William of Tyre

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William of Tyre

William of Tyre (c. 1130 – 1185) was archbishop of Tyre and a chronicler of the Crusades and the Middle Ages.




William of Tyre writing his history, from a 13th century Old French translation, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MS 2631, f.1r
Born 1130
Jerusalem
Died September 29, 1185
Tyre
Occupation Bishop
Known for Medieval Chronicler

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William of Tyre was born in Jerusalem around 1130, one of the second generation of children born to the children of the original European Crusaders in the new Kingdom of Jerusalem. His parents were probably French or Italian in origin, possibly Normans from Sicily. He had a brother named Ralph who was probably a merchant in the kingdom, and the family was certainly non-noble. As a child he was educated in Jerusalem, especially in Latin but also perhaps in Greek and Arabic, and it is possible that one of his fellow pupils was the future king Baldwin III. He entered the church at an early age, and around 1146 went to Europe to continue his studies. He studied liberal arts and theology in Paris and Orleans for about ten years, with professors who had been students of Thierry of Chartres and Gilbert de la Porrée; he also spent time studying under Robert of Melun and Adam de Parvo Ponte, among others. He also studied the classics with Hilary of Orleans, and mathematics ("especially Euclid") with William of Soissons. For six years, he studied theology with Peter Lombard and Maurice de Sully. Afterwards, he studied civil law and canon law in Bologna, with the "Four Doctors", Hugolinus de Porta Ravennate, Bulgarus, Martinus Gosia, and Jacob de Boraigne.

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Religious and political life in Jerusalem

After his return to the Holy Land in 1165 he became canon of the cathedral at Acre, and in 1167 was appointed archdeacon of the cathedral of Tyre by King Amalric I. In 1168 he was sent on a diplomatic mission for Amalric to the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, to finalize the treaty made between the two rulers for a joint campaign against Egypt. In 1169 he visited Rome to answer accusations made against him by Frederick de la Roche, the archbishop of Tyre; the charge is unknown but was perhaps related to William's rather large income as archdeacon, which he presumably gained through his friendship with the king.

On his return from Rome in 1170 he became the tutor of Amalric's son and heir, Baldwin IV. It was William who discovered that Baldwin suffered from leprosy, although the diagnosis only became certain as the boy neared puberty. Around this time William began writing his history of the kingdom, under the patronage of Amalric. Unfortunately Amalric died prematurely in 1174, and Baldwin IV succeeded as king. Raymond III of Tripoli, regent for the young king, named William chancellor of Jerusalem, as well as archdeacon of Nazareth. On June 6, 1175, William became archbishop of Tyre, gaining control over the most important matters of both Church and State. In 1177 he performed the funeral services for William of Montferrat, Baldwin IV's brother-in-law, when the Patriarch of Jerusalem was too sick to attend.

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Baldwin of Boulogne receiving the hommage of the Armenians. "Histoires", William of Tyre.

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In 1179, William was one of the delegates from Outremer who attended the Third Council of the Lateran; among the others was Heraclius, archbishop of Caesarea, Joscius, bishop of Acre and William's future successor in Tyre, the bishops of Sebastea, Bethlehem and Tripoli, and the abbot of Mount Sion. However, they were not of sufficient weight to persuade the Pope of the need for a new crusade. William was recruited by Pope Alexander III to engage in diplomatic matters with Emperor Manuel, and then returned home in 1180. He clearly considered himself the obvious choice for the patriarchate when the ailing patriarch finally died, but in his absence the royal court had become bitterly divided into two factions.

By Easter 1180, the King and his mother Agnes of Courtenay foiled an attempt by Raymond III of Tripoli and Bohemond III of Antioch to marry the King's widowed sister Sibylla to Baldwin of Ibelin, a noble of their party. Sibylla was instead married off to a Poitevin newcomer, Guy of Lusignan, whose older brother Amalric of Lusignan was already an established figure at court. This seems to have hardened the factional lines within the court.

When the Patriarch died on October 6, 1180, the contest for his successor was between William and Heraclius of Caesarea. They were fairly evenly matched in background and education, although William had played a larger political role as the King's tutor and chancellor. It seems that, following the precedent of the 1157 patriarchal election, the King delegated the decision to his mother Agnes, now wife of Reginald of Sidon. She chose Heraclius, since William was closer to Raymond of Tripoli, then in disfavour. As Bernard Hamilton has noted, there is no reason to credit the rumours that Heraclius was Agnes's lover as more than a reflection of the grudges held by the defeated party.

William remained archbishop of Tyre and chancellor of the kingdom, and the King and Raymond were reconciled. Heraclius possibly excommunicated William in 1184, but this may have been an invention of the 13th century writer who first claimed it. In any case his importance had ceased by the accession of Baldwin V in 1185, by which time he was probably in failing health. The date of William's death was later recorded as September 29, but the year is unknown; there was a new chancellor in May of 1185 and a new archbishop of Tyre by October of 1186, so 1185 seems to be the most reasonable date

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William of Tyre discovers Baldwin's first symptoms of leprosy (MS of L'Estoire d'Eracles (French translation of William of Tyre's Historia), painted in France, 1250s. British Library, London.)

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Works

William himself reports that he wrote an account of the Lateran Council which he attended, as well as a Historia or Gesta orientalium principum dealing with the history of the Holy Land from time of Muhammad until 1184. However, neither of these works have survived.

His great work is a chronicle of twenty-three unfinished books. The work begins with the conquest of Syria by Umar, but most of it deals with the advent of the First Crusade and the subsequent political history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Although he used older works, including chronicles of the First Crusade such as Fulcher of Chartres and other, unnamed sources, the work is also valuable as a primary source itself. It was widely translated and circulated throughout Europe after William's death. James of Vitry and Matthew Paris had copies of it and used it in their own chronicles. A translation into Old French was particularly well-circulated and had many anonymous additions made to it in the 13th century, including the so-called chronicle of Ernoul; one Renaissance author translated the Old French version back into Latin, unaware that a Latin original already existed. A Middle English translation of the Old French version was made by William Caxton in the 15th century.

It is unknown what title William himself gave it, but the most usual title given to it in recent history is Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum. This was translated as History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea in the standard English edition by E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey, published in 1943. The Latin original was published in various places including the Patrologia Latina and the Recueil des historiens des croisades, but the now standard Latin critical edition was published as Willelmi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon in the Corpus Christianorum in 1986, edited by R. B. C. Huygens.

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Medieval Sourcebook:
William of Tyre:
History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea

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William of Tyre was born in the Holy Land, born in the Holy Land and was, after a French education, appointed Archbishop of Tyre and Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He wrote towards the end of the twelfth century.

Selections from the Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum [History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea]

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1. Peter the Hermit

Although William is an excellent historian, his account of Peter the Hermit, written almost a century later, shows how Peter became a mythic figure. Research by Hegenmeyer in the mid 19th century showed that Peter did not incit Urban to preach, did not speak at Clermont, and preached for only a few months.

A certain priest named Peter, from the kingdom of the Franks and the bishopric of Amiens, a hermit both in deed and name, I by the same ardor, arrived at Jerusalem. He was small in stature and his external appearance contemptible, but greater valor ruled in his slight frame. For be was sharp witted, his glance was bright and captivating, and be spoke with ease and eloquence. Having paid the tax which was exacted from all Christians who wished to enter, he went into the city and was entertained by a trusty man who was also a confessor of Christ. He diligently questioned his host, as he was a zealous man, and learned more fully from him not only the existing perils, but also the persecutions which their ancestors had suffered long before. And if in what he heard any details were lacking, he completed the account from the witness of his own eyes. For remaining in the city and visiting the churches he learned more fully the truth of what had been told to him by others.

