Selecting the King

The question of who should be King of Jerusalem came up after the death of Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem during the Siege of Acre. Her husband, Guy of Lusignan, was only king suo jure (by right of marriage), and therefore was no longer the rightful king.

The next in line was Sibylla's younger sister, Isabella of Jerusalem. The nobles were hostile to Guy, not liking him from the start, but long ago Sibylla had tricked them into accepting Guy. Guy proved his unworthiness by refusing to relinquish control of the kingdom to Isabella.

A further complication was that Isabella was married to Humphrey of Toron. Humphrey was a friend of Guy's and did not want to replace him. Despite pressure from other nobles, Humphrey pledged his loyalty to Guy. That loyalty got him nowhere because the nobles did not think Humphrey would be suitable as king by right of being married to Isabella, so they wanted to replace him. An annulment was arranged so that Isabella could be married to Conrad of Montferrat (brother of Sibylla's first husband, William), who so disliked Guy that when Guy and Sibylla fled Jerusalem after its takeover by Saladin, Conrad would not give them shelter in Tyre.

Once married to Conrad, the couple retired to Tyre, leaving the Siege of Acre to others, including Guy, and taking steps to ensure the succession (Isabella did get pregnant at this time). The European leaders at Acre were divided on the issue: Philip II of France supported Conrad, Richard I of England supported Guy (who was a vassal of Richard due to Guy being Lord of Poitou).

In April 1192, Richard called a meeting of all the European and Holy Land nobles. By this time, Richard may have still wanted Guy to be king, but the vote for Conrad was unanimous. Richard wanted Guy to have something, so he made him the governor of Cyprus, which Richard had captured on his way to the Holy Land. Guy was in Cyprus until his death in 1194, having squandered the country's treasury.

Henry II of Champagne, a nephew to both Philip and Richard, who had been at the Siege of Acre prior to his uncles arriving, was tasked with going to Tyre with the news of Conrad's election. Conrad and Isabella were happy to have a resolution to the conflict.

Conrad was never crowned, however. On 28 April, a few days after the election, Conrad:

...rode home through the city flanked by a pair of guards. As he turned down a narrow street, he saw two men sitting on either side of the road. As Conrad approached, they stood up and walked to meet him. One of them was holding a letter. Conrad was intrigued but did not dismount. Rather, he stretched down from his horse and reached out to take the letter. As he did so, the man holding the letter drew a knife and stabbed upwards, plunging the blade deep into Conrad's body. At the same time, the other man leaped onto the back of Conrad's horse and stabbed him in the side. [source]

One of the men was killed, the other captured and tortured. They turned out to be members of the Assassins, and might have been contracted by Saladin. Under torture, however, the surviving assassin maintained the order came from Richard (the Assassins had been known to form an alliance with Christians). Humphrey of Toron was also a suspect.

According to Richard I's chroniclers, on his deathbed Conrad said Tyre should be handed over to Richard, which is certainly suspect, especially since Conrad knew that Richard did not support Conrad.

So who became King of Jerusalem? As it turns out, Henry II of Champagne! We'll see how that came about tomorrow.

The Siege of Acre, Part 7

Richard I of England was now the leader of the Crusader force, and it was his responsibility to manage the final terms of surrender of the city of Acre. The Muslim garrison had been incarcerated, and Saladin needed to pay ransoms for them. Also, Christians taken prisoner by Saladin needed to be returned. Meanwhile, Richard's people began repairing the walls.

On 11 August the first exchange was to be made, with Saladin bringing money and captured Crusaders. Richard created a problem by complaining that there were prisoners of Saladin that were supposed to be included. On the 20th, unhappy with delays, Richard executed 2700 of his Muslim prisoners, excluding the nobles for which he could get higher ransoms from Saladin.

When Saladin learned of this, he killed all the Christian captives. Of course there was a complete breakdown of any negotiations. Richard decided the goal was to re-take Jerusalem, and the next step for him was to take over the important port city of Jaffa. He left Acre in the hands of crusaders Bertram de Verdun and Stephen Longchamp and took the army south toward Jaffa.

Saladin followed, catching up on 7 September and leading to the Battle of Arsuf which was related here and here. Arsuf turned out to be disastrous for Saladin's army and his reputation. Richard headed toward Jerusalem after securing Jaffa. Saladin proceeded to slight fortresses in Gaza and Ascalon.

(Slighting was the deliberate destruction of a structure to reduce their usefulness to an enemy. Robert the Bruce slighted English castles after taking them over. King John of England destroyed the Château de Montrésor in France during his French war. During the Crusading period, many Muslim leaders slighted fortified places to prevent their use as secure bases for the invading Christians.)

