Battle of Montgisard - encyclopedia article about Battle of Montgisard.

In 1177 the Crusader kingdom was facing the prospect of a succession crisis. King Baldwin IV was a leper and could not leave an heir. His sister Sibylla had been left widowed and pregnant by William of Montferrat, and the nobles of the kingdom began to seek another suitable husband. At the same time, Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, arrived on pilgrimage, and demanded that Sibylla be married off to one of his vassals. Philip and Baldwin also planned an alliance with the Byzantine Empire for a naval attack on Egypt; but none of these plans came to fruitation.

Meanwhile, Saladin planned his own invasion of the kingdom from Egypt. Learning of Saladin's plans, Baldwin IV left Jerusalem with, according to William of Tyre, only 375 knights to attempt a defense at Ascalon, but Baldwin was blockaded there by Saladin, who, again according to William of Tyre, had 26,000 men. Accompanying Baldwin was Raynald of Chatillon, lord of Oultrejordain, who had just been released from captivity in Aleppo in 1176. Raynald was a fierce enemy of Saladin, and was the effective commander of the army, with King Baldwin too ill to command it personally. Also with the army were Odo de St Amand, master of the Knights Templar, Baldwin of Ibelin, his brother Balian, Reginald of Sidon, and Joscelin III of Edessa. Another Templar force attempted to meet Baldwin at Ascalon, but they were also besieged at Gaza.

The battle

Saladin continued his march towards Jerusalem, thinking that Baldwin would not dare to follow him with so few men. He attacked Ramla, Lydda and Arsuf, but because Baldwin was supposedly not a danger, he allowed his army to be spread out over a large area, pillaging and foraging. However, Baldwin and the Templars both escaped their blockades, and marched out along the coast, hoping to meet Saladin before he reached Jerusalem.

The combined force of Baldwin and the Templars amounted to Baldwin's knights, 80 Templars, and a few thousand infantry. They met Saladin at Montgisard near Ramla, surprising him completely, as his army was not prepared for a pitched battle. Saladin recalled his army as quickly as possible, organizing it into a centre flanked by two forward wings, one of which was commanded by his nephew Taqi ad-Din, but the cavalry had not rested since leaving Egypt and the horses were exhausted. While Saladin manoeuvered his flanks so that a nearby tell would be at their rear, the Christians attacked the centre line.

The Muslims were routed with heavy casualties, and their baggage was lost to the Christians. Taqi ad-Din's son, Ahmad, was killed in the fighting, and the jurist Diya ad-Din Isa was taken prisoner. Saladin himself escaped only because he rode a racing camel. The Old French translation of William of Tyre, commonly attributed to Ernoul, recorded that St. George took the field alongside Baldwin and Raynald.

Baldwin pursued Saladin until nightfall, and then retired to Ascalon. Deluged by ten days of heavy rains and suffering the loss of roughly ninety percent of his army, including his personal bodyguard of Mamluks, Saladin fled back to Egypt, harassed by Bedouins along the way. Only one tenth of his army made it back to Egypt with him.

Aftermath

Saladin, fearing the tenuousness of both his hold on Egypt and the alliance with his Syrian vassals, spread propaganda that the Christians had in fact lost the battle; Baldwin likewise propagandized his victory. He erected a Benedictine monastery on the battlefield, dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, whose feast day fell on the day of the battle. However, it was a difficult victory; Roger des Moulins, master of the Knights Hospitaller, reported that 1100 men had been killed and 750 returned home wounded.

Meanwhile, Raymond III of Tripoli and Bohemund III of Antioch joined with Philip of Alsace in a separate expedition against Harim in Syria; the siege of Harim lasted into 1178, and Saladin's defeat at Montgisard prevented him from relieving his Syrian vassals. Despite an intervening year of relative peace, by 1179 Saladin was able to renew his attacks on the kingdom, leading to almost another decade of warfare which culminated in the Battle of Hattin and the collapse of the Crusader kingdom in 1187.

Fiction

The battle of Montgisard is alluded to in the 2005 movie Kingdom of Heaven, as a battle where King Baldwin IV defeated Saladin when he was sixteen.

An account of the battle is also given in Swedish author Jan Guillou's novel Tempelriddaren (the Knight Templar)(ISBN 91-1-300733-5), in which the protagonist, Arn Magnusson (de Gothia) is portrayed as a high ranking member of the Knights Templar , commanding a contigent of the army at the battle of Montgisard.

Sources

Baha ad-Din, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, ed. D. S. Richards, Ashgate, 2002.
Willemi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon, ed. R. B. C. Huygens. Turnholt, 1986.
Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and his Heirs, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
M. C. Lyons and D. E. P. Jackson, Saladin: the Politics of the Holy War, Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187. Cambridge University Press, 1952.
R. C. Smail, Crusading Warfare, 1097-1193. Cambridge University Press, 1956.

