Battle of Hattin

Even during the life of the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV , due to the fact that he was mortally ill with leprosy , the heir to the throne was his seven-year-old nephew Baldwin V , and regent - Count Raimund Tripoli . The Earl of Tripoli, using his power, concluded a truce with Saladin for four years. A year later, the young king unexpectedly died, and the heir to the throne had to choose among the two sisters of Baldwin IV: Sibylla and Isabella .

Even before the king’s death, at a council in Acre , the Jerusalem barons took an oath to the still-living Baldwin IV that after his death the throne would only go to the regent and Guy de Lusignan would not become king, and the Pope would decide whether to elect a new ruler, Sibylla or Isabella. Roman , monarchs of the Holy Roman Empire , England and France .

In March 1185, Baldwin IV died. The barons did not wait for an answer from Europe. They were divided into two opposing parties: one party was for crowning Sibylla and her husband Guy de Lusignan; it included the Grand Master of the Templar Order Gerard de Ridfort , the patriarch of Jerusalem and others. The second party was to crown Isabella and her husband Onfroy IV , and it included Balian d'Ibelin , Count Raimund of Tripoli. As a result, on July 20, 1186, Sibylla and Guy de Lusignan were crowned in Jerusalem .

In 1187, a new crusade was discussed at the Council of Barons of the Holy Land in Acre. During this meeting, there was a report that Saladin besieged the city of Tiberius , the stronghold of Count Raymond. A messenger arrived from behind the walls of the besieged fortress from Countess Eshiva of Tripolitan, whose message cried out for help. The count himself knew that the Sultan Salah ad-Din strictly honored the Saracen code of honor, and therefore did not touch the high-born lady. But the great sultan was cunning. To entice the Franks, to knock them out for a hasty, ill-conceived rescue operation - I could not even dream of a bigger Salah ad-Din. Perhaps that is why the messenger without interference interfered with King Guy de Lusignan and the council of barons. The next night, under pressure from the Grand Master of the Knights Templar Gerard de Ridfort , the king decided to help the city. The army marched the next morning.

Guy de Lusignan, king of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and his army opposed the Muslims on Friday morning, July 3, 1187 , advancing from the Sephurian springs to Lake Tiberias . The distance was small - twenty kilometers, but the ten thousandth caravan (according to other sources, the army had a little more than twenty thousand people) of the army stretched for several kilometers.

The sultry and arid July of Palestine was doing its job, and the Crusader troops, with difficulty moving along the scorched area under the scorching sun, did not have time to get to the water by sunset.

It was too late to turn back to the springs and, on the advice of Count Raimund Tripoli, they stopped to rest in a place called Horn of Hattin . As soon as they pitched the camping tents, Saladin ordered his troops to set fire to a dry shrub that grows in abundance on the slopes of the mountains. Acrid smoke obscured the sky, making breathing difficult, and the suffering of the king’s exhausted by the long passage and the heat of the sun was aggravated by the heat of flame burning around the camp. To top it off, the sultan ordered to place jugs near the camp filled with water from Lake Tiberias , emptying them in front of the thirsty crusaders, and then shell the camp with bows and crossbows .

At a council of war assembled by King Guy, a decision was made to immediately attack Saladin’s troops, and Guy de Lusignan’s brother, Amory , began to organize squadrons for the attack.

Raimund Tripoli led additional troops, and upon arrival at the camp he became with his squad at the forefront. According to the tradition that was in those days, the Count of Tripoli, as the lord of the Tiberias lands on which the battle took place, assumed command of the troops, leading the first division. Balian d'Ibelin and Joslen of Edes with their knights covered the rear, creating a rear guard.

However, as soon as the divisions were withdrawn to their positions and built in battle order, six knights from the troops of the Earl of Tripoli named Balduin de Fortuille, Raymond Bac, and Laodicius de Tiberias with their three comrades, "seized by the devilish spirit", fled to Saladin and, suddenly moving to the Saracens, they were informed of all the features of the current situation, intentions and resources of Christians, urging the Sultan to attack the crusaders quickly and unexpectedly first, in order to gain victory. Hearing these words, Saladin ordered his troops to line up in battle formation and move forward towards the knights.

The royal army, seeing the advance of the Saracens, climbed to the top of the mountain, and refused to fight, despite the command of the king, the pleading of the bishops and the demands of the barons.

Raimund Tripoliysky with his division came forward to meet the Muslim squadron, but they split up and created a through passage, which allowed the detachment of knights to go deeper, and then closed their ranks, surrounding the crusaders with a dense ring. Only ten or twelve knights managed to escape, including the Count of Tripoli himself and his four stepsons. Balian d'Ibelin and Zhoslen of Edessky also escaped from the encirclement (according to other sources, did not participate in the battle, was in Acre).

On Saturday, July 4, 1187, "the clouds of death opened and the light faded on this day of sorrow, suffering, grief and destruction." In the battle, which lasted seven hours, about 17,000 crusaders were killed, and King Guy Lusignan, his brother Amory (kingdom stables ), Templar master Gerard de Ridfort, Renault de Chatillon, Honfroix Toronsky and many others were captured. In this battle, the Holy Life-giving Cross of the Lord was also lost.

The defeat under Hattin bled the Templars and Hospitallers , who were the main forces holding back the advance of the Saracens under the leadership of Saladin. Balian d'Ibelin, who managed to escape from captivity, quickly returned to Jerusalem and gathered troops for his defense. In September 1187, Saladin approached Jerusalem. The townspeople thought to resist, so they answered evasively to Saladin’s offer to surrender the city under the condition of granting the besieged freedom. But when the close siege of the city began, the Christians, in the face of a superior army of Saracens, saw the impossibility of resistance and turned to Saladin with peace talks. Saladin agreed to give them freedom and life for the ransom, with the men paying 10 gold coins, women 5 each, children 2 each, after which they all left the city, while retaining their property (which they could take) and weapons. On October 2, 1187, Saladin’s troops entered Jerusalem. In the future, the city for some time again fell into the hands of Christians, but in fact the victory of Saladin at Hattin marked the beginning of the gradual expulsion of Christians from the Holy Land for several centuries.

• The battle of Hattin and the siege of Jerusalem are depicted (not very reliably) in the historical adventure film "The Kingdom of Heaven ."
• The battle of Hattin and the siege of Jerusalem are also shown in the real-time Stronghold Crusader computer strategy.

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• Duggan A, "The Story of the Crusade." London, 1963.
• Runciman S , “A History of the Crusades”, 2 vols. Cambridge, 1952.
• Schlumberger G, "Renaud de Châtillon ..." Paris, 1898.
• "Estoire d'Eracle ..." (via quotations of the authors of the 19-20 centuries)
• "The Crusades", the author and narrator Terry Jones. BBC, 1995

• The Battle of Hattin, 1187 / Per. from English Natalia Boldyreva // Conquest of the Holy Land by Saladin = De Expugatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum / Ed. Joseph Stevenson. London , 1875 .
• The certificate of the Battle of Hatta in 1187, compiled by the ex-franc there, Ernul, written shortly after 1197 / Per. from English Galina Rossi.
• Galina Rossi . The last king of Jerusalem