Renaud de Châtillon

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Renaud de Châtillon , also Rainald von Chatillon , called Brins Arnat in Islamic sources (as a translation of the French Prince Renaud ) (* around 1125 ; †  1187 after the Battle of Hattin ), was a French crusader, 1153–1160 Prince of Antioch and 1175 –1187 Lord of Oultrejourdain .

Life

Renaud was one of the knights who came to Palestine with King Louis VII of France in the second crusade . For a long time there have been contradicting information about its origin in the literature (see below). After the end of the crusade he remained in the service of King Baldwin III. from Jerusalem. On his behalf he traveled to Antioch in 1151 . There he married the widowed Princess Konstanze in 1153 and thus became Prince of Antioch .

Renaud has Aimery chained to the roof of the citadel
(13th century manuscript)

Prince of Antioch

Right at the beginning of his rule there was a dispute with the Patriarch Aimery of Limoges . This refused to give up part of the church property and talked constantly bad of the connection between Renaud and Konstanze. Renaud then had him beaten up, then smeared his wounds with honey to attract insects, and chained him up on the roof of the citadel for a whole day. On the intervention of King Baldwin, Renaud finally released Aimery, especially since he had meanwhile agreed to pay. The patriarch then moved to Jerusalem. Hamilton assumes that the background to this act, which at first glance appears sadistic, was probably a power struggle between Renaud and Aimery. Aimery had been declared regent of the Principality of Antioch after the death of Raymond of Poitiers . This was intended as a stopgap solution and Renaud de Châtillon was such an unwelcome replacement for the patriarch, whereupon he refused to follow Renaud.

Campaign to Cyprus

Together with the Armenian prince Thoros II (against whom he had waged a war for the fortress of Baghras a few months earlier ) Renaud attacked Byzantine Cyprus. For three weeks, Renaud and his troops marched across the island, murdering, raping and pillaging. Churches and monasteries were looted as well as private buildings. As rumors of an approaching Byzantine fleet increased, the crusaders re-embarked, not without demanding ransom from the surviving Cypriots. The historian Steven Runciman comments on the raid in his History of the Crusades: "The island of Cyprus never fully recovered from the devastation that the Franks and their Armenian allies had wrought on it."

Byzantine vassal

The Byzantines did not forget Cyprus. In the fall of 1158 Kaiser took Manuel with a large army of Konstantin Opel from gen Cilicia , where he conquered the territory of Thoros who managed to escape. Renaud decided to submit to the hope of better conditions. Bareheaded and barefoot, he and his entourage wandered through Mamistra , where the emperor had set up his court, and threw themselves to the ground before the emperor, who completely ignored them for several minutes. Manuel forgave him under the conditions that the citadel of Antioch should be surrendered to Byzantine garrison whenever it was requested, that troops should be provided for the imperial army, and that instead of a Roman patriarch, a Greek patriarch should be installed in Antioch.

Battle of Kommi and Captivity in Aleppo

In 1160 Nur ad-Din was on a campaign against the Sultanate of the Rum Seljuks . Renaud was told that the area between Maraş and Tulupa was poorly defended but was rich in herds. So he started a raid in November. The local residents were Syrian and Armenian Christians, only in the fortresses were Seljuk garrisons. But that did not prevent Renaud from plundering the country. As they made their way back with rich booty, Madj-ad-Din , the governor of Aleppo and brother Nur ad-Dins, opposed them. The crusaders were warned that the Muslims were approaching, but did not want to abandon their prey. Therefore, on the morning of November 23rd, they stood in Kommi, between Cresson and Maraş, for battle, even though they were in a strategically very unfortunate position in a narrow valley. Renaud's troops were put to flight, he himself was captured and brought in chains to Aleppo , where, as William of Tire writes, he was "a toy of the infidels". He spent fifteen (after Runciman sixteen) years in the citadel of Aleppo .

Renaud's imprisonment posed the problem of who should rule Antioch in his absence for the Crusaders.

