Editing William of Tyre

{{Short description|12th-century clergyman, writer, and Archbishop of Tyre}}
{{about|the archbishop and historian|his predecessor at Tyre|William I of Tyre}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2012}}

{{Infobox Christian leader
| name = William of Tyre
| type = archbishop
| title = [[Archbishop of Tyre]]
| image = William of tyre.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = William of Tyre writing his history, from a 13th-century [[Old French language|Old French]] translation, [[Bibliothèque Nationale]], [[Paris]], MS 2631, f.1r
| alt = A miniature painting from a medieval manuscript, showing a man sitting at a desk writing a book.
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1130
| birth_place = [[Jerusalem]], [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]]
| death_date = 29 September {{death year and age|1186|1130}}
| death_place = [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], Kingdom of Jerusalem
| death_cause =
| resting_place =
| elected = 6 June 1175
| term_end = 29 September 1186
| resting_place_coordinates =
| residence =
| nationality =
| other_names =
| known_for =
| education =
| employer =
| occupation = Medieval chronicler, chancellor
| home_town =
| salary =
| networth =
| height =
| weight =
| term =
| predecessor = [[Frederick de la Roche]]
| successor = [[Joscius, Archbishop of Tyre]]
| religion = [[Roman Catholicism]]
}}

'''William of Tyre''' ({{langx|la|Willelmus Tyrensis}}; {{Circa|1130}}{{snd}}29 September 1186) was a [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[prelate]] and [[chronicler]]. As [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tyre|archbishop of Tyre]], he is sometimes known as '''William II''' to distinguish him from his predecessor, [[William I of Tyre|William I, the Englishman]], a former prior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, who was Archbishop of Tyre from 1127 to 1135.<ref>In his history, William of Tyre writes, "in the fourth year after Tyre had been [captured] (that is, in 1127/28), the king, patriarch, and other leading men elected (as archbishop of Tyre) William, the venerable prior of the church of the Sepulchre of the Lord", adding that this William was "an Englishman by birth, and a man of most exemplary life and character". A few chapters later, William reports that when the Patriarch Stephen died (in 1130), "he was succeeded by William, prior of the church of the Sepulchre of the Lord…He was Flemish by birth, a native of Mesines." Two Williams were prior of the Holy Sepulchre at an early time then, with William of Mesines (Flanders) probably directly succeeding William the Englishman as Prior of the Holy Sepulchre. This also means that William of Mesines could only have been prior from 1127 (the year of the election of William the Englishman to the archbishopric of Tyre) to 1130, the year of his own election as Patriarch. See William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea", Vol. 1, trans. Emily Babcock and A.C. Krey, Bk. XIII, Ch. 23 and Bk. XIII, Ch. 26.</ref> He grew up in [[Jerusalem]] at the height of the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]], which had been established in 1099 after the [[First Crusade]], and he spent twenty years studying the [[liberal arts]] and [[canon law]] in the [[Medieval university|universities of Europe]].

Following William's return to Jerusalem in 1165, [[King Amalric]] made him an ambassador to the [[Byzantine Empire]]. William became tutor to the king's son, the future [[King Baldwin IV]], whom William discovered to be a [[leper]]. After Amalric's death, William became [[Officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem|chancellor]] and archbishop of Tyre, two of the highest offices in the kingdom, and in 1179 William led the eastern delegation to the [[Third Council of the Lateran]]. As he was involved in the dynastic struggle that developed during Baldwin IV's reign, his importance waned when a rival faction gained control of royal affairs. He was passed over for the prestigious [[Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem|Patriarchate of Jerusalem]], and died in obscurity, probably in 1186.

William wrote an account of the Lateran Council and a history of the Islamic states from the time of [[Muhammad]], [[Lost literary work|neither of which survives]]. He is famous today as the author of a history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. William composed his [[chronicle]] in excellent Latin for his time, with numerous quotations from [[classical literature]]. The chronicle is sometimes given the title ''Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum'' ("History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea") or ''Historia Ierosolimitana'' ("History of Jerusalem"), or the ''Historia'' for short. It was translated into French soon after his death, and thereafter into numerous other languages. Because it is the only source for the history of twelfth-century Jerusalem written by a native, historians have often assumed that William's statements could be taken at face value. However, more recent historians have shown that William's involvement in the kingdom's political disputes resulted in detectable biases in his account. Despite this, he is considered the greatest chronicler of the crusades, and one of the best authors of the [[Middle Ages]].

==Early life==
[[File:Map Crusader states 1165-en.svg|thumb|300px|right|The Crusader states in 1165|alt=The Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Near East. To the southwest is the Fatimid Caliphate of Cairo. To the east is the Emirate of Damascus, and to the west is the Mediterranean Sea. To the north are the County of Tripoli, Principality of Antioch, County of Edessa, Principality of Armenian Cilicia, the Byzantine Empire, and the Sultanate of Rum.]]
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was founded in 1099 at the end of the First Crusade. It was the third of four [[Crusader states|Christian territories]] to be established by the crusaders, following the [[County of Edessa]] and the [[Principality of Antioch]], and followed by the [[County of Tripoli]]. Jerusalem's first three rulers, [[Godfrey of Bouillon]] (1099–1100), his brother [[Baldwin I of Jerusalem|Baldwin I]] (1100–1118), and their cousin [[Baldwin II of Jerusalem|Baldwin II]] (1118–1131), expanded and secured the kingdom's borders, which encompassed roughly the same territory as modern-day [[Israel]], [[Palestinian territories|Palestine]], and [[Lebanon]]. During the kingdom's early decades, the population was swelled by pilgrims visiting the holiest sites of Christendom. Merchants from the Mediterranean city-states of [[Italy]] and [[France]] were eager to exploit the rich trade markets of the east.<ref>The most up-to-date works about the First Crusade are [[Thomas Asbridge]], ''[[The First Crusade: A New History]]'' (Oxford: 2004) and Christopher Tyerman, ''God's War: A New History of the Crusades'' (Penguin: 2006).</ref>

William's family probably originated in either France or Italy, since he was very familiar with both countries.<ref>Emily Atwater Babcock and August C. Krey, trans., introduction to William of Tyre, ''A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea'' (Columbia University Press, 1943), vol. 1, p. 7.</ref> His parents were likely merchants who had settled in the kingdom and were "apparently well-to-do",<ref>R. B. C. Huygens, "Editing William of Tyre", ''Sacris Erudiri'' 27 (1984), p. 462.</ref> although it is unknown whether they participated in the First Crusade or arrived later. William was born in Jerusalem around 1130. He had at least one brother, Ralph, who was one of the city's [[burgess (title)|burgesses]], a non-noble leader of the merchant community. Nothing more is known about his family, except that his mother died before 1165.<ref>Peter W. Edbury and John G. Rowe, ''William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East'' (Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 14.</ref>

As a child William was educated in Jerusalem, at the [[cathedral school]] in the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]]. The ''scholaster'', or school-master, John the Pisan, taught William to read and write, and first introduced him to [[Latin]].<ref>Hans E. Mayer, "Guillaume de Tyr à l'école" (Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Dijon 117, 1985–86), p. 264; repr. ''Kings and Lords in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Series Studies, 1994). John later became [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal priest]] of [[San Martino ai Monti|SS. Silvestri e Martino]], and supported [[Antipope Victor IV (1159–1164)|Antipope Victor IV]] over [[Pope Alexander III]].</ref> From the ''Historia'' it is clear that he also knew [[French language|French]] and possibly [[Italian language|Italian]], but there is not enough evidence to determine whether he learned [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Persian language|Persian]], and [[Arabic language|Arabic]], as is sometimes claimed.<ref>R. B. C. Huygens, ed., introduction to ''Willemi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon'', [[Corpus Christianorum]], Continuatio Medievalis, vol. 38 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1986), p. 2.</ref>

Around 1145 William went to Europe to continue his education in the schools of France and Italy, especially in those of [[Paris]] and [[Bologna]], "the two most important intellectual centers of twelfth-century Christendom."<ref>G. A. Loud and J. W. Cox, "The 'Lost' Autobiographical Chapter of William of Tyre's Chronicle (Book XIX.12)", ''The Crusades: An Encyclopedia'', ed. Alan V. Murray (ABC-Clio, 2006), vol. 4, Appendix: Texts and Documents #4, p. 1306.</ref> These schools were not yet the official [[medieval university|universities]] that they would become in the 13th century, but by the end of the 11th century both had numerous schools for the arts and sciences. They were separate from the cathedral schools, and were established by independent professors who were masters of their field of study. Students from all over Europe gathered there to hear lectures from these masters.<ref>Jacques Verger, "The birth of the universities". ''A History of the University in Europe'', vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, ed. Hilde de Ridder-Symoens (Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 47–50.</ref> William studied [[liberal arts]] and [[theology]] in [[University of Paris|Paris]] and [[Orléans]] for about ten years, with professors who had been students of [[Thierry of Chartres]] and [[Gilbert de la Porrée]]. He also spent time studying under [[Robert of Melun]] and [[Adam de Parvo Ponte]], among others. In Orléans, one of the pre-eminent centres of classical studies,<ref>[[Charles Homer Haskins]], ''The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century'' (Harvard University Press, 1927; repr. Meridian Books, 1966), p. 103.</ref> he read ancient Roman literature (known simply as "the Authors") with [[Hilarius (poet)|Hilary of Orléans]], and learned [[mathematics]] ("especially [[Euclid]]") with [[William of Soissons]]. For six years, he studied theology with [[Peter Lombard]] and [[Maurice de Sully]]. Afterwards, he studied [[Civil law (common law)|civil law]] and [[canon law]] in [[University of Bologna|Bologna]], with the "[[Four Doctors of Bologna|Four Doctors]]", [[Hugo de Porta Ravennate]], [[Bulgarus]], [[Martinus Gosia]], and [[Jacobus de Boragine]].<ref>The chapter of the ''Historia'' detailing his education in Europe was lost until Robert Huygens discovered it 1961, in a manuscript in the [[Vatican Library]] (ms. ''Vaticanus latinus'' 2002); Huygens, "Guillaume de Tyr étudiant: un chapître (XIX, 12) de son Histoire retrouvé" (''Latomus'' 21, 1962), p. 813. It is unknown why no other manuscript has this chapter, but Huygens suggests an early copyist considered it out of place within the rest of book nineteen and excised it, and thus all subsequent copies also lacked it (ibid., p. 820). It was included in Huygen's critical edition of the ''Historia'' (book 19, chapter 12, pp. 879–881.) As the chapter had not yet been discovered, it is not included in the 1943 English translation by Babcock and Krey.</ref> William's list of professors "gives us almost a who's who of the grammarians, philosophers, theologians, and law teachers of the so-called [[Twelfth-Century Renaissance]]", and shows that he was as well-educated as any European cleric. His contemporary [[John of Salisbury]] had many of the same teachers.<ref>Loud and Cox, p. 1306. Loud and Cox also give an English translation of the chapter. It has also been translated online by Paul R. Hyams, "[http://prh3.arts.cornell.edu/447/texts/wteduc.htm William of Tyre's Education, 1145/65] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127064713/http://prh3.arts.cornell.edu/447/texts/wteduc.htm |date=27 November 2018 }}".</ref>

==Religious and political life in Jerusalem==
The highest religious and political offices in Jerusalem were usually held by Europeans who had arrived on pilgrimage or crusade. William was one of the few natives with a European education, and he quickly rose through the ranks.<ref>Alan V. Murray, "William of Tyre". ''The Crusades: An Encyclopedia'', vol. 4, p. 1281.</ref> After his return to the Holy Land in 1165, he became [[canon (priest)|canon]] of the [[Cathedral of the Holy Cross (Acre)|cathedral at Acre]]. In 1167 he was appointed [[archdeacon]] of the cathedral of [[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]] by [[Frederick de la Roche]], archbishop of Tyre, with the support of King [[Amalric of Jerusalem|Amalric]].<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 15–16.</ref>

Amalric had come to power in 1164 and had made it his goal to [[Crusader invasions of Egypt|conquer Egypt]]. [[Egypt]] had been invaded by King Baldwin I fifty years earlier, and the weak [[Fatimid Caliphate]] was forced to pay yearly tribute to Jerusalem. Amalric turned towards Egypt because Muslim territory to the east of Jerusalem had fallen under the control of the powerful [[Zengid dynasty|Zengid]] sultan [[Nur ad-Din Zangi|Nur ad-Din]]. Nur ad-Din had taken control of [[Damascus]] in 1154, six years after the disastrous [[Siege of Damascus (1148)|siege of Damascus]] by the [[Second Crusade]] in 1148. Jerusalem could now expand only to the southwest, towards Egypt, and in 1153 [[Ascalon]], the last Fatimid outpost in Palestine, [[Siege of Ascalon|fell to the crusaders]]. Nur ad-Din, however, also wished to acquire Egypt, and sent his army to hinder Amalric's plans. This was the situation in the east when William returned from Europe. In 1167 Amalric married [[Maria Comnena, queen consort of Jerusalem|Maria Comnena]], grand-niece of [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Manuel I Comnenus]], and in 1168 the king sent William to finalize a treaty for a joint Byzantine-crusader campaign against Egypt. The expedition, Amalric's fourth, was the first with support from the [[Byzantine navy]]. Amalric, however, did not wait for the fleet to arrive. He managed to capture [[Damietta]], but within a few years he was expelled from Egypt by one of Nur ad-Din's generals, [[Saladin]], who would later become Jerusalem's greatest threat.<ref>Hans E. Mayer, ''The Crusades'', 2nd ed., trans. John Gillingham (Oxford: 1988), pp. 119–120.</ref>

