The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade

Sources in Translation

Peter W. Edbury

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138451667
• eBook ISBN: 9781351892421
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

This is a complete collection in modern English of the key texts describing Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem in October 1187 and the Third Crusade, which was Christendom's response to the catastrophe. The largest and most important text in the book is a translation of the fullest version of the Old French Continuation of William Tyre for the years 1184-97. This key medieval narrative poses problems for the historian in that it achieved its present form in the 1240s, though it clearly incorporates much earlier material. Professor Edbury's authoritative introduction, notes and maps help interpretation of this and other contemporary texts which are included in this volume, making it an invaluable resource for teachers and students of the crusades.

Part I

The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, 1184-97

1 The hatred between the king and the count of Jaffa was so great that it increased from day to day until it reached the stage where the king sought grounds for separating him from his sister.¹ He asked the patriarch to summon them, saying that he wanted to challenge the validity of the marriage and demonstrate that it was neither good nor legal. The count got to hear of it and secretly slipped away from the barons and went to Jerusalem where his wife was then staying and implored her to leave the city before the king came back with his host. He feared that if the king found her he would not allow her return to him. Accordingly he begged her to come with him to Ascalon straight away. The king heard that the count had left the host, and so he sent messengers after him to summon him to his court. He replied that he would not go because he would be disinherited. Many messengers were sent, one after another, but they could not bring him back, as he excused himself through illness. The king said that since he would not come he would go and summon him himself. He went straight to Ascalon accompanied by his barons, but he found the gates firmly shut. He called out and ordered them to be opened. Three times he struck the gate with his hand. But no one came forward to do his command. The burgesses of the town had climbed on the walls and turrets, but none dared move, waiting to see how the affair would end. The king left in a great rage and set off for Jaffa where he was met by knights and sergeants who escorted him in without any opposition. He took possession of the town and installed his own governor.

Then he left to go on to Acre. He summoned a great parlement of all the barons and prelates. When they were assembled the patriarch, accompanied by the masters of the Temple and Hospital, went directly into the king's presence and, falling at his feet, begged him most humbly to set aside his anger at the count of Jaffa and have him come before him.² The king would not listen to them, and made it clear that he would do no such thing. They were greatly offended by the fact that a man who was in so feeble a physical state should bear such hatred in his heart. They angrily left the court and departed from the city. The parlement was supposed to have been called to send envoys overseas to the princes of France and other lands asking them to aid the land of Jesus Christ and the people of the kingdom. But, though they should have discussed this need first, the patriarch began by raising the otter matter as I have described. Because he could not get his own way, he and the two masters left and so nothing could be done about the business for which they had been assembled.

The count of Jaffa learned that the king would have no mercy on him, and that for neither love nor prayer would he grant him his peace. So he thought up a way of angering him. He collected as many knights as he could, and they went directly to the castle of Daron where the Turks of Arabia who are called bedouins had gathered and were pasturing their flocks.³ In return for payment Ok king had allowed them to do this, and he kept them under his protection. As they trusted to this protection, they had not bothered to post guards. The count and his knights came upon them and surprised them. Some they killed, and they seized all their flocks and carried off to Ascalon as much of their money and goods as they could find. On his return from Acre to Jerusalem the news reacted the. king of how Count Guy of Jaffa had raided the bedouins who were under his safe-conduct in the land of Daron, and he was so incensed by it that afterwards be fell victim to the illness from which he died. He immediately sent for the count of Tripoli because he had faith in his good sense and loyalty, and he entrusted to him all his power and the government of the land. There was great joy at this among the barons and the lesser people, for they had been saying for some time that, since neither of the two kings was capable, there was no way for the land to be properly governed unless all the affairs of state were handed over to the count of Tripoli.⁴

2 When King Baldwin was on his death bed, he had all the liege men of the kingdom of Jerusalem come before him, and he insisted that they be bound by their oath to accept Count Raymond of Tripoli as regent of the kingdom until Baldwin his nephew should come of age. It was this nephew, the son of his sister Sibylla and the marquis William,⁵ whom he had had crowned king in his own lifetime, thereby making him his heir in much the same way as his uncle, Baldwin III, had made him his.⁶ It had been agreed that if ill fortune befell the young Baldwin and he died without an heir, they should choose Raymond of Tripoli to be king of Jerusalem if they wanted someone from within the kingdom, and, if they wanted to have a foreigner from overseas as king, they should act in accordance with the count's advice and wishes. For King Baldwin was well aware that there was no one else in the kingdom of Jerusalem who had as much right as the count of Tripoli, since he was the first cousin of King Baldwin (III) on the side of the family through which the inheritance passed. For when Baldwin (III) was dying, he had arranged that his brother Amaury (1163-74) should have the kingdom of Jerusalem because he was the rightful heir and that after him his son Baldwin should have it because he was his nephew and godson.