Since the Siege of Acre has been our focus, and that is over, let's turn back to the question that arose during the event: the rightful King of Jerusalem. Guy of Lusignan was only king suo jure (by right of marriage) to Queen Sibylla. With her death, her younger sister Isabella became queen. Isabella's marriage to Humphrey of Toron was annulled and she was married to Conrad of Montferrat, who took her back to Tyre to keep her safe (and probably to secure the succession by begetting an heir). It was time to settle the matter of the rightful King of Jerusalem. We'll look at that tomorrow.

The Siege of Acre, Part 6

With Philip of France and Richard of England at Acre with their armies (the illustration shows Philip arriving in Palestine), Saladin had reason to be concerned. The Crusaders now had fresh reinforcements, and Richard's reputation as a warrior preceded him.

Both kings had brought siege engines. Richard had wanted to parlay with Saladin, but Philip had already been battering the walls. Now Richard decided it was his turn. Richard had two mangonels—a type of trebuchet that could load and fire faster than the standard trebuchet—named "God's Own Catapult" and "Bad Neighbor." He started using them on 2 July, and by the next day had made a large breach in the walls. Still, the Crusaders could not get through, rebuffed by the Muslim garrison.

The next day, however, on 4 July the city offered its surrender, realizing that it could not handle more destruction to the walls. Richard did not accept. Acre sent a message to Saladin, telling him that without his help they would have to surrender. There was a final battle on 11 July, and the next day Acre again offered terms of surrender to the Crusaders, which this time were accepted.

Negotiations were needed to lay out all the details of what the two sides would agree to going forward, and word was sent to Conrad of Montferrat (he had taken his new bride, Isabella of Jerusalem, back to Tyre) to handle them. When Conrad arrived, the Crusaders officially entered the city and the Muslim garrison was taken captive.

Conrad raised the flags of the Duchy of Austria, England, France, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem over the city. Leopold V, Duke of Austria, was the leader of the German contingent since Frederick of Swabia had died (and Frederick's father, Barbarossa, had died along the way). Leopold wanted equal shares of plunder and equal rights to the kings of France and England, but was refused. He was Conrad's cousin, and related to Philip as well, but Richard tore down his banner. Leopold abandoned Acre and led his people home. He went to the court of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and told of Richard's disrespect. (There would be repercussions against Richard later.)

Philip also had to return home. On 1 June, Philip of Alsace had died at Acre. He was a close relation of Philip's and Philip realized that he was in a precarious position because he had not produced an heir of his body. Philip went back to France to deal with questions of succession.

Richard was now in charge of Acre. Let's see how that went.

The Siege of Acre, Part 5

So Conrad of Montferrat married Isabella of Jerusalem, the rightful queen, and took her back to Tyre while the former king by marriage to Isabella's older sister Sibylla, Guy of Lusignan, refused to surrender the kingship and stayed at the Siege of Acre. This was in the fall of 1190.

Attacks on the walls on 31 December and 6 January led to a partial collapse and an attempt by the Crusaders to enter the city, but they failed. On 13 February Saladin breached the Crusader defenses to get to the city and reinforce the soldiers there. Conrad, back at Acre, tried to breach the city from the sea, but a contrary wind prevented him from getting close enough.

The Siege itself was showing no signs of resolution, either. Acre now had a garrison of some 20,000. Saladin had the Crusader camp surrounded so that more men and supplies could not arrive. Poor sanitation led to illness. Frederick of Swabia, the son of Barbarossa (who died trying to get to Acre), died of illness. Leopold V of Austria took command of the German forces. The Patriarch Heraclius also died during this time.

Then news came that other leaders from Europe were coming, and Saladin's chances of success were slimming.

On 20 April 1191, King Philip II of France arrived with a Genoese fleet and started building siege engines. King Richard I "Lionheart" of England arrived on 8 June (illustration), accompanied by 100 ships and a total of 8000 men. He requested a cease-fire for three days to allow him to meet with Saladin, but both Richard and Philip became ill and there was no meeting.

On the question of the rightful King of Jerusalem, France and England disagreed. Philip, the Genoese, and the Knights Templar supported Conrad (Philip's cousin) as King of Jerusalem. Richard, along with the Pisans and the Knights Hospitaller, felt Guy should remain king. (Guy was lord of Poitou and therefore Richard was his liege lord.) This debate would not be settled right away.

