Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
On 28 April 1192 Conrad, marquis of Montferrat and lord of Tyre, husband of the last royal princess of Jerusalem and newly-elected king of that embattled state, was assassinated. The persons immediately responsible for that deed were captured and summarily executed, but there was and remains some doubt about who was to blame ultimately for the crime. A new analysis of the evidence may shed some light on that unidentified culprit.
1 Two Arab witnesses identify the bishop as bishop of Tyre, but they are probably in error: Chamah, Abu, Recueil des historiens des croisades (Paris 1841–1906 [= RHC]) Historiens orientaux V 53; Ibn Alathyr, RHC, Hist. Or. II 58.Google Scholar
2 The Crusade of Richard Lion Heart by Ambroise, tr. Hubert, Merton J., with notes by LaMonte, J. L. (Columbia Records of Civilization 34; New York 1941) 334–8; L'estoire de Eracles Empereur, RHC, Hist. Or. II 192–4; Chamah, Abu, op. cit. 52–4; Alathyr, Ibn, op. cit. 58–9; Ed-Dîn, Behâ, The Life of Saladin (Commission of the Palestine Exploration Fund; London 1897) 332; Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta regis Ricardi, , ed. Stubbs, Wm. (London [Rolls Series] 1864) 338–42; Chronica magistri Rogeri de Hovedene , ed. Stubbs, Wm. (London [Rolls Series] 1870) I 181; Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Tresorier , ed. de Mas Latrie, M. L. (Paris 1871) 288–91; The Chronography of Gregory abu'l Faraj , tr. Budge, E. A. W. (London 1932) I 339 (hereafter cited as Bar Hebraeus, the name by which Gregory was commonly known).Google Scholar
3 Behâ Ed-Dîn 332.Google Scholar
4 Op. cit. I 181.Google Scholar
5 Op. cit. II 58.Google Scholar
6 Op. cit. V 52.Google Scholar
7 Op. cit. 290.Google Scholar
8 Op. cit. II 193.Google Scholar
9 Behâ Ed-Dîn 332 et passim. Google Scholar
10 See Ilgen, Theodore, Markgraf Conrad von Montferrat (Marburg 1880), who devotes an appendix (127–35) to this question; and Schaffner, David, The Relations of the Order of the Assassins with the Crusaders during the Twelfth Century (Unpublished thesis, M. A., University of Chicago 1939) 39–49.Google Scholar
11 LaMonte, John L., Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100–1291 (Cambridge, Mass. 1932) 36–7.Google Scholar
12 Ibid. 29.Google Scholar
13 Ibid. 40.Google Scholar
14 Norgate, Kate, Richard the Lion Heart (London 1924) 215–6.Google Scholar
15 Ernoul, , 286–7; cf. Eracles 189–92.Google Scholar
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18 Itinerarium 444–5; Diceto, Ralph, Ymagines Historiarum , ed. Stubbs, Wm. (London [Rolls Series] 1876) II 127–8.Google Scholar
19 Hodgson, M. G. S., The Order of Assassins ('s-Gravenhage 1955) 207.Google Scholar
20 Hodgson, Neither, op. cit. nor Lewis, Bernard ‘The Ismailites and the Assassins,’ A History of the Crusades, I: The First Hundred Years (Philadelphia 1955) 99–132, has noted any such activity.Google Scholar
21 Ed-Dîn, Behâ 329–30, 332.Google Scholar
22 Saunders, J. J., Aspects of the Crusades (University of Canterbury 1962) 27; cf. Lewis, , op. cit. 122.Google Scholar
23 Chamah, Abu 77; Abou'l-Feda, , Résumé de l'histoire des Croisades, RHC Hist. Or. I 66.Google Scholar
24 Op. cit 383.Google Scholar
25 Itinerarium, introduction xxiii.Google Scholar
26 Ibid. xxii; Ilgen, , op. cit. (n. 10) 123; Cartellieri, A., ‘Richard Löwenherz im Heiligen Lande,’ Historische Zeitschrift 101 (1908) 20.Google Scholar
27 Op. cit. (n. 14) 217.Google Scholar
28 Norgate, , Richard, 215–6; cf. Schaffner, , op. cit. (n. 10) 39.Google Scholar
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30 Ambroise 334; Itinerarium 338. No one knows why.Google Scholar
31 Two of the Arab chroniclers (Alathyr, Ibn, op. cit. 59; Chamah, Abu, op. cit. 52) reported that the marriage took place on the same day as the murder, an indication of the strength of their impression that it followed the murder with indecent haste. Neither the Itinerarium nor Ambroise specified when the wedding occurred except to indicate that it was soon. It was the continuator of William of Tyre, Ernoul 291, and the Eracles 194, who stated the exact time.Google Scholar
32 Ernoul, 291.Google Scholar
33 Hodgson, , op. cit. (n. 19) 190.Google Scholar
34 Ibid. following Cahen, C., La Syrie du Nord (Paris 1940) 585.Google Scholar
35 Grousset, R., Histoire des croisades et du royaume franc de Jerusalem (Paris 1934–1936) III 135.Google Scholar
36 Painter, S., ‘The Third Crusade: Richard the Lion-Hearted and Philip Augustus,’ A History of the Crusades, II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 (Philadelphia 1962) 81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar