William of Tyre
William of Tyre
Archbishop of Tyre and historian, born probably in Palestine, of a European family which had emigrated thither, about 1127-30; died in 1190, the exact date being unknown. It is not known whether he was French or English. His studies, which were made “beyond the seas”, in Italy or France, seem to have been very comprehensive, for besides Greek and Latin he learned Arabic, which he knew sufficiently well to write a history of the Mussulmans according to Arabic manuscripts. He knew the Classic authors, and cites Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Livy, Cicero, etc. He was at Tyre in 1165 and had become a cleric; it was he who blessed (29 Aug., 1167) the marriage between Amaury, King of Jerusalem, and Maria Comnena, niece of the Emperor Manuel. He became Archdeacon of Tyre, fulfilled an important diplomatic mission to Manuel Comnenus (relating to the alliance between the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Jerusalem against Egypt), and was tutor to Amaury’s son, the unfortunate Baldwin, who was stricken with leprosy. Baldwin IV, who became king in 1174, appointed William chancellor of the kingdom and then Archbishop of Tyre. Threatened by Saladin and rent by internal disorders, the very life of the kingdom was menaced and William was sent to Europe to arrange for a new crusade (1178); he assisted at the Council of the Lateran (1179), held by Alexander III returned by was of Constantinople, and landed in Palestine, 12 May, 1180. Becoming involved in the disturbances of the kingdom, he lost his post of chancellor (1183), and when the clergy of Jerusalem wanted to elected him patriarch the queen- mother, Maria Comnena, preferred Heraclius to him. The end of his life is obscure. He returned to the West to protest to the pope against the appointment of Heraclius and also to arrange a crusading movement. He assisted at the meeting of Gisors, in which the Kings of France and England, Philip Augustus and Henry II, took the cross (1188). According to a suspicious narrative in the chronicle of Ernoul he was poisoned at Rome by an emissary of Heraclius.
William composed an account of the Council of the Lateran of 1179 and “Gesta orientalium principum”, a history of the Orient from the time of Mahomet, fragments of which have been preserved in the “Historia orientalis” of Jacques de Vitry. But the chief work of his which has reached us is the “Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum”, or “Historia Hierosolymitana”, in twenty- three books. It is a general history of the Crusades and the Kingdom of Jerusalem down to 1184. The work was begun between 1169 and 1173, at the request of King Amaury. The first sixteen books (down to 1144) were composed with the assistance of pre-existing sources, Albert of Aix, Raimond d’Aguilen, Foucher of Chartres, etc. On the other hand books seventeen to twenty-three have the value of personal memoirs. As chancellor of the kingdom the author consulted documents of the first importance, and he himself took part in the events which he recounts. He is therefore a chief source for the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. His account is in general remarkable for its literary charm. Very intelligent and well informed, the author had very broad views; from his stay at Constantinople he acquired a certain admiration for the Byzantine Empire, and his temperate opinions of John and Manuel Comneus are in contrast with the tone of other European chronicles. The book of William of Tyre was continued by Ernoul and Bernard of Corbie down to 1231. Editions: “Historiens occidentaux des croissades”, I (Paris, 1844); P.L., CCI, 209-892.
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Hist. litt. de la France, XIV, 587-96; PRUTZ, Studien uber Wilhelm v. Tyrus in Neues Archiv, VIII, 93-132; DODU, Hist. des institutions monarchiques du royaume de Jerusalem (Paris, 1894); STEVENSON, William of Tyre’s Chronology: The Crusaders in the East (Cambridge, 1907), 361-71; CHALANDON, Jean II et Manuel Comnene (Paris, 1912), p.xxxvi-xxxviii; MOLINIER, Les sources de l’hist. de France, II (Paris, 1902), 303-04.
