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William of Tyre ( la, Willelmus Tyrensis; 113029 September 1186) was a
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...
and chronicler. As
archbishop of Tyre The see of Tyre was one of the most ancient dioceses in Christianity. The existence of a Christian community there already in the time of Saint Paul is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. Seated at Tyre, which was the capital of the Roman provi ...
, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I, the Englishman, a former Prior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, who was Archbishop of Tyre from 1127 to 1135. He grew up in
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
at the height of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establish ...
, which had been established in 1099 after the
First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...
, and he spent twenty years studying the
liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as La ...
and
canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is t ...
in the universities of Europe. Following William's return to Jerusalem in 1165, King
Amalric Amalric or Amalaric (also Americ, Almerich, Emeric, Emerick and other variations) is a personal name derived from the tribal name ''Amal'' (referring to the Gothic Amali) and ''ric'' ( Gothic ''reiks'') meaning "ruler, prince". Equivalents in d ...
made him an ambassador to the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
. William became tutor to the king's son, the future King Baldwin IV, whom William discovered to be a
leper Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria '' Mycobacterium leprae'' or '' Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve d ...
. After Amalric's death, William became
chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
and archbishop of Tyre, two of the highest offices in the kingdom, and in 1179 William led the eastern delegation to the
Third Council of the Lateran The Third Council of the Lateran met in Rome in March 1179. Pope Alexander III presided and 302 bishops attended. The Catholic Church regards it as the eleventh ecumenical council. By agreement reached at the Peace of Venice in 1177 the bitter ...
. As he was involved in the dynastic struggle that developed during Baldwin IV's reign, his importance waned when a rival faction gained control of royal affairs. He was passed over for the prestigious Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and died in obscurity, probably in 1186. William wrote an account of the Lateran Council and a history of the Islamic states from the time of
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
, neither of which survives. He is famous today as the author of a history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. William composed his
chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and ...
in excellent Latin for his time, with numerous quotations from
classical literature Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classic ...
. The chronicle is sometimes given the title ''Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum'' ("History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea") or ''Historia Ierosolimitana'' ("History of Jerusalem"), or the ''Historia'' for short. It was translated into French soon after his death, and thereafter into numerous other languages. Because it is the only source for the history of twelfth-century Jerusalem written by a native, historians have often assumed that William's statements could be taken at face value. However, more recent historians have shown that William's involvement in the kingdom's political disputes resulted in detectable biases in his account. Despite this, he is considered the greatest chronicler of the crusades, and one of the best authors of the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
.


Early life

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was founded in 1099 at the end of the First Crusade. It was the third of four Christian territories to be established by the crusaders, following the
County of Edessa The County of Edessa (Latin: ''Comitatus Edessanus'') was one of the Crusader states in the 12th century. Ferdinandi, Sergio (2017). La Contea Franca di Edessa. Fondazione e Profilo Storico del Primo Principato Crociato nel Levante (1098-115 ...
and the
Principality of Antioch The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It exte ...
, and followed by the County of Tripoli. Jerusalem's first three rulers,
Godfrey of Bouillon Godfrey of Bouillon (, , , ; 18 September 1060 – 18 July 1100) was a French nobleman and pre-eminent leader of the First Crusade. First ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1100, he avoided the title of king, preferring that of princ ...
(1099–1100), his brother Baldwin I (1100–1118), and their cousin Baldwin II (1118–1131), expanded and secured the kingdom's borders, which encompassed roughly the same territory as modern-day
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, Palestine, and
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...
. During the kingdom's early decades, the population was swelled by pilgrims visiting the holiest sites of Christendom. Merchants from the Mediterranean city-states of
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
and
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
were eager to exploit the rich trade markets of the east. William's family probably originated in either France or Italy, since he was very familiar with both countries. His parents were likely merchants who had settled in the kingdom and were "apparently well-to-do", although it is unknown whether they participated in the First Crusade or arrived later. William was born in Jerusalem around 1130. He had at least one brother, Ralph, who was one of the city's burgesses, a non-noble leader of the merchant community. Nothing more is known about his family, except that his mother died before 1165. As a child William was educated in Jerusalem, at the cathedral school in the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, hy, Սուրբ Հարության տաճար, la, Ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri, am, የቅዱስ መቃብር ቤተክርስቲያን, he, כנסיית הקבר, ar, كنيسة القيامة is a church i ...
. The ''scholaster'', or school-master, John the Pisan, taught William to read and write, and first introduced him to
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
. From the ''Historia'' it is clear that he also knew
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and possibly Italian, but there is not enough evidence to determine whether he learned
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, Persian, and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, as is sometimes claimed. Around 1145 William went to Europe to continue his education in the schools of France and Italy, especially in those of
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
and
Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...
, "the two most important intellectual centers of twelfth-century Christendom." These schools were not yet the official
universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...
that they would become in the 13th century, but by the end of the 11th century both had numerous schools for the arts and sciences. They were separate from the cathedral schools, and were established by independent professors who were masters of their field of study. Students from all over Europe gathered there to hear lectures from these masters. William studied
liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as La ...
and
theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...
in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
and
Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and
Thierry of Chartres Thierry of Chartres (''Theodoricus Chartrensis'') or Theodoric the Breton (''Theodericus Brito'') (died before 1155, probably 1150) was a twelfth-century philosopher working at Chartres and Paris, France. The cathedral school at Chartres promote ...
and
Gilbert de la Porrée Gilbert de la Porrée (after 1085 – 4 September 1154), also known as Gilbert of Poitiers, Gilbertus Porretanus or Pictaviensis, was a scholastic logician and theologian and Bishop of Poitiers. Life He was born in Poitiers, and completed ...
. He also spent time studying under Robert of Melun and
Adam de Parvo Ponte Adam of Balsham ( la, Adam Balsamiensis or ') (c. 1100/1102 – c. 1157/1169) was an Anglo-Norman scholastic and churchman. Life Adam was born in Balsham, near Cambridge, England. He studied with Peter Lombard at the University of Paris. He ...
, among others. In Orléans, one of the pre-eminent centres of classical studies, he read ancient Roman literature (known simply as "the Authors") with Hilary of Orléans, and learned
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
("especially
Euclid Euclid (; grc-gre, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of ...
") with William of Soissons. For six years, he studied theology with
Peter Lombard Peter Lombard (also Peter the Lombard, Pierre Lombard or Petrus Lombardus; 1096, Novara – 21/22 July 1160, Paris), was a scholastic theologian, Bishop of Paris, and author of '' Four Books of Sentences'' which became the standard textbook of ...
and
Maurice de Sully Maurice de Sully (died 11 September 1196) was Bishop of Paris from 1160 until his retirement in 1196. He was responsible for the construction of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Biography He was born to poor parents at Sully-sur-Loire (Soliacum), near ...
. Afterwards, he studied civil law and
canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is t ...
in
Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...
, with the "
Four Doctors The Four Doctors of Bologna (Latin: ''Quatuor Doctores'') were Italian jurists and glossators of the 12th century, based in the University of Bologna: Bulgarus, Martinus Gosia, Jacobus de Boragine and Hugo de Porta Ravennate. Their teachings in th ...
", Hugo de Porta Ravennate, Bulgarus, Martinus Gosia, and
Jacobus de Boragine Jacobus de Boragine was one of the Glossators, and Four Doctors of Bologna. Also known as Jacobus, he was born in the early 12th century and was an Italians, Italian lawyer, one of four students of Irnerius called the ''Quattuor Doctores'', altho ...
. William's list of professors "gives us almost a who's who of the grammarians, philosophers, theologians, and law teachers of the so-called Twelfth-Century Renaissance", and shows that he was as well-educated as any European cleric. His contemporary
John of Salisbury John of Salisbury (late 1110s – 25 October 1180), who described himself as Johannes Parvus ("John the Little"), was an English author, philosopher, educationalist, diplomat and bishop of Chartres. Early life and education Born at Salisbury, E ...
had many of the same teachers.


