The Age of Chivalry (21 page)

By 1154 Nur ad-Din was in control of Damascus. Baldwin III (r. 1143–62) formed a protective alliance with the Byzantines in 1158, and this was renewed in 1168 by his brother King Amalric I (r. 1162–74). In the 1150s the Fatimid dynasty's authority over Egypt decayed, and in 1169 Nur ad-Din ordered his general, Shirkuh, to seize Egypt from the vizier Shawar. Shirkuh died just two months later, however, and supreme authority was transferred to his nephew Saladin who established himself as Sultan and asserted his independence of Nur ad-Din. Following Nur ad-Din's death in 1174 Saladin extended his authority in Syria.

Manuel I Commenus had been a close ally of Amalric and had supported the Latin kingdom's own attempts at exerting authority within Egypt. The Greek emperor's death in 1180 removed an important source of support. When Amalric's son and
successor Baldwin IV (r. 1174–85) came to power he was able to exert his own authority, despite the fact that he suffered from leprosy. Baldwin could also call on the support of his uncle, Joscelin III of Edessa, whenever the authority of his cousin Raymond III of Tripoli seemed to be overbearing. Furthermore, the marriage of his sister Sibylla to William of Montferrat, a cousin of Frederick I Barbarossa and of Louis VII of France, carried with it the prospect of substantial Western support. However, William's death in 1177, soon after arriving in Jerusalem and leaving Sibylla pregnant with the future Baldwin V, was a major blow. Moreover, the influence of Raynald of Chatillon within the kingdom created enormous problems. Raynald's ruthless military strategy helped to defeat Saladin at the Battle of Montsigard (November 25, 1177), but his reputation for extreme and wanton cruelty was by now fully deserved.

L
EFT
This detail from the
Chronica Majora,
by Matthew Paris
(c.
1200–59) depicts Saladin's capture of the True Cross
.

A leper king who could not be expected to live long, and an heir who was a mere infant, created a tense situation for the dynastic succession. Count Raymond III, along with his cousin Count Bohemond of Antioch, plotted to persuade the widowed Sibylla to marry into the Ibelins, a powerful and ambitious local family. But her brother, although an ailing king, stole a march on them by securing Sibylla's marriage to Guy of Lusignan, a nobleman who had recently arrived in the kingdom. Baldwin's disillusion with Guy's military performance prompted another strategic shift. The coronation of the sickly five-year-old Baldwin V in 1183 was designed to limit the influence of Guy and Sibylla in the immediate royal circle, and Raymond of Tripoli regained his authority. The infant survived his uncle by barely a year, and after he died in 1186 Sibylla reigned in Jerusalem as co-consort with Guy. However, Guy's influence, exerted in combination with his close associate Raynald, only contributed to the kingdom's problems.

An advantageous marriage had made Raynald lord of Oultrejourdain, whose fortresses controlled the trade routes between Damascus and Egypt. It was in this area that he launched an unprovoked attack on a Muslim caravan in 1186—an action that led Saladin to declare war on Jerusalem. Raymond had returned to Tripoli in protest at Sibylla and Guy's joint rule, and had gone so far as to ally himself with Saladin, whom he
allowed to occupy his fiefdom in Tiberias. A reconciliation between Raymond and Guy in 1187 led to their joint command of the force sent to do battle with Saladin at Tiberias. But their failure to agree on a strategy led to the crusaders' defeat at the Battle of Hattin (July 4, 1187), and following his capture Raynald was executed on account of his flagrant disregard for Muslim custom both in war and in peace. Guy was imprisoned in Damascus before being allowed to return to Jerusalem in return for a ransom payment.

A
BOVE
Richard I (“the Lionheart”), accompanied by his troops, embarks on horseback for the Third Crusade in 1191, in this 15th-century illuminated manuscript produced by the Burgundian scribe David Aubert
.

Saladin's forces overran the whole of the Latin kingdom except for the port of Tyre, which was defended by Conrad of Montferrat, Baldwin V's paternal uncle. The surrender of the city of Jerusalem in October 1187 marks the end of the first kingdom of Jerusalem, although the principality of Antioch and the county of Tripoli managed to survive Saladin's onslaught on the Latin kingdom to their south. Jerusalem city was already swollen with refugees who had escaped from the countryside during Saladin's advance, and its population were allowed to escape to Tyre, Tripoli and Egypt from where they often fled back to Europe. Those who could not afford to pay for their freedom, however, often ended up in slavery. Confronted by this collapse, Western leaders launched the Third Crusade. Henry II of England and Philip II Augustus of France put aside their differences and issued a joint call to arms financed by a levy known as the
“Saladin tithe.” Following Henry's death in 1189 it was his son and successor, Richard I (“the Lionheart”), who led the English crusaders. The German emperor Frederick I Barbarossa also joined the expedition, and on May 18, 1190 his army captured Iconium, the capital of the sultanate of Rum. Three weeks later, Barbarossa's horse slipped while crossing the Saleph river, and he died after being thrown onto rocks. Most of his men then returned to Germany.

