Battle of Montgisard

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Battle of Montgisard
Part of: War between Crusaders and Ayyubids
The battle of Montgisard.  History painting by Charles-Philippe Larivière (1798–1876)
The battle of Montgisard. History painting by Charles-Philippe Larivière (1798–1876)
date November 25, 1177
place Montgisard , at Ramla
output Victory of the Crusaders
Parties to the conflict

Armoiries de Jérusalem.svg Kingdom of Jerusalem Templar Order of St. John
Armoiries Hugues de Payens.svg
Armoiries d'Aspremont.svg

Flag of Ayyubid Dynasty.svg Ayyubids

Commander

Armoiries de Jérusalem.svg Baldwin IV. Rainald of Chatillon
Blason de la maison de Châtillon.svg

Flag of Ayyubid Dynasty.svg Saladin

Troop strength
approx. 500 knights, including
  • 80 Knights Templar,
  • approx. 40 Knights of St. John,

approx. 2,500 lower-ranking soldiers

by 26,000
losses

1,100 dead, 750 wounded

by 20,000

The Battle of Montgisard was fought on November 25, 1177 between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Saladin .

prehistory

In 1177 Philip of Alsace , Count of Flanders, Vermandois and Valois, had reached the Holy Land on a crusade . Negotiations with Byzantium about a joint attack on Egypt were unsuccessful, whereupon Philip, together with troops from the Crusader states in northern Syria near Hama and Harenc, took up the fight against the Muslims, but without any significant effect. While the Crusaders were thus concentrating on Syria, the Ayyubid Sultan Saladin undertook an invasion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from Egypt.

When King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem heard of Saladin's advance, he left Jerusalem with all available troops and went towards his enemy to the city fortress of Askalon . Only civilians remained in Jerusalem. When he arrived in Askalon, he convened the arrière-ban ("Heerbann"). This draft order, according to which every man capable of arms had to join the royal army, was used only very rarely in the Kingdom of Jerusalem; its use suggests that Baldwin was in a desperate situation.

Among the vassals accompanied the Baldwin were Raynald of Chatillon , lord of Oultrejordain and fierce enemy of Saladin, has just returned from his captivity in Aleppo had been released, Baldwin of Ibelin , Lord of Ramla , whose brother Balian of Ibelin , lord of Ibelin and Mirabel , Rainald von Grenier , Count of Sidon , Hugo von Saint-Omer and his brother Wilhelm , Joscelin III. , the King's uncle, and Aubert, the Bishop of Bethlehem , who carried the “ True Cross ”. There was also a small contingent of the Order of St. John ; a contingent of the Templar Order under their Grand Master Odo von St. Amand encountered Saladin's main army on their march to Askalon and withdrew to Gaza .

One of the ineradicable legends about the battle is the claim that a contingent of the Order of Lazarus belonged to the army , whose members also provided the bodyguard of the young king and the famous unit of the "living dead". None of this is attested by contemporaries; Incidentally, Baldwin IV actually kept a certain distance from the Order of the Lazarites: Since leprosy was considered a divine punishment for a dissolute lifestyle in the Middle Ages, it would have damaged the public image of the crown if the leper king himself had sought the company of lepers.

Saladin advanced with his army via al-Arish , where he left the heavy wagons of his entourage . From there he marched past the Templar fortress of Gaza to Askalon, where he arrived on November 22nd. Baldwin had his army set up for battle in front of Ascalon, but pulled it back behind the walls when it became clear that Saladin's army was many times larger than his. Saladin realized that Baldwin's army posed no threat to him. He refrained from a siege of Askalon, but turned his back on Baldwin and marched on towards Jerusalem, in the expectation that Baldwin would not dare to follow him with so few men.

According to William of Tire , Baldwin's army comprised a total of only 375 men of all ranks, which is a clear understatement - the Johanniter alone put the Christian dead and wounded in the battle at five times this number. The strength of Saladin's army says Wilhelm of Tire with 26,000 men.

Saladin's army fanned out and sacked the fertile coastal plain of the hinterland. On the way they came across smaller detachments of Christian foot soldiers who, as part of the army, were on their way to the king in Ascalon. They were captured and were to be sold as slaves. Saladin's vanguard occupied the abandoned settlement of Ramla, whose people had fled to Jaffa , and burned the settlement of Mirabel down. They then attacked Lydda , where the population holed up in the fortress-like St. George's Cathedral and was besieged. Jerusalem, however, had not been threatened for decades; the city walls were in a neglected condition and the population sought protection in the citadel of the Tower of David .

Saladin relied so much on his assessment that Baldwin would not leave the protection of Askalon, that he did not leave any soldiers behind to block Baldwin there or at least watch his movements. This lack of elementary caution made it possible for Baldwin to leave Ascalon unnoticed by Saladin, to unite with the Templars from Gaza and to form a surprise attack with them, first northwards along the coast, then eastwards following the scorch marks of the opposing army.

The battle

On November 25, 1177, Saladin and his main army had reached the hills of Montgisard (also Tell Jazar ), about 5 km southeast of Ramla. They were just about to cross a small river when they were completely unexpectedly surprised by the Christian army. Many of Saladin's men were further out for looting, which prevented Saladin from taking full advantage of his vast numerical superiority; nevertheless he remained numerically superior to Baldwin's army.

