Tortosa

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

• Tortosa (Tartus): town, port and castle, governed by the Templars since 1152; the cathedral of Our Lady, a pilgrim shrine, is the bishop's church
• Chastel Blanc (Safita): tower-keep and castle in the hills, Templar by 1152
• Farms of the coastal plain and hills round both (extent not pinned)
• Not pinned for 1200: nearby castles such as Arima

How it was acquired

Tortosa from 1152; the standard account has the bishop of Tortosa hand the town over after Nur ad-Din sacked it that year, though the sources read give only the date. Chastel Blanc by 1152.

How things stand that morning

Held. Saladin burned the town of Tortosa in 1188 but the Templar keep held out (standard account). In the quarrel over Antioch the Templars back Bohemond (IV) of Tripoli: in late 1198 he won Antioch's commune over with Templar and Hospitaller support, and Leo of Armenia, patron of the rival heir Raymond-Roupen, keeps the Templars' castle of Baghras (see Baghras).

Wealth

Tortosa's harbour and the pilgrim traffic to Our Lady of Tortosa; the farms of the coastal plain.

Threats

• Ayyubid raids if the truce breaks
• Hospitaller rivalry and papal displeasure at the Templars' dealings with al-Adil
• The earthquake of 20 May 1202 (beyond 1200) that damages Chastel Blanc

Advocates and rivals

The count of Tripoli, Bohemond (IV), their overlord in name; the bishop of Tortosa; the Hospitallers of Krak and Margat, their rivals; the Assassins in the mountains; the Ayyubid lords of Homs and Hama.

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; Philippe du Plessis is elected master in 1201.Depends on: His natural death. Stopped by: Nothing likely.

Places of note

• Templar castle of Tortosa: Castle and keep by the sea
• Our Lady of Tortosa: Cathedral and pilgrim shrine
• Chastel Blanc: Templar tower-keep

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The campaign notes do not cover the Latin East; everything here is added research. The Templar dates come from Wikipedia (Tortosa cathedral, Chastel Blanc, Gilbert Horal). The 1188 siege and the bishop's cession of 1152 are standard accounts not checked in a page read here: the Tartus article could not be read (rate limit). The orders' side in late 1198 is from Wikipedia's article on Raymond-Roupen.

On the map: Drawn as two town districts; the Templars' rural holdings between and around them are not pinned.

Primary sources for Tripoli

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 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
• 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 for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• General Cartulary of the Order of the Hospital, Various, edited by Joseph Delaville Le Roulx (documents 1100 to 1310; published in 4 vols, Paris, 1894 to 1906). Volume 1 (1100 to 1200) and volume 2 (1201 to 1260) print in full the Hospital's charters: royal and baronial grants in Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch and Cilicia, papal bulls, the order's European priories and its agreements with the Temple and the Italians. Read online
• The Rule of the Templars: the Latin Rule, the French Rule and the hierarchical statutes, Anonymous (the Council of Troyes and the order's chapter) (Latin rule 1129; French translation about 1140; hierarchical statutes (retrais) about 1165; further statutes to about 1260). Not a chronicle but the constitution of the Temple as it stood in 1200: the hierarchical statutes describe the master, seneschal, marshal and the commanders of Jerusalem, Tripoli and Antioch, the drawing up of the line of battle, the convent's discipline and the horses, squires and tents allowed to each rank. Read online
• The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, Benjamin of Tudela (about 1173). A generation before 1200 but the only survey of its kind: the Jewish communities and their heads from Navarre through Provence, Italy, Constantinople and the Aegean, Antioch, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, Mosul and Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, with notes on rulers, trades, the exilarch at Baghdad, the Assassins of Syria and Persia, and hearsay on India, Ceylon and China. Read online