Baldwin IV defies Saladin – Battle of Montgisard, 1177 – Crusades History

🚩 Related videos:
Battle of Hattin, 1187: https://youtu.be/ndXuRoJd6hQ

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🚩 In 1177, the fragile balance of power in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was under immense strain. King Baldwin IV, known as the “Leper King,” faced the dual challenges of his debilitating illness and the looming threat of Saladin, the formidable Sultan of Egypt and Syria. Saladin’s rise had unified large swaths of the Muslim world, enabling him to wield armies far larger than what the Crusader states could field. His ambition was clear: to weaken and eventually dismantle the Christian foothold in the Levant.

For Jerusalem, the stakes could not have been higher. The kingdom was a small, vulnerable state dependent on reinforcements from Europe, yet these were often slow to arrive. Baldwin’s forces were stretched thin defending castles, towns, and pilgrimage routes vital to the survival of the Christian presence in the Holy Land. In 1177, tensions reached a breaking point as Saladin prepared to strike deep into Crusader territory. A successful campaign would threaten not only Jerusalem’s security but also the very future of the Christian states in the East. The stage was set for a confrontation where faith, survival, and the fate of the Holy Land itself hung precariously in the balance.

📢 Narrated by David McCallion

🎼 Music:
EpidemicSound
Filmstro
Kevin MacLeod

📖 Sources and Citations:
“Medieval Military History” Vol XI – Michael Erhlich (2013)
“The Crusaders in the East: A brief history of the wars of Islam with the Latins in Syria during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries” – W.B.Stevenson (1907)
“The Leper King and his Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem” – Bernard Hamilton (2000)
“God’s Warriors: Knights Templar, Saracens and the Battle for Jerusalem” – Helen Nicholson, David Nicolle (2005)
“Crusader States” – Malcom Barber (2012)
“The Templars and the kings of Jerusalem” – Jochen Burgtorf (2017)
“A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea” – William of Tyre (tr 1943)

Corrections:
00:10 The video analysis of the Battle of Montgisard relies on the research of Michael Erhlich. You can find his excellent analysis in the book “Medieval Military History” Vol XI (published in 2013). I recommend you check out the book, but here’s a brief excerpt:

Michael Erhlich: “Previous studies have hardly referred to the topography of the battlefield. Prawer suggested that Saladin tried to base his defense on the mound, whereas Hamilton wrote that the Muslim army arrived in Tel Gezer;42 both imply that the Franks not only overcame Saladin’s numerical superiority but also began the battle in a position of severe topographical inferiority. Analyses usually attribute the victory to Saladin’s over-confidence and to the lack of discipline within his rank and file. What is suggested here is that there was nothing miraculous in the Frankish victory.

It seems that Saladin underestimated his opponents’ skills. His campaign was initially designed to harass the Franks, not to destroy them. Therefore, he dispersed his army in order to inflict as much damage as possibleon the Frankish kingdom. The Franks, who were unaware of Saladin’s intentions, feared that his plan was more ambitious than this. Therefore, Baldwin decided to risk his army and to initiate a full-scale encounter. Considering the events that preceded the battle, it seems that it was a well calculated risk.

The Muslim army was dispersed, and Saladin did not know the terrain. Baldwin’s maneuver tempted the Muslim leader into battle because a decisive victory could have led to the annihilation of the Frankish army. Saladin assumed that
his army, even if in the morning of 25 November not all his forces were available, was strong enough to win if not to destroy the enemy totally. Saladin was apparently still under the influence of the previous days’ events: a Frankish army had preferred to flee into a fortified city rather than to confront the Muslims. Moreover, the Muslims had enjoyed some local successes during the campaign like the conquest of Ramla. Apparently, he did not realize how his moves were understood by the Frankish side and how desperate they were.

As the battle erupted it became clear that these working hypotheses were not correct. The Frankish leadership choose a battlefield which neutralized the Muslims’ advantages and maximized their own. In these circumstances the results of the battle are not surprising at all.”

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