Crusades were a series of military conflicts of a religious character waged by much of Christian Europe during 1095–1291, most of which were sanctioned by the Pope in the name
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November 25 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

1034 - Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots dies.

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11st century - 12nd century - 13rd century
1140s 1150s 1160s - 1170s - 1180s 1190s 1200s
1174 1175 1176 - 1177 - 1178 1179 1180

Politics
State leaders - Sovereign states
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Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christian kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. It lasted less than two hundred years, until 1291 when the last remaining outpost, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks.
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AD Tulunid dynasty 868-905 Hamdanid dynasty 890-1004 Ikhshidid dynasty 935-969 Uqaylid Dynasty 990-1096 Zengid dynasty 1127-1250 Ayyubid dynasty 1171-1246 Bahri dynasty 1250-1382 Burji dynasty 1382–1517

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Baldwin IV (1161 – 1185), called the Leper or the Leprous, the son of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his first wife Agnes of Courtenay, was king of Jerusalem from 1174 to 1185.
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Raynald of Châtillon (also Reynaud, Renaud, Reynald, Reynold, Renald or Reginald of Chastillon) (c. 1125 – July 4 1187) was a knight who served in the Second Crusade and remained in the Holy Land after its defeat.
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Philippe de Milly Grand Master of the Knights Templar
1171–1179 Succeeded by
Arnold of Torroja

References

1. ^ [1]

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Salah al-Din redirects here. For the governorate in Iraq, see Salah ad Din. For the Saladin (FV601) six-wheeled armoured car, see Alvis Saladin. For the animated series of Saladin, see

Salah al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub

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Battle of Jacob's Ford was fought in 1179 between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the forces of Saladin. The site is also known by the Latin name of Vadum Iacob and in modern Hebrew as Ateret.
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Siege of Kerak took place in 1183, with Saladin's forces attacking and being repelled from the Crusader stronghold.

Prelude

Kerak was the stronghold of Raynald of Chatillon, Lord of Oultrejordain, 124km South of Amman ^[1].
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Battle of Cresson was a small battle fought on May 1, 1187, at the springs of Cresson, or 'Ain Gozeh, near Nazareth. It was a prelude to the decisive defeat of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin two months later.
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The Battle of Hattin (also known as "The Horns of Hattin" because of a nearby extinct volcano of the same name) took place on Saturday, July 4, 1187, between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the forces of the Ayyubid dynasty.
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Siege of Jerusalem took place from September 20 to October 2, 1187. It resulted in the recapture of Jerusalem by Saladin and the near total collapse of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. It served as the catalyst for the Third Crusade.
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Salah al-Din redirects here. For the governorate in Iraq, see Salah ad Din. For the Saladin (FV601) six-wheeled armoured car, see Alvis Saladin. For the animated series of Saladin, see

Salah al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub

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November 25 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

1034 - Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots dies.

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Leprosy
Classification & external resources

A 24-year-old man infected with leprosy.
ICD-10 A 30.
ICD-9 030

OMIM 246300
DiseasesDB 8478
MedlinePlus 001347
eMedicine med/1281 derm/223 neuro/187

MeSH C01.252.410.040.
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Sibylla (c. 1160 – 1190) was the Countess of Jaffa and Ascalon from 1176 and Queen of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1190. She was the eldest daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and Agnes of Courtenay, sister of Baldwin IV and half-sister of Isabella of Jerusalem, and mother of
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William of Montferrat (early 1140s-1177), also called William Longsword (modern Italian Guglielmo Lungaspada, originally Occitan Guilhem Longa-Espia), was the Count of Jaffa and Ascalon, the eldest son of William V, Marquess of Montferrat and Judith of
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Philip of Alsace (1143 – August 1, 1191) was count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191. He succeeded his father Thierry of Alsace.

History and Family

Count of Flanders

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The counts of Flanders were the rulers over the county of Flanders from the 9th century until the abolition of the countship by the French revolutionaries in 1790.

Although the early rulers, from Arnulf I onwards, were sometime referred to as margraves or marquesses, this
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Byzantine Empire or Byzantium is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople.
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Gumhūriyyat Miṣr al-ʿArabiyyah

Arab Republic of Egypt

Flag Coat of arms
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Bilady, Bilady, Bilady
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Jerusalem (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (help info ) , Yerushaláyim; Arabic:
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William of Tyre (c. 1130 – 1185) was archbishop of Tyre and a chronicler of the Crusades and the Middle Ages.

Early life

William of Tyre was born in Jerusalem around 1130, one of the second generation of children born to the children of the original European
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Knight is the English term for a social position originating in the Middle Ages. In the Commonwealth of Nations, knighthood is a non-heritable form of gentility, but is not nobility.
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