.
Upon their arrival, William and Joan were met by King Richard. Things might have been settled quickly but William and Richard’s relationship were strained, the first being jealous of his younger brother’s success and the second feeling outraged that the Pope thought he could not deal with the situation on his own and called for help in his name.
Philip of France, who had been taken seriously ill soon after his arrival, had been thinking of going back to France. He was too happy to see dissent grow between the two brothers however, and found his health was getting better and decided to stay. He did his best to make things worse, and he succeeded. As a result, the Crusade dragged on and William became notorious for his lack of common sense, which resulted in several humiliating defeats for the Crusaders’ army.
Richard tried to calm things down and offered to marry Joan to Saladin’s brother, only to be flatly refused. In May 1192 however, Philippe, who had become sick again, left for France. Richard eventually managed to reconcile with William and defeated Saladin, who made peace.
William, feeling he was not needed any more, sailed back to Aquitaine, where he was met with unpleasant news…
Soon after William’s departure, Constance had claimed that she, the rightful heiress of Brittany, had not sworn allegiance to the King, and she and Geoffrey had accordingly marched into Normandy. There, Geoffrey had freed his mother, Queen Eleanor, who was acknowledged as Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right and took her grandchildren, little Henry and Alys, with her. Geoffrey then swore allegiance to her for the County of Poitiers. He also freed his sister-in-law Alys of France and married her to Guillaume de Rohan, much to Philippe’s horror when he came back from the Crusade to find his sister married to a mere viscount’s younger brother.
When William finally came back, Aquitaine seemed lost for good and his estates were threatened by Philippe, who had taken advantage of Eleanor’s release to convince his sister Margaret to make an alliance with him.
William had to acknowledge his mother as the rightful Duchess of Aquitaine and embarked on a long war to regain control of his own lands.