Kingdom of Heaven - a MTW movie

[Benny Moore]

a young peasant blacksmith becomes a knight

I wonder how he manages to pull that off!

[Hurin_Rules]

Their making him an illegitimate son from what I hear; so he's not REALLY a peasant (with a patronym like Ibelin, you wouldn't be a peasant in the Middle Ages).

From what I can tell, the film revolves around Saladin's great victory at Hattin in 1187 and the fall of Jerusalem to his armies a few months later. These were the events that sparked the Third Crusade a few years later, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll get to see Richard or any of the Third Crusade (perhaps as an epilogue?).

The battle depicted above is almost certainly Hattin. You can see the Turkish archers circling the remnants of the army of the Crusader States. It was the battle that turned the tide of the crusades and began the Muslim reconquest of Syria and Palestine. I'm eager to see it portrayed on film, though I have my reservations about the historical accuracy, as Scott's Gladiator was rather inaccurate (albeit highly entertaining).

[Brutus]

[QUOTE=Hurin_Rules]Their making him an illegitimate son from what I hear; so he's not REALLY a peasant (with a patronym like Ibelin, you wouldn't be a peasant in the Middle Ages). [QUOTE]

Indeed. Balian d'Ibelin (died 1193) was one of the great lords of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (he was lord of Nablus). His contingent was the only one to escape from the battle of Hattin, after which he fled to Tyre. He was allowed by Saladin (who seems to have held him in high regard) to go back into the city of Jerusalem to get his wife and son. However, patriarch Heraclius and the people of Jerusalem persuaded him to stay and lead the defenders against the besieging muslem army.

Doesn't look like a peasant to me...

[Hurin_Rules]

[QUOTE=Brutus]

His contingent was the only one to escape from the battle of Hattin, after which he fled to Tyre.

Thanks for the info, though I would point out that Raymond of Tripoli also made it out of Hattin alive; I believe he and his retainers made a successful break for it.

[Brutus]

You are totally right, it slipped my mind. However, Ibelin's contingent didn't actually participate in the battle. When they saw all was lost, the just made a run for it (I would have to check for an exact account). Balian being a good friend of Saladin as well as his (and other's amongst which especially Raymond of Tripoli) reluctance to go to battle in the first place would certainly have been of influence.

By the way, most knights survived, it would have been very uncommon to kill important enemies, since they could bring up high ransom and was against all moral rules. So, apart from the Templars and the Hospitallers, who were given the choice of conversion or death, and Reynald de Chatillon, whom Saladin swore to kill himself, all Christian knights not killed in battle (and that would have been most of them) were simply captured and imprisoned.

[Hurin_Rules]

Yes, that is quite interesting. Some of the Muslim accounts also make it clear that Saladin had to buy the Templar and Hospitaller prisoners from his own troops before he executed them; the Muslim soldiers wanted to ransom them off for the cash, but Saladin decided to execute them because they were a 'bone in the gullet' of Islam.

Should be a fun movie to watch.

[Brutus]

Well, they were of course the 'fundamentalists' of the age... By the way, it seems that a few of them did convert... Some 20 years later, it is said a Spanish ex-Templar led the garrison of Damascus.

It should indeed be fun, as long as the action is good, then the story doesn't matter that much to me.