Ball, John 87Between 1182 and 1185, the Muslim leader every year
attacked castles on the other side of the river Jordan and
raided the kingdom through the valley of Beth-Shean.
The Guild of the notaries
Baldwin could not prevent the politically dubious mar-
riage of his sister and heiress, Sybil, with the unknown
knight newly arrived from France, GUYof Lusignan. Atti-
tudes toward this marriage divided the nobility, and Bald-
win only succeeded in postponing conflict by
proclaiming that the child of Sybil’s by a previous mar-
riage to William of Montferrat would be heir to the king-
dom (Baldwin V, r. 1177–86). During the boy’s minority
the regency would be in the hands of the moderate party,
led then by Raymond III (ca. 1140–87) of TRIPOLI, since
1183 one of the most important nobles in the kingdom.
Raymond’s authority was challenged by Guy, an ally of
Raynald of Châtillon. Near-anarchy spread through the
kingdom.
By 1185, no accepted leader existed in the LATIN
kingdom. Baldwin IV died in 1185 and Baldwin V in
- The kingdom survived only a few years after his
death under the incompetent rule of Guy of Lusignan.
Further reading:Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King
and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusade Kingdom of
Jerusalem (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2000); Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades,Vol.
2, The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East,
1100–1187 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1952).
Balearic Islands A western Mediterranean archipelago,
the Balearic Islands were named by the Greeks. The
individual island units, Majorca, Minorca, and Ibiza,
however, owed their names to the Romans and
Carthaginians. An Islamic conquest by the ALMORAVIDS
Byzantine Empire in the Late 11th Century
most of the Christian presence, leaving only the ruins
of early Christian basilicas in Majorca and Minorca
and the vaguely remembered names of dioceses from
the fifth century. In the 13th century, JAMES I the
Conqueror (r. 1213–76) inaugurated his Mediterranean
policy with the conquest of the Balearics, justified this
by the need to defend the Catalan coast from Muslim
raids. Majorca was taken in 1229. Minorca became a
tributary of ARAGON in 1231 but only occupied in
1287, by Alfonso III the Liberal (r. 1285–91). Ibiza was
retaken in 1235. James I’s testament allowed his son,
James II of Majorca (r. 1276–1311), to organize an
independent kingdom in the Balearics, which was
annexed permanently to the Crown of ARAGONin 1348
by the Aragonese king Peter IV the Ceremonious
(r. 1336–87).
Further reading:David Abulafia, A Mediterranean
Emporium: The Catalan Kingdom of Majorca(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1994); David Abulafia, The
Western Mediterranean Kingdoms, 1200–1500: The Strug-
gle for Dominion(London: Longman, 1997); Luis Pericot
García, The Balearic Islands,trans. Margaret Brown (Lon-
don: Thames and Hudson, 1972).Ball, John (ca. 1331–1381)cleric, supposed leader of the
peasant rebellions in England
John Ball was probably born in Essex around 1331 to a
modest rural family who owned property at Colchester.
According to the chronicler Thomas Walsingham, he
began his career as a priest at Saint Mary’s Abbey, in the
city of YORK. He was a chaplain at Colchester between
1377 and 1381. Probably a provocative preacher before
the 1381 revolt, he had been heard in Essex and in Kent
and was cited to appear before the archbishop of CANTER-
BURY’s court in 1366. He was excommunicated in 1379.
Ball must have been one of these wandering, subversive,
poor, and marginal priests, uncontrollable with no fixed
income or benefice.
In June 1381, when the PEASANT REBELLIONS
started, he was in prison at Maidstone for preaching
despite his EXCOMMUNICATION. Freed by rebels, he was
accused later of accompanying them in their pillaging.
Exaggerating his role and influence, Henry Knighton
and Thomas Walsingham preserve in their chronicles
several letters written supposedly Ball in an obscure
style. Walsingham and the famous chronicler FROISSART
described a sermon preached at Blackheath commenting
on the idea “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was
then the gentleman,” Ball supposedly said: “What have
we done to be thus held in bondage? Are we not all
descended from one father and one mother, Adam and
Eve?”
There is no clear evidence that Ball was a LOLLARDor
a disciple of the heretical John WYCLIFFE. His social ideas
were typical of the “protest literature” of Piers Plowman
by William LANGLAND. In part inspired, however, by
Wycliffe’s preaching and his learned works, Ball was said
to attack the idea of paying TITHESto an unworthy cleric,
a position similar to Wycliffe’s. Ball was present at the
interview between King RICHARDII and the leader of
the revolt, Wat TYLER, and fled when Tyler was killed. He
was soon captured, imprisoned at Coventry, and executed
at Saint Albans on July 15, 1381. The four quarters of his
infamous corpse were then exposed in four cities of the
realm.
Further reading:Brian Bird, Rebel before His Time:
The Story of John Ball and the Peasants’ Revolt(Worthing,
West Sussex: Churchman, 1987); Steven Justice, Writing
and Rebellion: England in 1381(Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1994); R. B. Dobson, ed., The Peasants’
Revolt of 1381 (London: Macmillan, 1970); Charles
Oman, The Great Revolt of 1381(1906; reprint, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1969).