Renaud de Châtillon, Prince of Antioch^{[1, 2, 3]}

1120 - 1187  (~ 67 years)

• Name	Renaud de Châtillon
  		Crusaders First (1095–1099); Second (1147–1149); Third or the Kings' Crusade (1189–1192); Forth (1202–1204); Fifth (1213–1221); Sixth (1228); Barons' (1239); Seventh (1248-1254); Eighth (1270); and Ninth (1271-1272).
  		Seal of Renaud, Prince of Antioch
  Suffix	Prince of Antioch
  Born	ca. 1120
  	Lee offers the widely circulated view that Reynald's father was Hervé II of Donzy. Cawley, on the other hand, argues that the identity of Renaud's birth parents cannot be proved from the record: "The parentage of Renaud is uncertain. The Chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines names 'Raynaldus de Castellione super Wainum fluviolum' [Raynald of Chatillon over the river Wainer] when recording his arrival at Antioch and marriage to 'uxor- relictam principis Raymundi' [the widow of Prince Raymond]. William of Tyre names him 'Rainaldus de Castellione'. Neither source specifies which Châtillon is referred to. The Chronicle of Ernoul names him 'un chevalier, frere au signeur dau Gien sour Loire ... Rainaus' [a knight, brother to the lord dau Gien sur Loire ... Rainaud]. Schlumberger interprets this passage as meaning that Renaud was the brother of Geoffroy de Donzy, whose family is recorded in the mid-12th century as holding the castle of Gien. He identifies 'Castellione' as Châtillon-sur-Loing {Loiret}. The Donzy/Gien origin appears unlikely as none of the sources dealing with the Donzy family mention Renaud (see the document BURGUNDY DUCHY, NOBILITY). However, as shown above, 'Renaud son of Robert de Châtillon' was recorded in 1086 as nepos of Geoffroy [II] de Donzy. It is therefore likely that Renaud Prince of Antioch was related to this earlier Renaud." [1, 4]
  Gender	Male
  Birth	ca. 1125  [4]
  Title	1153	Antakya, Turkey
  	Prince of Antioch
  		The Crusader States, 1165
  Military	1156	Cyprus
  	Sack of Cyprus
  Military	23 Nov 1161	Marash, Turkey   [5, 6]
  	While on a raid, Reynald was captured by a Muslim force and delivered to Nur al-Din at Aleppo. He spent the next 15 years in captivity. His ransom was 120,000 gold bezants.
  Title	Nov 1177	Kerak Castle, al-Karak, Jordan
  	Lord of Hebron and Montréal
  		Kerak Castle
  		Kerak Castle One of the most marvelous, impregnable and celebrated of fortresses. It is surrounded on all sides by the riverbed and has but one gate, the entrance of which is hewn in the living rock. Ibn Battuta
  Military	25 Nov 1177	Gezer, Israel   [7, 8]
  	Battle of Montisgard (Christian victory)
  		Battle of Montisgard With the abandonment of the joint Jerusalem-Byzantine invasion of Egypt and the campaigning transferring to the north, Baldwin IV was left without a sufficient force to oppose Saladin as he moved into Judea with a large army. Once his army began looting, however, it lost cohesion. Baldwin came out from behind the walls of Ashkelon and fell on Saladin at Mont Gisard. With their forces dispersed and having to execute a retreat in the face of the enemy, the rout of the Ayyubids was on.
  Military	1183	Red Sea
  	Red Sea campaign
  	"In 1183 Reynald took a flotilla on a looting expedition along the eastern coast of the Red Sea and into the Hijaz- the most holy province of Arabia- inciting rumors that he intended to invade Mecca and Medina and steal the body of Muhammad. Saladin never forgave him for this insolence." [9]
  Military	Oct 1183	Kerak Castle, al-Karak, Jordan   [10]
  	Saladin's Siege of Karak
  Military	4 Jul 1187	Hattin, Israel (Muslim victory)   [12, 13]
  	Battle of Hattin
  	"The Muslim armies under Saladin captured or killed the vast majority of the Crusader forces, removing their capability to wage war. As a direct result of the battle, Muslims once again became the eminent military power in the Holy Land, re-conquering Jerusalem and several other Crusader-held cities. These Christian defeats prompted the Third Crusade, which began two years after the Battle of Hattin." [11]
  		Battle of the Horns of Hattin At Hattin, Saladin won the decisive victory that ultimately resulted in the fall of Jerusalem (2 Oct 1187) and the confinement of Frankish power to the enclaves of Tyre, Tripoli and Antioch. As for the battle itself, King Guy was baited out of his staging point at Saffuriya by an attack on Tiberias and then outflanked and surrounded by a superior force in the waterless plateau around an ancient volcano known as the Horns of Hattin. Raymond III of Tripoli, Balian of Ibelin, and Reynaud of Sidon fled the field, abandoning Guy to his fate.
  Died	ca. 4 Jul 1187	Hittin, Israel   [15]
