Everything about Gerard De Ridefort totally explained
Gerard of Ridefort (died
October 1,
1189) was Grand Master of the
Knights Templar from the end of
1184 until his death.
Gerard of Ridefort is thought probably to have been of
Flemish origin, although some
nineteenth-century writers suggested an
Anglo-Norman background, apparently through misreading his designation as "of
Bideford". It is uncertain when he arrived in the
Kingdom of Jerusalem. He appears in the charter record in the service of
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem in the late 1170s, and by
22 October 1179 held the rank of
Marshal of the kingdom.
It seems that he expected
Raymond III of Tripoli to give him the hand of an available heiress. However, when Cécile Dorel inherited her father's coastal fief of
Botrun in the
County of Tripoli, Raymond married her (before March
1181) to Plivain or Plivano, the nephew of a
Pisan merchant, for a bride-price of 10,000 bezants. By the mid-
thirteenth century, when the
Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (the so-called
Chronicle of Ernoul) was compiled, the story of the bride of Botrun had evolved into a fanciful legend in which Plivain's uncle put the young lady (there renamed Lucie) on the scales, and offered Raymond her weight in gold, to obtain the marriage.
Gerard fell seriously ill, after which he took vows as a Templar. By June
1183 he held the rank of
seneschal of the Order. He was elected Grand Master in late
1184 or early
1185, after the death of
Arnold of Torroja in
Verona.
Gerard continued to hold a grudge against Raymond of Tripoli, which influenced some of his political manœuvrings. In
1186, when
Baldwin V of Jerusalem died, Gerard took the side of
Queen Sibylla and her husband
Guy of Lusignan in the ensuing succession struggle. Raymond and his allies the
Ibelin family were the leaders of the opposing faction, who supported the claim of Sibylla's younger half-sister
Isabella.
In the crisis of
1187, Gerard used the money sent by
Henry II of England and deposited with the Templars in Jerusalem to Jerusalem to hire additional troops for the
arrière ban to defend the
Kingdom of Jerusalem from
Saladin. (Henry had sent the funds for his own future crusading plans, in penance for the murder of
Thomas Becket: some of it was deposited with the Templars, some with the
Hospitallers, in Jerusalem and Tyre). Gerard and fewer than 100 Templars, together with some Hospitallers, attacked Saladin at the
Battle of Cresson; Saladin, however, had over 5000 men. The Hospitaller Grand Master
Roger de Moulins was killed; Gerard, though wounded, was one of the few survivors. Gerard's report of the battle was the source for a short narrative written by
Pope Urban III to
Baldwin of Exeter,
archbishop of Canterbury.
In July of the same year Gerard led the Templars at the
Battle of Hattin. Saladin had captured
Tiberias and Guy was contemplating a march on the city to retake it. Raymond advised him to wait for Saladin to come to them, since they were in a well-defended, well-watered position, and would have to cross a dry open plain to reach Tiberias. Gerard opposed this, and convinced Guy to continue the march. He was supported by
Reginald of Chatillon, a fellow enemy of Raymond.
The Crusaders ended up trapped on the dry plain and were defeated on
July 4. Raymond and several other nobles escaped, but Gerard, Guy, and Raynald were captured by Saladin. The rest of the Templar prisoners were executed. Gerard remained a prisoner until 1188, during which time his Order was commanded by Brother Thierry (Terricus) from
Tyre.
Gerard was given the condition by Saladin that, if he could convince a Templar fortress to surrender peacfully, he'd be set free. He succeeded and on his release went to
Tortosa, where he ably led the Templars' defence of their castle, which held out after the fall of the town to Saladin's siege forces. Having taken back control of his order from Thierry, he seems to have seized the remainder of Henry II's money which had been left with the Templars in Tyre. This provoked a complaint from the city's defender,
Conrad of Montferrat, in letters of 20 September 1188 to
Baldwin of Exeter and
Frederick Barbarossa: "
...graver still, the Master of the Temple has made off with the King of England’s alms".
In 1189, he again joined forces with Guy, taking the Templars to the
Siege of Acre. He was either killed in battle or executed after being taken prisoner by Saladin on October 1.
Sources & Bibliography
- Brevis Regni Ierosolymitani Historia, in Annali Genovesi di Caffaro e de’ suoi Continuatori, ed. Luigi Tommaso Belgrano (Fonti per la Storia d’Italia, no. 11), vol. 1 (Genoa, 1890), pp. 127-49.
- De Expugnatione Terræ Sanctæ per Saladinum Libellus, in Ralph of Coggeshall, Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum, ed. Joseph Stevenson (London, 1875).
- Peter W. Edbury, The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade: Sources in Translation. Ashgate, 1996. [OldFrench Continuation of William of Tyre; this edition includes translation of Urban III's letter on the battle of Cresson.]
- Reinhold Röhricht (ed.), Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani MXCVII-MCCXCI, and Additamentum (Berlin, 1893-1904)
- Roger of Howden, Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti Abbatis, ed. William Stubbs (London, 1867).
- Roger of Howden, Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houedene, ed. William Stubbs (London, 1868-71)
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