Religious and political life in Jerusalem

The highest religious and political offices in Jerusalem were usually held by Europeans who had arrived on pilgrimage or crusade. William was one of the few natives with a European education, and he quickly rose through the ranks. After his return to the Holy Land in 1165, he became canon of the cathedral at Acre. In 1167 he was appointed
archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...
of the cathedral of Tyre by
Frederick de la Roche Frederick de la Roche (died 30 October 1174) was the sixth Latin archbishop of Tyre (1164–1174), chancellor of the kingdom of Jerusalem (c. 1150), and the chief diplomat of King Amalric. He was a Lorrainer, from the town of La Roche, of noble ...
, archbishop of Tyre, with the support of King
Amalric Amalric or Amalaric (also Americ, Almerich, Emeric, Emerick and other variations) is a personal name derived from the tribal name ''Amal'' (referring to the Gothic Amali) and ''ric'' ( Gothic ''reiks'') meaning "ruler, prince". Equivalents in d ...
. Amalric had come to power in 1164 and had made it his goal to conquer Egypt.
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
had been invaded by King Baldwin I fifty years earlier, and the weak
Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a ...
was forced to pay yearly tribute to Jerusalem. Amalric turned towards Egypt because Muslim territory to the east of Jerusalem had fallen under the control of the powerful Zengid sultan Nur ad-Din. Nur ad-Din had taken control of
Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...
in 1154, six years after the disastrous siege of Damascus by the
Second Crusade The Second Crusade (1145–1149) was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144 to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Cru ...
in 1148. Jerusalem could now expand only to the southwest, towards Egypt, and in 1153 Ascalon, the last Fatimid outpost in Palestine, fell to the crusaders. Nur ad-Din, however, also wished to acquire Egypt, and sent his army to hinder Amalric's plans. This was the situation in the east when William returned from Europe. In 1167 Amalric married Maria Comnena, grand-niece of
Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as ...
Manuel I Comnenus, and in 1168 the king sent William to finalize a treaty for a joint Byzantine-crusader campaign against Egypt. The expedition, Amalric's fourth, was the first with support from the
Byzantine navy The Byzantine navy was the naval force of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire. Like the empire it served, it was a direct continuation from its Imperial Roman predecessor, but played a far greater role in the defence and survival of the state than ...
. Amalric, however, did not wait for the fleet to arrive. He managed to capture
Damietta Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an easte ...
, but within a few years he was expelled from Egypt by one of Nur ad-Din's generals,
Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt an ...
, who would later become Jerusalem's greatest threat. Meanwhile, William continued his advancement in the kingdom. In 1169 he visited
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, possibly to answer accusations made against him by Archbishop Frederick, although if so, the charge is unknown. It is also possible that while Frederick was away on a diplomatic mission in Europe, a problem within the diocese forced William to seek the archbishop's assistance. On his return from Rome in 1170 he may have been commissioned by Amalric to write a history of the kingdom. He also became the tutor of Amalric's son and heir, Baldwin IV. When Baldwin was thirteen years old, he was playing with some children, who were trying to cause each other pain by scratching each other's arms. "The other boys gave evidence of pain by their outcries," wrote William, "but Baldwin, although his comrades did not spare him, endured it altogether too patiently, as if he felt nothing  ...  It is impossible to refrain from tears while speaking of this great misfortune." William inspected Baldwin's arms and recognized the possible symptoms of
leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria '' Mycobacterium leprae'' or '' Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve d ...
, which was confirmed as Baldwin grew older. Amalric died in 1174, and Baldwin IV succeeded him as king. Nur ad-Din also died in 1174, and his general Saladin spent the rest of the decade consolidating his hold on both Egypt and Nur ad-Din's possessions in Syria, which allowed him to completely encircle Jerusalem. The subsequent events have often been interpreted as a struggle between two opposing factions, a "court party" and a "noble party." The "court party" was led by Baldwin's mother, Amalric's first wife Agnes of Courtenay, and her immediate family, as well as recent arrivals from Europe who were inexperienced in the affairs of the kingdom and were in favour of war with Saladin. The "noble party" was led by Raymond III of Tripoli and the native nobility of the kingdom, who favoured peaceful co-existence with the Muslims. This is the interpretation offered by William himself in the ''Historia'', and it was taken as fact by later historians. Peter W. Edbury, however, has more recently argued that William must be considered extremely partisan as he was naturally allied with Raymond, who was responsible for his later advancement in political and religious offices. The accounts of the 13th-century authors who continued the ''Historia'' in French must also be considered suspect, as they were allied to Raymond's supporters in the Ibelin family. The general consensus among recent historians is that although there was a dynastic struggle, "the division was not between native barons and newcomers from the West, but between the king's maternal and paternal kin." Miles of Plancy briefly held the regency for the underaged Baldwin IV. Miles was assassinated in October 1174, and Raymond III was soon appointed to replace him. Raymond named William