Meanwhile, William continued his advancement in the kingdom. In 1169 he visited [[Rome]], possibly to answer accusations made against him by Archbishop Frederick, although if so, the charge is unknown. It is also possible that while Frederick was away on a diplomatic mission in Europe, a problem within the diocese forced William to seek the archbishop's assistance.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 16–17.</ref>
[[File:BaldwinIV.jpg|frame|William of Tyre discovers Baldwin's first symptoms of leprosy (MS of ''L'[[Estoire d'Eracles]]'' (French translation of William of Tyre's ''Historia''), painted in France, 1250s. ''[[British Library]], [[London]]'').|alt=A miniature painting from a medieval manuscript, divided into two panels. On the left panel, some boys are playing and injuries can be seen on their arms. On the right panel, a man inspects the injuries on one of the boys' arms.]] On his return from Rome in 1170 he may have been commissioned by Amalric to write a history of the kingdom. He also became the tutor of Amalric's son and heir, [[Baldwin IV of Jerusalem|Baldwin IV]]. When Baldwin was thirteen years old, he was playing with some children, who were trying to cause each other pain by scratching each other's arms. "The other boys gave evidence of pain by their outcries," wrote William, "but Baldwin, although his comrades did not spare him, endured it altogether too patiently, as if he felt nothing&nbsp; ... &nbsp;It is impossible to refrain from tears while speaking of this great misfortune."<ref>William of Tyre, trans. Babcock and Krey, vol. 2, book 21, chapter 1, p. 398.</ref> William inspected Baldwin's arms and recognized the possible symptoms of [[leprosy]], which was confirmed as Baldwin grew older.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, p. 17; Bernard Hamilton, ''The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 27–28.</ref>

Amalric died in 1174, and Baldwin IV succeeded him as king. Nur ad-Din also died in 1174, and his general Saladin spent the rest of the decade consolidating his hold on both Egypt and Nur ad-Din's possessions in Syria, which allowed him to completely encircle Jerusalem. The subsequent events have often been interpreted as a struggle between two opposing factions, a "court party" and a "noble party." The "court party" was led by Baldwin's mother, Amalric's first wife [[Agnes of Courtenay]], and her [[House of Courtenay|immediate family]], as well as recent arrivals from Europe who were inexperienced in the affairs of the kingdom and were in favour of war with Saladin. The "noble party" was led by [[Raymond III of Tripoli]] and the native nobility of the kingdom, who favoured peaceful co-existence with the Muslims. This is the interpretation offered by William himself in the ''Historia'', and it was taken as fact by later historians. Peter W. Edbury, however, has more recently argued that William must be considered extremely partisan as he was naturally allied with Raymond, who was responsible for his later advancement in political and religious offices. The accounts of the 13th-century authors who continued the ''Historia'' in French must also be considered suspect, as they were allied to Raymond's supporters in the [[Ibelin family]].<ref>Peter W. Edbury, "Propaganda and faction in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the background to Hattin", ''Crusaders and Moslems in Twelfth-Century Syria'' (ed. [[Maya Shatzmiller]], Leiden: Brill, 1993), p. 174.</ref> The general consensus among recent historians is that although there was a dynastic struggle, "the division was not between native barons and newcomers from the West, but between the king's maternal and paternal kin."<ref>Hamilton p. 158.</ref>

[[Miles of Plancy]] briefly held the regency for the underaged Baldwin IV. Miles was assassinated in October 1174, and Raymond III was soon appointed to replace him.<ref>Hamilton, p. 93.</ref> Raymond named William [[Officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem|chancellor of Jerusalem]], as well as archdeacon of [[Nazareth]], and on 6 June 1175, William was elected archbishop of Tyre to replace Frederick de la Roche, who had died in October 1174.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 18–19.</ref> William's duties as chancellor probably did not take up too much of his time; the scribes and officials in the [[chancery (medieval office)|chancery]] drafted documents and it may not have even been necessary for him to be present to sign them. Instead he focused on his duties as archbishop. In 1177 he performed the funeral services for [[William of Montferrat, Count of Jaffa and Ascalon|William of Montferrat]], husband of Baldwin IV's sister [[Sibylla of Jerusalem|Sibylla]], when the [[Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem|patriarch of Jerusalem]], [[Amalric of Nesle]], was too sick to attend.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 19–20.</ref>

In 1179, William was one of the delegates from Jerusalem and the other crusader states at the [[Third Council of the Lateran|Third Lateran Council]]; among the others were [[Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem|Heraclius]], [[archbishop of Caesarea]], [[Joscius, Archbishop of Tyre|Joscius]], [[Latin Catholic Diocese of Acre|bishop of Acre]] and William's future successor in Tyre, the bishops of [[Sebastia, Nablus|Sebastea]], [[Titular see of Bethlehem|Bethlehem]], [[Tripoli, Lebanon|Tripoli]], and [[Jabala]], and the abbot of [[Mount Zion|Mount Sion]]. Patriarch Amalric and [[Latin Patriarch of Antioch|Patriarch of Antioch]] [[Aimery of Limoges]] were unable to attend, and William and the other bishops did not have sufficient weight to persuade [[Pope Alexander III]] of the need for a new crusade.<ref>Hamilton, p. 144.</ref> William was, however, sent by Alexander as an ambassador to Emperor Manuel, and Manuel then sent him on a mission to the [[Principality of Antioch]]. William does not mention exactly what happened during these embassies, but he probably discussed the Byzantine alliance with Jerusalem, and Manuel's protectorate over Antioch, where, due to pressure from Rome and Jerusalem, the emperor was forced to give up his attempts to restore a [[Greek Patriarch of Antioch|Greek patriarch]]. William was absent from Jerusalem for two years, returning home in 1180.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 54–55, 146–47; Hamilton, pp. 147–149.</ref>

