Daily Medieval

We're going to look at the man who unexpectedly became King of Jerusalem in 1192. Henry was the son of the Count of Champagne, Henry I,...

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...

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 c...

With Philip of France and Richard of England at Acre with their armies  (the illustration shows Philip arriving in Palestine), Saladin had r...

So Conrad of Montferrat married Isabella of Jerusalem, the rightful queen, and took her back to Tyre while the former king by marriage to Is...

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...

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 ...

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 aga...

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 tr...

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...

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...

Founded originally to care for the sick and poor in Jerusalem, there were new statutes for the Hospitallers in March 1182 under the leaders...

Roger de Moulins was not known to history until 1177 when he became Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller . His chief concern seemed to be ...

In the 12th century, while the kingdoms established in the Holy Land by Western Europeans were struggling to maintain themselves against the...

So Heraclius of Jerusalem set off for Europe to find support for the Latin kingdoms in the Holy Land and perhaps a husband for Queen Sibyll...

When King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem was worried about finding a husband for his sister who could run the kingdom, he sent Heraclius, the Patr...

So Sibylla of Jerusalem married Guy of Lusignan and spoiled the plot of others to marry her to someone else. Her brother, King Baldwin IV o...

After the death of William of Montferrat, Sibylla of Jerusalem needed a new husband. The kingdom of Jerusalem was in a difficult position. ...

King Amalric I of Jerusalem, and his first wife, Agnes of Courtenay , had three children. When Amalric was forced to put Agnes aside via an...

In 1173 King of Jerusalem Amalric I tried to make an alliance with the Order of Assassins . They were a sect of Shi'ite Islam whose goa...

On the morning of 29 June 1170, the inhabitants of what are now western Syria, central southern Turkey, and Lebanon were rocked by one of th...

January 1169 saw the death of Bertrand of Blancfort, the master of the Templars . Bertrand was not as keen on invading Egypt as was Amalric...

Yesterday's post introduced the phrase more muris in pera , "like a mouse in a wallet." It was said by William of Tyre about ...

(I said we would get back to Amalric, but I've discovered a side story that I would rather not put off.) King of Jerusalem Amalric I di...

In 1163, the young Fatimid caliph of Egypt was al-Adid, who was only 12 and a puppet of several strong nobles and viziers. His current vizie...

Born into the Zengid Dynasty, Al-Malik al-Adil Abu al-Qasim Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd bin Imad al-Dīn Zengī, known as Nur ad-Din, became Emir of Ale...