chancellor of Jerusalem Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
, as well as archdeacon of
Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...
, and on 6 June 1175, William was elected archbishop of Tyre to replace Frederick de la Roche, who had died in October 1174. William's duties as chancellor probably did not take up too much of his time; the scribes and officials in the chancery drafted documents and it may not have even been necessary for him to be present to sign them. Instead he focused on his duties as archbishop. In 1177 he performed the funeral services for William of Montferrat, husband of Baldwin IV's sister Sibylla, when the patriarch of Jerusalem, Amalric of Nesle, was too sick to attend. In 1179, William was one of the delegates from Jerusalem and the other crusader states at the
Third Lateran Council The Third Council of the Lateran met in Rome in March 1179. Pope Alexander III presided and 302 bishops attended. The Catholic Church regards it as the eleventh ecumenical council. By agreement reached at the Peace of Venice in 1177 the bitter ...
; among the others were
Heraclius Heraclius ( grc-gre, Ἡράκλειος, Hērákleios; c. 575 – 11 February 641), was Eastern Roman emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revol ...
, archbishop of Caesarea, Joscius, bishop of Acre and William's future successor in Tyre, the bishops of Sebastea,
Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital ...
, Tripoli, and
Jabala ) , settlement_type = City , motto = , image_skyline = Jableh Collage.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption = General view of city and port • Roman Amphitheater• A ...
, and the abbot of Mount Sion. Patriarch Amalric and
Patriarch of Antioch Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the bishop of Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey). As the traditional "overseer" (ἐπίσκοπος, ''episkopos'', from which the word ''bishop'' is derived) of the first gentile Christian c ...
Aimery of Limoges Aimery or Aymery of Limoges (died 1196), also ''Aimericus'' in Latin, ''Aimerikos'' in Greek and ''Hemri'' in Armenian, was a Roman Catholic ecclesiarch in Frankish Outremer and the fourth Latin Patriarch of Antioch from c. 1140 until his death. ...
were unable to attend, and William and the other bishops did not have sufficient weight to persuade
Pope Alexander III Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland ( it, Rolando), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a con ...
of the need for a new crusade. William was, however, sent by Alexander as an ambassador to Emperor Manuel, and Manuel then sent him on a mission to the
Principality of Antioch The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It exte ...
. William does not mention exactly what happened during these embassies, but he probably discussed the Byzantine alliance with Jerusalem, and Manuel's protectorate over Antioch, where, due to pressure from Rome and Jerusalem, the emperor was forced to give up his attempts to restore a Greek patriarch. William was absent from Jerusalem for two years, returning home in 1180.


Patriarchal election of 1180

During William's absence a crisis had developed in Jerusalem. King Baldwin had reached the
age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the contr ...
in 1176 and Raymond III had been removed from the regency, but as a leper Baldwin could have no children and could not be expected to rule much longer. After the death of William of Montferrat in 1177, King Baldwin's widowed sister Sibylla required a new husband. At Easter in 1180, the two factions were divided even further when Raymond and his cousin Bohemond III of Antioch attempted to force Sibylla to marry Baldwin of Ibelin. Raymond and Bohemond were King Baldwin's nearest male relatives in the paternal line, and could have claimed the throne if the king died without an heir or a suitable replacement. Before Raymond and Bohemond arrived, however, Agnes and King Baldwin arranged for Sibylla to be married to a Poitevin newcomer, Guy of Lusignan, whose older brother Aimery of Lusignan was already an established figure at court. The dispute affected William, since he had been appointed chancellor by Raymond and may have fallen out of favour after Raymond was removed from the regency. When Patriarch Amalric died on 6 October 1180, the two most obvious choices for his successor were William and Heraclius of Caesarea. They were fairly evenly matched in background and education, but politically they were allied with opposite parties, as Heraclius was one of Agnes of Courtenay's supporters. It seems that the canons of the Holy Sepulchre were unable to decide, and asked the king for advice; due to Agnes' influence, Heraclius was elected. There were rumours that Agnes and Heraclius were lovers, but this information comes from the partisan 13th-century continuations of the ''Historia'', and there is no other evidence to substantiate such a claim. William himself says almost nothing about the election and Heraclius' character or his subsequent patriarchate, probably reflecting his disappointment at the outcome.