Hearing also that the Patriarch of the city was a devout and God-fearing man, he wished to confer with him and to learn more fully from him the truth concerning some matters. Accordingly lie went to him, and having been presented by a trustworthy man, both be and the Patriarch mutually enjoyed their conferences.

The name of the Patriarch was Simeon. As he learned from Peter's conversation that the latter was prudent, able and eloquent, and a man of great experience, be began to disclose to him more confidentially all the evils which the people of God bad suffered while dwelling in Jerusalem.

To whom Peter replied: "You may be assured, holy father, that if the Roman church and the princes of the West should learn from a zealous and a reliable witness the calamities which you suffer, there is not the slightest doubt that they would hasten to remedy the evil, both by words and deeds. Write them zealously both to the lord Pope and the Roman church and to the kings and princes of the West, and confirm your letter by the authority Of your seal. I, truly, for the sake of the salvation of my soul, do not hesitate to undertake this task. And I aim prepared under God's guidance to visit them all, to exhort them all, zealously to inform them of the greatness of your sufferings and to urge them to hasten to your relief."

Of a truth, Thou art great, O Lord our God, and to thy mercy there is no end! Of a truth, blessed Jesus, those who trust in Thee shall not be brought to confusion! How did this poor pilgrim, destitute of all resources and far from his native land, have so great confidence that he dared to undertake an enterprise so much beyond his strength and to hope to accomplish his vow, unless it was that he turned all his thoughts to Thee, his protector, and filled with charity, pitying the misfortunes of his brethren, loving, his neighbor as himself, he was content to fulfill the law? Strength', is a vain thing, but charity overcometh. What his brethren prescribed might appear difficult and even impossible, but the love of God and of his neighbor rendered it easy for him, for love is strong as death. Faith which worketh by love availeth with Thee, and the good deeds near Thee do not remain without fruit. Accordingly Thou didst not permit Thy servant long to remain in doubt. Thou didst manifest Thyself to him. Thou didst fortify, him by Thy revelation that he might not hesitate, and breathing into him Thy hidden spirit, Thou madest him arise with greater strength to accomplish the work of charity.

Therefore, after performing the usual prayers, taking leave of the lord Patriarch and receiving his blessing, he went to the seacoast. There he found a vessel belonging to some merchants who were preparing to cross to Apulia. He went on board, and after a successful journey arrived at Bari. Thence he proceeded to Rome, and found the lord Pope Urban in the vicinity. He presented the letters of the Patriarch and of the Christians who dwelt at Jerusalem, and showed their misery and the abominations which the unclean races wrought in the holy places. Thus faithfully and prudently he performed the commission entrusted to him.


Source:

[Belli. Sacri Hist. Book 1, ch ii ff] trans in Dana C. Munro, "Urban and the Crusaders", Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, Vol 1:2, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1895), 20

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3. Foundation of the Order of Knights Templar

In this same year,[1118] certain noble men of knightly rank, religious men, devoted to God and fearing him, bound themselves to Christ's service in the hands of the Lord Patriarch. They promised to live in perpetuity as regular canons, without possessions, under vows of chastity and obedience. Their foremost leaders were the venerable Hugh of Payens and Geoffrey of St. Omer. Since they had no church nor any fixed abode, the king, gave them for a time a dwelling place in the south wing of the palace, near the Lord's Temple. The canons of the Lord's Temple gave them, under certain conditions, a square near the palace which the canons possessed. This the knights used as a drill field. The Lord King and his noblemen and also the Lord Patriarch and the prelates of the church gave them benefices from their domains, some for a limited time and some in perpetuity. These were to provide the knights with food and clothing. Their primary duty, one which was enjoined upon them by the Lord Patriarch and the other bishops for the remission of sins, was that of protecting the roads and routes against the attacks of robbers and brigands. This they did especially in order to safeguard pilgrims.

For nine years after their founding, the knights wore secular clothing. They used such garments as the people, for their soul's salvation, gave them. In their ninth year there was held in France, at Troyes, a council at which the Lord Archbishops of Reims and Sens and their suffragans were present, as well as the Bishop of Albano, who was the legate of the apostolic see, and the Abbots of Citeaux, Clairvaux, Pontigny, with many others. This council, by command of the Lord Pope Honorius and the Lord Stephen, Patriarch of Jerusalem, established a rule for the knights and assigned them a white habit.

Although the knights now had been established for nine years, there were still only nine of them. From this time onward their numbers began to grow and their possessions began to multiply. Later, in Pope Eugene's time, it is said that both the knights and their humbler servants, called sergeants, began to affix crosses made of red cloth to their mantles, so as to distinguish themselves from others. They have now grown so great that there are in this Order today [William was writing c. 1170-74] about 300 knights who wear white mantles, in addition to the brothers, who are almost countless. They are said to have immense possessions both here and overseas, so that there is now not a province in the Christian world which has not bestowed upon the aforesaid brothers a portion of its goods. It is said today that their wealth is equal to the treasures of kings. Because they have a headquarters in the royal palace next to the Temple of the Lord, as we have said before, they are called the Brothers of the Militia of the Temple. Although they maintained their establishment honorably for a long time and fulfilled their vocation with sufficient prudence, later, because of the neglect of humility (which is known as the guardian of all virtues and which, since it sits in the lowest place, cannot fall), they with drew from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, by whom their Order was founded and from whom they received their first benefices and to whom they denied the obedience which their predecessors rendered. They have also taken away tithes and first fruits from God's churches, have disturbed their possessions, and have made themselves exceedingly troublesome.

Source:

William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, XII, 7, Patrologia Latina 201, 526-27, Translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 70-73
Copyright note: Professor Brundage informed the Medieval Sourcebook that copyright was not renewed on this work. Moreover he gave permission for use of his translations.

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4. The Fall of Edessa

[Introduction from Brundage] So long as the wars of the Latin states were confined to minor conflicts with one or two petty Moslem princes, no grave danger was entailed. But when major combinations of Moslem powers appeared, then the situation could become perilous indeed. On such occasions, the safety of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other principalities absolutely demanded that they cooperate for mutual defense. As has often happened in more modern times, however, the necessity for common action against a common foe was uncommonly difficult for kings and princes to appreciate. And even when the necessity for common action was perceived by the leaders of the Latin East, petty domestic quarrels between them frequently made their combinations with one another tenuous and halfhearted affairs. Thus it was that when the first concerted Moslem attack upon one of the Latin states occurred, the other states were diffident and disinclined to lend assistance to the one attacked.

The occasion arose in 1144, when the easternmost of the Latin states, Edessa, fell prey to Zengi. Zengi, whose rise to power had begun at Mosul in 1127, bad gradually acquired authority through war, intimidation, and treaty over a whole host of Moslem principalities in Syria. When his large and powerful army turned its unwelcome attention upon Edessa in 1144, Zengi found the Latins divided. The count of Edessa, Joscelyn II, was at odds with the prince of Antioch. The count of Tripoli was only vaguely interested in events so far to the east, and in Jerusalem, King Fulk bad just died, leaving the government in the hands of Queen Melisende as regent for their thirteen year old son, Baldwin III.

Consequently, Zengi found his attack opposed only by the negligible forces of Edessa itself.


