Peter W. Edbury - The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade (Crusade Texts in Translation)

For Richard and Joanne

The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade

Crusade Texts in Translation

Editorial Board:

Malcolm Barber (Reading), Bernard Hamilton (Nottingham), Norman Housley (Leicester) and Peter Edbury (Cardiff)

Titles in this series include:

The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade
Sources of Translation
Peter Edbury

The Song of the Cathar Wars
A History of the Aibigensian Crusade
Janet Shirley

Chronicle of the Third Crusade
A Translation of the
Itinearium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi
Helen J. Nicholson

and forthcoming:

Walter the Chancellor's 'Antioch Wars'
Tom Asbridge and Susan Edgington

The Templar of Tyre
Paul Crawford

Crusader Syria in the Thirteenth Century
Janet Shirley

Sources in Translation

Peter W. Edbury

First published 1998 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Peter Edbury, 1998
First published under the Scolar Press imprint, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 1996.

Peter Edbury has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Edbury, Peter W.
The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade: Sources in Translation.
1. Crusades Third, 11891192. 2. JerusalemHistoryLatin Kingdom, 10991244.
I. Title. II. William, of Tyre, Archbishop of Tyre, c. 1130c. 1186. Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum. English.
940.1'82

US Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Edbury, Peter W.
The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade: Sources in Translation / Peter W. Edbury
p. cm. Collection of works translated from the Old French and Latin. Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Crusades Third, 11891192Sources. 2. JerusalemHistoryLatin Kingdom, 10991244Sources. I. Edbury, Peter W. II. William, of Tyre, Archbishop of Tyre, c. 1130c. 1186. Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum. English.
D163.A3C66 1997
909.07dc21

9526600
CIP

ISBN 9781840146769 (pbk)

Crusade Texts in Translation 1

This is a collection of sources in English translation, few of which have been translated previously. Most of this work comprises a rendering of the 1184-97 section of a major narrative source for die period under consideration, the Old French Continuation of William of Tyre. It has been taken from the edition prepared by the late M.R. Morgan and published in 1982 as La Continuation de Guillaume de Tyr (1184-1197). The second and much shorter part of this book consists of a selection of texts and excerpts, chosen because they illustrate further the events handled by the main narrative. The Continuation of William of Tyre has been translated in its entirety from Morgan's edition. Most of the shorter texts similarly are unabridged, but where they have been shortened for any reason this is made clear. A special word of thanks is due to my colleague, Dr Helen Nicholson, both for introducing me to the publisher and for reading and commenting on a substantial section of the translation. She has saved me from many blunders. Jonathan Osmond, John Pexcival and Jonathan Phillips have all in their different ways given me much needed help and encouragement. I should also like to thank Ian Dennis for preparing the maps and Geoff Boden for helping get the text ship-shape.

Peter Edbury
Cardiff, 1995

The Eastern Mediterranean

Map 2 The Kingdom of Jerusalem

On 4 July 1187 the army of the kingdom of Jerusalem suffered a crushing defeat in the hills a few miles to the west of the Sea of Galilee. The victor was that most famous of all medieval Muslim rulers, Salah al-Din Yusuf, better known in the English-speaking world as Saiadin. The king of Jerusalem and many of his barons were taken captive on a hill called the Horns of Hattin, and it is from that hill that the battle is named even though the actual engagements were spread over a much wider area. Saladin's victory was so complete that few of the cities or fortresses of the kingdom could offer any resistance. Jerusalem itself surrendered on 2 October, leaving only Tyre and a handful of isolated castles in Christian control.

Jerusalem had been in Christian hands for almost 90 years. It had been won by the army of the First Crusade in 1099, and the kingdom of Jerusalem dated from Christmas Day 1100 and the coronation of the first king. Until 1187 the kingdom had been reasonably successful in resisting Muslim attack, and its collapse sent shock-waves through the whole of western Europe. The two reasons usually given for this collapse can be stated simply: the Muslims were stronger than previously; the Christians weaker. Divisions in die Muslim world of the Near East had contributed to the successes of the First Crusade and its aftermath, but since 1174 Saladin had controlled both Egypt and Damascus, and so for the first time a single hostile ruler governed all the lands adjacent to the Christian-held territories. What was more, Saladin's military resources outstripped those of any of his predecessors. On the other hand, since 1174 the kingdom of Jerusalem had experienced an extended period of political uncertainty which had entailed division and rivalry among the leading figures. Between 1174 and 1185 the king was chronically ill with leprosy; there was then a brief period of minority followed by the accession in 1186 of Guy of Lusignan, a man who was already deeply unpopular with a substantial section of die nobility. Guy needed a major victory to silence his critics; he could not afford to allow Saladin's build-up of troops and incursions into Christian territory to go unchallenged. But even when he committed his forces to what has to be regarded as a military gamble on a huge scale, the rivalries and divisions among his advisers only served to confuse his conduct of operations.