Death

William remained archbishop of Tyre and chancellor of the kingdom, but the details of his life at this time are obscure. The 13th-century
continuator A continuator, in literature, is a writer who creates a new work based on someone else's prior text, such as a novel or novel fragment. The new work may complete the older work (as with the numerous continuations of Jane Austen's unfinished nov ...
s claim that Heraclius excommunicated William in 1183, but it is unknown why Heraclius would have done this. They also claim that William went to Rome to appeal to the Pope, where Heraclius had him poisoned. According to Peter Edbury and John Rowe, the obscurity of William's life during these years shows that he did not play a large political role, but concentrated on ecclesiastical affairs and the writing of his history. The story of his excommunication, and the unlikely detail that he was poisoned, were probably an invention of the Old French continuators. William remained in the kingdom and continued to write up until 1184, but by then Jerusalem was internally divided by political factions and externally surrounded by the forces of Saladin, and "the only subjects that present themselves are the disasters of a sorrowing country and its manifold misfortunes, themes which can serve only to draw forth lamentations and tears." His importance had dwindled with the victory of Agnes and her supporters, and with the accession of Baldwin V, infant son of Sibylla and William of Montferrat. Baldwin was a sickly child and he died the next year. In 1186 he was succeeded by his mother Sibylla and her second husband Guy of Lusignan, ruling jointly. William was probably in failing health by this point. Rudolf Hiestand discovered that the date of William's death was 29 September, but the year was not recorded; whatever the year, there was a new chancellor in May 1185 and a new archbishop of Tyre by 21 October 1186. Hans E. Mayer concluded that William died in 1186, and this is the year generally accepted by scholars. William's foresight about the misfortunes of his country was proven correct less than a year later. Saladin defeated King Guy at the
Battle of Hattin The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of ...
in 1187, and went on to capture Jerusalem and almost every other city of the kingdom, except the seat of William's archdiocese, Tyre. News of the fall of Jerusalem shocked Europe and plans were made to send assistance. According to
Roger of Wendover Roger of Wendover (died 6 May 1236), probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century. At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell o ...
, William was present at Gisors in France in 1188 when
Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin kin ...
and
Philip II of France Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French m ...
agreed to go on crusade: "Thereupon the king of the English first took the sign of the cross at the hands of the Archbishop of Rheims and William of Tyre, the latter of whom had been entrusted by our lord the pope with the office of legate in the affairs of the crusade in the western part of Europe." Roger was however mistaken; he knew that an unnamed archbishop of Tyre was present and assumed it must have been the William whose chronicle he possessed, although the archbishop in question was actually William's successor Joscius.


Works


''Historia''


Latin chronicle

William's great work is a Latin chronicle, written between 1170 and 1184. It contains twenty-three books; the final book, which deals with the events of 1183 and the beginning of 1184, has only a prologue and one chapter, so it is either unfinished or the rest of the pages were lost before the whole chronicle began to be copied. The first book begins with the conquest of Syria by
Umar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate ...
in the seventh century, but otherwise the work deals with the advent of the
First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...
and the subsequent political history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It is arranged, but was not written, chronologically; the first sections to be written were probably the chapters about the invasion of Egypt in 1167, which are extremely detailed and were likely composed before the Fatimid dynasty was overthrown in 1171. Much of the ''Historia'' was finished before William left to attend the Lateran Council, but new additions and corrections were made after his return in 1180, perhaps because he now realized that European readers would also be interested in the history of the kingdom. In 1184 he wrote the Prologue and the beginning of the twenty-third book.
August C. Krey August Charles Krey (June 29, 1887 – July 28, 1961) was an American medievalist. He was chairman of the Department of History at the University of Minnesota from 1944 to 1955. Biography Born in Germany, he immigrated to Wisconsin with his fa ...
thought William's Arabic sources may have come from the library of the Damascene diplomat
Usama ibn Munqidh Majd ad-Dīn Usāma ibn Murshid ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh al-Kināni al-Kalbī (also Usamah, Ousama, etc.; ar, مجد الدّين اُسامة ابن مُرشد ابن على ابن مُنقذ الكنانى الكلبى) (4 July 1095 – 17 Nove ...
, whose library was looted by Baldwin III from a shipwreck in 1154. Alan V. Murray, however, has argued that, at least for the accounts of Persia and the Turks in his chronicle, William relied on Biblical and earlier medieval legends rather than actual history, and his knowledge "may be less indicative of eastern ethnography than of western mythography." William had access to the chronicles of the First Crusade, including Fulcher of Chartres, Albert of Aix, Raymond of Aguilers,
Baldric of Dol Baldric of Dol ( 10507 January 1130) was prior and then abbot of Bourgueil from 1077 to 1106, then made bishop of Dol-en-Bretagne in 1107 and archbishop in 1108 until his death. He fulfilled his monastic duties by travelling to attend Church counci ...
, and the ''
Gesta Francorum The ''Gesta Francorum'' (Deeds of the Franks), or ''Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum'' (Deeds of the Franks and the other pilgrims to Jerusalem), is a Latin chronicle of the First Crusade by an anonymous author connected with Bohemon ...
'', as well as other documents located in the kingdom's archives. He used Walter the Chancellor and other now-lost works for the history of the
Principality of Antioch The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It exte ...
. From the end of Fulcher's chronicle in 1127, William is the only source of information from an author living in Jerusalem. For events that happened in William's own lifetime, he interviewed older people who had witnessed the events about which he was writing, and drew on his own memory. William's classical education allowed him to compose Latin superior to that of many medieval writers. He used numerous ancient Roman and early Christian authors, either for quotations or as inspiration for the framework and organization of the ''Historia''. His vocabulary is almost entirely classical, with only a few medieval constructions such as "loricator" (someone who makes armour, a
calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...
of the Arabic "zarra") and "assellare" (to empty one's bowels). He was capable of clever word-play and advanced
rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate par ...
al devices, but he was prone to repetition of a number of words and phrases. His writing also shows phrasing and spelling which is unusual or unknown in purely classical Latin but not uncommon in
medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned ...
, such as: * confusion between reflexive and
possessive pronouns A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...
; * confusion over the use of the
accusative The accusative case ( abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘ ...
and
ablative case In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
s, especially after the
preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
''in''; * collapsed
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
s (i.e. the Latin diphthongs ''ae'' and ''oe'' are spelled simply ''e''); * the
dative In grammar, the dative case ( abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob ...
"mihi" ("to me") is spelled "michi"; * a single "s" is often doubled, for example in the adjectival place-name ending which he often spells "-enssis"; this spelling is also used to represent the Arabic " sh", a sound which Latin lacks, for example in the name Shawar which he spells "Ssauar".


