The coronation took place in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. First the caravan plunderer Reynald de Châtillon gave a powerful speech in which he claimed that Sibylla was in truth the rightful successor to the throne, since she was the daughter of King Amalrik, the sister of King Baldwin IV, and the mother of the deceased King Baldwin V. Then the patriarch Heraclius crowned Sibylla. She in turn took the crown and placed it on the head of her husband, Guy de Lusignan, and then placed the scepter in his hand.
As everyone was filing out of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to go to the customary banquet in the Templars’ quarter, Gérard de Ridefort shouted out his joy. With God’s help he had finally taken his great and absolutely glorious revenge on Count Raymond, who now sat far off in Tiberias and could do nothing but gnash his teeth.
Arn was present during the coronation because he had been entrusted with the responsibility for the guards that would protect the lives of the new king and queen. He found this to be a bitter task, since he viewed those he protected as perjurers who would drive the Holy Land to its doom. He steeled himself with the thought that his remaining time in the Holy Land was only seven months.
To add to Arn’s bitterness, Grand Master Gérard de Ridefort called him over to assure him that he did not bear a grudge. On the contrary, the Grand Master said that there was much that he did not know when he so hastily relieved Arn of his command of Jerusalem. He had now learned that Arn was a great warrior, the best archer and rider, and also the victor of Mont Gisard. So now he wanted to make amends to some extent by giving Arn the honored assignment of becoming commander of the royal guard.
Arn felt insulted, but he didn’t show it. He began counting the days until the 4th of July, 1187; it was on that day twenty years earlier that he had sworn obedience, poverty, and chastity for the length of his penance.
What he saw during his brief time as commander of the royal guard did not surprise him in the least. Guy de Lusignan and his wife Sibylla carried on the same indecent nighttime activities as did the patriarch Heraclius; Sibylla’s mother, Agnes; and her uncle Joscelyn de Courtenay.
Earlier in his service Arn would have probably wept to see all power in the Holy Land gathered in the hands of these sinners from the abyss. Now he felt more resigned, as if he had already become reconciled to the idea that God’s punishment could only be one: the loss of the Holy Land and Jerusalem.
Toward the end of the year, as expected, Reynald de Châtillon broke the truce with Saladin and plundered the largest ever caravan to be attacked on its way between Mecca and Damascus. It was not hard to understand that Saladin was furious; one of the travelers who had landed in the dungeon of the fortress of Kerak was his sister. Soon the rumor reached Jerusalem that Saladin had sworn to God to kill Reynald with his own hands.
When Saladin’s negotiator came to King Guy de Lusignan to demand reparations for the breach of the peace agreement and the immediate release of the prisoners, Guy could promise nothing. He regretted that he had no power over Reynald de Châtillon.
With that there was no salvation from the coming war.
Prince Bohemund of Antioch, however, quickly concluded peace between Antiochia and Saladin. Count Raymond did the same for both his County of Tripoli and his wife Escheva’s lands around Tiberias in the Galilee. Neither Bohemund nor Raymond considered that they had any responsibility for what the demented court in Jerusalem might do, and they soon informed Saladin of this fact.
Now a civil war amongst the Christians seemed imminent. Gérard de Ridefort persuaded King Guy to send an army to Tiberias to humble Count Raymond once and for all.
However, at the last minute Balian d’Ibelin managed to convince the king to listen to reason. Civil war would be the same as death, because they would soon be in a full-scale war with Saladin. What was needed now, argued Balian d’Ibelin, was reconciliation with Count Raymond; he offered to serve as the envoy and go to Tiberias to negotiate.
Appointed as negotiators were the two Grand Masters, Gérard de Ridefort and Roger des Moulins, Balian d’Ibelin, and Bishop Josias of Tyrus. A few knights from the Hospitallers and the Templars would escort them, including Arn de Gothia.
Meanwhile, Count Raymond in Tiberias had a difficult dilemma. As if to test the viability of the peace accord between them, Saladin sent his son al Afdal with a request to be allowed to send a large scouting party for one day through Galilee. Count Raymond agreed to this, under the condition that the force would ride into the region at sunrise and be out by sundown. So it was agreed.
At the same time Count Raymond sent riders to warn the approaching negotiation group not to end up in the clutches of the enemy force.
Outside Nazareth, Count Raymond’s messengers encountered the negotiators and issued the warning. They were thanked kindly for the warning by the Grand Master of the Templars, Gérard de Ridefort, but his gratitude was not for the reasons they would have guessed.
Gérard de Ridefort now thought that this was a brilliant opportunity to defeat one of Saladin’s forces. He sent a message to the fortress of La Fève, where the new Jerusalem’s Master James de Mailly was located with ninety Templar knights. In the city of Nazareth they were able to scrape together an additional forty knights and some foot soldiers. And as they rode out from Nazareth to search for al Afdal and his Syrian riders, Gérard de Ridefort stirred up the residents of Nazareth to follow after them on foot, for he assured them that now there would be much rich booty to plunder.
Bishop Josias of Tyrus wisely stopped in Nazareth, since he didn’t think he was qualified to proceed any farther unless negotiations were to be conducted. He would never regret that decision.
A Christian force of a hundred and forty armored knights, of which the majority were Templars, accompanied by about a hundred foot soldiers, made a rather imposing presence. But when they encountered the enemy at Cresson’s springs as expected and gazed down the slopes, they at first couldn’t believe their eyes. Down there by the springs they now saw seven thousand Mameluke lancers and Syrian mounted archers watering their horses.
It might all come down to simple arithmetic and nothing more. If they were a hundred and forty knights, of which most were Templars and Hospitallers, under favorable conditions they might be able to take on seven hundred Mamelukes and Syrian archers. Seven hundred, but not seven thousand.
The Grand Master of the Hospitallers, Roger des Moulins, therefore calmly counseled retreat. The Templars’ military commander James de Mailly was of the same opinion.
But Grand Master Gérard de Ridefort was absolutely opposed. He flew into a rage and called the others cowards. He insulted James de Mailly by saying that he was much too concerned about the safety of his blond head to risk it before God. He said that Roger des Moulins was an unworthy Grand Master, and he made other claims of this sort.
Arn, who now had too low a position to be consulted, sat a short distance away on his Frankish stallion Ardent, but not so far that he couldn’t follow the heated argument. To him it was clear that Gérard de Ridefort must be insane. An attack in broad daylight against such an overwhelming force could only end in death, especially since the enemy had already noticed the danger and had begun mounting their horses to form ranks.
But Gérard de Ridefort was unrelenting. He was going to attack. With that the Hospitallers and the others were forced to follow, for honor left them no choice.
When they were arrayed in battle order, Gérard called Arn over and asked him to ride as confanonier, since that task required an especially bold and skilled horseman. This meant that Arn was to ride next to the Grand Master and carry the flag of the Knights Templar. At the same time he would function as the Grand Master’s shield, ready at any moment to sacrifice his life to protect the highest brother in the Order. The Grand Master and the flag were the last that should be lost in battle.