Templar of Tyre (French : Templier de Tyr) is the conventional designation of the anonymous 14th-century historian who compiled the Old French chronicle known as the Deeds of the Cypriots (French: Gestes des Chiprois). The Deeds was written between about 1315 and 1320 on Cyprus and presents a history of the Crusader states and the Kingdom of Cyprus from 1132 down to 1309 as well as an account of the trials of the Templars in 1314. [1] It is divisible into three parts and the third, which is the original work of the compiler, is the most important source for the final years of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and one of only two eyewitness accounts of the fall of Acre in 1291. [2]
All that can be known of the anonymous author/compiler must be derived from the text of the Deeds itself. The designation Templar of Tyre, implying that the author/compiler was a member of the Knights Templar resident in Tyre, has long been recognised as ungrounded. It was based on his evident association with Guillaume de Beaujeu, master of the Templars from 1273 until 1291, and his long residence in Tyre between 1269 and 1283. In fact, he is unlikely to have been a Templar knight himself since he would have been arrested along with all the other Templars in Cyprus in 1308. [3]
The author was born about 1255 and would have been no more than fifteen years of age when he was a page of Margaret of Antioch-Lusignan in 1269. He served her as a page for one year and was present at her wedding in Tyre to John of Montfort in 1269. As Margaret was the sister of King Hugh III of Cyprus, it is likely that her pages were drawn from the Cypriot nobility and that "Templar of Tyre" was born in Cyprus to a lesser noble family. [3]
The author was fluent in Arabic and translated letters from the Egyptian sultan al-Ashraf Khalil to Guillaume de Beaujeu into French. [3]
The Deeds is preserved in a single Cypriot manuscript (MS Torino, Biblioteca Reale, Varia 433) that was copied in 1343 for the head of the Mimars family by his prisoner, John le Miege, in the castle of Kyrenia. Both the beginning and end of the text are missing. The text probably originally began with Creation, but in its present state it begins in 1132. [1] Likewise, the narrative ends abruptly in mid-1309 but originally extended a little further. Probably it did not go further than 1321, almost certainly no further than 1324. [2]
The three divisions of the work are based on different sources. The first, which takes the narrative down to 1224, is derived from the Annales de Terre Sainte . The second, which covers the years 1223–1242 and the War of the Lombards, is derived from the History of the War between the Emperor Frederick and Sir John of Ibelin by Philip of Novara and also contains five poems written by Philip on the war. The third makes use of the Estoire d'Eracles , which it calls the Livre dou conquest, to fill in the period down to 1270, after which the compiler makes use of his own memory and oral testimony to write an original account of the final years of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the following two decades on Cyprus. Although the surviving text is cut off in mid-1309, it does contain a detailed report on the trial of the Templars in 1314. [1]
Jacques de Molay, also spelled "Molai", was the 23rd and last grand master of the Knights Templar, leading the order sometime before 20 April 1292 until it was dissolved by order of Pope Clement V in 1312. Though little is known of his actual life and deeds except for his last years as Grand Master, he is one of the best known Templars.
Hugh III, also called Hugh of Antioch-Lusignan and the Great, was the king of Cyprus from 1267 and king of Jerusalem from 1268. Born into the family of the princes of Antioch, he effectively ruled as regent for underage kings Hugh II of Cyprus and Conrad III of Jerusalem for several years. Prevailing over the claims of his cousin Hugh of Brienne, he succeeded both young monarchs upon their deaths and appeared poised to be an effective political and military leader.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, one of the Crusader states that was created in 1099, was divided into a number of smaller seigneuries. According to the 13th-century jurist John of Ibelin, the four highest crown vassals in the kingdom proper were the count of Jaffa and Ascalon, the prince of Galilee, the lord of Sidon, and the lord of Oultrejordain.
Ernoul was a squire of Balian of Ibelin who wrote an eyewitness account of the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. This was later incorporated into an Old French history of Crusader Palestine now known as the Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer, often abbreviated Ernoul-Bernard. The chronicle covers the years from 1100 until 1228. A few manuscripts copied for Bernard, treasurer of Corbie Abbey, extend the narrative down to 1232.
Amalric, Lord of Tyre, also called Amalric of Lusignan or Amaury de Lusignan was a prince and statesman of the House of Lusignan, a younger son of King Hugh III of Cyprus and Isabella of the House of Ibelin. He was given the title of Lord of Tyre in 1291, shortly before the city of Tyre fell to the Mamluks of Egypt. He is often but incorrectly called the Prince of Tyre.