Literary themes and biases

Despite his quotations from Christian authors and from the
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
, William did not place much emphasis on the intervention of God in human affairs, resulting in a somewhat "secular" history. Nevertheless, he included much information that is clearly legendary, especially when referring to the First Crusade, which even in his own day was already considered an age of great Christian heroes. Expanding on the accounts of Albert of Aix, Peter the Hermit is given prominence in the preaching of the First Crusade, to the point that it was he, not
Pope Urban II Pope Urban II ( la, Urbanus II;  – 29 July 1099), otherwise known as Odo of Châtillon or Otho de Lagery, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 March 1088 to his death. He is best known for convening th ...
, who originally conceived the crusade. Godfrey of Bouillon, the first ruler of crusader Jerusalem, was also depicted as the leader of the crusade from the beginning, and William attributed to him legendary strength and virtue. This reflected the almost mythological status that Godfrey and the other first crusaders held for the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the late twelfth century. William gave a more nuanced picture of the kings of his own day. He claimed to have been commissioned to write by King Amalric himself, but William did not allow himself to praise the king excessively; for example, Amalric did not respect the rights of the church, and although he was a good military commander, he could not stop the increasing threat from the neighbouring Muslim states. On a personal level, William admired the king's education and his interest in history and law, but also noted that Amalric had "breasts like those of a woman hanging down to his waist" and was shocked when the king questioned the
resurrection of the dead General resurrection or universal resurrection is the belief in a resurrection of the dead, or resurrection from the dead (Koine: , ''anastasis onnekron''; literally: "standing up again of the dead") by which most or all people who have died w ...
. About Amalric's son Baldwin IV, however, "there was no ambiguity". Baldwin was nothing but heroic in the face of his debilitating leprosy, and he led military campaigns against Saladin even while still underaged; William tends to gloss over campaigns where Baldwin was not actually in charge, preferring to direct his praise towards the afflicted king rather than subordinate commanders. William's history can be seen as an '' apologia'', a literary defense, for the kingdom, and more specifically for Baldwin's rule. By the 1170s and 1180s, western Europeans were reluctant to support the kingdom, partly because it was far away and there were more pressing concerns in Europe, but also because leprosy was usually considered divine punishment. William was famously biased against the
Knights Templar , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...
, whom he believed to be arrogant and disrespectful of both secular and ecclesiastical hierarchies, as they were not required to pay tithes and were legally accountable only to the Pope. Although he was writing decades later, he is the earliest author to describe the actual foundation of the Templar order. He was generally favourable towards them when discussing their early days, but resented the power and influence they held in his own time. William accused them of hindering the siege of Ascalon in 1153; of poorly defending a cave-fortress in 1165, for which twelve Templars were hanged by King Amalric; of sabotaging the invasion of Egypt in 1168; and of murdering
Assassin Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
ambassadors in 1173. Compared to other Latin authors of the twelfth century, William is surprisingly favourable to the Byzantine Empire. He had visited the Byzantine court as an official ambassador and probably knew more about Byzantine affairs than any other Latin chronicler. He shared the poor opinion of Alexius I Comnenus that had developed during the First Crusade, although he was also critical of some of the crusaders' dealings with Alexius. He was more impressed by Alexius' son John II Comnenus; he did not approve of John's attempts to bring the crusader Principality of Antioch under Byzantine control, but John's military expeditions against the Muslim states, the common enemy of both Greeks and Latins, were considered admirable. Emperor Manuel, whom William met during his visits to Constantinople, was portrayed more ambivalently, much like King Amalric. William admired him personally, but recognized that the Empire was powerless to help Jerusalem against the Muslim forces of Nur ad-Din and Saladin. William was especially disappointed in the failure of the joint campaign against Egypt in 1169. The end of the ''Historia'' coincides with the
massacre of the Latins The Massacre of the Latins ( it, Massacro dei Latini; el, Σφαγὴ τῶν Λατίνων) was a large-scale massacre of the Roman Catholic (called "Latin") inhabitants of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, by the Eastern ...
in Constantinople and the chaos that followed the coup of
Andronicus I Comnenus Andronikos I Komnenos ( gr, Ἀνδρόνικος Κομνηνός;  – 12 September 1185), Latinized as Andronicus I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1183 to 1185. He was the son of Isaac Komnenos and the grandson of the emperor Al ...
, and in his description of those events, William was certainly not immune to the extreme anti-Greek rhetoric that was often found in Western European sources. As a medieval Christian author William could hardly avoid hostility towards the kingdom's Muslim neighbours, but as an educated man who lived among Muslims in the east, he was rarely polemical or completely dismissive of Islam. He did not think Muslims were pagans, but rather that they belonged to a heretical sect of Christianity and followed the teachings of a false prophet. He often praised the Muslim leaders of his own day, even if he lamented their power over the Christian kingdom; thus Muslim rulers such as
Mu'in ad-Din Unur Mu'in ad-Din Unur al-Atabeki ( tr, Muiniddin Üner; died August 28, 1149) was a Seljuk Turkish ruler of Damascus in the mid-12th century. Origins Mu'in ad-Din was originally a Mamluk in the army of Toghtekin, the founder of the Burid Dynasty o ...
, Nur ad-Din, Shirkuh, and even Jerusalem's ultimate conqueror Saladin are presented as honourable and pious men, characteristics that William did not bestow on many of his own Christian contemporaries.


