Temple, Acre

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

• The Temple compound at the south-western point of Acre, with its tower and sea frontage
• Houses, shops and rents in the city (not pinned)

How it was acquired

Settled at Acre after the city's recapture in July 1191.

How things stand that morning

Held.

Wealth

Rents in Acre and the order's revenues from Europe; the port.

Threats

• Factional strife inside Acre
• Rivalry with the Hospitallers

Advocates and rivals

King Aimery; the Hospitallers; the Italian communes with their own quarters.

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. December 1200Gilbert Horal dies at the head of the order; Philippe du Plessis follows in 1201.Depends on: His natural death. Stopped by: Nothing likely.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The campaign notes do not cover the Latin East; everything here is added research. The Temple's site in Acre is general reference, not checked in a page read here (Wikipedia's Acre article describes the Hospitaller halls but not the Temple).

On the map: A small disc for an urban compound.

Primary sources for Kingdom of Jerusalem

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 Book of the Two Gardens, on the Reigns of Nur al-Din and Saladin, and its Sequel, Abu Shama (Shihab al-Din Abd al-Rahman al-Maqdisi) (about 1240 to 1267, at Damascus). The Rawdatayn ends with Saladin's death in 1193 and matters for 1200 as the store of Imad al-Din al-Isfahani's lost al-Barq al-Shami and of al-Qadi al-Fadil's letters, quoted at length, which describe the Ayyubid princes, the Jazira and the frontier a few years earlier. 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 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
• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. 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 Eloquent Exposition of the Conquest of Jerusalem, Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (al-Katib) (about 1192 to 1193). Saladin's secretary's ornate account of the conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade, ending with Saladin's death in 1193. Read online
• The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad (after 1193, probably between about 1198 and 1228, at Aleppo). Ends with Saladin's death in March 1193 and so gives no event of 1200, but it is the formative portrait of the Ayyubid house of 1200: al-Adil, al-Afdal, al-Aziz and al-Zahir Ghazi as Saladin's lieutenants, the Mosul and Jazira campaigns, the war of Acre and the treaty of Jaffa of 1192. 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

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