Margat

Who holds it

Name

Geoffroy de Donjon

Title

Master of the Hospital of St John

Since

January 1193 (elected at a general chapter held at Margat)

Confidence

high

Origin uncertain (Picardy or Auvergne); first named in 1185 as a simple brother in the Holy Land. His mastership is full of disputes, and of agreements, with the Templars. In the summer of 1202 he works with the legate Soffredo to settle the war over Antioch; he dies at Acre in 1202 or early 1203.

What it holds

• Margat castle and its district
• Valania (Baniyas), the coastal town below, whose bishop lives in the castle
• Villages of the coastal strip (extent not pinned)

How it was acquired

From Bertrand le Mazoir in 1186, with Bohemond III's consent (standard account, not checked in a page read here).

How things stand that morning

Held. Antioch's succession is unsettled. In late 1198 the Hospitallers, like the Templars, backed Bohemond IV of Tripoli when he won over the commune of Antioch; they change sides to Raymond-Roupen only later, for promises of land.

Wealth

The coast road and Valania's harbour; the farms of the coastal strip.

Threats

• The war of the Antiochene succession
• Ayyubid Aleppo to the north
• The Assassins

Advocates and rivals

The prince of Antioch, their overlord; Ayyubid Aleppo, which has held Jabala and Latakia to the north since 1188; the Assassins in the mountains to the east.

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

• Margat: Hospitaller castle
• Valania: Coastal town below the castle

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The campaign notes do not cover the Latin East; everything here is added research. Margat as a Hospitaller base in 1193 is from Wikipedia (Geoffroy de Donjon; Knights Hospitaller); the bishop living in the castle from Wikipedia's Baniyas article. The Margat article could not be read (rate limit), so the 1186 sale rests on general reference.

On the map: The district's bounds are not pinned.

Primary sources for Antioch

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 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
• 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
• Calendar of the Acts of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Various, calendared by Reinhold Rohricht (documents 1097 to 1291; calendar published 1893, Additamentum 1904). A chronological calendar of every charter, letter and treaty of the Latin East then known, with date, parties, witnesses and the edition where each is printed. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III (pontifical years 1 to 3, 1198 to 1201), Innocent III (Lotario dei Conti di Segni) and the papal chancery (1198 onwards, year by year). The register for the second and third pontifical years (February 1199 to February 1201) holds the letters that set the eastern stage for 1200: the exchange with Kaloyan of Bulgaria opened in December 1199 and continued through 1200 over union with Rome and a crown, letters to Vukan of Zeta and to Stefan of Serbia, letters to Alexios III and the patriarch John Kamateros pressing for church union and help for the crusade, the preaching commissions and the legation of Peter Capuano, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond and Leo of Armenia, letters to Aimery of Cyprus and Jerusalem, and the French interdict over Ingeborg. Read online

4 more in the sources library for The Latin East and the Ayyubids.