← Explore on the interactive map
Battle of Montgisard
On 25 November 1177, the sixteen-year-old leper King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem routed Saladin's army marching north from Egypt at Montgisard near Ramla…
Timeline
- 1177Ascalon–Ramla line · LevantSaladin marched north from Egypt intending to seize Ascalon and other places while Jerusalem's forces were dispersed. Baldwin IV, with the aid of nobles like Reynald of Châtillon, hastily assembled some 375 knights and several thousand infantry, maneuvering along the coast to intercept the enemy.
- 1177Montgisard · LevantBaldwin struck while Saladin's troops were scattered foraging and crossing the river. With the True Cross at the forefront, the Knights Templar and Frankish heavy cavalry charged the Ayyubid lines and the Muslim army broke. Saladin escaped by camel under cover of his Mamluk bodyguard, with only about a tenth of his force withdrawing to Egypt with him.
Sources
- Battle of Montgisard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Montgisard
- A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187 — Steven Runciman (1952)
- William of Tyre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum (A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea) — William of Tyre https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/tyre-crusades1.asp