In that same year, [1144] during the time which elapsed between the death of King Baldwin's father and Baldwin's elevation to the throne, one Zengi, a vicious man, was the most powerful of the Eastern Turks. His city, formerly called Nineveh, but now known as Mosul, is the metropolis of the region which was earlier called Assur. Zengi, its lord and governor, at this time laid siege to the city of Edessa, more commonly called Rohas, the greatest and most splendid city of the Medes. Zengi did this, relying on the numbers and strength of his men and also on the very dangerous strife which had arisen between Prince Raymond of Antioch and Count Joscelyn. of Edessa. The city of Edessa lies beyond the Euphrates, one day's journey from the river. The aforesaid Count of Edessa, contrary to the custom of his predecessors, had ceased to live in the city and made his constant and perpetual abode in a place called Turbessel. He did this both because of the richness of the spot and because of his own laziness. Here, far from the tumult A the enemy and free to pursue his pleasures, the count failed to take proper care of his noble city. The population of Edessa was made up of Chaldeans and Armenians, unwarlike men, scarcely familiar with the use of arms and accustomed only to the acts of trade. The city was only rarely visited by Latins and very few of them lived there. The safekeeping of the city was entrusted solely to mercenaries and these were not paid according to he type of service they performed or the length of time for which they were engaged ­ indeed, they often had to wait a year or more for the payment of their stated wages. Both Baldwin and the elder Joscelyn, when they held the county, made their home permanently and customarily in Edessa and took care to have the city supplied with food, arms, and other necessary items from nearby places. They had thus been able both to maintain themselves in safety and also to overawe the neighboring towns with their strength.

There was, as we have said before, bad feeling between Count Joscelyn and the Prince of Antioch ­ a feeling that was not hidden, but rather had become an open hatred. For this reason, each of them took little or no care if the other were attacked or suffered misfortune. Rather they rejoiced at the other's catastrophes and were made glad by the other's mishaps.

The aforesaid great prince, Zengi, took the opportunity offered by this situation. He gathered innumerable cavalry forces throughout all of the East; be even called up the people of the cities neighboring Edessa and brought them with him to lay siege to the day. He blockaded all of the entrances to the city, so that the besieged citizens could not get out and so that those who wished to help them could not get in. The resulting shortage of food aid provisions caused great suffering for the besieged. The city, however, was surrounded by a formidable wall. In the upper town there were high towers and down below there was the lower town where the citizens could take refuge, even if the city itself were taken. All these defenses could be of use against the enemy only if there were men willing to fight for their freedom, men who would resist the foe valiantly. The defenses would be useless, however, if there were none among the besieged who were willing serve as defenders. Towers, walls, and earthworks are of little value to a city unless there are defenders to man them. Zengi found the town bereft of defenders and was much encouraged. He encircled the town with his forces, assigned the officers of his legions to appropriate stations, and dug in. The catapults and siege engines weakened the fortifications; the continual shooting of arrows tormented the citizens incessantly; and the besieged were given no respite. It was announced, meanwhile, and the news was also spread by rumor, that the city of Edessa, a city faithful to God, was suffering the agonies of a siege at the hands of the enemy of the faith and the foe of the Christian name. At this news the hearts of the faithful, far and wide, were touched and zealous men began to take up arms to harass the wicked. The Count, when he beard of it, was stricken with anguish. Energetically he assembled his forces. . . . He went around admonishing his faithful friends. Humbly he besought his lord, the Prince of Antioch and, through messengers, he forcefully urged the prince to assist him in his labors to free Edessa from the yoke of future servitude . Messengers bearing news of this sinister event came even to the kingdom of Jerusalem, bearing witness to the siege of Edessa and to the misfortunes suffered by its citizens. The queen, who had charge of the kingdom's government, on the advice of the council of the nobles which she consulted, sent her kinsman, Manasses, the royal constable, Philip of Nablus, and Elinander of Tiberius, together with a great multitude of soldiers with all speed to Edessa that they might give the Lord Count and the suffering citizens the comfort which they desired.

The Prince of Antioch, however, rejoiced in Edessa's adversity and paid small attention to his duties for the common welfare. He was little concerned that personal hatred ought not cause public harm and made excuses, while he put off giving the aid which bad been requested.

Zengi, meanwhile, pressed continual assaults on the city. He ran the gamut of attacks and left nothing untried which could harass the citizens and aid him in gaining control of the city. He sent sappers through trenches and underground tunnels to undermine the walls. As they dug passages beneath the walls, they buttressed these with posts, which were afterward set on fire. A great part of the wall was thus broken down. This breach in the wall, more than 100 cubits wide, gave the enemy an entrance into the city. The enemy now had the approach they had desired. Their forces rushed together into the city. They slew with their swords the citizens whom they encountered, sparing neither age, condition, nor sex. of them it might be said: "They murder the widow and the stranger, they slay the orphan, the youth, and the virgin, together with the old Man." The city, therefore, was captured and delivered to the swords of the enemy.

The more prudent or more experienced citizens rushed to the citadel which, as we have said, was in the city. This they did so that they might at least preserve their lives, their children, and their wives, if only for a short time. At the gate there was such a crush of people trying to enter that, because of the press of the crowd, many were suffocated and died miserably. Among these was the most reverend Hugh, the Archbishop of the city. He is said to have expired in this fashion together with several of his clerics. Some of those who were present would blame his miserable end on the Archbishop himself, for he is said to have collected a vast sum of money, Had he used this for soldiers, it would have been helpful to the city, but he preferred to heap up his treasure like a miser rather than to consider his dying people. Thus it happened that he received the reward of his greed by perishing with his people....

Thus while the Prince of Antioch, overcome by foolish hatred, delayed rendering the help he owed to his brothers and while the count awaited help from abroad, the ancient city of Edessa, devoted to Christianity since the time of the Apostles and delivered from the superstitions of the infidels through the words and preaching of the Apostle Thaddeus, passed into an undeserved servitude.

Source:

William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, XIV, 4-5, Patrologia Latina 201, 642-45, Translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 79-82
Copyright note: Professor Brundage informed the Medieval Sourcebook that copyright was not renewed on this work. Moreover he gave permission for use of his translations.

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5. The Fiasco at Damascus

[Adapted from Brundage] King Louis and his entourage arrived in the harbor of St. Simeon, near Antioch, on March 19, 1148. Welcomed by Prince Raymond of Antioch, the King and his retainers settled down to enjoy the friendly reception accorded them by their friends, who saw in King Louis' army the potential saviors of the Principality of Antioch and of all the Latin states. And, indeed, the presence of Louis' cavalry forces greatly strengthened the position of the Latins in the East. Although Louis had lost or been separated from the great majority of the troops and pilgrims who had set out with him originally, the Crusading forces which finally landed.at Antioch were far from negligible.

Almost at once, Louis was besieged with urgent requests from various Latin princes and noblemen to lend his army to the favorite military schemes of the individual leaders. To all the plans presented to him, Louis demurred. As a Crusader he had sworn when he took the cross to visit the shrines of Jerusalem, and he quickly made it clear that the fulfillment of this vow was to be his first consideration in the East. King Louis' decision was also influenced, no doubt, by the dubious relationship which had sprung up between his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Prince Raymond of Antioch, Eleanor's cousin. Accordingly, King Louis and his army were soon on the march again. They stopped for a short time at Tripoli and then continued on their way to Jerusalem. On their arrival there, they found Conrad of Germany, together with a small contingent of the survivors from his army, awaiting them.

After King Louis had fulfilled his vows by worshipping at the holy shrines of Jerusalem, he was ready to consider proposals to put his military forces to use in the defense of the Latin states. On June 24, 1148, a general council of the princes and military leaders then in the Holy Land was held at Acre, After vigorous discussion of various plans of action, the assembly finally decided to concentrate all the available forces on a supreme effort to conquer the ancient, venerable, and wealthy city of Damascus, a vital center of commerce and communications. Accordingly, the forces of the various sovereigns were mustered.' The King of Jerusalem, Baldwin III, the Templars and Hospitallers, the various lords of the other Latin states, and the French and German kings joined together to justify by military conquest the enormous effort which had brought the Second Crusade to the East.

