Philip of Montfort

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Philip of Montfort (* around 1206; † March 17, 1270 in Tire ) was Lord of Castres , La Ferté-Alais and Bréthencourt , and Lord of Tire and Toron .

Coat of arms of Philip of Montfort

Life

He was the son of Guido von Montfort and Helvis von Ibelin. Montfort was born in the holy land and grew up there with his mother, while his father later returned to his French homeland. After his father's death in 1228, he moved to France himself to inherit the dominions of Castres, La Ferté-Alais and Bréthencourt. He also married Eleonore von Courtenay, a daughter of Peter II of Courtenay , who died before 1230.

As a participant in the barons' crusade , Montfort returned to Outremer in 1239. Here he immediately joined the opposition of the barons ( Lombards War ) around his cousins ​​from the House of Ibelin against the governor of Emperor Frederick II , Richard Filangieri , who resided in Tire . Around 1240 he married Maria of Antioch , daughter of Prince Raimund II of Antioch , who was a candidate for the throne of the Armenians of Cilicia and titular mistress of Toron . As a result of the barons' crusade, the Ayyubids gave up Toron in 1241, which Montfort could now take possession of.

In 1244 he was appointed constable of Jerusalem and so entrusted with the military supreme command for the planned campaign against Egypt . In the decisive battle of La Forbie (October 18, 1244), however, he left Count Walter of Jaffa in command of the Christian troops. The battle ended in catastrophic defeat, Montfort was one of the few knights who managed to escape from the battlefield. In Ascalon he gathered the surviving knights and successfully defended the castle against a subsequent siege by the Egyptians. In 1246 he received rule over Tire from King Henry I of Cyprus , who was the regent of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as a reward for his services. The important port and trading center of Tire has always been a crown domain of the kingdom, which is why the legality of the lending was controversial. As lord of Tire and Toron, Montfort was now one of the most powerful barons of Outremers.

In autumn 1248 Montfort joined the crusade of the French King Louis IX. to Egypt ( Sixth Crusade ). When the crusade failed on April 6, 1250 at Fariskur, he negotiated the surrender of the king and, according to the words of the Patriarch Robert of Nantes, was himself captured. According to Jean de Joinville , Montfort did not have prison status, as he enjoyed immunity as the king's official envoy . So he voluntarily stayed in the entourage of the captive king and was involved with Sultan al-Mu'azzam Turan Shah in the negotiations for the release of the king and most of the crusaders.

At the beginning of the War of Saint-Sabas , Philip allied himself with Genoa and in 1256 drove the Venetians out of Tire. In union with the Hospitaller Order , he led an army against Acre in June 1257 to support the Genoese party there. But after the Genoese fleet suffered a defeat in a sea battle off Acre against the defeated Venetians, he withdrew to Tire. In the spring of 1258, the Barons Outremers ended their civil war. In the war between the Maritime Republics, Montfort continued to support the Genoese, to whom he granted their headquarters in Tire. In 1264 he successfully fended off a Venetian sea blockade of his city. Like the other barons, he rejected the claims of Mary of Antioch to the throne of Jerusalem in 1269 and recognized instead of her the successor of King Hugo III. of Cyprus as King of Jerusalem (Hugo I) after Konradin von Hohenstaufen had been executed in Naples the previous year . In return, the new king confirmed the possession of Tire, with Hugo reserving the right to repurchase the fief. Montfort secured the city for his family through the marriage of his son Johann to a sister of the king.

Death and succession

At that time Philip of Montfort was one of the most powerful feudal lords of the Christian Outremer and was considered the most dangerous opponent of the Mameluks , who had taken power in Egypt in 1250 and in Syria in 1260 and thus became the main enemy of the Christians. He did not shy away from being hostile towards Sultan Baibars I , which not infrequently provoked violent reactions from the Sultan, which led to the devastation of his country and the loss of Toron in 1266. Above all, however, he was perceived as a threat because of his repeated calls to the crusade, which led to the renewed crucifixion of Louis IX. of France ( Seventh Crusade ) had contributed. Since there had been a formal peace between Tire and Cairo since 1266, Sultan Baibars hired two assassins to eliminate Montfort and his nephew, Julian of Sidon , who was in Tire .

As the anonymous Templar of Tire reports, two allegedly deserted Mamelukes appeared in Tire in 1270, who expressed their readiness to convert to Christianity to Montfort. Montfort and Julian von Sidon agreed to be their godparents, whereupon the "Mameluks" even adopted their names and were accepted into the service of the two gentlemen as Turkopolans . After Julian had moved from Sidon to Beirut , one of the two Mamelukes accompanied him, the other met on a Sunday in March 1270 with Montfort and his son Johann for mass in the Church of the Holy Cross in Tire. During the prayer, the Mameluk drew a poisoned dagger hidden in his robes and stabbed Montfort, after which he intended to strike his son down with a sword. The assassin, however, was overwhelmed by the knight Guillaume de Picquigny who was present, and Johann von Montfort snatched the sword from him, losing two fingers.

Philipp von Montfort himself died of his wound and was buried shortly afterwards at the site of the attack. A servant of the Lord initiated into the attack was able to find out the motive and the person who commissioned the attack through torture . Julian von Sidon was therefore able to be warned about the second assassin in good time.

His eldest son of the same name from his first marriage followed him into the French possessions of Philip von Montfort. Tire took over his second son Johann.

Descendants

With Eleonore von Courtenay he had a son:

With Mary of Antioch-Armenia he had two sons:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the letter of the Patriarch of Jerusalem to the cardinals of May 15, 1250 see: Annales monasterii de Burton, 1004–1263. In: Henry Richards Luard (ed.): Annales Monastici. Volume 1. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, London 1864, pp. 181-510, here pp. 285-289 .
  2. ^ The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville. A new English version by Ethel Wedgwood. J. Murray London 1906, II, § 14.
  3. ^ Templars of Tire, Gestes des Chiprois , III, § 369.
  4. ↑ Templar of Tire, Gestes des Chiprois , III, § 374.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Guido of Montfort Lord of Castres
Lord of La Ferté-Alais
Lord of Bréthencourt
1228–1240 		Philip II of Montfort
–– Lord of Toron
(de iure uxoris)
1241–1257 		Johann of Montfort
Crown domain Lord of Tire
1246-1270 		Johann of Montfort
Odo from Montbéliard Constable of Jerusalem
1244–1251 		Johann von Arsuf
personal data
SURNAME Philip of Montfort
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lord of Castres, La Ferté-Alais, Brétencourt, Toron and Tire
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1270
Place of death Tire