Arsuf

Who he is

Name

Melisende of Arsuf and her husband Thierry d'Orca ('Thierry d'Orguenes' in the Lignages)

Title

Lady of Arsuf, with her husband the lord

Since

After 1192: Henry of Champagne gave Thierry the heiress's hand

Born

Not pinned (Thierry before 1174)

Family

Thierry d'Orca (d'Orgue) was probably a French knight who came East with the Third Crusade in 1190 in the following of Henry of Champagne; he dies in 1207 without surviving heirs. Melisende is called the sister of John, lord of Arsuf, in the Lignages and the daughter of a lord G[uy] of Arsuf in another fmg entry: her parentage is not pinned. As Thierry's widow she married John of Ibelin about 1207-1209 (later).

Confidence

medium

Thierry married Melisende after Henry of Champagne's accession in 1192 and died in 1207 (Wikipedia, Thierry d'Orca), so the couple hold Arsuf on 1 January 1200. No charter of 1199-1200 was found. A different man, Thierry of Termonde (died 1206), should not be confused with him (Wikipedia warning).

Overlord

King Aimery and Queen Isabella.

What it holds

• The town and small harbour of Arsuf.
• The villages of the plain between the Alexander river and the Yarkon (Nahr al-Auja).

How it was acquired

Recovered by the Third Crusade in September 1191; held by Melisende as heiress.

Allies and rivals

Thierry is a man of the late Henry of Champagne, to whom he owes his marriage, so of the Champagne party rather than the Lusignan one; beyond that not pinned.

How things stand that morning

The kingdom's southern march under the truce; Jaffa, across the Yarkon, is Ayyubid.

Wealth

Small: the plain's villages and the harbour; no figures in the sources used.

Military

Town walls (state in 1200 not pinned); no castle yet.

Threats

• First in line for any Ayyubid raid from Jaffa or Ramla if the truce breaks.

Where the sources disagree

• Melisende's parentage: sister of John of Arsuf (Lignages) or daughter of G[uy] of Arsuf (fmg). Her marriage to John of Ibelin: 1207 (Wikipedia) or about 1209 (fmg).

Evidence: The holders are known from the Lignages, fmg and Thierry's dates (married after 1192, died 1207); no charter of 1199-1200 found.

On the map: Bounds approximate.

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.