3 After the death of King Baldwin III, Amaury his brother went to the patriarch of Jerusalem and the barons of the kingdom and requested the crown because it was his right and had passed by inheritance to him and to no one else. In reply the patriarch said that he was not worthy to have the crown of the kingdom of Jerusalem, for he was in a state of mortal sin and so should not have the crown or any other honour. The sin for which the patriarch reproved him and which formed this obstacle to his accession was that Amaury had married Agnes, the sister of Count Joscelin and his cousin's daughter. Amaury made his reply to the patriarch and said that he would place himself at God's mercy and at the mercy of the Holy Church and of the patriarch, and that he would do whatever he was commanded. The patriarch said that if he would separate himself from his cousin whom he had married in defiance of God and the law he could have the crown of Jerusalem. He promised the patriarch that he would leave the lady and would send word to Rome on this matter requesting pardon from the pope and a dispensation to legitimize the lady and her children. So he parted from her and was then crowned king and had the lordship of the kingdom of Jerusalem. While King Amaury was sending his messengers to the court of Rome, Agnes, who had been his wife, married Hugh of Ibelin.⁷ King Amaury later married Mbria, the niece of the emperor Manuel (1143-80), and by her he had a daughter named Isabella who subsequently became queen of Jerusalem.

That is why the conscience of King Baldwin the Leper was touched so that he did not want any foreigner to acquire the kingdom of Jerusalem without the assent of the rightful heir of the kingdom. Because he knew that Guy of Lusignan would not he suitable to govern or sustain the kingdom and that his sister did not have any right to it (for when her mother separated from her father the children were not declared legitimate),⁸ he ordered his men to be steadfast to their oath of the count of Tripoli and give him the regency of the kingdom of Jerusalem because he had a greater right to it than anyone else.

4 Count Raymond of Tripoli replied that he would willingly take the regency, but on condition that he did not have charge of the child during the next ten years so that if any misfortune such as death befell him no one could say that it was his doing. He wanted the fortresses and castles to be in the keeping of the Temple and the Hospital, for he did not want to be open to suspicion on any matter nor held to account for any ill deed. Also he wanted to be compensated so that what he spent on the kingdom would be at no cost to himself. For at that time he had no truces with the Saracens, and he had no income in the land with which he could sustain the host against them. Furthermore, he wanted to be assured that he would control the regency for ten years and that if the child died within those ten years the regency would pass to whoever was the closest heir until such time as by the counsel of the pope at Rome, the emperor of Germany and the kings of France and England the kingdom was adjudged to one of the two sisters, either to Sibylla who was the daughter of the Countess Agnes or to Isabella who was the daughter of Queen Maria. King Amaury had separated from the mother of the elder sister before he became king, and the younger was the child of the king and the queen. Because of this the barons were not in agreement that the elder sister should have the throne if the child died unless on the advice of the four⁹ that I have just named. That was why the count of Tripoli made these stipulations, for he did not want there to be discord in the land if the child died, and for that reason he wanted to be in charge until the four should give their ruling.

5 The king and the barons were in full agreement with the count's conditions. It was thereupon arranged that Count Joscelin who was the uncle of the child's mother should have charge of the young Baldwin,¹⁰ and that the count of Tripoli should hold the city of Beirut and should garrison it, because if what had been laid upon him by the barons of the land was going to cost him money, he would recover his expenses if Beirut were assigned to him. When he had thus arranged matters, the king ordered that the child should be crowned. He was taken to the Sepulchre for his coronation, and then, because he was small and they did not want him to be overshadowed by them, he was carried in the arms of a knight to the Templum Domini. This knight was a big, tall man named Balian of Ibelin, and he was one of the barons of the land.¹¹ Now it is customary in Jerusalem that when the king wears his crown he receives it at the Sepulchre and wears it on his head as far as the Temple where Jesus Christ was offered. There he offers his crown but then buys it back. For it used to be the custom that when a mother had her first male child she would offer him at the Temple and buy him back with a lamb or with two pigeons or two turtledoves.¹² When the king has offered his crown, tables are set out for a meal at the Temple of Solomon which is where the Templars live.¹³ There the king and his barons and all those who wished to eat sit down, with the exception only of the burgesses of Jerusalem who serve. For they owe this duty to the king that, when he has worn his crown, they wait on him and his barons at their meal.

