Guy de Lusignan

Guy de Lusignan is perhaps the ultimate anti-hero of the crusader period. A Poitevin nobleman who became king of Jerusalem, he played what many regard as the principal role in the decline and eventual fall of the kingdom. Guy's story is an ill-fated one, but with a not entirely unfortunate ending. Some leaders suffer devastating defeats but are eventually able to recover their reputation. When Churchill was held responsible for the failure at Gallipoli in 1915, he was demoted from his position as First Lord of the Admiralty. He spent the remainder of the war years on the Western Front, where he commanded an infantry battalion, and after the war he began a long and slow recovery of his reputation until his complete rehabilitation as the leader of Britain in the Second World War. For Guy, even had he been as astute and well-regarded as Churchill, which he certainly was not, the shadow of the defeat at Hattin was so heavy and his role in it so indisputable, that his reputation, such as it was, was forever tainted. So much so that we tend to forget that after that defeat, he played a significant part in the recovery of the kingdom, enabling it to survive for another century. No less significant was the fact that he went on to establish a dynasty on the island of Cyprus that would carry his name and enable a crusader presence to survive in the Latin East for two centuries after the fall of Acre.

Guy faced criticism well before the Battle of Hattin. William of Tyre refers to him as “an obscure man, wholly incapable and indiscreet.” In stating this, the chronicler was ostensibly repeating the opinion of Guy's opponents, but clearly he was also expressing his own view. The very last words in the archbishop of Tyre's chronicle record Guy's repudiation by Baldwin IV after increasing acts of disobedience. These led the king to try to annul Guy's marriage to his sister Sibylla, and finally to place the regency of the kingdom and guardianship of his joint ruler, the child Baldwin V, in the hands of Guy's rival, Raymond III of Tripoli.