  	Executed by the hand of Saladin. [14]
  Notes	RAYNALD OF CHÂTILLON (d. 1187), a knight in the service of Constance, princess of Antioch, whom she chose for her husband in 1153, four years after the death of her first husband Raymund (q.v.). One of Raynald's first acts was a brutal assault on the patriarch of Antioch; while two years later he made an unjustifiable attack on Cyprus, in the course of which the island was ravaged. The act brought its punishment in 1159, when he had to humiliate himself before the emperor Manuel, doing homage and promising to accept a Greek patriarch; and when Manuel came to Antioch in the same year, and was visited there by Baldwin III., Raynald led his horse into the city. Later in the year he was captured by the Mahommedans, during a plundering raid against the Syrian and Armenian peasants of the neighbourhood of Marash, and confined at Aleppo. His captivity lasted seventeen years. Released in 1176, he married Stephanie, the widow of Humphrey of Toron, and heiress of Krak and Mont Royal, to the S.E. of the Dead Sea?fortresses which controlled the trade-routes between Egypt and Damascus, and gave him access to the Red Sea. In November 1177, at the head of the army of the kingdom, he won a victory over Saladin, who only escaped with difficulty from the pursuit. But in 1181 the temptation of the caravans which passed by his fortress proved too strong, and in spite of a truce between Saladin and Baldwin IV. he began to plunder. Saladin demanded reparations from Baldwin IV. Baldwin could only reply that he was unable to coerce his unruly vassal. The result was a new outbreak of war between Saladin and the Latin kingdom (1182). In the course of the hostilities Raynald launched ships on the Red Sea, partly for buccaneering, partly, it seems, with the design of attacking Mecca, and of challenging Mahommedanism in its own holy place. His ships were captured by one of Saladin's officers; and at the end of the year Saladin himself attacked Raynald in his fortress of Krak, at a time when a number of guests were assembled to celebrate the marriage of his stepson, Humphrey of Toron. The siege was raised, however, by Count Raymund of Tripoli; and till 1186 Raynald was quiet. In that year he espoused the cause of Sibylla and Guy de Lusignan against Count Raymund, and his influence contributed to the recognition of Guy as king of Jerusalem. His policy at this crisis was not conceived in the best interests of the kingdom; and a step which he took at the end of the year was positively fatal. Hearing of a rich caravan, in which the sister of Saladin was travelling, he swooped down from his fortress upon it. Thus, for the second time, he broke a truce between the kingdom and Saladin. Guy could not extort from him the satisfaction which Saladin demanded: Raynald replied that he was lord in his lands, and that he had no peace with Saladin to respect. Saladin swore that Raynald should perish if ever he took him prisoner; and next year he was able to fulfil his oath. He invaded the kingdom, and, at the battle of Hittin, Raynald along with King Guy and many others fell into his hands. They were brought to his tent; and Saladin, after rebuking Raynald strongly for his treachery, offered him his life if he would become a Mahommedan. He refused, and Saladin either slew him with his own hands or caused him to be slain (for accounts differ) in the presence of his companions. The death of Raynald caused him to be regarded as a martyr; his life only shows him to have been a brigand of great capacity. He is the apotheosis of the feudal liberty which the barons of the Holy Land vindicated for themselves; and he shows, in his reckless brigandage, the worst side of their character. Stevenson, Crusades in the East (Cambridge, 1907), takes a most favourable view of Raynald's career: cf. especially pp. 240?241. But his whole life seems to indicate a self-willed and selfish temper. [16] "As a Syrian prince, Reynald had a reputation for untamed violence, garnered from his attack on Greek-held Cyprus and his infamous attempts, around 1154, to extort money from the Latin patriarch of Antioch, Aimery of Limoges. The unfortunate prelate was beaten, dragged to the citadel and forced to sit through an entire day beneath the blazing sun, with his bare skin smeared in honey to attract swarms of of worrisome insects. In the late 1170s, however, Reynald became one of Baldwin's [IV] most trusted allies, furnishing him with able support in the fields of war, diplomacy and politics." [17]
  Person ID	I19194	Dickinson
  Last Modified	7 Nov 2017

  
  

