Raynald of Châtillon (also
Reynald,
Reynold,
Renald, or
Reginald;
French:
Renaud de Châtillon,
old French:
Reynaud de Chastillon) (c. 1125 –
July 4 1187) was a
knight who served in the
Second Crusade and remained in the
Holy Land after its defeat. He ruled as
Prince of Antioch from 1153 to 1160 and through his second marriage became
Lord of Oultrejordain. He was a controversial character in his own lifetime and beyond.
Background
Raynald's origins are obscure;
Du Cange believed he was from
Châtillon-sur-Marne, but according to
Jean Richard, he was a son of
Hervé II of Donzy, and he inherited
Châtillon-sur-Loing sometime before joining the Second Crusade in 1147. Other sources, however, say he was a second son of
Henri I de Châtillon, Lord of
Châtillon-sur-Loing, and wife
Ermengarde de Montjay, dame and heiress of
Montjay. In the east, he entered the service of
Constance of Antioch, whose first husband had died in 1149. She married Raynald in secret in 1153, without consulting her first cousin and liege lord,
Baldwin III of Jerusalem. Neither King Baldwin nor
Aimery of Limoges, the
Latin Patriarch of Antioch, approved of Constance's choice of a husband of such low birth.
In 1156 Raynald claimed that the
Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus had reneged on his promise to pay Raynald a sum of money, and vowed to attack the island of
Cyprus in revenge. When the
Latin Patriarch of Antioch refused to finance this expedition, Raynald had the Patriarch seized, stripped naked, covered in honey, and left in the burning sun on top of the citadel. When the Patriarch was released, he collapsed in exhaustion and agreed to finance Raynald's expedition against Cyprus. Raynald's forces attacked Cyprus, ravaging the island and pillaging its inhabitants.
The Emperor
Manuel I Comnenus raised an army and began a march into Syria. Faced with a much larger and more powerful force, Raynald was forced to grovel, barefoot and shabby, before the emperor's throne for forgiveness. In 1159 Raynald was forced to pay homage to Manuel as punishment for his attack, promising to accept a
Greek Patriarch in Antioch. When Manuel came to Antioch later that year to meet with
Baldwin III,
King of Jerusalem, Raynald was forced to lead Manuel's horse into the city.
Soon after this, in 1160, Raynald was captured by the
Muslims during a plundering raid against the
Syrian and
Armenian peasants of the neighbourhood of
Marash. He was confined at
Aleppo for the next seventeen years. As the stepfather of the Empress
Maria, he was ransomed by Manuel for the extraordinary sum of 120,000
gold dinars (500 kg of gold-worth of 12 500 000 US $ today) in 1176.
Rise to prominence
Raynald served as
Baldwin IV's envoy to Manuel and, because his wife Constance had died in 1163, was rewarded with marriage to another wealthy widow,
Stephanie, the widow of both
Humphrey III of Toron and
Miles of Plancy and the heiress of the
lordship of Oultrejordain, including the castles
Kerak and
Montreal to the southeast of the
Dead Sea. These fortresses controlled the trade routes between
Egypt and
Damascus and gave Raynald access to the
Red Sea. He became notorious for his wanton cruelty at
Kerak, often having his enemies and hostages flung from its castle walls to be dashed to pieces on the rocks below.
In November 1177, at the head of the army of the
kingdom, he helped King Baldwin defeat
Saladin at the
Battle of Montgisard; Saladin narrowly escaped. In 1181 the temptation of the caravans which passed by Kerak proved too strong and, in spite of a truce between Saladin and the king, Raynald began to plunder. Saladin demanded reparations from Baldwin IV, but Baldwin replied that he was unable to control his unruly vassal. As a result, war broke out between Saladin and the Latin kingdom in 1182. In the course of the hostilities, Raynald launched ships on the
Red Sea, partly for piracy, but partly as a threat against
Mecca and
Medina, challenging
Islam in its own holy places. His pirates ravaged villages up and down the Red Sea, before being captured by the army of
Al-Adil I only a few miles from Medina. Although Raynald's pirates were taken to Cairo and beheaded, Raynald himself escaped to the
Moab. Saladin vowed to behead Raynald himself, and at the end of the year Saladin
attacked Kerak, during the marriage of Raynald's stepson
Humphrey IV of Toron to
Isabella of Jerusalem. The siege was raised by Count
Raymond III of Tripoli, and Raynald was quiet until 1186.