Damascus is the largest city of lesser Syria and is its metropolis, for as it is said, "Damascus is the head of Syria." [Is. 7:8] The city is also known as the Phoenicia of Lebanon and is named after a certain servant of Abraham who is believed to have founded it. The name means "bloody" or "dripping with gore." The city is located on a plain in a land which is barren and arid, save where it is irrigated by waters brought down for its benefit through ancient canals. A stream descends from a nearby mountain ridge in the highlands of that area and is channeled through the various lower sections of the region so as to fertilize the barren fields.

Since there is an abundance of water, the surplus is used to nourish the orchards of fruit trees which are located on either side of the stream. The stream flows along the eastern wall of the city. When the kings came to the place which had been agreed upon, namely Daria, which was close to Damascus, they organized their lines for battle and settled the order of battle for their legions lest, if they went ahead in disorderly fashion, quarrels should break out among them and hinder their common task.

By the common decision of the princes it was agreed that the King of Jerusalem and his men were to go first, principally because they were supposed to be familiar with the lay of the land. They were supposed to open the way for the rest who were following them. The French King and the men of his expedition were ordered to take the second, or center, place, so that, if necessary, they could assist those ahead of them. The Emperor, by the same token, was ordered to keep in the third and last place, so that he would be ready to resist the enemy if perchance they should attack from the rear. He was thus to make the forces ahead secure from behind. When the three armies had been placed in proper order, they moved the camp forward and attempted to approach the city.

On the western side of Damascus from which our troops approached, and on the northern side, too, the city enclosed far and wide by orchards which are like a dense woods or a shady forest, extending five miles or more toward Lebanon. These orchards are enclosed by mud walls-rock is not plentiful in that region-so that their ownership will not be in doubt and also to keep out trespassers. The orchards are, therefore, enclosed by defensive walls in such a way that each man's possessions are identified. Paths and public roads, though they are narrow, are left open so that the gardeners and those who have charge of the orchards can make their way to the city with the animals which carry the fruit. These orchards are the city's greatest protection. Because of their density, because of the number of the trees, and because of the narrowness of the roads, it seemed difficult-indeed, almost impossible-for those who wished to approach Damascus to do so from that side. From the beginning, however, our princes had decided to bring the army in through this area to gain access to the city. There was a double reason for this: on the one band, it was done so that after the most securely guarded areas in which the Damascenes had the greatest faith had been occupied, what remained would seem easy and would be more readily accomplished. On the other hand, the approach was made in this way so that the army would not be deprived of the benefits of food and water. The King of Jerusalem, therefore, sent his fighting formations in first through those narrow orchard paths. The army could scarcely make headway and did so with great difficulty, both because it was hemmed in by the narrow roads and also because it was hindered by the ambushes of the men who were hidden in the thickets. Also, the army had sometimes to engage the enemies who appeared and seized the circuitous paths.

All the people of Damascus came out together and descended upon the aforesaid orchards in order to block the army's passage both by stealth and by open attack. There were, furthermore, walls and large, tall houses among the orchards. These were defended by soldiers whose possessions lay nearby. They defended the orchard walls by shooting arrows and other missiles and allowed no one to approach them, while the arrows shot from on high made the public roads exceedingly dangerous for those who wished to pass through them. Nor were our men beset with formidable obstacles only on one side. Rather, on every side there was equal peril for the unwary and danger of sudden and unforeseen death. There were, moreover, men with lances hiding inside of the walls. When these men saw our men passing by, they would stab them as they passed, through little peepholes in the walls which were cleverly designed for this purpose, so that those hiding inside could scarcely be seen. Many are said to have perished miserably that day in this way. Countless other kinds of danger, too, faced those who wished to pass through those narrow paths.

As our men became aware of this, they pushed on more fiercely. When they had broken down the barricades in the orchards, they occupied them eagerly. Those whom they discovered within the walls or in the houses, they pierced with their swords or threw into chains as captives. When the townsmen who had come out to defend the orchards heard this, they feared that they would perish as the others had. They left the orchards and returned to the city in droves. Thus, when the defenders either had been slaughtered or bad been turned to flight, a free path forward lay open to our men.

The cavalry forces of the townsmen and of those who had come to their assistance realized that our army was coming through the orchards in order to besiege the city and they accordingly approached the stream which flowed by the town. This they did with their bows and ballistas so that they could fight off the Latin army, which was fatigued by its journey and also so that they could prevent the thirsty men from reaching the river and the water which was so necessary for them. Our men hurried to the river, which they had heard was nearby, in order to relieve their thirst, which bad grown intense from the difficulties of their labors and the dense clouds of dust which were raised by the feet of horses and men. There they saw such a multitude of the enemy that they halted for a time. After a while they collected their men. They were given strength and hardiness by necessity. Once and then again they strove to get to the water, but in vain. While the king of Jerusalem and his men struggled vainly, the Emperor, who commanded the formations in the rear, demanded to know why the army was not moving forward. He was told that the enemy had seized the river and that they were blocking the progress of our men. When be learned of this, the Emperor was angered and, together with his lieutenants, he speedily made his way through the French King's ranks to the place where the fight for the river was going on. They dismounted from their horses and became infantrymen-as the Germans are accustomed to do in the crisis of battle. With shields in hand they fought the enemy hand-to-hand with swords. The enemy, who had earlier resisted valiantly, were unable to withstand the attack. They relinquished the river bank and fled at full speed to the city.

In this combat the Lord Emperor is said to have performed a feat which will be remembered through the ages. It is related that one of the enemy was resisting manfully and vigorously and that the Emperor with one blow cut off this enemy soldier's head and neck with the left shoulder and arm attached, together with part of his side-despite the fact that the foe was wearing a cuirass. At this deed the citizens, both those who witnessed it and those who learned of it from others, were thrown into such a fright that they despaired of resisting and even of life itself.

When the river had been won and its banks had been freely yielded, the Crusaders camped far and wide around the city, with the advantage of using freely the orchards, for which they had so strenuously fought, as well as the river. The townsmen were astonished both at the amazing number of our troops and at their courage. They began to be troubled about their own men and whether they could withstand us. They feared a sudden attack by us and counted nothing safe when they considered what kind of men they had discovered us to be in the previous day's battles. They conferred, therefore, and with the ingenuity which is characteristic of those suffering misery and adversity, they had recourse to desperate devices. In all the sections of the city which faced our camps they heaped up huge, tall beams, for they could only hope that while our men were working to tear down these barriers they might be able to flee in the opposite direction with their wives and children. It seemed evident to our men that if the divine favor was with us the city would soon be taken by the Christians. But it seemed otherwise to Him Who is "terrible in his judgments of the sons of men." [Ps 9:4] The city, as we have said, was in despair and its citizens held no hope of resisting or of being saved, but rather they were packing their bags and preparing to leave. At this point, for our sins, they began to work on the greed of our men. Using money, they attempted to conquer the hearts of those whose bodies they could not overcome. With consummate skill they proposed a variety of arguments to some of our princes and they promised and delivered a stupendous sum of money to them so that the princes would strive and labor to lift the siege. They persuaded these princes to assume the role of the traitor Judas. Corrupted by gifts and promises, led on by greed, the root of all evil, these princes fell in with the crime. By impious suggestions they persuaded the kings and the leaders of the pilgrims, who trusted their good faith and industry, to leave the orchards and to lead the army to the opposite side of the city. To camouflage their plot they alleged that on the opposite side of Damascus, which faced south and west, there were neither orchards to strengthen the city nor any moat or river to hinder their approach to the walls. The wall, they said, was low and was made of sunbaked bricks and it would scarcely withstand the first attack. There, they asserted, neither engines nor any great force would be needed. In the first attack the wall could immediately be torn down by band and it would not be difficult to break into the city....

