9 - History and Politics in the Latin East: William of Tyre and the Composition of the Historia Hierosolymitana

Summary

Introduction: The Dating of the Historia

William of Tyre's Historia Hierosolymitana is one of the most important texts handed down from the first period of the kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1187), as it is the only contemporary local source covering the years 1127 (when Fulcher of Chartres’ chronicle ended) to 1184. As archbishop of Tyre, chancellor of the kingdom, tutor of the future king, Baldwin IV (r. 1174–85) and respected diplomat, William provides his readers with a unique insight into the political and ecclesiastical culture of the Latin East. While his work is generally praised for its stylistic qualities, and several thematic aspects have been studied, its literary dimension is yet to be fully interpreted in the context of its production.

One element that has made literary interpretations of the Historia so difficult is its drawn-out composition process. William indicates that he started writing at the behest of King Amalric (r. 1163–74) around the time he returned to Jerusalem in the 1160s. His own comments seem to suggest that by 1170 he had already decided to put into writing an account of a recent royal campaign into Egypt. Adding to and revising his writings for a solid fifteen years, he appears to have stopped in early 1184. For the intermediate period it is difficult to pinpoint which sections date to when, while the political situation in the Latin East was changing rapidly. Indeed, Peter Edbury and John Rowe have deemed it ‘hazardous to attempt to link William's understanding of past events with specific incidents in his own day which could have had a bearing on his writing’. Nonetheless, this chapter argues that, while the dating of individual chapters may remain elusive, the final composition emanated from the years 1181–82, when William's political career was in tatters and the kingdom in disarray. These matters had a distinct effect on William's selection of materials, the ordering of composition and even the phrasing he considered especially relevant at the time of writing.

In 1941, August Krey suggested that William initially intended to write just a history of King Amalric, but that by the latter's death in 1174 he ‘had only his notes from current affairs from 1167–1174’. At the same time, Krey argued, William was supposedly working on a more general history of the kingdom, as well as a history of Islam known as the Gesta orientalium principum.