William of Tyre

Archbishop William of Tyre’s (c.  1130–c. 1186) Historia Ierosolymitana is the only extant historical narrative produced in the Latin East in the late twelfth century. Consequently, the Historia is of enormous value for its insights into the polities of the Latin East, and as an example of how the First Crusade was remembered and represented in the second half of the twelfth century. Since the nineteenth century, scholars have reflected on the apparent absence of the miraculous in William’s narrative of the First Crusade, attributing this to an unusual lack of credulity on William’s part and seeing it as evidence of a sceptical mind before its time. However, this article argues that William’s ostensibly critical approach to the miraculous is in fact indicative of two things. First, this article argues that William was carefully constructing an image of himself, through the narrator, as a reliable curator of anecdotal evidence, the consequence being that his intended audience would be more likely to believe the miraculous material he did include. Second, it is argued that this strategy was important given William’s refocusing of the miraculous on the crusader conquest of Jerusalem in July 1099, in order that he might emphasise the divine significance of the events that led to the foundation of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, the place of his birth and the central subject of his Historia.

In the Vatican Library, there is a manuscript of the Old French translation of William of Tyre's chronicle of Outremer (Estoire d'Eracles) known to have been in the possession of Queen Isabella Bruce of Norway (c. 1280-1358). The manuscript was produced in the Eastern Mediterranean in the mid-thirteenth century, possibly in Antioch in the 1260s. This study both discusses how this manuscript travelled from the crusader states to Norway, and relates it to crusading ideology and policies at the turn of the fourteenth century.

First published in 1999 in the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies, this article asked whether the military-religious orders` contemporaries during the period 1119–1291 viewed them as knights genuinely serving Christ, knights of Christ? It concludes that during this period no one doubted that they served Christ. Only once during this period did a pope suggest that some of the Hospitallers were guilty of heresy, and the accusation was never repeated or elaborated. The Templars and Teutonic knights and the other military orders were never accused of error in their religious beliefs. Although there was criticism that the brothers had put money before their service of Christ, or had proved themselves unworthy in other ways, they could still be redeemed. After the final loss of Acre in May 1291, when Pope Nicholas IV asked the Church for suggestions as to how the Holy Land could be recovered, his bishops made many suggestions as to how the military orders could be reformed to make them more efficient, but no one suggested that they be abolished. The concept of the military order remained unquestioned, and they were still expected to spearhead the recovery of the Holy Places which they had fought so long to protect.

This volume celebrates Peter Edbury’s career by bringing together seventeen essays by colleagues, former students and friends which focus on three of his major research interests: the great historian of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, William of Tyre, and his Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum and its continuations; medieval Cyprus, in particular under the Lusignans; and the Military Orders in the Middle Ages.

All based on original research, the contributions to this volume include new work on manuscripts, ranging from a Hospitaller rental document of the twelfth century to a seventeenth-century manuscript of Cypriot interest; studies of language and terminology in William of Tyre’s chronicle and its continuations; thematic surveys; legal and commercial investigations pertaining to Cyprus; aspects of memorialization, and biographical studies. These contributions are bracketed by a foreword written by Peter Edbury’s PhD supervisor, Jonathan Riley-Smith, and an appreciation of Peter’s own publications by Christopher Tyerman.

The present article discusses Torquato Tasso’s (1544-1595) representation of leadership in the ‘Gerusalemme liberata’ (1581), which recounts the Christian army’s conquest of Jerusalem during the First Crusade (1095-1099). More specifically, this article focuses on pagan leadership, taking into account the Renaissance idea about the perfect prince and captain on the one hand, as Cinquecento intellectuals were attempting to shape the ideal Christian captain, and on the other hand Tasso’s use of historiography. Through a comparison with William of Tyre’s (ca. 1130-1186) ‘Historia belli sacri’ (1170-1184), one of Tasso’s principal sources on the First Crusade, this article shows how Tasso manipulates the ‘Historia’ in creating characters of leaders. From this new thematic angle, the article confirms the analysis of the complex character of Solimano, Sultan of Nicea, considering a particular aspect, i.e. his leadership. The article aims to demonstrate that Tasso distinguishes between ‘oriental tyrants’ and Solimano, adding heroic traits to the latter and drawing distinct parallels between the ‘Soldano’ and Goffredo.

