Baghras

Who holds it

Name

Gilbert Horal (Erail)

Title

Master of the Temple

Since

1193

Confidence

high

An Aragonese; master of the Temple in Provence and Aragon until 1190, then grand preceptor of France, elected master in 1193 after Robert de Sablé. He stands by the truces with al-Adil and has made agreements with him that critics call treason; Innocent III, unable to overlook those dealings, has backed the Hospitallers against the Templars in a quarrel over castles. He dies in December 1200; Philippe du Plessis succeeds in 1201.

What it holds

• Claimed: Baghras castle and its district on the Belen pass, occupied by Leo of Armenia

How it was acquired

Templar from the mid-12th century (date not pinned in the sources read).

How things stand that morning

Occupied by Leo of Armenia.

Wealth

Command of the pass and its traffic between Syria and Cilicia.

Advocates and rivals

Leo of Armenia, crowned king in January 1198 or 1199, holds it; his great-nephew Raymond-Roupen is the rival heir to Antioch. Bohemond III, prince of Antioch, was forced in 1194 to accept Leo's possession.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. April 1201Bohemond III dies and the war of the Antiochene succession opens between his son Bohemond IV of Tripoli and his grandson Raymond-Roupen, Leo of Armenia's candidate.Depends on: Bohemond III's natural death. Stopped by: Nothing likely; an earlier death would bring the war into 1200.

Places of note

• Baghras castle: Castle on the Belen pass (position approximate)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The campaign notes do not cover the Latin East; everything here is added research. The surrender of 1188, Leo's seizure and the trap of 1194 are from Wikipedia's article on Bohemond III; the Baghras article could not be read (rate limit). The return in 1216 is general reference.

On the map: A disc for the castle and pass; position approximate.

Primary sources for Cilicia

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Anonymous Syriac Chronicle to 1234, Anonymous (a Syrian Orthodox writer, probably of Edessa) (about 1234 to 1240). An Edessene chronicle independent of Michael the Syrian in its later part, with a secular section reaching 1234 that gives the Jazira, Edessa, Harran, Mardin and Melitene about 1200 under al-Adil's sons and the Artuqids, the Seljuks of Rum, the Armenians of Cilicia and the Franks of Antioch, and a church section to 1207 on the Jacobite succession after Michael's death in 1199. Read online
• The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. Read online
• The Chronicle of Smbat Sparapet (Sempad the Constable), Smbat Sparapet, brother of King Hetum I of Cilicia (about 1270 to 1276). The Cilician court chronicle, drawing on Matthew of Edessa for its early part and on family memory later. Read online
• The Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer, Ernoul, squire of Balian of Ibelin, and later compilers (the 1187 core soon after the event; the whole in its present form 1227 to 1232). The Ibelin household's version of events in Outremer. Read online
• The Cream of the History of Aleppo, Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim (about 1240 to 1260). The annals of Aleppo. Read online
• The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (Eracles), Anonymous continuators, the earliest drawing on Ernoul (about 1220 to 1277; the first continuation (1184 to 1197, the Lyon Eracles) compiled about 1230 from material of the 1190s). For the Latin East at 1200 it narrates the aftermath of the Third Crusade: the truce of 1192, the succession to Jerusalem through Queen Isabella's marriages to Henry of Champagne (died September 1197) and Aimery of Lusignan, Aimery's rule as king of Jerusalem from 1198 while king of Cyprus, the German crusade of 1197 to 1198 and the recovery of Beirut and Sidon, the truce with al-Adil of 1198, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond IV and Leo of Armenia, and the Pisan plot against Aimery. Read online
• History of the Armenians, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1241 to 1265). Written at Getik and Gandzak in the Zakarid lands of Georgian Armenia. Read online
• The Historical Compilation of Vardan Areveltsi, Vardan Areveltsi (about 1267 to 1271). A short universal history that for the 12th and 13th centuries follows Samuel of Ani, Michael the Syrian (which Vardan helped translate into Armenian in 1248) and Kirakos. Read online

6 more in the sources library for Anatolia and the Caucasus.