The Kingdom of Cyprus, as an offshoot of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, maintained many of the same offices, such as: seneschal, constable, marshal, admiral, Chamberlain, and chancellor.
The Siege of Acre took place in 1291 and resulted in the Crusaders' losing control of Acre to the Mamluks. It is considered one of the most important battles of the period. Although the crusading movement continued for several more centuries, the capture of the city marked the end of further crusades to the Levant. When Acre fell, the Crusaders lost their last major stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. They still maintained a fortress at the northern city of Tartus, engaged in some coastal raids, and attempted an incursion from the tiny island of Ruad; but, when they lost that, too, in a siege in 1302, the Crusaders no longer controlled any part of the Holy Land.
The War of Saint Sabas (1256–1270) was a conflict between the rival Italian maritime republics of Genoa and Venice, over control of Acre, in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Thibaud Gaudin was the Grand Master of the Knights Templar from August 1291 until his death in April 1292.
Balian III of Beirut was the Lord of Beirut, the second of his family, from 1236, and a son of the famous "Old Lord" John of Ibelin, by his second wife Melisende of Arsuf. From his father he assumed the leadership of the nobility in the War of the Lombards, fought against the agents of the Emperor Frederick II.
Balian of Ibelin was the Lord of Arsuf from 1258 until the early 1260s, when he leased it to the Knights Hospitaller. He was the son and successor of John, Lord of Arsuf and Constable of Jerusalem. At the time when he leased/rented it to the hospital, his fief of Arsuf was worth six knights' fees and twenty sergeants'; the Hospital took up his obligations with the exception of the servise de cors.
Jean de Villiers was the twenty-second grand master of the Knights Hospitaller, serving from 1285 until 1293. He was elected Grand Master after the death of Nicolas Lorgne. De Villiers was Prior of France beginning in 1282 and he remained in France to deal with existing problems of the Order. Jacques de Taxi became Grand Master ad interim, perhaps through 27 June 1286, while awaiting the arrival of the newly elected Grand Master in the Holy Land. De Villiers was present at the Siege of Acre in 1291, but escaped just before the city fell to the Mamluks. He was succeeded by Odon de Pins.
The War of the Lombards (1228–1243) was a civil war in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus between the "Lombards", the representatives of the Emperor Frederick II, largely from Lombardy, and the Eastern aristocracy led first by the Ibelins and then by the Montforts. The war was provoked by Frederick's attempt to control the regency for his young son, Conrad II of Jerusalem. Frederick and Conrad represented the Hohenstaufen dynasty.
In 1307, members of the Knights Templar in the Kingdom of France were suddenly charged with heresy and arrested after their leader, Master Jacques de Molay, had recently come to France for meetings with Pope Clement V. Many, including their leader, were burned at the stake while others were sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. The events in France led to a series of trials in other locations, not all of which had the same outcome.
Requiem is a novel by Robyn Young set during the end of the ninth and final crusade. It was first published by E.P. Dutton in 2008.
Philip of Ibelin was Seneschal of the Kingdom of Cyprus. As one of the sons of Philippa Barlais and her husband Guy of Ibelin, he was a member of the house of Ibelin.
Margaret of Antioch-Lusignan, also known as Margaret of Tyre, was an Outremer noblewoman who ruled the Lordship of Tyre in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. A member of the House of Antioch-Lusignan, she married John of Montfort, Lord of Tyre, and was granted rule of the city as widow in 1284. She concluded a truce with the Egyptian sultan Al-Mansur Qalawun and ruled until 1291, when she ceded the lordship and moved to Cyprus.
Guy II or Guido II, surnamed Embriaco, was the lord of Gibelet from about 1271 until his death.
The fall of Outremer describes the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the end of the last European Crusade to the Holy Land in 1272 until the final loss in 1302. The kingdom was the center of Outremer—the four Crusader states—formed after the First Crusade in 1099 and reached its peak in 1187. The loss of Jerusalem in that year began the century-long decline. The years 1272–1302 are fraught with many conflicts throughout the Levant as well as the Mediterranean and Western European regions, and many Crusades were proposed to free the Holy Land from Mamluk control. The major players fighting the Muslims included the kings of England and France, the kingdoms of Cyprus and Sicily, the three Military Orders and Mongol Ilkhanate. Traditionally, the end of Western European presence in the Holy Land is identified as their defeat at the Siege of Acre in 1291, but the Christian forces managed to hold on to the small island fortress of Ruad until 1302.