The kings and all the leaders of the army believed them and they deserted the places which they bad earlier won with so much sweat and at the cost of the lives of so many of their men. They transferred all of their formations and, under the leadership of the traitors, they camped on the opposite side of the city.

There they found themselves located far from access to water, deprived of the abundance of fruit, and lacking almost all supplies. They were saddened and they discovered, all too late, that they bad maliciously been led to move from a region of abundance.

The food supply in the camp began to run out. Before the men had set out on the expedition, they had been persuaded to believe that the city would be quickly taken and they had brought along provisions for only a few days. This was especially true for the pilgrims, nor could they be blamed for it, since they were unfamiliar with the country. They had been persuaded, too, that the city would be taken at once in the initial attacks and they were assured that in the meantime a large army could be fed on the fruit supply which they could get for nothing, even if all other food were lacking.

The doubtful men deliberated publicly and privately as to what they were to do. To return to the places they had left seemed hard, even impossible, for, when our men had left, the enemy saw that what they desired had been accomplished. They had entered those places more strongly than before and bad barricaded the roads by which our men had earlier entered. they had blocked them by piling up beams and large rocks and had sent in an immense company of archers who made access impossible. To attack the city from the area where the camps were now located would, on the other hand, involve delay; but the lack of food supplies would not allow a long respite. The pilgrim princes consulted one another. Seeing the manifest discomfort of the men whose spiritual care and whose Crusade had been confided to them and knowing that they could make no headway, they decided to return, despising the false pretenses of the men who had betrayed them.

Thus a company of kings and princes such as we have not read of through all the ages had gathered and, for our sins, had been forced to return, covered with shame and disgrace, with their mission unfulfilled. They returned to the kingdom by the same route over which they had come. Henceforth, so long as they remained in the East, they regarded the ways of our princes with suspicion. With good reason they turned down all their wicked plans and henceforth the leaders of the Crusade were lukewarm in the service of the Kingdom. Even after they had returned to their own lands they constantly remembered the injuries they had suffered and detested our princes as wicked men. Nor were they alone affected. For they also caused others who had not been there to neglect the care of the kingdom, so that henceforth those who undertook the pilgrimages were fewer and less fervent. Even today those who come are careful lest they fall into a trap and they strive to return home as soon as possible.

Source:

William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, XVII, 3-6, Patrologia Latina 201, 675-79, Translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 115-121Copyright note: Professor Brundage informed the Medieval Sourcebook that copyright was not renewed on this work. Moreover he gave permission for use of his translations.

[Rachel Dearth]

6. The Capture of Ascalon [August 22, 1153]

[adapted from Brundage] The Second Crusade had done nothing to halt the advance of Islam against the Latin states, and in the years immediately following the fiasco at Damascus the Moslem advance continued apace. The County of Edessa was no longer tenable by the Latins. The Countess Beatrice in 1158 finally recognized the futility of trying to maintain a hold upon the county and accepted the offer of the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel Conmenus, to buy up her rights there. The Principality of Antioch was also in trouble, for its prince, Raymond, had been killed in an ambush in 1149 and King Baldwin III of Jerusalem had taken charge of the Principality as regent for Raymond's widow, Constance . The boundaries of the Principality were, moreover, now painfully constricted, due to the military successes of Nur ad-Din in the upper and middle Orontes Valley. A further blow to the Latin states came in 1152, with the murder by a group of assassins of Count Raymond II of Tripoli. Baldwin of Jerusalem, accordingly, became regent of Raymond's state, too. After defeating an attempt by his mother, the dowager Queen Melisende, to partition the Latin Kingdom itself,4 Baldwin took the offensive against his Moslem enemies by launching a large-scale attack upon Ascalon.

William of Tyre provided perhaps the best account of the period.

Ascalon is one of the five cities of the Philistines. It is situated on the seashore and is shaped like a semicircle whose chord or diameter lies along the shore, while its circumference or arc lies on the land facing east.

The whole city lies in a kind of basin which is tilted down toward the sea. It is girded round with artificial mounds on which are walls, studded with towers. It is solidly fashioned and its stones are held together by cement which is as hard as stone. The walls are of a proper thickness and as high as is proportionally fitting. Even the outer fortifications which circle around the city are constructed with the same solidity and are diligently fortified. There are no springs within the circuit of the walls nor are there any nearby, but wells both outside and within the city supply an abundance of delicious drinking water. As a further precaution the citizens have built within the city several cisterns to collect rain water.

There are four gates in the circuit of the walls. These are most carefully fortified with high, solid towers. The first gate, which opens to the east, is called the Great Gate and is commonly known as the Jerusalem Gate, since it faces toward the Holy City. It is flanked by two very high towers which dominate the city and are its strength and protection. In front of this gate there are three or four lesser gates in the barbican by which one may come to the Great Gate through some winding passages.

The second gate faces westward and is called the Sea Gate because the citizens can pass through it to the sea. The third faces the south, toward the city of Gaza ... from which it takes its name. The fourth faces north and is called the Jaffa Gate, after the neighboring city which is located on the same coast.

Ascalon derives no advantage from being situated on the seacoast, for it offers no port or safe harbor for ships. It has a mere sandy beach and the violent winds make the sea around the city exceedingly choppy so that, unless the sea be calm, those who come there are very suspicious of it. The soil around the city is covered with sand and is unfit for cultivation, although it is suited for vines and fruit-bearing trees. There are, however, a few little valleys to the north of the city which, when fertilized and irrigated with well water, furnish some vegetables and fruits to the citizens.

The city has a large population and it is commonly said that even the smallest of its inhabitants, including the children, receive salaries from the Egyptian Caliph's treasury. The aforesaid lord and his princes take the very greatest care of Ascalon, for it is their opinion that if it were lost and were to come under our control there would be nothing to prevent our princes from invading Egypt freely and without difficulty and from occupying the Kingdom....

For fifty years and more after the Lord had delivered the other areas of the promised land to the Christian people Ascalon still resisted all of our attempts until at last they attempted the difficult and virtually impossible task of besieging it. For, in addition to its walls and barbicans, its towers and ramparts, the city was supplied with arms and provisions beyond all expectation and it had an experienced population accustomed to the use of arms. There were so many of them that from the beginning of the siege to its end the numbers of the besieged were double those of the besiegers.

The lord King and also the lord Patriarch, our predecessor the lord Peter, Archbishop of Tyre, and the other magnates of the realm, both princes and ecclesiastical prelates, together with citizens from each of the towns pitched their tents separately and besieged Ascalon by land. The lord Gerard of Sidon, one of the leading barons of the kingdom, commanded the fleet of fifteen beaked ships which were ready to sail, so that they could blockade the city by sea and both prevent those who wished to enter from getting in and also stop those who wished to leave from getting out.

Our men-first the knights, and then the infantry-made attacks on the town almost every day. The townsmen met them boldly and resisted them vigorously, fighting for their wives and children and, what was most important, for their freedom. Sometimes they came out ahead in these engagements, sometimes we did, as usually happens in this kind of affair, but our men more often got the better of the fight.