Not all of the English had arrived yet, so Richard wanted to wait before attacking Acre (no sense starting without all your forces in place). Philip was ready to start battering the walls and did not wait: on 17 June he started using his siege engines. The Acre garrison signaled Saladin that they needed support by sending up smoke. A pattern formed: a breach in the walls would bring the Crusaders attacking, which would be the sign for Saladin's forces to attack the Crusader camp. This would cause the Crusaders to turn around to defend themselves. This gave Acre time to try to repair the breach.

Tomorrow we'll discuss the final battle and the end result for Acre.

Isabella I of Jerusalem

With the death of Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem during the Siege of Acre, her husband, Guy of Lusignan, lost his claim to the throne and the succession fell to Sibylla's younger sister, Isabella, currently in her late teens. Just as the leaders of Jerusalem objected to Guy's marriage to Sibylla, Isabella's husband was not considered the proper person to become King of Jerusalem simply by his marriage to the rightful queen.

Humphrey IV of Toron was a leading baron of Jerusalem. He and Isabella married in 1183 (the illustration shows the two being betrothed by Baldwin IV), and Humphrey gave Toron to King Baldwin IV (Isabella's half-brother) at the time. The other barons of Jerusalem were willing to give Humphrey and Isabella the opportunity to become king and queen after the death of Baldwin V because they did not want Guy on the throne, but the young married couple chose instead to pay homage to Sibylla and Guy.

Now in the midst of an ongoing conflict with Saladin, an experienced military leader would be ideal as the new King of Jerusalem, and Humphrey did not fit the bill. There was someone who already wanted the throne, and was a tried and true military leader: Conrad of Montferrat. Isabella's step-mother, Maria Comnena—also the result of the nobles forcing someone to annul their marriage if they wanted to rule—supported the idea of Conrad marrying Isabella. Humphrey, she felt, had prevented Isabella from becoming queen once, and Maria was happy to see him out of the family.

Maria swore before a papal legate, Archbishop Ubaldo of Pisa, that Isabella's betrothal at the age of eight was against her consent and the marriage should be annulled. Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem deferred the matter to Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury. Baldwin would not support the annulment, saying that Conrad and Isabella would be guilty of adultery. On the other hand, Archbishop Ubaldo supported the annulment after some concessions to Pisa were made.

Isabella made it clear that Humphrey (of whom she seemed fond) should not lose everything, and the lordship of Toron was restored to him. Isabella and Conrad were married on 24 November 1190. Conrad took her back to Tyre. Guy stayed at Acre. Guy refused to concede the kingship. What they needed was to gather more of the nobles of Europe and have the matter adjudicated by a gathering of peers.

Fortunately, more of the heads of Europe were on their way. We'll see how things went next time.

The Siege of Acre, Part 4

The first big clash between the army of Saladin and the Christians besieging the city of Acre led to thousands of losses for the Christians under Guy of Lusignan in September 1189. Fortunately, what became known as the Third Crusade had been called in Europe, and reinforcements started to arrive.

One of the imminent arrivals was Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, known as Barbarossa. His reputation boosted the morale of those at Acre, but also motivated Saladin to call for many more soldiers to join him. Unfortunately for all concerned, Frederick drowned while taking a shortcut across the Saleph River in southern Turkey (see illustration), never making it to Acre. Two-thirds of his army returned home. The rest followed Frederick's son, Frederick IV of Swabia, to Acre. (They carried the body with them, intending for Barbarossa to be interred in Jerusalem. Preservation attempts with vinegar failed, and he was buried in Antioch.)

In the last days of October, a fleet of Muslim ships broke the Christian ships blockading the harbor to prevent Muslim reinforcements reaching Acre. Weapons, food, and 10,000 Muslims entered Acre from the sea. An Egyptian fleet arrived in mid-December, reinforcing the new blockade to prevent Christian ships from attacking from the sea.

Conrad of Montferrat sailed back to Tyre to bring back food and supplies for the Crusade army. He also brought materials to build siege machines.

Saladin added to his army over the months of winter, and attacked the Crusaders on 20 May 1190. The Crusaders resisted for eight days until finally Saladin's forces retreated.

During the summer, numerous nobles from Europe arrived with more men and supplies. Unfortunately, Saladin's forces had them almost completely surrounded, making further supplies and food scarce. An attack by some restless Christian soldiers against the orders of the leaders failed. Louis III of Thuringia contracted malaria, and headed home only to die in Cyprus. Between July and October Queen Sibylla died a few days after her daughters died. Guy, only King of Jerusalem through marriage to the rightful heir Sibylla, lost his claim to the throne, but refused to step aside for the next in line, Sibylla's younger sister, Isabella of Jerusalem.

