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.

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.

The Hospitallers Change

Founded originally to care for the sick and poor in Jerusalem, there were new statutes for the Hospitallers in March 1182 under the leadership of their grandmaster, Roger de Moulins. These new statutes tried to formalize certain practices:

1. To welcome 30 poor people each day at meals.

2. To give alms to anyone who came to the door of the hospital three days each week.

3. To wash the feet of 13 poor people on the Saturday of Lent and provide them with clothes and shoes.

This was when they officially became a charitable Order. This is also when members began to be listed as doctors and surgeons, brought on because the ordinary members did not have sufficient medical knowledge.

Also, this is when they officially declared themselves a religious-military Order. At the death of a member, a Mass was to be said and the coffin would be covered with a red sheet with white cross, as if they were a priest.

Roger did not get along with the new head of the Templars, Gerard de Ridefort. Besides the general rivalry felt between the Hospitallers and the Templars, the two men had opposing political views. Roger was part of the group that felt Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem needed a new husband to replace Guy of Lusignan. Gerard supported Sibylla and Guy.

Both groups, however, cared about the survival of the Christian kingdoms established by the Crusades, so Templars and Hospitallers worked together. Roger's recent trip to England had motivated King Henry II to send money for the defense of the Holy Land (in lieu of going on Crusade himself, which he had vowed to do after the death of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket). Gerard used Henry's money that went to the Templars to hire extra troops to mount an offensive against Saladin.

Roger and some Hospitallers joined Gerard and 100 Templars in an attack against Saladin's son in May 1187. Saladin's son, al-Afdal, had 5000 men, however, and the Christians were hopelessly outnumbered. Gerard was one of the few to escape the Battle of Cresson, though wounded. Roger was killed by a spear.

Gerard has come down to us in literature (and video games) as arrogant, headstrong, uncompromising. Let's see what other problems he might have had tomorrow.

Roger de Moulins

Roger de Moulins was not known to history until 1177 when he became Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller. His chief concern seemed to be urging King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem to be aggressive in the war with Saladin.

Roger was part of the Battle of Montgisard (pictured) against the Ayyubid Sultanate (the dynasty founded by Saladin when he came to power). The fighting was fierce: Roger's own report was that 1100 men had been killed and a further 750 wounded. It was one of Saladin's few defeats, but completely redeemed by him at the Battle of Hattin ten years later.

The full name of the Hospitallers was Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. They had founded a hospital for the care of the sick and wounded in Jerusalem in 1113. The Order's increasing involvement in military affairs made them well-known and powerful, but distracted them from their original purpose. Their second Grandmaster, Raymond de Puy, had started them on a more military bearing.

Pope Alexander III issued a papal bull, declaring that they were not allowed to fight anyone unless attacked and urging the Order to focus on caring for the sick and the poor. Alexander also urged the Order to forget their rivalry with the Templars for the sake of unity in the Holy Land. The two Orders soon got together to negotiate a truce. The Orders, however, retained their rivalry.

Roger traveled Europe along with his Templar counterpart, Arnold of Torroja, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem Heraclius, to persuade Pope Lucius III and European nobles to form a new Crusade for the support of the Holy Land and to find a husband for Queen Sibylla to replace Guy of Lusignan. Roger also intended to establish the Hospitallers in England, France, and Germany.

Arnold died along the way. Roger clashed with Arnold's successor, Gerard de Ridefort, Templar and Marshall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem who supported Guy of Lusignan as husband for Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem. Roger had been given the privilege of holding the key to the royal treasury, and at first refused to turn it over to Guy when Guy was crowned King of Jerusalem.

In 1182, Roger made a significant and interesting change in the Order's statutes that changed the atmosphere surrounding it. I'll explain more tomorrow.

The Power of Gold

Yes, it's the witch-weighing scene
from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

There is a medieval anecdote in the so-called "Chronicle of Ernoul" that, though fanciful, is based on a true story. The author, "Ernoul," names himself in his Chronicle and says he was a squire of Balian of Ibelin, one of the Crusader nobles who helped take and maintain (for a short time) Jerusalem. He tells a story of a bride (Lucie) who was put on a large scale by a suitor, who offered her guardian (Raymond III of Tripoli) the lady's weight in gold for the privilege of marrying her.

The true story is just as demonstrative of the power of gold, however, and doesn't need a set of scales.

The lady was Cécile Dorel, who inherited lands in Tripoli upon the death of her father. Raymond III (1140-1187), Count of Tripoli, was her uncle. Raymond was approached by two men for Cécile's hand in marriage (and the coastal lands in Tripoli that she now possessed).

One of the men was Gerard de Ridefort. His origin is uncertain, but by the time of this story he was in the service of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and held the title Marshal of the kingdom, putting him in charge of all mercenaries and disbursement of spoils of war. This would have been a noble match between Gerard and Cécile, but Raymond III acted differently. He married Cécile to the nephew of a Pisan merchant. Why? The bride price was too handsome to ignore. The bride price was money or valuables offered to the family of the bride by the groom or his family in order to ensure the marriage (feel free to read "buy the woman"). The Pisan nephew, whose name was Plivano, offered 10,000 bezants for Cécile. Bezants varied in weight and value, so it is difficult now to determine exactly how much that bride price was worth in today's money. It was clearly, however, an amount not to be ignored—and not easily matched—and so Plivano had his bride.

Gerard took the loss poorly and fell ill. He swore off women, apparently, and became a Templar, going on to a great career in that order. That, however, is a another story.