==Patriarchal election of 1180==
During William's absence a crisis had developed in Jerusalem. King Baldwin had reached the [[age of majority]] in 1176 and Raymond III had been removed from the regency, but as a leper Baldwin could have no children and could not be expected to rule much longer. After the death of William of Montferrat in 1177, King Baldwin's widowed sister Sibylla required a new husband. At Easter in 1180, the two factions were divided even further when Raymond and his cousin [[Bohemond III of Antioch]] attempted to force Sibylla to marry [[Baldwin of Ibelin]]. Raymond and Bohemond were King Baldwin's nearest male relatives in the paternal line, and could have claimed the throne if the king died without an heir or a suitable replacement. Before Raymond and Bohemond arrived, however, Agnes and King Baldwin arranged for Sibylla to be married to a [[Poitou|Poitevin]] newcomer, [[Guy of Lusignan]], whose older brother [[Aimery of Jerusalem|Aimery of Lusignan]] was already an established figure at court.<ref>Hamilton, pp. 150–158.</ref>

The dispute affected William, since he had been appointed chancellor by Raymond and may have fallen out of favour after Raymond was removed from the regency. When Patriarch Amalric died on 6 October 1180, the two most obvious choices for his successor were William and Heraclius of Caesarea. They were fairly evenly matched in background and education, but politically they were allied with opposite parties, as Heraclius was one of Agnes of Courtenay's supporters. It seems that the canons of the Holy Sepulchre were unable to decide, and asked the king for advice; due to Agnes' influence, Heraclius was elected. There were rumours that Agnes and Heraclius were lovers, but this information comes from the partisan 13th-century continuations of the ''Historia'', and there is no other evidence to substantiate such a claim. William himself says almost nothing about the election and Heraclius' character or his subsequent patriarchate, probably reflecting his disappointment at the outcome.<ref>Hamilton, pp. 162–163; Edbury and Rowe, "William of Tyre and the Patriarchal election of 1180", ''[[The English Historical Review]]'' 93 (1978), repr. ''Kingdoms of the Crusaders: From Jerusalem to Cyprus'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Series Studies, 1999), pp. 23–25.</ref>

==Death==
[[File:BNF, Mss fr 68, folio 359.jpg|thumb|left|Saladin burning a town, from a manuscript of the French translation of the ''Historia''|alt=A miniature painting from a medieval manuscript. A man on horseback, followed by men on foot, rides past a burning castle. The castle is on a shore, and there are ships in the water. There is text above and below the painting.]]
William remained archbishop of Tyre and chancellor of the kingdom, but the details of his life at this time are obscure. The 13th-century [[continuator]]s claim that Heraclius excommunicated William in 1183, but it is unknown why Heraclius would have done this. They also claim that William went to Rome to appeal to the Pope, where Heraclius had him poisoned. According to Peter W. Edbury<!--Q11815922--> and John Rowe, the obscurity of William's life during these years shows that he did not play a large political role, but concentrated on ecclesiastical affairs and the writing of his history. The story of his excommunication, and the unlikely detail that he was poisoned, were probably an invention of the Old French continuators.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 20–22.</ref> William remained in the kingdom and continued to write up until 1184, but by then Jerusalem was internally divided by political factions and externally surrounded by the forces of Saladin, and "the only subjects that present themselves are the disasters of a sorrowing country and its manifold misfortunes, themes which can serve only to draw forth lamentations and tears."<ref>William of Tyre, trans. Babcock and Krey, vol. 2, book 23, preface, p. 505.</ref>

His importance had dwindled with the victory of Agnes and her supporters, and with the accession of [[Baldwin V of Jerusalem|Baldwin V]], infant son of Sibylla and William of Montferrat. Baldwin was a sickly child and he died the next year. In 1186 he was succeeded by his mother Sibylla and her second husband Guy of Lusignan, ruling jointly. William was probably in failing health by this point. Rudolf Hiestand discovered that the date of William's death was 29 September, but the year was not recorded; whatever the year, there was a new chancellor in May 1185 and a new archbishop of Tyre by 21 October 1186.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, p. 22.</ref> [[Hans E. Mayer]] concluded that William died in 1186, and this is the year generally accepted by scholars.<ref>Hans Mayer, "Zum Tod Wilhelms von Tyrus" (''Archiv für Diplomatik'' 5/6, 1959–1960; repr. ''Kreuzzüge und lateinischer Osten'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Studies Series, 1983)), p. 201. Huygens (''Chronicon'', introduction, p. 1), Susan M. Babbitt, "William of Tyre", ''[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]]'' (ed. [[Joseph Strayer]], (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989), vol. 12, p. 643), Helen J. Nicholson ("William of Tyre", ''Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'', ed. Kelly Boyd (Taylor & Francis, 1999), vol. 2, p. 1301), and Alan V. Murray ("William of Tyre", ''The Crusades: An Encyclopedia'', vol. 4, p. 1281), among others, accept Mayer's date.</ref>

William's foresight about the misfortunes of his country was proven correct less than a year later. Saladin defeated King Guy at the [[Battle of Hattin]] in 1187, and went on to [[Siege of Jerusalem (1187)|capture Jerusalem]] and almost every other city of the kingdom, except the seat of William's archdiocese, Tyre. News of the fall of Jerusalem shocked Europe and plans were made to send assistance.<ref>Hamilton, pp. 229–232.</ref> According to [[Roger of Wendover]], William was present at [[Gisors]] in France in 1188 when [[Henry II of England]] and [[Philip II of France]] agreed to [[Third Crusade|go on crusade]]: "Thereupon the king of the English first took the sign of the cross at the hands of the [[Archbishop of Rheims]] and William of Tyre, the latter of whom had been entrusted by our lord the pope with the office of legate in the affairs of the crusade in the western part of Europe."<ref>''Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History'', trans. [[J. A. Giles]] (London, 1849), vol. II, p. 63.</ref> Roger was however mistaken; he knew that an unnamed archbishop of Tyre was present and assumed it must have been the William whose chronicle he possessed, although the archbishop in question was actually William's successor [[Joscius, Archbishop of Tyre|Joscius]].<ref>Babcock and Krey, introduction, p. 25, n. 24.</ref>

==Works==
===''Historia''===
====Latin chronicle====
{{quote|In the present work we seem to have fallen into manifold dangers and perplexities. For, as the series of events seemed to require, we have included in this study on which we are now engaged many details about the characters, lives, and personal traits of kings, regardless of whether these facts were commendable or open to criticism. Possibly descendants of these monarchs, while perusing this work, may find this treatment difficult to brook and be angry with the chronicler beyond his just deserts. They will regard him as either mendacious or jealous—both of which charges, as God lives, we have endeavored to avoid as we would a pestilence.<ref>William of Tyre, trans. Babcock and Krey, vol. 1, prologue, p. 54.</ref>|William of Tyre, prologue to the ''Historia''}}