This paper aims at assessing the meaning and text-critical value of a puzzling appearance of Apollonius, in a crucial point within the poem of my title: in Alexanderlied manuscripts,  after the fall and the devastation of the stronghold Tyre and before continuing toward the next episodes of the Persian campaign, the poet adds a notice, in which the learned reminiscence of Apollonius’s story and a scriptural allusion (from Mt 15, 21-22, the apologue of Jesus exorcising the daughter of the pious Cananea) are matched together. The verse sequence concerning Apollonius has a remote source of inspiration in Curtius’ text. Scriptural matter, read with a glance on Crusade chroniclers, however, impregnates even the primary models (in our case, that of Curtius, which represents the paramount inspiration for the Tyre episode in the Alexanderlied tradition). The same couple of people (Apollonius and Jesus) emerges among the learned memories that William of Tyre organizes within his excursus on the city (13, 1), to introduce to its siege and capitulation. There a profusion of literary figures appear from a wide-ranging learned repertory culminating with Solomon and Hiram and Apollonius («gesta cuius celebrem habent et late vulgatam historiam»: 13, 1, 61). After the list of Tyrian celebrities, William’s excursus devotes a long account  to the story of the riddle race between Hiram and Solomon, which strictly follows Josephus. William’s excursus, as the corresponding passage in Alexanderlied, is closed by the evangelical apologue on Jesus meeting the Cananea and freeing her daughter from the Devil. The relationships between the Alexander and Apollonius matters are well-known through relevant manuscripts which couple them together (as the oldest codices of Curtius’ Supplement, from 12th-century France, which match them with Josephus’ Antiquitates also)  and the very inception of the French-German Alexander complex of the century is affected by the impact of the Crusaders’ subjugation of Tyre in 1124

Immediately following the fall of Acre in 1291, the master of the Hospitallers, Jean de Villers, wrote a letter to his superior, Guillaume de Villeret, describing the fierce battle that ended Western control of the city. This unique document, originally written in French, survives in a single manuscript, Bibliothèque nationale de France fr. 24430, where it has been attached to a French translation of the Excidium Aconis. The text of the Destruction, as included in fr. 24430, is the sole surviving copy of a translation based on the Latin version found in two 14th-century manuscripts: Brussels, Bibliothèque royale Albert 1 er , nr. II-2212; and Madrid, Escorial, Q.II.21. Jean de Villers's letter and the Destruction are here edited in their entirety for the first time. A close examination of the base MS, an anthology produced in Tournai ca.1300, shows that the inclusion of these Crusade-oriented texts was of a political nature, establishing a flattering analogy between events in the Holy Land and the early history of Christian evangelisation in the Tournaisis.

This book explores the contribution of southern Italy and Sicily to the crusades and crusader states. By adopting the theme of identity as a tool of analysis, it argues that a far more nuanced picture emerges about the relationship than the dismissive portrayal by William of Tyre in his Chronicon, which has largely been accepted by later historians. Building upon previous scholarship in relation to Norman identity, it widens the discussion to evaluate the role of more fluid and evolving Italo-Norman and Italo-Sicilian identities, and how these shaped events. In so doing, this book also argues that the relationship between the territories needs to be considered in different dimensions: direct involvement of leaders and rulers versus indirect engagement through the geography of southern Italy and Sicily. Over time, and as identities change, these two dimensions converge, making the kingdom itself a leading participant in crusading.

William of Tyre's history of the kingdom of Jerusalem has dominated research into the military orders in the Holy Land for the period between the end of the Second Crusade and William's own death, 1150-1185 or thereabouts, and in general historians have been inclined to accept what William says about the Templars' and Hospitallers' deeds as being essentially the truth.  Although it is recognized that he was prejudiced against these Orders for various reasons, it is assumed that if we subtract the exaggeration we arrive at a reasonable picture. There have been a number of studies of William's work in recent years which should have made us more cautious. Yet William continues to dominate research because of his quality as an historian and the perceived lack of other narrative sources to compare to his version of events. This tendency has been reinforced by medieval practice.  After William of Tyre's history became well known in Europe, from 1190 onwards, Europeans writing about the Holy Land in the twelfth century usually relied on William or one of the French adaptations of his work for their information.  So the fact that there were other points of view has been overlooked. The other points of view are represented by some Muslim sources and a few twelfth-century European sources which were written before William's work was known in the West and so were not influenced by him.  It is these European sources which are independent of William of Tyre that I want to consider. Comparing William of Tyre's account of the military orders to these sources not only clarifies the Orders' activities in the East but may also give us a clearer picture of how William worked and of his sources. This paper examines four incidents recounted by William of Tyre and considers what his contemporaries in Europe had to say about these incidents. It suggests that the differences between the European sources and William's account are due partly to the different sources used by each, but also to their different purposes in writing.  William had a 'message' to convey to his readers in the East and later in the West, which led him to select some versions of events and reject others; part of this 'message' was that the Templars and Hospitallers were damaging the kingdom of Jerusalem, not helping it, so those who wanted to help the kingdom should not give money to these Orders. The European sources, on the other hand, had no such agenda.