Lord of Oultrejourdain

In 1175, Renaud was released by Nur ad-Din's son, together with Joscelin von Courtenay, who was also incarcerated . A few months later he married - his first wife had died in 1163 - Stephanie von Milly , the widow of Miles de Plancy and thus became lord of Oultrejourdain, the areas east of the Jordan . The mighty fortresses of Montreal and Kerak fell to him . In the power struggles at the court in Jerusalem, he sided with the Courtenays and Lusignans and the controversial patriarch Heraclius of Caesarea . In 1177 he was also ruler of the reign of Hebron (also "Reign of St. Abraham"), which was rebuilt from the crown domain .

Assaults on Muslims

In the summer of 1181, Renaud attacked a Muslim caravan near the Tayma oasis on the road from Damascus to Mecca, thereby breaking the armistice that had been concluded with Saladin in 1180 . Saladin complained to King Baldwin IV about the breach of contract, but Renaud refused to provide a replacement.

In the autumn of 1182, Renaud decided to attack Mecca . In a daring action, he had five galleys dismantled and brought across the desert to the fishing port of Eilat on the Red Sea, where the ships were reassembled. There he embarked and followed the coastline to Janboh , the port of Medina . One by one, he plundered the small coastal towns. He sank a Muslim pilgrim ship near Raghib, an act that upset the Islamic world.

Renaud then returned to his territory, but his people roamed the Red Sea for months, plundering, until Saladin's brother al-Adil equipped a punitive expedition and the remaining 170 Christian sailors surrendered against the promise of safe withdrawal. Sultan Saladin insisted on setting an example and had them publicly executed individually or in pairs in various cities in his empire. He had two of them killed in Mecca during the next pilgrimage in a particularly cruel manner, by having them slaughtered "like animals for the sacrifice" by the angry crowd of pilgrims.

When Renaud, again in defiance of the armistice, attacked a caravan of pilgrims to Mecca in 1186, killed all the armed men and deported the rest to Kerak, Saladin swore to kill Renaud with his own hands. For the time being, however, Saladin tried to negotiate the release of the prisoners and the surrender of their goods and sent negotiators to King Guy in Jerusalem. Guy of Lusignan , appalled, did not dare to argue with Renaud and dismissed responsibility. With that, Saladin considered the armistice broken and assembled an army.

Counterstrike Saladins

The beheading of Renaud de Châtillon. (Illustration from a 15th-century edition of the Historia of Wilhelm von Tire .)

On July 4th, 1187, the Christian and Muslim armies met for the decisive battle at Hattin . Renaud was captured along with King Guy and his brother Constable Amalrich , Grand Master of the Templar Gérard de Ridefort and others.

The Muslim writer Imad ad-Din al-Asfahani reported as an eyewitness how Saladin received the Christian princes: he asked the king to sit down and, when he arrived, had Renaud sit down as well. Saladin reproached him for his misdeeds, to which Renaud is said to have replied through an interpreter: “All kings have behaved in the same way at all times, I have not done anything else.” “Meanwhile,” al-Asfahani continues in his chronicle, “panted Guy with thirst, shook his head as if he were drunk, and his face betrayed great fear. Saladin spoke reassuring words to him, asked for chilled water and offered it to him. The king drank and then handed the rest to Arnat [Renaud de Châtillon], who also drank. Then the Sultan said to Guy: 'You have not asked my permission if you can give him something to drink, so I am not obliged to show him grace.' After saying these words, the Sultan left the tent, mounted his horse, rode away and left the prisoners in fear. He watched the return of the troops, then rode back to the tent, summoned Renaud, walked over to him with drawn sword and struck him between the neck and shoulder blade. Renaud fell to the ground and his head was cut off, then his body was dragged by the feet in front of the king, who was beginning to tremble. But when the Sultan saw him so shaken with fear, he said soothingly to him: 'This man only had to die because of his misdeeds and his unfaithfulness.' "

On the origin of Renaud de Châtillon

For a long time, Renaud's origins were presented differently in the literature. Runciman writes in his History of the Crusades (at the beginning of Chapter 3 in Book 9): “Among the knights who followed King Louis of France on the Second Crusade was the younger son of Gottfried, the Count of Gien and Lord of Châtillon-sur-Loing. Renaud of Châtillon had no prospects in his country; so he stayed behind when the crusaders returned. ”Châtillon-sur-Loing is now called Châtillon-Coligny .