  Family 1	Constance of Antioch, Princess of Antioch,   b. ca. 1127,   d. ca. 1167  (Age ~ 40 years)
  Married	Spring 1153  [18]
  Children	+ 1. Agnès de Châtillon, Queen consort of Hungary,   b. 1154,   d. 1184, Hungary  (Age 30 years)  [Birth]   2. Jeanne de Châtillon  [Birth]
  Last Modified	9 Oct 2017
  Family ID	F5986	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Stephanie de Milly, Lady of Kerak and Montréal,   d. After 1183
  Married	ca. 1175  [19, 20]
  Children	1. Renaud of Antioch,   b. After 1175  [Birth]   2. Alix de Châtillon,   d. ca. 1235  [Birth]
  Last Modified	9 Oct 2017
  Family ID	F6019	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Title - Prince of Antioch - 1153 - Antakya, Turkey Military - Sack of Cyprus - 1156 - Cyprus Military - While on a raid, Reynald was captured by a Muslim force and delivered to Nur al-Din at Aleppo. He spent the next 15 years in captivity. His ransom was 120,000 gold bezants. - 23 Nov 1161 - Marash, Turkey Title - Lord of Hebron and Montréal - Nov 1177 - Kerak Castle, al-Karak, Jordan Military - Battle of Montisgard (Christian victory) - 25 Nov 1177 - Gezer, Israel Military - Saladin's Siege of Karak - Oct 1183 - Kerak Castle, al-Karak, Jordan Died - ca. 4 Jul 1187 - Hittin, Israel  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Sources

  [S336463] Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families, Charles Cawley, (Online: The Foundation for Medieval Genealogy at http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/, 20XX), "RENAUD de Châtillon [sur-Loing] ([1120/30]-beheaded Hattin [Jul/Aug] 1187)" at http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/cfragobs.htm#RenaudChatillondied1186. [S419] God's Wolf: The Life Of The Most Notorious Of All Crusaders, Reynald de Chatillon, Jeffrey Lee, (London: Atlantic Books, 2016). Jeffrey Lee's biography of Reynald is a rehabitlitation from the common reputation of brigandry that is put forward by the entry of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. "In the cusading historical narrative," writes Lee, "Reynald is cast as the arch-villain of the crusading epic." Wolf, at p. 5. As an example, Zoé Oldenberg is cited for the aside concerning Renaud's "solemn entry into the pantheon of hell, from which it occurred to no Latin historian to rescue him." Id., at 280. [S336470] Wikipedia, (Online: https://en.wikipedia.org), "Raynald of Châtillon" at http://bit.ly/2xgufer. [S419] God's Wolf: The Life Of The Most Notorious Of All Crusaders, Reynald de Chatillon, Jeffrey Lee, (London: Atlantic Books, 2016), 10. [S419] God's Wolf: The Life Of The Most Notorious Of All Crusaders, Reynald de Chatillon, Jeffrey Lee, (London: Atlantic Books, 2016), 123ff, 154. [S420] The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land, Thomas Asbridge, (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 256, 304. Asbridge offers this incident as an exhibit that Nur al-Din was more a disciple of realpolitik than jihad. [S419] God's Wolf: The Life Of The Most Notorious Of All Crusaders, Reynald de Chatillon, Jeffrey Lee, (London: Atlantic Books, 2016), 173ff. [S420] The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land, Thomas Asbridge, (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 307. [S359] The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors, Dan Jones, (New York: Viking, 2017), 148. [S420] The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land, Thomas Asbridge, (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 327. [S336470] Wikipedia, (Online: https://en.wikipedia.org), quoted from "Battle of Hattin" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hattin. [S419] God's Wolf: The Life Of The Most Notorious Of All Crusaders, Reynald de Chatillon, Jeffrey Lee, (London: Atlantic Books, 2016), 254ff. [S359] The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors, Dan Jones, (New York: Viking, 2017), 158ff. [S419] God's Wolf: The Life Of The Most Notorious Of All Crusaders, Reynald de Chatillon, Jeffrey Lee, (London: Atlantic Books, 2016), 267ff. [S359] The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors, Dan Jones, (New York: Viking, 2017), 165. [S398] Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th Ed., (Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 1911), "Raynald of Châtillon", 22:936. [S420] The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land, Thomas Asbridge, (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 304-05. [S420] The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land, Thomas Asbridge, (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 252. [S419] God's Wolf: The Life Of The Most Notorious Of All Crusaders, Reynald de Chatillon, Jeffrey Lee, (London: Atlantic Books, 2016), 164-5. [S420] The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land, Thomas Asbridge, (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 304.