The article analyzes the way of presenting and referring to emotions of the Muslim opponents of the crusaders as depicted in the three selected chronicles of the crusades: Gesta Francorum, Guibert of Nogent's chronicle and William of Tyre's chronicle. The author argues that the way of presenting emotions of the Muslim enemies in the chronicles was dependent on several factors, e.g. the time and circumstances of the creation of the chronicle, or the personality of the chronicler.

The Antique and Byzantine sediments of the northern harbor of Tyre (Lebanon) store high amounts of metals and metalloids
as the result of a millennial anthropogenic contamination as well as of efficient trapping and immobilization processes.
Geochemical and mineralogical analyses reveal the contrasted patterns for the accumulation of trace metal(loid)s in the sedimentary sequence recovered by coring the inner part, now emerged, of the ancient harbor. Lead, Sn, Cu and Ag concentrationscan be as high as 3000, 150, 1000, and 1.2 lg/g, respectively. Enrichment factors were calculated with respect to (1) Th and (2) the chemistry of the substratum and appear to be driven by anthropogenic inputs. Indeed, a drastic change in both
excess concentrations and concentration ratios is observed through Roman and Byzantine times, pointing to major intensification of the trade and use of metals in Tyre, coherent with historical data. Good preservation of the archeological signal,
despite (1) sediment disturbances that have caused age depth inversions, and (2) the large time lapse since the time of deposition of anthropogenic trace metal(loid)s is probably due to the reducing character of the sediments. Tyre’s sedimentary
sequence provides an interesting analog for modern carbonate-rich harbor environments, in which a millenary accumulation
of trace metal(loid)s has been overall well preserved and suggests a restricted mobility of anthropogenic contamination for a period of time in excess of 1500 years.

When William, the archbishop of Tyre, wrote his chronicles in the late twelfth century, a word for crusade had not yet been created.  But William knew what he was writing about. He was shaping the memory among Latin Christians in both the Levant and western Europe of “the brave men who went out from the kingdoms of the West”. But William was also writing a history of his homeland, and his intermingling of the military campaigns to liberate and defend Jerusalem with the history of the kingdom itself proved irresistible to future generations. The fusion of the political history of the kingdom of Jerusalem and the history of the crusades depends on a number of assumptions that are no longer tenable, Most significant is the belief that the Franks of Syria can be studied independently of the Middle Eastern context in which they lived, viewing them instead as still a part of “Europe” even while resident in Syria.  Until the separation of the two subjects occurs, the study of the Crusades and the Latin East will be continuing to perpetuate a false East/West, Christian/Muslim dichotomy that distorts understanding of the entire region, and feeds into false narratives that remain powerful today.

The contribution deals with two episodes of cannibalism in the Italian vulgarization of the Estoire d’Eracles (Florence, Laurentian Library, Plut. LXI.45): the barbecue feast of Turkish spies in Bohemond’s campsite; the lynching of Andronikos I Komnenos devoured by Constantinople’s women. Both events are examples of sensational punishment and revenge: in the first episode Crusaders aim to discourage the enemy, in the second one the victims seek to purify themselves from the tyrant’s sins.

When William, the Archbishop of Tyre and Chancellor of the kingdom of Jerusalem, wrote his chronicles in the late twelfth century, a word for crusade had not yet been created. But William knew what he was writing about. He was shaping the memory among Latin Christians in both the Levant and Western Europe of “the brave men who went out from the kingdoms of the West”. From the late twelfth century to the mid-twentieth, this has been a fair description of scholarship on the Crusades as well; it focused largely on manly military deeds, and the field of operations was fixed on Jerusalem and the Levant, with brief forays to Constantinople, Egypt and Tunis. But William was also writing a history of his homeland, the kingdom of Jerusalem, and his account presented a beguiling model of history that intermingled the alternately glorious and disastrous narrative of the military campaigns to liberate and defend Jerusalem with the history of the kingdom itself. This fusion was not accidental, nor without consequences. William of Tyre sought to ensure that Western Europe would remain engaged in the defence of Jerusalem, and his chronicle was an extended plea for assistance in the face of the growing strength of S alāh al-Dīn. But William was also the author of a history of Islamic rule in the Levant, which he composed alongside his history of the kingdom as a parallel and a prelude. While this history has not survived, it suggests a dual perspective that has been lost in modern historiography, a sense that William saw his own history—he was born in Syria—as both a part of crusading which began in Latin Europe and also as a part of Near Eastern history