William's great work is a Latin chronicle, written between 1170 and 1184.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, p. 26.</ref> It contains twenty-three books; the final book, which deals with the events of 1183 and the beginning of 1184, has only a prologue and one chapter, so it is either unfinished or the rest of the pages were lost before the whole chronicle began to be copied. The first book begins with the [[Muslim conquest of Syria|conquest of Syria]] by [[Umar]] in the seventh century, but otherwise the work deals with the advent of the [[First Crusade]] and the subsequent political history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It is arranged, but was not written, chronologically; the first sections to be written were probably the chapters about the invasion of Egypt in 1167, which are extremely detailed and were likely composed before the Fatimid dynasty was overthrown in 1171. Much of the ''Historia'' was finished before William left to attend the Lateran Council, but new additions and corrections were made after his return in 1180, perhaps because he now realized that European readers would also be interested in the history of the kingdom. In 1184 he wrote the Prologue and the beginning of the twenty-third book.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 28–31.</ref>

[[August C. Krey]] thought William's Arabic sources may have come from the library of the Damascene diplomat [[Usama ibn Munqidh]], whose library was looted by Baldwin III from a shipwreck in 1154.<ref>Babcock and Krey, introduction, p. 16.</ref> Alan V. Murray, however, has argued that, at least for the accounts of Persia and the Turks in his chronicle, William relied on Biblical and earlier medieval legends rather than actual history, and his knowledge "may be less indicative of eastern ethnography than of western mythography."<ref>Alan V. Murray, "William of Tyre and the origin of the Turks: on the sources of the Gesta Orientalium Principum," in ''Dei gesta Per Francos: Études sur les crioisades dédiées à Jean Richard/Crusade Studies in Honour of Jean Richard'', edd. Michel Balard, Benjamin Z. Kedar and Jonathan Riley-Smith (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), pp. 228–229.</ref> William had access to the chronicles of the First Crusade, including [[Fulcher of Chartres]], [[Albert of Aix]], [[Raymond of Aguilers]], [[Baldric of Dol]], and the ''[[Gesta Francorum]]'', as well as other documents located in the kingdom's archives. He used [[Walter the Chancellor]] and other now-lost works for the history of the [[Principality of Antioch]]. From the end of Fulcher's chronicle in 1127, William is the only source of information from an author living in Jerusalem. For events that happened in William's own lifetime, he interviewed older people who had witnessed the events about which he was writing, and drew on his own memory.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 44–46.</ref>

William's classical education allowed him to compose Latin superior to that of many medieval writers. He used numerous ancient Roman and early Christian authors, either for quotations or as inspiration for the framework and organization of the ''Historia''.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 32–33.</ref> His vocabulary is almost entirely classical, with only a few medieval constructions such as "loricator" (someone who makes armour, a [[calque]] of the Arabic "zarra") and "assellare" (to empty one's bowels).<ref>Huygens, ''Chronicon'', introduction, pp. 41–42. William himself translates the Arabic "zarra"; William of Tyre, trans. Babcock and Krey, vol. 1, book 5, chapter 11, p. 241.</ref> He was capable of clever word-play and advanced [[rhetoric]]al devices, but he was prone to repetition of a number of words and phrases. His writing also shows phrasing and spelling which is unusual or unknown in purely classical Latin but not uncommon in [[medieval Latin]], such as:
* confusion between [[reflexive pronouns|reflexive]] and [[possessive pronouns]];
* confusion over the use of the [[accusative case|accusative]] and [[ablative case]]s, especially after the [[preposition]] ''in'';
* collapsed [[diphthong]]s (i.e. the Latin diphthongs ''ae'' and ''oe'' are spelled simply ''e'');
* the [[dative case|dative]] "mihi" ("to me") is spelled "michi";
* a single "s" is often doubled, for example in the adjectival place-name ending which he often spells "-enssis"; this spelling is also used to represent the Arabic "[[shin (letter)|sh]]", a sound which Latin lacks, for example in the name [[Shawar]] which he spells "Ssauar".<ref>Huygens, ''Chronicon'', introduction, pp. 40–47. Huygens continues with a lengthy discussion of William's style and language.</ref>

====Literary themes and biases====
[[File:Gottfried von Bouillon (Hofkirche Innsbruck) 2006 0931C.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Sixteenth-century bronze statue of [[Godfrey of Bouillon]] from the group of heroes surrounding the memorial to [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor]] in the [[Hofkirche, Innsbruck]]. By William's time, Godfrey was seen as the heroic leader of the First Crusade, and his strength and virtue had become legendary.|alt=A statue of a knight with a long beard. He is wearing a crown of thorns and elaborate armour. He has a sword in his left hand, and a shield rests against his right leg.]]
Despite his quotations from Christian authors and from the [[Bible]], William did not place much emphasis on the intervention of God in human affairs, resulting in a somewhat "secular" history.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 42–43.</ref> Nevertheless, he included much information that is clearly legendary, especially when referring to the First Crusade, which even in his own day was already considered an age of great Christian heroes. Expanding on the accounts of Albert of Aix, [[Peter the Hermit]] is given prominence in the preaching of the First Crusade, to the point that it was he, not [[Pope Urban II]], who originally conceived the crusade.<ref>Frederic Duncalf, "The First Crusade: Clermont to Constantinople", ''A History of the Crusades'' (gen. ed. Kenneth M. Setton), vol. 1: The First Hundred Years (ed. Marshall W. Baldwin, University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), p. 258.</ref> Godfrey of Bouillon, the first ruler of crusader Jerusalem, was also depicted as the leader of the crusade from the beginning, and William attributed to him legendary strength and virtue. This reflected the almost mythological status that Godfrey and the other first crusaders held for the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the late twelfth century.<ref>John Carl Andressohn, ''The Ancestry and Life of Godfrey of Bouillon'' (Indiana University Publications, Social Science Series 5, 1947), p. 5.</ref>

William gave a more nuanced picture of the kings of his own day. He claimed to have been commissioned to write by King Amalric himself, but William did not allow himself to praise the king excessively; for example, Amalric did not respect the rights of the church, and although he was a good military commander, he could not stop the increasing threat from the neighbouring Muslim states. On a personal level, William admired the king's education and his interest in history and law, but also noted that Amalric had "breasts like those of a woman hanging down to his waist"<ref>William of Tyre, trans. Babcock and Krey, vol. 2, book 19, chapter 3, p. 300.</ref> and was shocked when the king questioned the [[resurrection of the dead]].<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 75–76.</ref>

