f there ever was a Grand Master who
was a controversial figure, we are talking about Gerard de Ridefort. Before
he arrived in Latin Syria to seek his fortune and personal gain, he was just
another French knight on the loose. While in Tripoli, he befriended both
King Amaury and Raymond of Tripoli, the latter even to the extent that Raymond
promised Gerard the next available good marriage. However, Raymond was forced
to eat his word for lunch one day, when a very lucrative marriage deal was
available for Gerard, but a merchant from Pisa arrived and promised Raymond
the weight of the bride in gold. This, apparently, was more than eternal
gratitude Gerard had to offer, and the lady in question went to Plivain of
Pisa. Gerard was pretty disappointed at this development and left immediately
for Jerusalem. While there, he was ill for some time and after that joined
the Templars. I don't know whether the two events were related.
he big break for Gerard came in 1184,
when the then Grand Master Arnold de Toroga died. Gerard was elected. He
had his revenge in 1186, when he sponsored the coronation of Baldwin IV's
sister, Sibylla, against the wishes of Raymond and other potentates. This
helped to create a dangerous rift in the leadership of the Latin Kingdom.
Gerard sure knew the power of the order he commanded and he was not the easiest
to be persuaded into projects that were not playing into his hands.
n 1187 Gerard was instrumental in
two disastrous military exercises, at Nazareth
and Hattin. Having escaped with just his life
from Hattin, Gerard set about to collect the remnants of the Order, severely
diminished by the disasters, and continued upon his chosen management style.
In 1188 he again was the center of a controversy when he refused to return
the remaining assets paid to the Order by Henry II for penance after killing
Thomas a Becket. This, to be fair, was also due to the
general financial principles of the Order. And
the final chapter of Gerard's life was written in 1189 when he led the Order
along king Guy of Jerusalem to lay siege on Acre.
t was August 1189, and king Guy decided
that he should try and acquire Acre from the Muslims. In September the Christians
successfully repelled a small Muslim army that tried to relieve the siege,
and they rejoiced in this feat so much that they failed to see that
Saladin was only three weeks' march away, with
a substantially bigger army. When he arrived, the Templars took to holding
the left wing of the Christian army under their command. For some time, the
battle was a draw, but the Christians saw that they could not prevail, and
started to discuss retreating. This was unacceptable for Gerard, and for
a while he took on the Muslim army by himself, as the only Christian refusing
to retreat. This gave some amusement to the baffled Muslims, who, after letting
Gerard fight them for a second or two, captured him and brought him to Saladin.
He was not amused, but rather had Gerard decapitated on the spot, thus ending
the life of a foolhardy Templar Grand Master.
he legacy of Gerard was not only a
severely decimated Templar Order, but also the basis for accusations against
the Order in years to come. His haughty actions were seen as examples of
wrongdoings of the Order that brought harm to the Latin
Kingdom in whole, and certainly some of that was true, given the meaning
of Templars to the security of the Franks' Holy Land. I personally wonder
about his character; was he just lusting for glory, or was his instinct for
self-protection somewhat deficient in the light of the silly attacks at Nazareth
and Acre. If only I knew.
