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Guy of Lusignan at the Battle of Acre (4Th October 1189)

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Guy of Lusignan at the Battle of Acre (4Th October 1189) 220 Bennett Chapter 10 Faith and Authority: Guy of Lusignan at the Battle of Acre (4th October 1189) Stephen Bennett Introduction On 4th October 1189, the forces of Guy of Lusignan, king consort of Jerusalem, and Saladin (Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb), fought a critical battle near the port of Acre (Akko), which is set in a small peninsula in the Bay of Haifa.1 Saladin enjoyed a short window of opportunity to destroy Guy’s army before it received substantial reinforcements from Europe. In turn, Guy had to regain control of ground north of the city to enable an effective blockade. The study of events surrounding the battle of Acre, and the subsequent representations in primary sources provides an excellent opportunity to study Guy of Lusignan’s capacity for command, as well as to reflect on his significance to the early stages of the Third Crusade. Two years earlier, Saladin had destroyed the army of Jerusalem led by Guy at the battle of Hattin. With Guy captured and the majority of his troops either dead or in captivity, Saladin’s forces swept through the kingdom; overrunning diminished Christian garrisons and negotiating the surrender of Jerusalem itself. The port city of Tyre, however, remained in Christian hands.2 On 29th October 1187, the papal bull Audita Tremendi launched a new crusade to the Holy Land. Tyre, now under the command of Conrad of Montferrat, became a muster point for the gathering Christian forces.3 Guy of Lusignan had not been a universally popular choice as king and had faced serious challenges to his leadership.4 Perhaps to divide the Christians, 1 On the topography of Acre, see R. Gertwagen, ‘The Crusader Port of Acre’, Layout and Problems of Maintenance’, Autour de la Première Croisade: Actes du Colloque de la Society for the Study of the Crusades and Latin East (Clermont-Ferrand, 22-5 juin 1995) (Paris, 1996), pp. 553-82. 2 T.S. Asbridge, The Crusades, The War for the Holy Land (London, 2010), pp. 343-67. 3 L. & J. Riley Smith, The Crusades: Idea and Reality, 1095-1274 (London, 1981), pp. 63-7; H. Nicholson & D. Nicolle, God’s Warriors: Knights Templar, Saracens and the Battle for Jerusalem (Oxford, 2005), pp, 81-2. 4 C. Tyerman, God’s War, A New History of the Crusades (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 365-6; Asbridge, Crusades, p. 342. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004362048_012 Faith and Authority: Guy of Lusignan 221 Saladin released him from captivity in return for the important city of Ascalon (Ashkelon). Denied entry to Tyre by Conrad, Guy took the initiative and led a small army south. He brushed aside Saladin’s covering force and joined with Pisan troops to threaten Muslim held Acre. In doing so, Guy hoped to make himself, rather than Tyre, the focal point of the Third Crusade. Surprised, Saladin recalled his armies and moved to surround Guy. He then launched a series of attacks to try and destroy the Christians before they were significantly reinforced. The scene was set for a major confrontation; one which would define Guy’s significance to the Third Crusade and Saladin’s per- sonal commitment to destroying the Christians in the field. Historiography and Sources The diverse primary sources that detail this event overlap at many points, and this allows for the construction of a reasonably reliable account of events in Acre from late August to early October 1189. Conversely, those differences that do occur provide the opportunity to consider the position of the writer in rela- tion to Guy: most notably, in the silence of Capetian and Imperial sources.5 A number of historians have looked at the chronology of the battle with Joshua Prawer producing an impressive account based on his intimate knowledge of the local topography and sources.6 Despite this work, there remains room to consider how the battle challenges popular portrayals of Guy as a weak and ineffectual leader. Roger of Howden was an English royal clerk who arrived in Acre sometime after October 1190.7 He wrote the Chronica and likely authored the less pol- 5 Rigord is the principle Capetian source and he omitted this period in which King Philip’s fa- vourite, Conrad, was upstaged by Guy de Lusignan, Ouevres de Rigord et de Guilaume le Breton, ed. F. Delaborde (Paris, 1882); Imperial accounts viewed those that sailed to Acre rather than having marched with the Emperor as having taken the easy option, The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa: The History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick and Related Texts, trans. G.A. Loud (Farnham, 2010), p. 57. 6 J. Prawer, Histoire du Royaume Latin de Jerusalem, Vol. 2, 2nd Edition (Paris, 1975), p. 43; See also J.H. Pryor’s review of the siege of Acre, ‘A Medieval Siege of Troy: The Fight to the Death at Acre, 1189-1191 or the Tears of Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn’, The Medieval Way of War, Studies in Medieval Military History in Honor of Bernard S. Bachrach, ed. G.I. Halford (Farnham, 2015), pp. 97-116; as well as, R.C. Smail, Crusading Warfare, 1097-1193, Second Edition (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 187-8. 7 J. Gillingham, ‘Roger of Howden on Crusade’, Medieval Historical Writing in the Christian and Islamic Worlds, ed. D.O. Morgan (London, 1983), pp. 60-75..
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