25 November in military history: Battle of Montgisard, 1177

25 November 1177 · 848 years ago

Saladin invades

In November 1177 Saladin led an army out of Egypt against the Kingdom of Jerusalem and appeared before Ascalon. Many of the kingdom's knights were away in the north with Count Philip of Flanders, besieging the castle of Harim. Baldwin gathered the troops he had left and reached Ascalon first, where, in Britannica's words, he was trapped within its fortifications. The king was sixteen: he had been crowned in 1174, barely thirteen years old, and was already showing the signs of leprosy.²

Believing the Franks shut up in their towns, Saladin's men spread out across the country in raiding bands, plundering and burning as they went. Baldwin left Ascalon with his small force and went after them.³

The battle at Montgisard

The armies met on 25 November near Mons Gisard, close to Ramla. The Franks were badly outnumbered. William of Tyre, archbishop and chancellor of the kingdom, who was probably with the army, put the invaders at 26,000 cavalry and the king's men at barely 375; the English chronicler Ralph of Diceto, who had his account from a messenger the king of Jerusalem sent to Henry II, thought the enemy outnumbered the Christians almost a hundred to one.⁴

The Templars rode with the king under their master, Odo of Saint-Amand: 80 brethren in William's account, 84 in Ralph's. The Frankish charge broke into the troops around Saladin himself, and the sultan escaped with only a few men; in a letter to his brother he wrote that more than once they had been close to death. Saladin's army fled in disorder, and the Franks pursued it until nightfall. Saladin's biographer Baha ad-Din says the Franks attacked while the Muslim line was changing its position.⁵

Saladin made his way back across the desert to Egypt, short of food and water. Of the raiders still scattered in Frankish territory most were killed or taken prisoner, among them the jurist Isa al-Hakkari, one of Saladin's leading men. Baha ad-Din called it a great reverse that God made good only with the victory at Hattin.⁶

Saladin's revenge

The victory did not last. In 1179 Saladin routed the royal army in the country near Banyas and captured Odo of Saint-Amand; on 30 August of that year he stormed the new Frankish castle at Jacob's Ford, killed or captured its garrison and razed it. In 1180 Baldwin made a truce with him. In 1187, ten years after Montgisard, Saladin destroyed the army of Jerusalem at Hattin, told in our article on the Battle of Hattin; his life is in our biography of Saladin.⁷