Richard the Lionheart and Philip II Augustus of France started the crusade as allies, and it was their joint campaign in Anjou in the summer of 1189 that had forced Henry II of England to pay homage to Philip for his French territories. In July 1190 Richard (now king of England) and Philip set sail from Marseilles for Sicily en route to Palestine. The landing in Messina was initially an opportunity to resolve a dynastic conflict: Sicily's ruler Tancred had imprisoned Joan, who was the wife of his predecessor and also Richard's sister. Joan was released after her brother captured Messina on October 4, 1190, but the issue of the Lionheart's own betrothal now emerged as a thorny issue. Richard had been engaged to Philip's half-sister Alys, but he now declared that he intended to marry Berengaria of Navarre instead. An offended Philip left Sicily without Richard at the end of March 1191 and arrived in Palestine in the middle of May. His forces now joined those of Leopold V, duke of Austria, who was Barbarossa's successor as commander of the imperial troops.

Richard's armada left Sicily on April 10, 1191 but soon encountered a severe storm. His own ship was able to dock at Limassol in Cyprus, but several other ships bearing a substantial amount of treasure ran aground, whereupon Duke Commenus, the ruler of Cyprus, seized the booty. This act prompted Richard's retaliation, and he launched a swift military takeover of the island. In June 1191 he arrived in Acre where he and his men joined the crusader forces besieging the town.

Guy of Lusignan had been denied entry to Tyre by Conrad of Montferrat, and the king of Jerusalem had therefore shifted his military campaign to the south where he embarked in 1189 on a two-year siege of Acre. Queen Sibylla's death in 1190 had deprived Guy of the right to rule as consort, and the right of succession reverted to Baldwin IV's half-sister Isabella. Conrad's arranged marriage to Isabella therefore allowed him to claim the Crown, although Guy refused to cede his rights. The leaders of the Third Crusade therefore had to decide whom to back in this succession dispute once they arrived in the summer of 1191. Richard decided to back Guy, who was one of his vassals in Poitou. Philip of France, however, supported Conrad, who was a cousin of his father Louis VII. This added to the ill will between them, and Philip returned home after Acre fell to the Christians on July 12. Another quarrel was in progress, too. Richard
had offended Leopold by casting down the duke's flag which had been raised, along with the banners of the English and French Crowns and of the kingdom of Jerusalem, in Acre following its recapture. By the end of 1191 the duke, who was another significant backer of Conrad for the Crown of Jerusalem, was back in Austria.

Richard's victories at Arsuf (September 7, 1191) and at Jaffa in early July 1192 recovered most of the coast for the Latin kingdom and dented Saladin's reputation for invincibility. But it was clear by now how difficult it would be to reoccupy and defend the city of Jerusalem. Richard moreover needed to return to England in order to defend his domestic position against his brother John. On September 2, 1192 therefore Richard and Saladin signed the peace treaty that ended the Third Crusade.

B
ELOW
This contemporary illustration depicts Richard I (“the Lionheart”) being pardoned by Henry VI for his suspected complicity in the murder of Conrad of Montferrat, from the
Liber ad honorem Augusti (A Book to Honor the Emperor)
by Peter of Eboli
, c.
1196
.

The kingdom of Jerusalem, with its capital at Acre, survived for another century after the end of the Third Crusade as a much-diminished entity extending along the coast from Tyre to Jaffa. Saladin died soon afterward, and his sons quarreled over his territorial legacy. The embittered nobility of the greatly-reduced feudal kingdom considered themselves abandoned by their Western patrons, and the descent of Saladin's former realm into civil war caused its citizens to lament the lost opportunities of the past.

Conrad of Montferrat was elected to the throne in April 1192 by the nobility of the kingdom, but was murdered by members of the Hashshashin sect a few days afterward. Leopold of Austria suspected the Lionheart of complicity in Conrad's murder, and his resentment at the removal of his standard from the walls of Acre still rankled. Richard's route back to England crossed Leopold's territories, and while the king was making the journey the duke took the opportunity to arrest and then imprison him. Richard was then transferred to the custody of Henry VI, the German emperor. The Lionheart was only allowed to return to England two years later in 1194 on payment of a ransom of 150,000 marks.