Circulation of the chronicle

After William's death the ''Historia'' was copied and circulated in the crusader states and was eventually brought to Europe. In the 13th century, James of Vitry had access to a copy while he was bishop of Acre, and it was used by Guy of Bazoches,
Matthew Paris Matthew Paris, also known as Matthew of Paris ( la, Matthæus Parisiensis, lit=Matthew the Parisian; c. 1200 – 1259), was an English Benedictine monk, chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey ...
, and
Roger of Wendover Roger of Wendover (died 6 May 1236), probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century. At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell o ...
in their own chronicles. However, there are only ten known manuscripts that contain the Latin chronicle, all of which come from France and England, so William's work may not have been very widely read in its original form. In England, however, the ''Historia'' was expanded in Latin, with additional information from the '' Itinerarium Regis Ricardi'', and the chronicle of Roger Hoveden; this version was written around 1220. It is unknown what title William himself gave his chronicle, although one group of manuscripts uses ''Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum'' and another uses ''Historia Ierosolimitana''. The Latin text was printed for the first time in Basel in 1549 by Nicholas Brylinger; it was also published in the ''Gesta Dei per Francos'' by Jacques Bongars in 1611 and the ''
Recueil des historiens des croisades {{italic title The ''Recueil des historiens des croisades'' (trans: ''Collection of the Historians of the Crusades'') is a major collection of several thousand medieval documents written during the Crusades. The documents were collected and publis ...
'' (RHC) by
Auguste-Arthur Beugnot Count Auguste-Arthur Beugnot (25 March 1797, Bar-sur-Aube – 15 March 1865, Paris) was a French historian and statesman. He was a son of Jacques-Claude Beugnot. Originally he adopted the profession of advocate, but soon abandoned it in order to d ...
and Auguste Le Prévost in 1844, and Bongars' text was reprinted in the ''
Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...
'' by Jacques Paul Migne in 1855. The now-standard Latin critical edition, based on six of the surviving manuscripts, was published as ''Willelmi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon'' in the '' Corpus Christianorum'' in 1986, by R. B. C. Huygens, with notes by Hans E. Mayer and Gerhard Rösch. The RHC edition was translated into English by Emily A. Babcock and August C. Krey in 1943 as "A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea," although the translation is sometimes incomplete or inexact.


Old French translation

A translation of the ''Historia'' into
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
, made around 1223, was particularly well-circulated and had many anonymous additions made to it in the 13th century. In contrast to the surviving Latin manuscripts, there are "at least fifty-nine manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts" containing the Old French translation. There are also independent French continuations attributed to Ernoul and Bernard le Trésorier. The translation was sometimes called the ''Livre dou conqueste''; it was known by this name throughout Europe as well as in the crusader
Kingdom of Cyprus The Kingdom of Cyprus (french: Royaume de Chypre, la, Regnum Cypri) was a state that existed between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan. It comprised not only the island of Cyprus, but it also had a foothold on the Ana ...
and in
Cilician Armenia The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Middle Armenian: , '), also known as Cilician Armenia ( hy, Կիլիկեան Հայաստան, '), Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia ( hy, ...
, and 14th-century Venetian geographer Marino Sanuto the Elder had a copy of it. The French was further translated into Spanish, as the ''
Gran conquista de Ultramar The ''Gran conquista de Ultramar'' ('Great Conquest Beyond the Sea') is a late 13th-century Castilian chronicle of the Crusades for the period 1095–1271. It is a work of compilation, translation and prosification of Old French and Old Occita ...
'', during the reign of Alfonso the Wise of Castile in the late 13th century. The French version was so widespread that the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
author Francesco Pipino translated it back into Latin, unaware that a Latin original already existed. A
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old Englis ...
translation of the French was made by
William Caxton William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer to be the first English retailer of printed books. His parentage a ...
in the 15th century.


Other works

William reports that he wrote an account of the Third Council of the Lateran, which does not survive. He also wrote a history of the Holy Land from the time of
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
up to 1184, for which he used Eutychius of Alexandria as his main source. This work seems to have been known in Europe in the 13th century but it also does not survive.