About Amalric's son Baldwin IV, however, "there was no ambiguity".<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, p. 76.</ref> Baldwin was nothing but heroic in the face of his debilitating leprosy, and he led military campaigns against Saladin even while still underaged; William tends to gloss over campaigns where Baldwin was not actually in charge, preferring to direct his praise towards the afflicted king rather than subordinate commanders.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, p. 78.</ref> William's history can be seen as an ''[[apologia]]'', a literary defense, for the kingdom, and more specifically for Baldwin's rule. By the 1170s and 1180s, western Europeans were reluctant to support the kingdom, partly because it was far away and there were more pressing concerns in Europe, but also because leprosy was usually considered divine punishment.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, p. 65.</ref>

William was famously biased against the [[Knights Templar]], whom he believed to be arrogant and disrespectful of both secular and ecclesiastical hierarchies, as they were not required to pay tithes and were legally accountable only to the Pope. Although he was writing decades later, he is the earliest author to describe the actual foundation of the Templar order. He was generally favourable towards them when discussing their early days, but resented the power and influence they held in his own time.<ref>Malcolm Barber, ''The Trial of the Templars'' (Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 11.</ref> William accused them of hindering the [[siege of Ascalon]] in 1153; of poorly defending a cave-fortress in 1165, for which twelve Templars were hanged by King Amalric; of sabotaging the [[Crusader invasions of Egypt|invasion of Egypt]] in 1168; and of murdering [[Assassins (sect)|Assassin]] ambassadors in 1173.<ref>Barber, p. 12.</ref>

Compared to other Latin authors of the twelfth century, William is surprisingly favourable to the Byzantine Empire. He had visited the Byzantine court as an official ambassador and probably knew more about Byzantine affairs than any other Latin chronicler. He shared the poor opinion of [[Alexius I Comnenus]] that had developed during the First Crusade, although he was also critical of some of the crusaders' dealings with Alexius.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 132–34.</ref> He was more impressed by Alexius' son [[John II Comnenus]]; he did not approve of John's attempts to bring the crusader Principality of Antioch under Byzantine control, but John's military expeditions against the Muslim states, the common enemy of both Greeks and Latins, were considered admirable.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 137–141.</ref> Emperor Manuel, whom William met during his visits to Constantinople, was portrayed more ambivalently, much like King Amalric. William admired him personally, but recognized that the Empire was powerless to help Jerusalem against the Muslim forces of Nur ad-Din and Saladin. William was especially disappointed in the failure of the joint campaign against Egypt in 1169. The end of the ''Historia'' coincides with the [[massacre of the Latins]] in Constantinople and the chaos that followed the coup of [[Andronicus I Comnenus]], and in his description of those events, William was certainly not immune to the extreme anti-Greek rhetoric that was often found in Western European sources.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 141–150.</ref>

As a medieval Christian author William could hardly avoid hostility towards the kingdom's Muslim neighbours, but as an educated man who lived among Muslims in the east, he was rarely polemical or completely dismissive of Islam. He did not think Muslims were pagans, but rather that they belonged to a heretical sect of Christianity and followed the teachings of a false prophet.<ref>R. C. Schwinges, "William of Tyre, the Muslim enemy, and the problem of tolerance." ''Tolerance and Intolerance: Social Conflict in the Age of the Crusades'', ed. Michael Gervers and James M. Powell (Syracuse University Press, 2001), pp. 126–27.</ref> He often praised the Muslim leaders of his own day, even if he lamented their power over the Christian kingdom; thus Muslim rulers such as [[Mu'in ad-Din Unur]], Nur ad-Din, [[Shirkuh]], and even Jerusalem's ultimate conqueror Saladin are presented as honourable and pious men, characteristics that William did not bestow on many of his own Christian contemporaries.<ref>Schwinges, p. 128.</ref>

====Circulation of the chronicle====
After William's death the ''Historia'' was copied and circulated in the [[crusader state]]s and was eventually brought to Europe. In the 13th century, [[James of Vitry]] had access to a copy while he was bishop of Acre, and it was used by [[Guy of Bazoches]], [[Matthew Paris]], and [[Roger of Wendover]] in their own chronicles. However, there are only ten known manuscripts that contain the Latin chronicle, all of which come from France and England, so William's work may not have been very widely read in its original form.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 3–4.</ref> In England, however, the ''Historia'' was expanded in Latin, with additional information from the ''[[Itinerarium Regis Ricardi]]'', and the chronicle of [[Roger Hoveden]]; this version was written around 1220.<ref>Helen J. Nicholson, ed., ''The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: The Itinerarium Peregrinorum and the Gesta Regis Ricardi'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997), introduction, pp. 3–4.</ref>

It is unknown what title William himself gave his chronicle, although one group of manuscripts uses ''Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum'' and another uses ''Historia Ierosolimitana''.<ref>Huygens, ''Chronicon'', introduction, pp. 32–34.</ref> The Latin text was printed for the first time in Basel in 1549 by [[Nicholas Brylinger]]; it was also published in the ''Gesta Dei per Francos'' by [[Jacques Bongars]] in 1611 and the ''[[Recueil des historiens des croisades]]'' (RHC) by [[Auguste-Arthur Beugnot]] and [[Auguste Le Prévost]] in 1844, and Bongars' text was reprinted in the ''[[Patrologia Latina]]'' by [[Jacques Paul Migne]] in 1855. The now-standard Latin critical edition, based on six of the surviving manuscripts, was published as ''Willelmi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon'' in the ''[[Corpus Christianorum]]'' in 1986, by R. B. C. Huygens, with notes by [[Hans E. Mayer]] and [[Gerhard Rösch]].<ref>Huygens, ''Chronicon'', introduction, pp. 87–91. The manuscripts used by Huygens are from two related traditions; [[Bibliothèque nationale]] lat. 17801 ("N"), Bibliothèque de la faculté de médecine de Montpellier 91 ("M"), and Bibliothèque nationale lat. 6066 ("P") have a French provenance, and [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge|Corpus Christi College]] 95 ("C"), [[British Library]] Royal 14 C.X ("B"), and [[Magdalene College]] F.4.22 ("W") have an English provenance. The aforementioned Vatican lat. 2002 ("V") and a related fragment ("Fr") were also used. Two manuscripts, Bibliothèque nationale lat. 17153 ("L") and Vatican Reginensis lat. 690 ("R") were not used in Huygens' edition. Huygens, ''Chronicon'', introduction, pp. 3–31.</ref> The RHC edition was translated into English by Emily A. Babcock and August C. Krey in 1943 as "A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea," although the translation is sometimes incomplete or inexact.<ref>Babcock and Krey, introduction, p. 44.</ref>