It is said that there was such security in the camps and such an abundance of all kinds of supplies that the people lived in their tents and pavilions just as they were accustomed to live in their houses in the walled cities.

The townsmen took particular care of the city at night and took the watches in turn. Even their magnates took turns keeping watch and marched around the walls through many sleepless nights. Along the circuit of the walls and towers there were glass lamps in the battlements. The lamps were made with glass windows to protect the flame which was fed with oil. Those who made the circuit of the walls used these lamps to provide themselves with a light as bright as day.

Our men in the camps were also given the watches at various times. In addition, the task of keeping guard never ceased, for we feared that the townsmen might make nocturnal attacks upon the camps or that the Egyptians who were hurrying to aid Ascalon might harm the army in a sudden and unforeseen attack. This fear was lessened, however, by the presence of scouts in many areas around Gaza who could warn our men swiftly of the enemy's arrival.

Thus the siege continued in the same fashion for two months. About Easter time the usual passage arrived, which brought in a crowd of pilgrims. A council was held and men were sent from the army to forbid the sailors and pilgrims, on royal authority, to return. They promised them pay and invited them all to participate in the siege and in the work which was so acceptable to God. They also brought ships, both large and small. Thus it happened that quickly, within a few days, because of a good wind, all the ships which had come over on the passage appeared before the city and a tremendous host of pilgrims, both knights and sergeants, joined our expedition. The army increased in size daily. In the camps, therefore, there was joy and the hope of winning a victory. Among the enemy, however, sorrow and worry grew greater and although they were frequently harassed, they lost confidence in their men and rarely emerged to fight. They sent couriers frequently to the Egyptian Caliph and begged him to send them reinforcements in time, for they intimated that otherwise they would soon give up. Through those of his princes who were charged with this work, the Caliph speedly had a fleet prepared and an army mustered. Large ships were loaded with weapons, provisions, and machines. The Caliph appointed commanders and supplied money, called for speed and censured delay.

Our men, meanwhile, had bought ships at a great price. When the masts had been removed, workmen were summoned to construct with all haste a very tall wooden tower. The tower was carefully protected against fire inside and out with wickerwork and hides, so that the men who were to attack the city in it might be kept safe. From the remaining wood from the ships, they built portable sheds, which they set in place for breaking down the walls. From this material, too, they constructed swine" to level the fortifications.

When all these matters had been properly arranged and when it had been decided which sector of the wall could most easily be attacked by our wooden tower, the ramparts of the chosen area were leveled by the aforementioned machines and the tower was brought up to the wall with much shouting. From the top of the tower the whole city could be seen and a hand to-hand fight was carried on with the men in the nearby towers, The citizens struggled and pressed us fiercely, shooting with their bows and balistas both from the walls and from the ramparts, but their labor was in vain, for they could not harm the men who were hidden in the tower and who were moving the machine. A group of the townsmen gathered on the section of the wall just opposite the tower. The bolder men of this group were ordered to try our strength by waging a continuous and long drawn out battle with the men in the tower. In addition, there were skirmishes and serious struggles at various other places along the wall, so that scarcely a day passed without some mortalities, not to mention the wounded, of whom there were great crowds on both sides…

After our men had persisted in the siege for five months on end, it became apparent that the enemy's strength was failing slightly and that our chances of taking the city had improved. Suddenly, however, an Egyptian fleet, sped on by favoring winds, appeared on the scene. When the people of Ascalon saw this they raised their hands skyward and lifted up their voices in a great shout, saying that we would now have to retreat or else we would shortly be overwhelmed….

The enemy fleet approached the city boldly, bringing the townsmen the consolation they had hoped for. There were said to be seventy galleys in the fleet, as well as other ships loaded to the gunwales with men, weapons, and provisions. The fleet was huge and it bad all been sent by the aforesaid Egyptian prince for the relief of the city. The townsmen revived and with help in sight they began anew to do battle with our forces, and they sought combat more frequently and more boldly with our men. Although the townspeople were rather cautious, as a result of their earlier experience with us, the new arrivals were fresh and greedy for glory and so desired to display their strength and boldness. Since they labored without caution, they suffered casualties frequently until they also had had a taste of our firmness and learned to attack more sparingly and to resist the force of our attacks more modestly....

Meanwhile the men in our expedition pursued the campaign they had begun and continued their constant attacks on the besieged city and on what is called the Great Gate. They renewed their assaults, which constituted a grave menace to the townsmen. Volleys of projectiles sapped the towers and walls and, within the city, the huge rocks weakened the foundations of the houses and also caused much bloodshed. The men who were in the tower and who were in charge of it harassed with their bows and arrows not only the citizens who were putting up resistance in the towers and on the walls, but also those who tried to move about through the city on urgent business. The citizens easily concluded that whatever they had to suffer from other quarters, even though it be difficult, was tolerable when compared to what they suffered from these attacks. The townsmen, therefore, took counsel together and their most experienced men advised that, whatever the danger might be and whatever the risk, they must place some dry wood and other suitable kindling which would increase the heat between the tower and the wall so that, when they stealthily set it afire, the tower would be incinerated. Otherwise there seemed to be no hope that they would be saved nor any faith that they could continue their resistance, so oppressed and mightily afflicted were they. Certain strong men, outstanding for their strength and spirit, were aroused by their admonitions. These men prepared to save the citizenry rather than themselves and they exposed themselves to the danger. They gathered wood at that part of the wall which was closest to the tower and pitched it out into the space between the tower and the wall. When they had piled up a very large stack of wood, one which seemed to be large enough to burn up the tower, they poured over it pitcb, oil, and other liquids which would feed flames and increase the beat of a fire. Then they set it ablaze. It was obvious that the Divine Mercy was with us, for, as the fire blazed up, strong winds immediately arose in the east and, with violent gusts, blew the whole force of the fire against the walls. The force of the wind directed the flames and the fire against the wall throughout the night and reduced it to ashes. In the morning, just about daybreak, the whole foundation of the wall between two of the towers gave way so that the sound of the crash aroused the whole army. All of the men in the army, excited by the sound of the wall's destruction, picked up their weapons and rushed to the place where God's will had been made manifest. They were ready to enter the city, but Bernard de Tremelay, the Master of the Knights Templars, and his brethren got there before many of the others and took over the breach in the walls. They allowed no one save their own men to enter. It was said that he barred others from entering so that his men, as the first to enter, would get the greater part of the spoils and the choicer booty, for up to the present time[i.e. the last quarter of the twelfth century] the custom among us-a custom which has the force of law-was that when cities were taken by storm, whatever a man seized for himself was possessed by him and his heirs in perpetuity. Everyone could have entered without distinction and taken the city, and there would have been sufficient loot for the victors, but when an evil stems from an evil root and wicked intentions it rarely produces a good result, for "Property gained in devious ways produces no good result. " Overcome by greed, then, they would not have any partners in the spoils and it was only just that they alone were exposed to mortal danger. About forty of them entered the city, but the others who were following them were not able to get in. The townspeople were seeking to preserve their own lives and were prepared without qualms, to go to any lengths to do so. Thus, when they saw the Templars they drew their swords and butchered them.