Modern assessment

William's neutrality as an historian was often taken for granted until the late twentieth century. August C. Krey, for example, believed that "his impartiality  ...  is scarcely less impressive than his critical skill." Despite this excellent reputation, D. W. T. C. Vessey has shown that William was certainly not an impartial observer, especially when dealing with the events of the 1170s and 1180s. Vessey believes that William's claim to have been commissioned by Amalric is a typical ancient and medieval ''
topos In mathematics, a topos (, ; plural topoi or , or toposes) is a category that behaves like the category of sheaves of sets on a topological space (or more generally: on a site). Topoi behave much like the category of sets and possess a notio ...
'', or literary theme, in which a wise ruler, a lover of history and literature, wishes to preserve for posterity the grand deeds of his reign. William's claims of impartiality are also a typical ''topos'' in ancient and medieval historical writing. His depiction of Baldwin IV as a hero is an attempt "to vindicate the politics of his own party and to blacken those of its opponents." As mentioned above, William was opposed to Baldwin's mother Agnes of Courtenay, Patriarch Heraclius, and their supporters; his interpretation of events during Baldwin's reign was previously taken as fact almost without question. In the mid twentieth century, Marshall W. Baldwin,
Steven Runciman Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman ( – ), known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume '' A History of the Crusades'' (1951–54). He was a strong admirer of the Byzantine Empire. His history's negativ ...
, and Hans Eberhard Mayer were influential in perpetuating this point of view, although the more recent re-evaluations of this period by Vessey, Peter Edbury and Bernard Hamilton have undone much of William's influence. An often-noted flaw in the ''Historia'' is William's poor memory for dates. "Chronology is sometimes confused, and dates are given wrongly", even for basic information such as the regnal dates of the kings of Jerusalem. For example, William gives the date of Amalric's death as 11 July 1173, when it actually occurred in 1174. Despite his biases and errors, William "has always been considered one of the greatest medieval writers." Runciman wrote that "he had a broad vision; he understood the significance of the great events of his time and the sequence of cause and effect in history." Christopher Tyerman calls him "the historian's historian", and "the greatest crusade historian of all," and Bernard Hamilton says he "is justly considered one of the finest historians of the Middle Ages". As the ''
Dictionary of the Middle Ages The ''Dictionary of the Middle Ages'' is a 13-volume encyclopedia of the Middle Ages published by the American Council of Learned Societies between 1982 and 1989. It was first conceived and started in 1975 with American medieval historian Jos ...
'' says, "William's achievements in assembling and evaluating sources, and in writing in excellent and original Latin a critical and judicious (if chronologically faulty) narrative, make him an outstanding historian, superior by medieval, and not inferior by modern, standards of scholarship."Babbitt, p. 643.


References


Sources


Primary

* William of Tyre, ''A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea'', trans. E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey. Columbia University Press, 1943.


Secondary

* John Carl Andressohn, ''The Ancestry and Life of Godfrey of Bouillon''. Indiana University Publications, Social Science Series 5, 1947. * Susan M. Babbitt, "William of Tyre." ''
Dictionary of the Middle Ages The ''Dictionary of the Middle Ages'' is a 13-volume encyclopedia of the Middle Ages published by the American Council of Learned Societies between 1982 and 1989. It was first conceived and started in 1975 with American medieval historian Jos ...
'', ed.
Joseph Strayer Joseph Reese Strayer (1904–1987) was an American medievalist historian. He was a student of and mentored by Charles Homer Haskins, America's first prominent medievalist historian. Life Strayer taught at Princeton University for many decades, st ...
. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989, vol. 12. * Marshall W. Baldwin, "The Decline and Fall of Jerusalem, 1174–1189." ''A History of the Crusades'' (gen. ed.
Kenneth M. Setton Kenneth Meyer Setton (June 17, 1914 in New Bedford, Massachusetts – February 18, 1995 in Princeton, New Jersey) was an American historian and an expert on the history of medieval Europe, particularly the Crusades. Early life, education a ...
), vol. 1: The First Hundred Years (ed. Marshall W. Baldwin). University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. * Malcolm Barber, ''The Trial of the Templars''. Cambridge University Press, 1993. * Frederic Duncalf, "The First Crusade: Clermont to Constantinople." ''A History of the Crusades'' (gen. ed. Kenneth M. Setton), vol. 1: The First Hundred Years (ed. Marshall W. Baldwin). University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. * Peter W. Edbury and John G. Rowe, "William of Tyre and the Patriarchal election of 1180." ''The English Historical Review'' 93 (1978), repr. ''Kingdoms of the Crusaders: From Jerusalem to Cyprus'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Series Studies, 1999), pp. 1–25. * Peter W. Edbury and John G. Rowe, ''William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East''. Cambridge University Press, 1988. * Peter W. Edbury, "Propaganda and faction in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the background to Hattin." ''Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria'', ed. Maya Shatzmiller (Leiden: Brill, 1993), repr. in Kingdoms of the Crusaders: From Jerusalem to Cyprus (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Series Studies, 1999), pp. 173–189. * Bernard Hamilton, ''The Leper King and his Heirs''.
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...
, 2000. * Charles Homer Haskins, ''The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century''. Harvard University Press, 1927; repr. Meridian Books, 1966. * R. B. C. Huygens, "Guillaume de Tyr étudiant: un chapître (XIX, 12) de son Histoire retrouvé." ''Latomus'' 21 (1962), pp. 811–829. * R. B. C. Huygens, "Editing William of Tyre." ''Sacris Erudiri'' 27 (1984), pp. 461–473. * G. A. Loud and J. W. Cox, "The 'Lost' Autobiographical Chapter of William of Tyre's Chronicle (Book XIX.12)." ''The Crusades: An Encyclopedia'', ed. Alan V. Murray (ABC-Clio, 2006), vol. 4, Appendix: Texts and Documents #4, pp. 1305–1308. * Hans E. Mayer, ''The Crusades'', 2nd ed., trans. John Gillingham. Oxford University Press, 1988. * Alan V. Murray, "William of Tyre and the origin of the Turks: on the sources of the Gesta Orientalium Principum," in ''Dei gesta Per Francos: Études sur les crioisades dédiées à Jean Richard/Crusade Studies in Honour of Jean Richard'', edd. Michel Balard, Benjamin Z. Kedar and Jonathan Riley-Smith (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), pp. 217–229. * Alan V. Murray, "William of Tyre." ''The Crusades: An Encyclopedia'', ed. Alan V. Murray (ABC-Clio, 2006), vol. 4. * Helen J. Nicholson, "William of Tyre." ''Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'', ed. Kelly Boyd. Taylor & Francis, 1999, vol. 2. *
Steven Runciman Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman ( – ), known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume '' A History of the Crusades'' (1951–54). He was a strong admirer of the Byzantine Empire. His history's negativ ...
, ''A History of the Crusades'', volume 1: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press, 1951. * Steven Runciman, ''A History of the Crusades'', volume 2: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East. Cambridge University Press, 1952. * R. C. Schwinges, "William of Tyre, the Muslim enemy, and the problem of tolerance." ''Tolerance and Intolerance. Social Conflict in the Age of the Crusades'', ed. Michael Gervers and James M. Powell, Syracuse University Press, 2001. * Christopher Tyerman, ''The Invention of the Crusades''. University of Toronto Press, 1998. * Christopher Tyerman, ''God's War: A New History of the Crusades''. Penguin, 2006. * Jacques Verger, "The birth of the universities". '' A History of the University in Europe'', vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, ed. Hilde de Ridder-Symoens. Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 47–55. * D. W. T. C. Vessey, "William of Tyre and the art of historiography." ''Mediaeval Studies'' 35 (1973), pp. 433–455.


