Military orders · Kingdom of Jerusalem · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Teutonic house, Acre

Merchants of Lübeck and Bremen founded a field hospital at the siege of Acre in 1190.

Celestine III recognised it in 1192, and in 1198 it became a military order on the Templar model, which Innocent III confirmed in February 1199 (campaign notes). King Aimery gave the brothers the Gate of St Nicholas in Acre. On 1 January 1200 the order is small and new: a hospital, a house and a gate tower in Acre, with the first gifts coming in from the Empire.

Who holds it

Name
Heinrich Walpot
Title
Master of the German Hospital of St Mary (Teutonic Order)
Since
1198
Confidence
medium

From a rich Mainz family; master since the hospital became a military order in 1198. In 1199 he received a copy of the Templar rule from Gilbert Horal on behalf of Innocent III. Wikipedia gives his death as 24 September 1200 at Acre; Otto von Kerpen follows (general reference). Little else is known of him.

What it holds

  • The hospital and house in Acre
  • The Gate of St Nicholas, granted by King Aimery
  • First donations in the Empire and Italy (not drawn)

How it was acquired

Founded 1190; gate granted by King Aimery (date not pinned, 1198-99).

How things stand that morning

Held.

Wealth

Alms and gifts; little land yet. Montfort and the order's great castles come only from 1220.

Threats

  • Dependence on German crusaders and donors
  • Rivalry with the older orders

Advocates and rivals

The Templars and Hospitallers, jealous of a third order; King Aimery, its patron.

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. 24 September 1200 (Wikipedia)Heinrich Walpot dies at Acre; Otto von Kerpen succeeds as master.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. Foundation and the St Nicholas gate are from Wikipedia (Teutonic Order; Aimery of Cyprus); the gate's position is approximate.

On the map: A small disc; the gate's exact position is not pinned.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Teutonic Order (en.wikipedia)
  2. Heinrich Walpot von Bassenheim (en.wikipedia)
  3. Aimery of Cyprus (en.wikipedia)
  4. Acre, Israel (en.wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.