The townsmen reformed their lines and, like men reborn, they again picked up their weapons which they bad previously dropped like vanquished men. Now they all rushed together to the place where the wall had been breached. They filled in the gap in the wall by piling up beams of great size and huge quantities of timber, of which they had a large supply from their ships. They closed up the entrance to the city and speedily made that area impenetrable. After buttressing the towers which stood on either side of the area which bad been burned out and which they had deserted when it became impossible to withstand the force of the flames, the townsmen again took up the battle. Once more they assembled their men and, just as if they had met with no reverses, they challenged our men to battle. Our men in the tower, however, were aware that its substructure had been weakened and that the lower parts of its solid framework bad been damaged and they therefore fought with less vigor, since they could not depend upon the tower's strength. The enemy shamed us by dangling the bodies of our dead from ropes thrown over the battlements of the walls. They expressed the joy which bad arisen in their minds by jeering at our men with words and gestures.... Our men, on the other hand, were confused in mind and spirit. They were thrown into sadness and bitterness of heart, they despaired of victory and became halfhearted.

The lord King, meanwhile, assembled the princes . . . [but discovered that] there were differences of opinion among them and they gave varying estimates of the situation. . . . [Finally, after much bickering, agreement was reached and] all of our men took up their weapons. The horns sounded. The sound of the trumpets and the voices of the heralds roused the whole force to battle. They yearned to redress the injuries visited upon our dead; they gathered before the city with unusual eagerness and most heatedly challenged the enemy to battle. Our formations looked as if they had never suffered harm or lost men. They rushed upon the enemy as if they were determined to be wiped out and they attacked with such great vigor that the enemy companies were astounded. The increased force of our men was unbeatable. Their perseverance could not be overcome. The enemy attempted to resist and to overcome the onslaught, but they could not withstand the force of our attack or beat down our swords. That day's battle was fought by most unequal forces, but both our cavalry and infantry forces triumphed everywhere over the enemy and won the victor's palm on every front. There was a very great slaughter of the foe and our reverses three days earlier were more than paid back. There was not a family in the city which did not suffer some domestic sorrow and which was not troubled by worry over its members. The city was covered with distress and earlier perils seemed light when compared with the present dangers. . . .

It happened that, by public demand, certain of the leading citizens were sent as intermediaries to the king to ask for a truce for a time so that when we had exchanged the bodies of their dead in return for the corpses of our own dead, each side might hold suitable funeral rites and pay its highest honors to the dead according to their respective customs. The conditions which were proposed pleased our men and, when they had received the bodies of our dead, they buried them with solemn funeral rites.

After the people of Ascalon had witnessed the slaughter of their men and had felt the heavy hand which the Lord had laid upon them, their sorrow and anxiety of spirit was renewed and their spirits were flooded with a vast grief. So that there would be nothing lacking to complete their sadness, it happened on that same day that, as forty of their strong men were carrying a beam of immense size to the place where it was needed, a huge rock was catapulted from our throwing machine and landed by chance on the beam. The men who were bearing the weight of the beam sank to the ground beneath it and were crushed.

The city fathers who were still alive, bowed down by the weight of their misfortunes, assembled the people, who gathered amid weeping and lamentation. All were there, including mothers who held their nursing babes at the breast and old men breathing their last gasp. With the common consent of all, some prudent and eloquent men addressed the whole population in this fashion: "Men of Ascalon, you who live within these gates! You know - none better - what perils and difficulties we have experienced with these cruel and determined Christians during the past four years. . . . The city fathers have, therefore, decided that, if you approve, we shall try to escape at this time from our sufferings. We shall send envoys in the name of the whole people to the powerful King who is besieging us and we shall try to secure definite peace terms to enable us to leave freely with our wives and children, servants and handmaids, and all our household goods in return for the surrender to the King - we say it with groans - of our city, so that we may put an end to such misfortunes."

The speech found favor in the eyes of all and all together they let out a great shout that matters should be thus arranged. Prudent and discreet men of venerable age were elected by all the people to carry the proposals they had decided upon to the King and his princes. The envoys passed through the gate, after arranging for a truce and a safe conduct, and they approached the lord King.

After all the princes had assembled, as the envoys asked, they stated their proposal and explained systematically its details. The King ordered the envoys to leave for a while and took counsel with the princes. He diligently sought each man's opinion. The princes wept for joy and lifted up their eyes and hands to the sky, giving abundant thanks to the Creator because he had deigned to grant such abundant treasure to unworthy men. They recalled the envoys and made their common answer: the conditions would be accepted if the whole city were evacuated within the next three days. The envoys agreed, but demanded that oaths be sworn to them to make the agreement more firm. An oath was solemnly sworn....

After the envoys had first given the hostages who the King named, the envoys joyfully returned to their people. They took back with them certain of our knights who, as a sign of victory, placed the King's banner upon the city's tallest towers. Our army waited with great anticipation. When the royal banner was spotted on the highest towers the people broke into shouts of exaltation....

Although the people of Ascalon, according to the conditions of the treaty, had three full days, they were so terrified by the presence of our men that within two days they had packed their baggage and bad left the city with their wives and children, servants and handmaids, and with all their housebold goods loaded for the journey. The lord King gave them guides, according to the provisions of the treaty, as far as al-Arish, an ancient city in the desert. There they sent them away in peace.

The lord King and the lord Patriarch, together with the princes of the Kingdom, the prelates of the church, and all of the clergy and people, with the Lord's cross leading the way, entered the city singing hymns and spiritual songs. . . . The aforesaid city was taken in the year of the Lord's incarnation 1154.

Source:

William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, XVII, 22-25, 27-30, Patrologia Latina 201, 696-708, translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 126-136
Copyright note: Professor Brundage informed the Medieval Sourcebook that copyright was not renewed on this work. Moreover he gave permission for use of his translations.

[Rachel Dearth]

7. Egypt in the Twelfth Century

[Adapted from Brundage] The acquisition of Ascalon brought the monarchs of Jerusalem into more direct contact than hitherto with Egypt. The following decade, during the last years of Baldwin III's life, was too hectic within the Kingdom for any further ex pansion to be possible. Baldwin III was preoccupied with dynastic quarrels among the members of the royal family and with the pretensions of the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel, to suzerainty over Antioch. Baldwin's death, early in 1162, and the accession of his brother Amalric, signaled a revival of Frankish interest in Egypt and the beginning of a competition for power there between the Latin king and his Moslem competitor, Nur-ad-Din. Egypt, fertile and prosperous, was a prize worth striving for. Archbishop William of Tyre, a close friend of King Amalric, describes it thus:

The whole territory of Egypt, from its furthermost frontiers, which are said to border on Ethiopia, lies between two sandy deserts which are doomed to perpetual sterility. Egypt would neither know nor produce fruitful harvests of any kind if it were not fertilized at certain times by the overflowing bounty of the Nile. The river, however, makes the adjoining areas fit for crops only if the lay of the land is suitable, for, where it finds a level surface near it, the river spreads out more freely and where it has spread out, it renders a wider stretch of land fertile. From Cairo downstream to the sea, the river finds a wide plain where it has free range. Here the fertile areas are thus spread out very freely and quite broadly. This both enriches the kingdom and also enlarges it. From the fortress called Phaeusa, which neighbors Syria, to Alexandria, the last city of the King dom, which borders on the Lybian sands, the blessings of cultivation and fertility spread out for a hundred miles and more. From above Cairo down to Chus, the most distant of Egypt's cities, which is said to border on the Ethiopian Kingdom, the country is narrowly confined between sand dunes, so that the river's inundations rarely extend for seven or eight miles and frequently spread out for only four or five miles, sometimes on both sides of the stream and sometimes only on one side. The river thus expands or contracts the extent of the Kingdom, for the places which are not irrigated by the river are doomed, as we have said, to the burning sun and to perpetual sterility. This upper territory is called Seith in their language. We have not yet been able to discover the meaning of this name, except that it is said that in very early times there was a very ancient city called Sais in upper Egypt. Our Plato makes mention of it in the Timaeus through the mouth of his disciple Critias, when he introduces Solon, a man of pre-eminent authority. We have decided to give his words in order to lend greater weight to the evidence, lest any authority be lacking: "There is," he says, "a region of Egypt called the Delta. At the bead of this region, the Nile's stream is divided. Nearby there was a great city named Sais, which was ruled by an ancient custom called the Satyrian Law. The Emperor Amasis was from this city.". . .