The lexicon of the Middle Ages (see web link) records: "Rainald von Châtillon, Prince of Antioch, Lord of Transjordan from the Donzy family ... younger son of Herve II of Donzy (Nièvre) ..." (the older son was Gottfried III . von Donzy) and here refers to an investigation by Jean Richard, who convincingly proves that Renaud de Châtillon was by no means a mercenary of low descent, but a descendant of the powerful Donzy family. The Donzys were rulers of a large part of the Puisaye and Saint-Aignans. In addition, they still owned fiefs and cultivated extensive relationships.

Marriages and offspring

Renaud was married twice.

In his first marriage he married in Antioch at the latest in May 1153 as her second husband, Princess Konstanze von Antioch (* 1127; † 1163/67), the heir to Bohemond II of Antioch ( House of Hauteville ). He had two children with Konstanze:

In his second marriage, he married around 1176 as her third husband Stephanie von Milly († around 1197), heiress of the rule Oultrejordain , heiress of Philipp von Milly . He had two children with Stephanie:

  • Renaud de Châtillon (* after 1175; † young, buried in the Josaphat valley).
  • Alix de Châtillon († 1235), ⚭ around February 22, 1204 Margrave Azzo VI. von Este (* 1170 - † November 18, 1212), 1208 Podestà von Ferrara .

Representation of Renaud in mass culture

In the past, the often negative assessment of Renaud's work in the Kingdom of Jerusalem was carried over to everyday and mass culture. Since Sir Walter Scott's “Talisman” nothing has changed in Saladin's positive image (and with it, Renaud's negative image). In one of Jan Guillou's most recent historical novels on the subject of the Crusades, Renaud is consistently portrayed as the antagonist of the fictional noble protagonist. Renaud is also used as a villain in various film productions, both on the Muslim side in the Egyptian historical film "Al Nasser Salah el Dine" from 1963 and in the Hollywood blockbuster " Kingdom of Heaven " from 2005, in which the prince appears as a religiously fanatical mass murderer .

literature

The history of Wilhelm von Tire is an important source : AC Krey (Ed.): A history of the Deeds done beyond the sea, by William, Archbishop of Tire . Columbia University Press, New York 1943 (English, translation: Emily A. Babcock).

  • Bernard Hamilton: Reynald of Chatillon. In: Alan V. Murray (Ed.): The Crusades. To Encyclopedia. Volume 4: Q-Z. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara CA et al. 2006, ISBN 1-57607-862-0 , p. 1027 f.
  • Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades (= dtv. 30175). 3. Edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-423-30175-9 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Chronique de Michel le Syrien, Patriarche Jacobite d'Antioche (1166–1199). Volume 3. Éditée pour la première fois et traduite en français by Jean-Baptiste Chabot. E. Leroux, Paris 1905, p. 290 , XVII, 10; Bernard Hamilton: The Latin Church in the Crusader states. The secular church (= Variorum Publication. 1). Variorum, London 1980, ISBN 0-86078-072-4 , p. 42.
  2. ↑ Thomas S. Asbridge: The Crusades . 7th edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-608-94921-6 , pp. 354 .
  3. ^ Jean Richard: Aux origines d'un grand lignage. Des Palladii à Renaud de Châtillon. In: Media in Francia .... Recueil de mélanges offered to Karl Ferdinand Werner. À l'occasion de son 65th anniversaire. Hérault, Maulévrier 1989, ISBN 2-903851-57-3 , pp. 409-418, here 414 ff.
  4. ↑ Al Nasser Salah el Dine . In the IMDB
  5. ↑ "Kingdom of Heaven" . In the IMDB
predecessor Office successor
Raimund of Poitiers
(de iure uxoris ) 		Prince of Antioch
(with Constance of Antioch )
1153–1160 		Bohemond III.
Miles from Plancy Lord of Oultrejordain
(with Stephanie von Milly )
1176–1187 		-
Crown domain Lord of Hebron
1177–1187 		-
personal data
SURNAME Renaud de Châtillon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rainald of Châtillon, Brins Arnat
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French crusader, Prince of Antioch, Lord of Oultrejordain
DATE OF BIRTH around 1125
DATE OF DEATH 1187