ABSTRACT This volume celebrates Peter Edbury’s career by bringing together seventeen essays by colleagues, former students and friends which focus on three of his major research interests: the great historian of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, William of Tyre, and his Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum and its continuations; medieval Cyprus, in particular under the Lusignans; and the Military Orders in the Middle Ages. All based on original research, the contributions to this volume include new work on manuscripts, ranging from a Hospitaller rental document of the twelfth century to a seventeenth-century manuscript of Cypriot interest; studies of language and terminology in William of Tyre’s chronicle and its continuations; thematic surveys; legal and commercial investigations pertaining to Cyprus; aspects of memorialization, and biographical studies. These contributions are bracketed by a foreword written by Peter Edbury’s PhD supervisor, Jonathan Riley-Smith, and an appreciation of Peter’s own publications by Christopher Tyerman. Contents: Foreword: Peter Edbury, Jonathan Riley-Smith; Preface. Part I William of Tyre: Some new light on the composition process of William of Tyre’s Historia, Benjamin Z. Kedar; William of Tyre’s attitude towards Islam: some historiographical reflections, Nicholas Morton; Biblical quotations and formulaic language in the Chronicle of William of Tyre, Alan V. Murray; William of Tyre and the first rulers of the Latin principality of Antioch, Thomas Asbridge; Differing views of Renaud de Châtillon: William of Tyre and L’Estoire d’Eracles, Philip D. Handyside; Re-translating William of Tyre: the origins of the Templars and Hospitallers according to London, British Library Additional Manuscript 5444, fols 242v-248r, Helen J. Nicholson; Saladin, from memory towards myth in the Continuations, John France; Holy war and kingship in fifteenth-century Hungary: The Libellus de virtutibus Mathiae Corvino Dedicatus of Andreas Pannonius (1467), Norman Housley. Part II Cyprus: Cypriot gold thread in late medieval silk weaving and embroidery, David Jacoby; A new manuscript of Leontios Makhairas’s Chronicle of the ‘Sweet Land of Cyprus’: British Library, MS Harley 1825 and the circulation of manuscripts of Cypriot interest in Stuart England, Angel Nicolaou-Konnari; Animals and the law: a comparison involving three thirteenth-century legal texts from the Latin East, Nicholas Coureas; Amanieu son of Bernard, Count of Astarac, croisé manqué? Deconstructing the myth of an eighteenth-century crusader, Michalis Olympios; Queen Plaisance of Cyprus and the Bulla Cypria, Chris Schabel. Part III The Military Orders: Gregory VII and the idea of a military-religious order, Paul F. Crawford; A rental of Hospitaller properties in twelfth-century Jerusalem, Denys Pringle; Afonso of Portugal, Master of the Hospital: 1202/3-1206, Anthony Luttrell; The identity of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in Portugal: the constitution of a documentary and monumental memory and the agenda of the late crusade, Paula Pinto Costa. Part IV Afterword: Peter Edbury as an historian, Christopher Tyerman. Peter Edbury’s publications; Index.

I studied how Saladin is presented in some early Latin texts (Carmen de Saladino, Itinerarium Peregrinorum 1, the chronicle of William of Tyre). I then compared the Latin William of Tyre and its Old French and Italian translations, that tweak the account of the original. I finished by analyzing the Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier, where Saladin has already the features of his later appearances in vernacular literature.

Nella sua Historia Hierosolymitana l'arcivescovo Guglielmo di Tiro (1130c.-1186) considera la prudentia come una virtù laica necessaria per garantire la conservazione e il bene dello stato, attribuendo così ai prudentes homines, i consiglieri del sovrano, un ruolo fondamentale per la salvezza del regno latino di Gerusalemme negli ultimi travagliati decenni del XII secolo. Si esaminano le fonti classiche e medioevali