Further reading


Primary sources

* ''Willemi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon'', ed. R. B. C. Huygens. 2 vols. ''Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medievalis'', vols. 63 & 63a. Turnholt: Brepols, 1986. Latin text with introduction and notes in French. * ''L'Estoire d'Eracles empereur et la conqueste de la terre d'Outremer'', in
Recueil des historiens des croisades {{italic title The ''Recueil des historiens des croisades'' (trans: ''Collection of the Historians of the Crusades'') is a major collection of several thousand medieval documents written during the Crusades. The documents were collected and publis ...
, Historiens occidentaux, vols. I-II (1844, 1859). * J. A. Giles, trans. ''
Roger of Wendover Roger of Wendover (died 6 May 1236), probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century. At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell o ...
's Flowers of History''. London, 1849. * ''La Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier'', ed. Louis de Mas Latrie. Paris, 1871. * ''Guillaume de Tyr et ses continuateurs'', ed.
Alexis Paulin Paris Alexis Paulin Paris (25 March 180013 February 1881) was a French scholar and author. Life Paris was born at Avenay (Marne). He studied classics in Reims and law in Paris. He published in 1824 an ''Apologie pour l'école romantique'' (''In Def ...
. Paris, 1879–1880. * Margaret Ruth Morgan, ''La continuation de Guillaume de Tyr (1184–1197)''. Paris, 1982. * Helen J. Nicholson, ed. ''The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: The Itinerarium Peregrinorum and the Gesta Regis Ricardi''. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997. * Janet Shirley, ''Crusader Syria in the Thirteenth Century: The Rothelin Continuation of the History of William of Tyre with part of the Eracles or Acre text''. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999.


Secondary sources

*
Thomas Asbridge Thomas Scott Asbridge (born 1969) is a historian at Queen Mary University of London, a position he has held since 1999. He is the author of ''The First Crusade: A New History'' (2004), a book which describes the background, events, and consequences ...
, ''The First Crusade: A New History''. Oxford University Press, 2004. * * R. H. C. Davis, "William of Tyre." ''Relations Between East and West in the Middle Ages'', ed. Derek Baker (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973), pp. 64–76. * Peter W. Edbury, "The French translation of William of Tyre's ''Historia'': the manuscript tradition." ''Crusades'' 6 (2007). * Bernard Hamilton, "William of Tyre and the Byzantine Empire." ''Porphyrogenita: Essays on the History and Literature of Byzantium and the Latin East in Honour of Julian Chrysostomides'', eds. Charalambos Dendrinos, Jonathan Harris, Eirene Harvalia-Crook, and Judith Herrin (Ashgate, 2003). * Philip Handyside, ''The Old French William of Tyre''. Brill, 2015. * Rudolf Hiestand, "Zum Leben und Laufbahn Wilhelms von Tyrus." ''Deutsches Archiv'' 34 (1978), pp. 345–380. *
Conor Kostick Conor Kostick (born 26 June 1964) is an Irish historian and writer living in Dublin. He is the author of many works of history and fiction. Works '' Epic'' was his first novel and was awarded a place on the International Board on Books for Yo ...
, "William of Tyre, Livy and the Vocabulary of Class." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 65.3 (2004), 352–367. * Hans E. Mayer, "Guillaume de Tyr à l'école." ''Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Dijon'' 117 (1985–86), repr. ''Kings and Lords in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Studies Series, 1994), pp. 257–265. * Hans E. Mayer, "Zum Tode Wilhelms von Tyrus." ''Archiv für Diplomatik'' 5–6 (1959–1960), pp. 182–201. * Margaret Ruth Morgan, ''The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre''. Oxford University Press, 1973. * Hans Prutz, "Studien über Wilhelm von Tyrus." ''Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde'' 8 (1883), pp. 91–132.


External links


Excerpts from the ''Historia''
from the
Internet Medieval Sourcebook The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the Fordham University History Department and Center for Middle Ages, Medieval Studies. It is a web site with modern, medieval and ancient primary source documents, maps, secondary sources, Bi ...

Fiasco at Damascus 1148
from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook

from the
Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...
, via
The Latin Library The Latin Library is a website that collects public domain Latin texts. It is run by William L. Carey, adjunct professor of Latin and Roman Law at George Mason University. The texts have been drawn from different sources, are not intended for ...

Latin version
from Crusades-Encyclopedia.com
Latin version with concordance
from Intertext.com

from
Internet Medieval Sourcebook The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the Fordham University History Department and Center for Middle Ages, Medieval Studies. It is a web site with modern, medieval and ancient primary source documents, maps, secondary sources, Bi ...

English translation
by E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey, from ACLS Humanities E-Books (login required) {{featured article 1130s births 1186 deaths 12th-century historians 12th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Kingdom of Jerusalem Canon law jurists Crusade literature 12th-century Latin writers 12th-century jurists Ambassadors to the Byzantine Empire