Isabella's marriage was an issue, since she was now Queen of Jerusalem and her husband would be its king. She was already married, but her current husband was considered not the ideal person to be king, and so in the midst of the Siege of Acre there was some political meddling. We'll look at that tomorrow.

The Siege of Acre, Part 3

So King of Jerusalem Guy of Lusignan was camped at Acre, ready to besiege the city and take control of it as a base for future conflict against Saladin, who was trying to consolidate the Middle East under his caliphate and re-take lands held by Christians after the First and Second Crusades.

With Guy were others: French and Flemish soldiers, Germans under the Landgrave of Thuringia Louis III, Italians under the Archbishop of Ravenna, and Armenian troops under Leo II of Cilicia. Although Conrad of Montferrat was against the attack and stayed in Tyre, he was convinced by Louis III (his mother's cousin) to attend and bring troops. (William II of Sicily died around this time, and his ships left.)

Saladin learned about the army massing at Acre and marched to counter them, with an initial unsuccessful attack on 15 September 1189.

Saladin attacked again on 4 October, from east of the city. He was dealing with a Crusader army of 30,000 infantry and 2,000 knights. The Christians also had 100 ships blockading Acre from the sea to prevent reinforcements. In the first fighting, Crusader crossbowmen "softened" the enemy up. Templars attacking Saladin's east flank (see illustration) were so effective that the Muslims drew men from other parts of the field. Crusaders followed the Muslims, attacking relentlessly. Much of Saladin's army started to retreat.

The Crusaders, however, decided that plunder was more important than pursuit. They started collecting weapons and items from the bodies on the field. When Saladin saw this, he brought his men together and had his cavalry pursue the Crusaders who were retreating to camp, laden with booty. Crusaders were being killed until the soldiers still in camp in front of Acre, guarding against troops coming from Acre to help Saladin, left camp and countered Saladin's cavalry.

The garrison at Acre saw that they were no longer contained, and surged out the gates to attack the Crusaders from behind. Many Templars were killed, including Grandmaster Gerard de Ridefort. Conrad became surrounded and was rescued by the efforts of Guy. The Crusaders lost up to half their men, but Saladin was stopped.

That autumn, more Crusaders arrived, with men and supplies. We'll continue tomorrow.

The Siege of Acre, Part 2

A couple weeks ago I mentioned the events that led to Saladin coming to power in Egypt. From there he had two choices: stay in Egypt and try to bring the entire country under his control, or try to surpass all the other Muslim rulers in the Eastern Mediterranean. Ten years later he was making good on the second goal, one milestone being the Battle of Hattin, in which he defeated the largest army the Kingdom of Jerusalem had ever put together under the command of King of Jerusalem Guy of Lusignan. Guy was captured during Hattin.

Jerusalem after a five-day siege fell to Saladin. Pope Urban III died on 19 October 1187, supposedly of sadness that Jerusalem was lost. Pope Gregory VIII proposed a new venture that would become the Third Crusade.

Saladin was unable to conquer Tyre, which was held by Conrad of Montferrat. Saladin tried to negotiate rather than fight when he saw that reinforcements from Europe were arriving to aid Conrad. As part of negotiation, Saladin released Guy, but Conrad would not allow Guy to enter Tyre;:everyone blamed Guy for mismanaging the defeat at Hattin. (Also, Conrad was the closest male relative to Baldwin V of Jerusalem and saw himself as the man who should be King of Jerusalem instead.)

Saladin left Tyre and turned his attention to Acre.

Acre was an important port city, and would be a natural target for Christians. Muslim records tell that they debated destroying the city to make it unusable versus reinforcing the defenses.

News of the loss of Jerusalem galvanized Christian leaders. In early 1188, reinforcements from Europe started arriving. William II of Sicily sent ships with 200 knights. The Archbishop of Pisa arrived with 52 ships. They contacted the King of Jerusalem, still camped outside of Tyre, and pledged to support him. Conrad still would not let Guy into Tyre.

Guy needed a city for a base, and Hattin had destroyed most of the fighting men from Jerusalem, but now Guy had allies from the Mediterranean—between 7000 and 9000 infantry and between 400 and 700 knights—so he decided to go to Acre (30 miles away in the south) to use it as his base against Saladin.