====Old French translation====
A translation of the ''Historia'' into [[Old French language|Old French]], made around 1223, was particularly well-circulated and had many anonymous additions made to it in the 13th century. In contrast to the surviving Latin manuscripts, there are "at least fifty-nine manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts" containing the Old French translation.<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/medieval_studies/french_of_outremer/sources_by_locale/levant/historical_narrative/william_of_tyres_his/ Edbury and Rowe, 1988, p. 4; For a more updated and detailed historiographical analysis]</ref> There are also independent French continuations attributed to [[Ernoul]] and Bernard le Trésorier. The translation was sometimes called the ''Livre dou conqueste''; it was known by this name throughout Europe as well as in the crusader [[Kingdom of Cyprus]] and in [[Cilician Armenia]], and 14th-century Venetian geographer [[Marino Sanuto the Elder]] had a copy of it. The French was further translated into Spanish, as the ''[[Gran conquista de Ultramar]]'', during the reign of [[Alfonso X of Castile|Alfonso the Wise of Castile]]<ref>González Cristina, La tercera crónica de Alfonso X: "La Gran Conquista de Ultramar", 1992.</ref> in the late 13th century. The French version was so widespread that the [[Renaissance]] author {{Ill|Francesco Pipino|it}} translated it back into Latin, unaware that a Latin original already existed. A [[Middle English]] translation of the French was made by [[William Caxton]] in the 15th century.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 4–5.</ref>

===Other works===
William reports that he wrote an account of the Third Council of the Lateran, which does not survive. He also wrote a history of the Holy Land from the time of [[Muhammad]] up to 1184, for which he used [[Eutychius of Alexandria]] as his main source. This work seems to have been known in Europe in the 13th century but it also does not survive.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, pp. 23–24.</ref>

==Modern assessment==
William's neutrality as an historian was often taken for granted until the late twentieth century. August C. Krey, for example, believed that "his impartiality&nbsp; ... &nbsp;is scarcely less impressive than his critical skill."<ref>Babcock and Krey, introduction, p. 32.</ref> Despite this excellent reputation, D. W. T. C. Vessey has shown that William was certainly not an impartial observer, especially when dealing with the events of the 1170s and 1180s. Vessey believes that William's claim to have been commissioned by Amalric is a typical ancient and medieval ''[[literary topos|topos]]'', or literary theme, in which a wise ruler, a lover of history and literature, wishes to preserve for posterity the grand deeds of his reign.<ref>D. W. T. C. Vessey, "William of Tyre and the art of historiography." ''Mediaeval Studies'' 35 (1973), pp. 437–38.</ref> William's claims of impartiality are also a typical ''topos'' in ancient and medieval historical writing.<ref>Vessey, p. 446.</ref>

His depiction of Baldwin IV as a hero is an attempt "to vindicate the politics of his own party and to blacken those of its opponents."<ref>Vessey, p. 446.</ref> As mentioned above, William was opposed to Baldwin's mother Agnes of Courtenay, Patriarch Heraclius, and their supporters; his interpretation of events during Baldwin's reign was previously taken as fact almost without question. In the mid twentieth century, Marshall W. Baldwin,<ref>Marshall W. Baldwin, "The Decline and Fall of Jerusalem, 1174–1189", ''A History of the Crusades'', vol. 1, p. 592ff.</ref> [[Steven Runciman]],<ref>Steven Runciman, ''A History of the Crusades'', vol. 2: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East (Cambridge University Press, 1952), p. 404.</ref> and [[Hans Eberhard Mayer]]<ref>Mayer, ''The Crusades'', pp. 127–128.</ref> were influential in perpetuating this point of view, although the more recent re-evaluations of this period by Vessey, Peter Edbury and Bernard Hamilton<!--Q20029051--> have undone much of William's influence.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

An often-noted flaw in the ''Historia'' is William's poor memory for dates. "Chronology is sometimes confused, and dates are given wrongly", even for basic information such as the regnal dates of the kings of Jerusalem.<ref>Edbury and Rowe, 1988, p. 26.</ref> For example, William gives the date of Amalric's death as 11 July 1173, when it actually occurred in 1174.<ref>William of Tyre, trans. Babcock and Krey, vol. 2, book 20, ch. 31, p. 395.</ref>

Despite his biases and errors, William "has always been considered one of the greatest medieval writers."<ref>"Depuis toujours, Guillaume de Tyr a été considéré comme l'un des meilleurs écrivains du moyen âge." Huygens, ''Chronicon'', introduction, p. 39.</ref> Runciman wrote that "he had a broad vision; he understood the significance of the great events of his time and the sequence of cause and effect in history."<ref>Runciman, ''A History of the Crusades'', vol. 2, p. 477.</ref> [[Christopher Tyerman]] calls him "the historian's historian",<ref>Tyerman, ''God's War'', p. 361.</ref> and "the greatest crusade historian of all,"<ref>Christopher Tyerman, ''The Invention of the Crusades'' (University of Toronto Press, 1998), p. 126.</ref> and Bernard Hamilton says he "is justly considered one of the finest historians of the Middle Ages".<ref>Hamilton, p. 6.</ref> As the ''[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]]'' says, "William's achievements in assembling and evaluating sources, and in writing in excellent and original Latin a critical and judicious (if chronologically faulty) narrative, make him an outstanding historian, superior by medieval, and not inferior by modern, standards of scholarship."<ref>Babbitt, p. 643.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
===Primary===
{{refbegin}}
* William of Tyre, ''A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea'', trans. E.A. Babcock and [[August C. Krey|A.C. Krey]]. Columbia University Press, 1943.
{{refend}}