LOUIS BREHIER Transcribed by Michael T. Barrett Dedicated to the memory of William of Tyre
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
William of Tyre
a prominent ecclesiastic and judicious historian, lived in the time of the Crusades. He was born in Syria about A.D. 1130, and reared at Antioch or Jerusalem. About 1160 he visited Italy and France as a student of the liberal arts, and on his return to Jerusalem, after an absence of several years, he became the friend and instructor of king Amalric (reigned 1162- 1173). In 1167 he became archdeacon of Tyre, and in the same year was employed by Amalric to negotiate a league with the emperor Manuel I at Constantinople, with a view to the invasion of Egypt. Soon afterwards some unpleasantness arose between his archbishop, Frederic of Tyre, and himself, in consequence of which he visited Rome; and immediately after this Amalric gave him charge of the education and training of his son, the prince Baldwin. In the summer of 1170 a terrible earthquake convulsed the East, destroying many ancient towns and numerous lives, and overthrowing several strong towers in Tyre. King Amaltic died July 11, 1173, and his successor, Baldwin, called William to the post of chancellor; about the same time the archbishop Frederic died, and William was given the vacant see, being the sixth incumbent of that diocese since the founding of the kingdom of Jerusalem.
In this capacity he was present, in 1178, at the third Lateran synod at Rome, and on his return wrote out the decisions of the synod, together with a list of the names and titles of all participants in its business, in a work which he deposited in the archives of the principal church at Tyre. He spent seven months in Constantinople in the transaction of business for his see, then visited Antioch on a mission from the emperor Manuel. and, after an absence from home of one year and ten months, returned to Tyre. So much may be gathered from his own writings, which form the almost exclusive source for his life. An ancient French writer adds the statement that William was poisoned through the agency of the patriarch of Jerusalem, Heraclius, at Rome, whither he had gone to effect the deposition of that prelate. Another tradition states instead that William acted as a commissioner to the West after the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1188, and was appointed legate in matters pertaining to crusades by pope Gregory VIII, being present as such at a meeting of Philip Augustus of France and Richard of England, which took place between Gisors and Trie.
William of Tyre composed two historical works, one of which contained the history of Eastern princes from Mohammed to his own time, a period of five hundred and seventy years (Gesta Principium Orientalium). It was based upon Arabic sources which were placed at his disposal by the liberality of king Amaric. This work is no longer extant. The other work contains the history of the Crusades, from A.D. 1100 to 1184, in twenty- three books, the last of which is unfinished (Historia Rerum in Partibus Transmarinis Gestarum a Tempore Mahumeth usque ad A.D. 1184). It, was drawn from documentary sources and from his personal observations and carefully managed inquiries among his contemporaries. Its learning is very great as respects natural, political, and ecclesiastical conditions in both the East and West, and the literatures of the Arabic, Syriac, Greek, and Latin languages. Its matter also is very full, and its tone, upon the whole, impartial, and little affected by the credulous belief of his age in wonders. Its style, finally, is that of animated description, such as best harmonizes with the portrayal of events in which the military element plays a principal part.
It earned for its author the reputation of being one of the foremost historical writers of the Middle Ages. The oldest edition of this work extant is that of Basle (1549 fol.; 2d ed. 1560). Other editions are by Bongarsius (1564), in Gesta Dei per Francos, 1:625 sq.; G. du Preau (in French, Paris, 1573 fol.). The continuation of the work to 1285, by an unknown writer, is given in Martene, Thesaur. 5:581. An abridgment is given in Bernhard, Thesaurus, with continuation, in French, to 1284; in Latin, by the Dominican Pippin (1320), in Muratori, Thesaurus, 7:657 sq. A German edition was issued in 1844 at Stuttgart, by Kausler, with the title, Gesch. d. Kreuzzuge u. d. Konigreichs Jerusalem. Comp. Bongarsius, Praef.; Vossius, De List. Lat. page 53; Fabricius, Bibl. Lat. Medii AEvi, s.v.; Wahler, Handbuch d. Gesch. d. Literatur (2d ed. Leipsic, 1823), 2:222; Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.