As Saladin later testified about the battle, the Christians met him unprepared and attacked before he could form his troops in a battle formation. Rainald von Chatillon led the bulk of the Christian heavy cavalry to a powerful attack in Saladin's center, while the right and left wings were still in the process of taking their positions in a complicated maneuver. The Muslims, including Saladin's Mamluk personal guard, were completely taken by surprise and put to flight. One of Saladin's great-nephews was killed in close combat.

Saladin himself barely escaped. The Christian prisoners from the army took advantage of the general confusion to free themselves and overpowered the guards of the Muslim convoy.

The battle had only begun in the afternoon, so that the darkness of night soon surrounded the fleeing Muslims. While this made their escape easier, it made it impossible for Saladin to hold them together in any way. Then it was easy for Baldwin to arrest or kill the scattered detachments of Saladin, who were besieging Lydda or marching ahead towards Jerusalem and plundering.

consequences

The next day, heavy winter rains began, which lasted ten days and prevented Saladin from effectively regaining his army. The crusaders followed him as far as Ashkelon, while Saladin received the news that belligerent Bedouins had looted his base camp in al-Arish. Because of this loss, Saladin had to bring the remnants of his army back to Egypt via the Sinai, with only insufficient supplies . Saladin reached Cairo on December 8, 1177 with only a tenth of his army .

Saladin did not renew his attack until March 1179.

Undoubtedly the battle was a great victory for the Crusaders. When the Kingdom of Jerusalem seemed already lost, it was saved by the remarkably courageous leadership of King Baldwin, who was then just sixteen years old and already suffering from leprosy . The tiny army of Christians had inflicted a devastating defeat on Saladin. The price of victory, however, was high: Raimund, the director of the Johanniter hospital in Jerusalem, reports of 1,100 fallen Christians and another 750 seriously wounded who were entrusted to his hospital for healing.

Neither King Baldwin nor his army doubted that their victory was due to God's intervention. Reports soon surfaced that Saint George , whose cathedral in Lydda had been besieged by Saladin's vanguard during the battle, had been seen fighting alongside the Christians on the battlefield. In thanks for the victory, the crusaders soon built a Benedictine monastery on the battlefield, which was dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria , whose feast day is celebrated on the day of the battle.

Individual evidence

  1. a b cf. Jean Richard: The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. Volume 1, North-Holland Pub. Co., Amsterdam 1979, ISBN 0444850929 , p. 149
  2. a b c cf. R. Röhricht: Contributions to the history of the crusades. Berlin 1874. Volume II, p. 128
  3. Ralph-Johannes Lilie : Byzantium and the Crusader States . Studies on the policy of the Byzantine Empire towards the Crusader states in Syria and Palestine up to the Fourth Crusade (1096-1204). Fink, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7705-2042-4 , pp. 205-208 (Poikila byzantina 1).
  4. cf. R. Röhricht: Contributions to the history of the crusades . Volume II, Berlin 1874, p. 127 f.
  5. cf. RC Smail: Crusaing Warfare 1097-1193 . Cambridge 1995, p. 92 f.
  6. cf. JL Lamonte: Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 1100-1291 . Cambridge 1932, p. 159
  7. Louis de Mas-Latrie: Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier. Jules Renouard, Paris 1871, 6, p. 44.
  8. The order spread this myth in part itself; so on the official European presence of the "Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem" ( http://www.lazarus-orden.eu/page6/page6.html , accessed on March 14, 2016 at 10:35 pm), while the international website of the order ( http://www.st-lazarus.net/en/the-order/history , accessed on March 14, 2016 at 10:38 pm) no longer mentions these circumstances and correctly describes the battle of La Forbie 1244 named as the first reliable evidence of a military engagement of the order.
  9. See Jankrift, Kay Peter: Leprosy as a champion of God. Institutionalization and organization of the Order of Saint Lazarus in Jerusalem from its beginnings up to the year 1350, Münster 1996, pp. 73–85, especially p. 56 f. (= Vita regularis, Volume 4).
  10. This fact also underpins Saladin's enormous numerical superiority. - See B. Hamilton: The Leper King and his Heirs . P. 134.
  11. B. Hamilton: The Leper King and his Heirs . P. 134.
  12. B. Hamilton: The Leper King and his Heirs . P. 134 f.
  13. a b cf. MC Lyons / DEP Jackson: Saladin . P. 122
  14. Baldwin von Ibelin is sometimes also mentioned as the privileged leader of the attack, as he had better local knowledge as the fiefdom of the region.
  15. cf. B. Hamilton: The Leper King and his Heirs . P. 135
  16. cf. B. Hamilton: The Leper King and his Heirs . P. 135 f.
  17. a b cf. B. Hamilton: The Leper King and his Heirs . P. 136

literature

  • Baha ad-Din: The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin . ed. DS Richards, Ashgate, 2002.
  • William of Tire: Willemi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon . ed. RBC Huygens. Turnholt, 1986.
  • Bernard Hamilton: The Leper King and His Heirs. Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem . Cambridge University Press, 2000.
  • Malcolm Cameron Lyons / David Edward Pritchett Jackson: Saladin. The Politics of the Holy War . Cambridge University Press, 1982.
  • Steven Runciman: A History of the Crusades. Vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187 . Cambridge University Press, 1952.
  • RC Smail: Crusading Warfare, 1097-1193 . Cambridge University Press, 1956.