Saladin had left thousands of men in Acre, so this attack would not be easy. West and south of Acre was a sea wall; east was the only approach. Guy tried an attack on the walls that failed thanks to Saladin reinforcing it. Guy set up camp east of the city and waited for reinforcements from Europe.

A few days after setting up camp, reinforcements started to arrive. Things were looking up for Guy...or were they? We'll continue tomorrow.

The Siege of Acre, Part 1

The Siege of Acre was two years long and a major event in the history of the Crusades. Although started independently by Guy of Lusignan in his role as King of Jerusalem against Saladin, it became a part of the Third Crusade (once that venture overcame some difficulties in getting started).

Let's start with a discussion about Acre itself. Sitting at a natural harbor on the coast in the Northern District of Israel, the first settlement there was established in the Early Bronze Age (c.3000BCE). Although that settlement was abandoned and another started in the Middle Bronze Age, it is considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth.

It has been called many things over the centuries. The earliest mention of it in writing is in Egyptian hieroglyphs with the name 'ky around 1800 BCE. Mid-14th century BCE sees it being called Akka. The Hebrew Bible calls it 'Akkō. It has also been called Ptolemaïs and Antioch, but those names were also used for other cities and caused some confusion.

The Crusades called it Saint Jean d'Acre. The Apostle Paul stayed there with a local Christian community on his way back from Macedonia. A bishop from Acre attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325.

Over time, Acre was held by Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Alexander the Great, the Romans, the Byzantines, and came under the Rashidun Caliphate in 638CE. It was the main port of Palestine during the following Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates.

During the Fist Crusade, Acre was captured by the Christians led by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem (father of Baldwin II and grandfather of Melisende, the first Queen of Jerusalem). By the time of the Siege of Acre, the population was about 25,000 Christians, Jews, and Muslims. It was roughly the same size as Jerusalem.

Then Saladin decided it was a prize he had to have, and his reputation for war was so impressive that in 1187 the city gave in to him without a fight.

This is where Guy comes in. He brought a force to Acre that was too small, and wound up starting a long siege in front of Acre that was itself besieged by Saladin's forces behind Guy's. See you next time with the details.

Gerard de Ridefort

Gerard de Ridefort (that's his coat of arms to the left) is another of the many characters who has no known background recorded anywhere—we don't know his family, birthdate, education, whence he came—until he rose to prominence in some group. In this case, he barely appears in records in the service of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, and then is suddenly Marshal of the kingdom in October 1179.

It seems from the Chronicle of Ernoul that he was supposed to marry an heiress, Cécile Dorel, the niece of Raymond III of Tripoli. I told the story (in "The Power of Gold") of how he lost her because of 10,000 bezants. After that incident, Gerard fell ill for awhile, then swore off women and joined the Templars.

When Baldwin IV died and there was disagreement in the kingdom over the proper husband for the successor, Queen Sibylla, Raymond of Tripoli (and many others) felt her husband, Guy of Lusignan, was unsuitable, and a search in Europe was conducted to find someone else. Gerard, holding a grudge against Raymond, chose to support Guy as king.

After 1187, when the trip to Europe resulted in a donation from King Henry II of England to support the Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land, Gerard took the money designated for the Templars and hired mercenaries to attack Saladin's son, al-Afdal, in the poorly planned Battle of Cresson. They were hopelessly outnumbered and Gerard was wounded. He was also one of the few that even survived.

That was in May. In July he led the Templars into the Battle of Hattin. Hattin was a disaster for the Christians. Saladin had taken the city of Tiberias. Gerard and others wanted to besiege it and take it back. Raymond's advice was to wait and let Saladin leave the strong-walled city to continue spreading his territory. Gerard wouldn't listen to Raymond and wound up on an undefended plain where they were surrounded and captured. Gerard was one of many prominent men taken hostage. Lower ranked Templars were executed.

Gerard was offered a deal by Saladin. If Gerard would convince a particular Templar fortress to simply surrender without fighting, Saladin would let Gerard go. Gerard agreed, then did the opposite: he went to Tortosa, a major port on the Syrian coast, and set up its defense. He seized more of the money that Henry II had donated to the Crusader cause (but not specifically given to the Templars). Conrad of Montferrat wrote a letter in September 1188 complaining about this.

Gerard used the money for more mercenaries. He and Guy went to the Siege of Acre, where Gerard was again taken hostage by Saladin. Saladin had little patience with someone who had broken his promise once already, and beheaded Gerard.

The Siege of Acre became a significant event in the history of the Crusades, and though mentioned has never been discussed in detail. We'll take a close look at it starting tomorrow.