Not long after the king had worn his crown the Leper King died. Before he died he ordered all his men to come to him at Jerusalem. They all answered his call, but just as they were arriving, the king departed this life, and all the barons of the land were present at his death.¹⁴ On the next day they buried him in the church of the Sepulchre where the other kings had been buried since the time of Godfrey of Bouillon. He was buried between the hill of Mount Calvary where Jesus Christ had been put on the cross and the Sepulchre where He was laid. All the kings are buried between the place of the Sepulchre and Mount Calvary and Golgotha.

6 Before the king died and the younger Baldwin had worn his crown, he had all the barons of the land do fealty and homage to the child as lord and king. Afterwards he had them do homage to the count of Tripoli as regent, and he made all the barons and knights of the realm swear that they would abide by the settlement concerning his two sisters and that they would obey the count of Tripoli and help him govern and protect the land if the child died within ten years. After the Leper King had died and the child had been crowned, he was entrusted to the keeping of Count Joscelin, who took him to Acre where he looked after him as well as he could, while the count of Tripoli acted as regent of the kingdom.

7 In the first year after the death of King Baldwin the Leper it did not rain at all in the kingdom of Jerusalem with the result that in Jerusalem there was no water and hardly anything to drink. It so happened that there was there a burgess named Germain who was very eager to do good for the sake of God. Because of the shortage of water he had marble basins set into the walls in three places in Jerusalem, and at each of these basins he had two cups attached by chains, and he always kept them full of water. Any man or woman could go there to drink. When Germain saw that there was hardly any water left in the cisterns and that it had not rained at all, he was very sad because he would not be able to sustain this work of charity that he had begun. Then he remembered that be had heard tell from die old men of the land that at the side of the Spring of Siloam there was an ancient well that Jacob had made and that was now covered over and choked and had fallen into disuse. It would be difficult to find. So the good man went and prayed to Our Lord that he would enable him to find this well and would help him continue the good that he had begun, so that by His will it would be possible for the poor people to have water. On the following morning he got up and went to the church and prayed God to help him. Then he went to the square and took workmen and went to the place where he had teen told the well was and had them dig until they found it. When he had found it, he had it cleaned out and refurbished at his own expense. Then he had a wheel set above it with pots attached which a horse turned in such a way that the pots that were full came up and the empty ones went down. He had stone basins made where the water that he took from this well would fall, and all who needed water could take it into the city. The burgess had his horses draw water night and day and replenish the basins for all who wanted it and all at his own cost until the Lord God sent rain and they had water in their cisterns. Even then the good man did not stop. He had three packhorses and three servants who did nothing else but carry water to the basins that he had in the city so as to satisfy the thirst of the poor people. This well from which he bad the water drawn was at least 50 toises¹⁵ deep. Later the Christians of the land broke it and filled it in when they heard that the Saracens were coming to besiege the city.

8 The Spring of Siloam which was close by this well was not good to drink because it was salt. They used this water for tanning hides in the city, for washing clothes and watering the gardens that were down in the valley. This spring did not flow on Saturdays but remained still. Now I will tell you what happened at this spring. One day at the time Jesus Christ was going about the land, Our Lord was in Jerusalem with his apostles and they were going down a road when they saw a man who had no eyes. Then the apostles came to Jesus and asked Him whether it was because of the sin of his father or his mother or some other relative that he had no eyes. Jesus replied that it was nothing to do with the sin of his father or mother or other relative but because He would be revealed in him. So Jesus Christ went and scooped up some earth and took a piece of mud and put it on the place where his eyes should have been and told him to go to the Spring of Siloam and wash. He went and washed, an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Abbreviations
• Maps
• Introduction
• Part I
• Part II Selected Sources
• Select Bibliography
• Index