Sidon

Who he is

Name

Reginald (Renaud) Grenier

Title

Lord of Sidon

Since

1171; dispossessed 1187; restored 1197

Born

1130s (not pinned); so in his sixties

Family

Son of Gerard, lord of Sidon (died before 1171). His first wife was Agnes of Courtenay, mother of King Baldwin IV; after his release in 1190 he married Helvis of Ibelin (born about 1178), the queen's half-sister. Children: Balian (birth not pinned; a child in 1200), Agnes (later wife of Ralph of Tiberias) and Euphemia (later wife of Odo of Saint-Omer, constable of Tripoli); the Lignages make all three Helvis's children, some modern genealogies make the daughters Agnes of Courtenay's.

Confidence

high

Lord of Sidon 1171-1187 and again 1197-1202 (Wikipedia list); died 1202 (Wikipedia, no exact date). Alive on 1 January 1200 on all accounts used.

Overlord

King Aimery and Queen Isabella.

What it holds

• The town of Sidon (ruined, walls slighted by the Ayyubids before the Franks came back: when exactly is not pinned) and its harbour.
• A share of the coastal plain from the Damour river to the Litani, with Sarepta (Sarafand), under the condominium of the truce of 1198.
• Claims: Beaufort (surrendered to Saladin in 1190), the Shuf and the Cave of Tyron in the mountains, all Ayyubid.

How it was acquired

Inherited Sidon from his father before 1171; restored in 1197 when the German crusade and Aimery took Beirut and recovered Sidon; the truce of 1198 confirmed a divided Sidon.

Allies and rivals

Brother-in-law of the constable John of Ibelin and of Hugh of Tiberias; his daughter Agnes later marries Ralph of Tiberias. A long-time negotiator with the Ayyubids, he is the Frank they know best.

How things stand that morning

Lord of the Frankish half of Sidon on 1 January 1200. His son Balian is a child; Reginald dies in 1202 and Balian succeeds under his mother's care.

Wealth

Small: the rents of a ruined port and a shared plain. The sources used give no figures.

Military

No standing castle is recorded at Sidon in 1200 (the sea castle is built in 1228 and the land castle later); Reginald's own knights only.

Threats

• Any breach of the truce would put the shared district back into war at once.
• His age: a minority is near.

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. 1202 (later)Reginald dies; his son Balian succeeds as a minor, and in September 1204 al-Adil gives up his share of Sidon.Depends on: Natural course; the renewal of the truce in 1204. Stopped by: Renewed war.

Places of note

• Sarepta (Sarafand): Coastal village of the shared district.
• Beaufort (Qal'at al-Shaqif), lost 1190: Claimed; Ayyubid.

Where the sources disagree

• Whether Reginald's daughters were Helvis's or Agnes of Courtenay's is disputed (Wikipedia).

Evidence: Reginald's career is well known; the terms of the division of Sidon are known only in outline ('Sidon was divided').

On the map: The division of 1198 is known only as 'Sidon divided'; the drawing gives the town to Reginald and shows the rest of the coastal district as shared.

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.