There is also another region which belongs to Egypt. This region lies one day's journey from Cairo through an uninhabitable country. This region also benefits by being visited by some branches of the river and accordingly it has an especially good and fertile soil and rejoices in a wealth of fields and vineyards. The Egyptians call this area Phium [Fayum] in their language. According to an old tradition this area was originally quite useless: it had never known the plow and had lain uncultivated and uncared for from the beginning of the world, like the other parts of the desert in which it is situated. Joseph, that most prudent procurator of Egypt and that splendid provider of good things, saw that this region was lower than the surrounding areas and that if some mounds which lay between the habitable land and this desert were cut through, this area could readily get the benefits of the river. He threw up some dykes and leveled off the intervening land and then conducted the Nile's overflow into the channels which had been prepared. Thus that land achieved a fertility unknown there throughout the ages.

Although we do not know its ancient name, we believe that in early times it was called the Thebiad. The legion of the Holy Thebians, which was crowned with martyrdom under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian and whose leading martyr, we read, was Mauritius, came from there. Another argument may be added: the best opium ever discovered originated there and it is called "Theban" by physicians.

The land of Goshen, which we read that Joseph gave to his brothers, is in that section of Egypt which borders on Syria, as the diligent reader may easily discover by reading the book of Genesis." The Thebiad, however, is on the opposite side of Egypt, beyond the river's banks, in the region which faces Lybia. It is not a small area: it is said to include within its boundaries 366 towns and villages.

Source:

William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, XIX, 23, Patrologia Latina 201, 770-71, translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 136-38
Copyright note: Professor Brundage informed the Medieval Sourcebook that copyright was not renewed on this work. Moreover he gave permission for use of his translations.

[Rachel Dearth]

8. Revolution in Egypt

[Adapted from Brundage] Amalric of Jerusalem had set his eye upon Egypt and in September 1163 he led an expedition there. The campaign was badly timed, however, for the Nile was in flood and the Egyptians were able to channel the flood waters so as to force the Latins to give up the siege of Pelusium which they had begun .

Nur ad-Din, too, was well aware of the advantages which control of Egypt would bring to the Latin states. The Moslem leader determined to secure Egypt for himself before any Latin campaigns there could succeed. In the spring of 1164, therefore, he sent his trusted general, Shirkuh, who was accompanied by his twenty-year-old nephew, Saladin, to intervene in Egypt. Shirkuh's invasion was successful and by late May 1164 Shirkuh was entrenched in Egypt. The Egyptian vizier, Shawar, was as anxious to retain his independence of Nur-ad-Din as be was to keep out of the clutches of the farangi. Accordingly, the vizier now invited King Amalric to come to his aid against Shirkuh. Amalric quickly accepted the invitation, joined forces with Shawar, and besieged Shirkuh's army at Bilbeis. After a three-month siege an agreement was reached whereby both of the invaders were to withdraw and Amalric was to be reimbursed by Shawar for his trouble. The Latin King, accordingly, with drew from Egypt once again, the more quickly because his own Kingdom bad during his absence been attacked by Nur-ad-Din."

Egypt was not thus easily delivered from her enemies. Early in 1167 Nur ad-Din once again sent Shirkuh and his forces into Egypt, while Amalric came to the assistance of Shawar, the vizier. After heavy fighting and a striking defeat of the Latin forces near Minya, the earlier course of events repeated itself. On this occasion, however, Amalric's reward included a promise by the vizier to pay the Latin King an annual tribute of 100,000 gold pieces.

The vizier's promise to pay tribute and the collection of the agreed sum, however, were two different matters. In 1168, Amalric once more invaded Egypt, this time to collect the money due to him from Shawar. Now the vizier appealed to Shirkuh for help against the Latins, an appeal to which Shirkuh readily responded. The intervention of Shirkuh produced the desired withdrawal of the Latin troops early in 1169." But Shirkuh had no intention of withdrawing his men this time. In January 1169 there was a palace revolution.

Shirkuh saw that now was the opportune time to fulfill his vows, for, with the king gone, there would be no one to block his wishes. He ordered what he had previously planned to be carried out.

He placed his camp before Cairo and, as if his entry were to be peaceful, he remained there patiently for a few days. Like a prudent man, he breathed no harsh words and manifested no hatred. He concealed his designs with the shrewdness of which be was a master. The Sultan Shawar came out to him daily in the camps, accompanied by a very large retinue and with much pomp, and after his dutiful visit, with an affectionate greeting and the giving of gifts, the Sultan returned to the city. The complete safety of the successive visits and returns seemed to promise well and the fact that one time after another he was honorably received built up the Sultan's confidence. He felt secure and trusted far too much in the good faith of the Turks, which gave the murderer his chance. Secretly Shirkuh gave orders to his men that on the following day when be went out at dawn as if to walk by the water, they should do away with the Sultan when he came on his customary visit. Shawar, at the usual time, went to the camp to make his customary visit and pay his usual respects. The ministers of death ran up to him and carried out the execution which had been ordered: they threw him to the ground, stabbed him with their swords, and cut off his head. When Shawar's sons saw what was happening, they mounted their horses and fled to Cairo. Terrified, they went down on their knees to beg the Caliph for their lives. The Caliph is said to have replied that they might hope for their lives on condition that they make no secret agreements with the Turks. They violated this agreement at once, however, by sending representatives secretly to arrange a truce with Shirkuh. When the Caliph heard of this, be ordered them both to be slain by the sword.

Thus, while the King was absent, Shawar was removed from the scene and Shirkuh carried out his designs. He occupied the Kingdom and went to the Caliph to pay his respects. He was received with many honors and granted the dignity and office of sultan. Thus he acquired power by the sword and seized all of Egypt for himself. . . . But the joy of his succession did not last long. He had scarcely held the reins for a year when he was removed from human affairs.

Shirkuh was succeeded by Saladin, the son of his brother, Najm-ad-Din. Saladin was a man of keen intelligence. He was vigorous in war and unusually generous. The first sign of the character of his rule came when he visited his lord, the Caliph, to Pay him the customary homage. It is said that when he entered he knocked the Caliph to the ground with a stick that he held in his hand and killed him. [note: William's account of the Caliph's death is not supported by other sources and it would appear that the Caliph Adid died a natural death on September 13, 1171, bringing the Fatimid caliphate to an end in Egypt.] He then put all of the Caliph's children to the sword, so that he might be subject to no superior but might rule as both caliph and sultan. He was afraid, since the Turks were hated by the people, that sometime when he went to visit the Caliph, the Caliph might order his throat to be slit. He therefore anticipated the Caliph's design and inflicted upon the unsuspecting Caliph the death which, it was said, the latter intended for him.

When the Caliph was dead, Saladin took possession of the royal wealth, the treasury, and all the assets of the Caliph's house. With his excessive generosity, Saladin gave everything away to his soldiers, so that within a few days all the closets had been emptied and he was forced to borrow money. He thus placed himself heavily in debt to others.

Source:

William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, XX, 5-10, Patrologia Latina 201, 788-9, translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 139-40
Copyright note: Professor Brundage informed the Medieval Sourcebook that copyright was not renewed on this work. Moreover he gave permission for use of his translations.