That year he allied with
Sibylla and
Guy of Lusignan against Count Raymond, and his influence contributed to the recognition of Guy as king of Jerusalem, although Raymond and the Ibelins were attempting to advance the claim of his stepson Humphrey's wife Princess Isabella. Humphrey remained loyal to his stepfather and Guy.
Later in 1186 Raynald attacked a
caravan travelling between Cairo and Damascus, breaking the truce between Saladin and the Crusaders. Saladin sent troops to protect a later caravan (in March 1187) in which his sister was returning from a
pilgrimage to Mecca. Later writers (such as the 13th century
Old French Continuation of William of Tyre and the
Latin Continuation of William of Tyre) conflated these two incidents, claiming erroneously that Saladin's sister, aunt, or even mother, had been taken prisoner, but this is contradicted by Arabic sources, such as Abu Shama and Ibn al-Athir. King Guy chastised Raynald in an attempt to appease Saladin, but Raynald replied that he was lord of his own lands and that he had made no peace with Saladin. Saladin swore that Raynald would be executed if he was ever taken prisoner.
Capture and execution
In 1187
Saladin invaded the kingdom, defeating the Crusaders at the
Battle of Hattin. The battle left Saladin with many prisoners. Most prominent among these prisoners were Raynald and King Guy, both of whom Saladin ordered brought to his tent. The chronicler
Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, who was present at the scene, relates:
King Guy was spared and was taken to
Damascus for a time, then allowed to go free.
To a few Christians of his time, Raynald was considered a martyr killed at the hands of the Muslims. However, documentary evidence tends to refute this idealized picture, giving the impression of Raynald as a freebooter and pirate who had little concern for the welfare of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It could be argued that the successes of the Kingdom were undone in large measure by Raynald's recklessness, which had the effect of provoking needlessly the Muslim states surrounding Outremer.
Saladin's actions ultimately proved to be beneficial to his own interests. By killing Raynald while sparing Guy, the faction struggle in Jerusalem continued. This struggle would later greatly diminish the potency of the Third Crusade.
Personal life
Some sources stated that Alix was also a daughter of Constance of Antioch
, but this is chronologically unlikely, considered the rank of years between the death of Constance (1163) and Alix's marriage with Azzo d'Este (1204).
In Literature and Film
- The Passio Raginaldi principis Antiochae, an account of Raynald's death, was written by Peter of Blois c. 1200.
- In the novel The Knights of Dark Renown (1969), by author, Graham Shelby, Raynald is depicted as the malevolent 'Red Wolf of Kerak'.
- Appears as a NPC in the computer game "Baldur's Gate 2", in the Bridge District of the city of Amn.
Sources
- Hamilton, Bernard, "The Elephant of Christ: Reynald of Châtillon", Studies in Church History 15 (Oxford, 1978), pp. 97-108.
- Hamilton, Bernard, The Leper King and His Heirs, 2000.
- Hillenbrand, Carole, "Some reflections on the imprisonment of Reynald of Chatillon", in Texts, Documents and Artefacts: Islamic Studies in Honour of D.S. Richards, ed. C.F. Robinson, Leiden, 2003.
- Maalouf, Amin, Crusades Through Arab Eyes, 1985.
- Peter of Blois Petri Blesensis tractatus duo: Passio Raginaldi principis Antiochie, Conquestio de dilatione vie Ierosolimitane, ed. R.B.C Huygens, in Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis vol. CXCIV, 2002.
- Richard, Jean, "Aux origines d'un grand lignage: des palladii Renaud de Châtillon", in Media in Francia: Recueil de mélanges offert à Karl Ferdinand Werner, 1989.
- Runciman, Steven, A History of the Crusades: Volume 2, The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East (1952)