===Secondary===
{{refbegin}}
* John Carl Andressohn, ''The Ancestry and Life of Godfrey of Bouillon''. Indiana University Publications, Social Science Series 5, 1947.
* Susan M. Babbitt, "William of Tyre." ''[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]]'', ed. [[Joseph Strayer]]. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989, vol. 12.
* Marshall W. Baldwin, "The Decline and Fall of Jerusalem, 1174–1189." ''A History of the Crusades'' (gen. ed. [[Kenneth M. Setton]]), vol. 1: The First Hundred Years (ed. Marshall W. Baldwin). University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
* Malcolm Barber, ''The Trial of the Templars''. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
* Frederic Duncalf, "The First Crusade: Clermont to Constantinople." ''A History of the Crusades'' (gen. ed. Kenneth M. Setton), vol. 1: The First Hundred Years (ed. Marshall W. Baldwin). University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
* Peter W. Edbury and John G. Rowe, "William of Tyre and the Patriarchal election of 1180." ''The English Historical Review'' 93 (1978), repr. ''Kingdoms of the Crusaders: From Jerusalem to Cyprus'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Series Studies, 1999), pp.&nbsp;1–25.
* Peter W. Edbury and John G. Rowe, ''William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East''. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
* Peter W. Edbury, "Propaganda and faction in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the background to Hattin." ''Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria'', ed. [[Maya Shatzmiller]] (Leiden: Brill, 1993), repr. in Kingdoms of the Crusaders: From Jerusalem to Cyprus (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Series Studies, 1999), pp.&nbsp;173–189.
* Bernard Hamilton, ''The Leper King and his Heirs''. [[Cambridge University Press]], 2000.
* [[Charles Homer Haskins]], ''The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century''. Harvard University Press, 1927; repr. Meridian Books, 1966.
* R. B. C. Huygens, "Guillaume de Tyr étudiant: un chapître (XIX, 12) de son Histoire retrouvé." ''Latomus'' 21 (1962), pp.&nbsp;811–829. {{in lang|fr}}
* R. B. C. Huygens, "Editing William of Tyre." ''Sacris Erudiri'' 27 (1984), pp.&nbsp;461–473.
* G. A. Loud and J. W. Cox, "The 'Lost' Autobiographical Chapter of William of Tyre's Chronicle (Book XIX.12)." ''The Crusades: An Encyclopedia'', ed. Alan V. Murray (ABC-Clio, 2006), vol. 4, Appendix: Texts and Documents #4, pp.&nbsp;1305–1308.
* Hans E. Mayer, ''The Crusades'', 2nd ed., trans. John Gillingham. Oxford University Press, 1988.
* Alan V. Murray, "William of Tyre and the origin of the Turks: on the sources of the Gesta Orientalium Principum," in ''Dei gesta Per Francos: Études sur les crioisades dédiées à Jean Richard/Crusade Studies in Honour of Jean Richard'', edd. Michel Balard, Benjamin Z. Kedar and Jonathan Riley-Smith (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), pp.&nbsp;217–229.
* Alan V. Murray, "William of Tyre." ''The Crusades: An Encyclopedia'', ed. Alan V. Murray (ABC-Clio, 2006), vol. 4.
* Helen J. Nicholson, "William of Tyre." ''Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'', ed. Kelly Boyd. Taylor & Francis, 1999, vol. 2.
* [[Steven Runciman]], ''A History of the Crusades'', volume 1: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press, 1951.
* Steven Runciman, ''A History of the Crusades'', volume 2: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East. Cambridge University Press, 1952.
* R. C. Schwinges, "William of Tyre, the Muslim enemy, and the problem of tolerance." ''Tolerance and Intolerance. Social Conflict in the Age of the Crusades'', ed. Michael Gervers and James M. Powell, Syracuse University Press, 2001.
* Christopher Tyerman, ''The Invention of the Crusades''. University of Toronto Press, 1998.
* Christopher Tyerman, ''God's War: A New History of the Crusades''. Penguin, 2006.
* Jacques Verger, "The birth of the universities". ''[[A History of the University in Europe]]'', vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, ed. Hilde de Ridder-Symoens. Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp.&nbsp;47–55.
* D. W. T. C. Vessey, "William of Tyre and the art of historiography." ''Mediaeval Studies'' 35 (1973), pp.&nbsp;433–455.
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
===Primary sources===
{{refbegin}}
* ''Willemi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon'', ed. R. B. C. Huygens. 2 vols. ''Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medievalis'', vols. 63 & 63a. Turnholt: Brepols, 1986. Latin text with introduction and notes in French.
* ''L'Estoire d'Eracles empereur et la conqueste de la terre d'Outremer'', in [[Recueil des historiens des croisades]], Historiens occidentaux, vols. I–II (1844, 1859). {{in lang|fr}}
* J. A. Giles, trans. ''[[Roger of Wendover]]'s Flowers of History''. London, 1849.
* ''La Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier'', ed. [[Louis de Mas Latrie]]. Paris, 1871. {{in lang|fr}}
* ''Guillaume de Tyr et ses continuateurs'', ed. [[Alexis Paulin Paris]]. Paris, 1879–1880. {{in lang|fr}}
* Margaret Ruth Morgan, ''La continuation de Guillaume de Tyr (1184–1197)''. Paris, 1982. {{in lang|fr}}
* Helen J. Nicholson, ed. ''The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: The Itinerarium Peregrinorum and the Gesta Regis Ricardi''. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997.
* Janet Shirley, ''Crusader Syria in the Thirteenth Century: The Rothelin Continuation of the History of William of Tyre with part of the Eracles or Acre text''. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999.
{{refend}}

===Secondary sources===
{{refbegin}}
* [[Thomas Asbridge]], ''The First Crusade: A New History''. Oxford University Press, 2004.
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=William, archbishop of Tyre|volume=28|page=677}}
* [[Ralph Henry Carless Davis|R. H. C. Davis]], "William of Tyre." ''Relations Between East and West in the Middle Ages'', ed. Derek Baker (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973), pp.&nbsp;64–76.
* Peter W. Edbury, "The French translation of William of Tyre's ''Historia'': the manuscript tradition." ''Crusades'' 6 (2007).
* Bernard Hamilton, "William of Tyre and the Byzantine Empire." ''Porphyrogenita: Essays on the History and Literature of Byzantium and the Latin East in Honour of Julian Chrysostomides'', eds. Charalambos Dendrinos, Jonathan Harris, Eirene Harvalia-Crook, and Judith Herrin (Ashgate, 2003).
* Philip Handyside, ''The Old French William of Tyre''. Brill, 2015.
* Rudolf Hiestand, "Zum Leben und Laufbahn Wilhelms von Tyrus." ''Deutsches Archiv'' 34 (1978), pp.&nbsp;345–380. {{in lang|de}}
* [[Conor Kostick]], "William of Tyre, Livy and the Vocabulary of Class." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 65.3 (2004), 352–367.
* Hans E. Mayer, "Guillaume de Tyr à l'école." ''Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Dijon'' 117 (1985–86), repr. ''Kings and Lords in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Studies Series, 1994), pp.&nbsp;257–265. {{in lang|fr}}
* Hans E. Mayer, "Zum Tode Wilhelms von Tyrus." ''Archiv für Diplomatik'' 5–6 (1959–1960), pp.&nbsp;182–201. {{in lang|de}}
* Margaret Ruth Morgan, ''The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre''. Oxford University Press, 1973.
* [[Hans Prutz]], "Studien über Wilhelm von Tyrus." ''Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde'' 8 (1883), pp.&nbsp;91–132. {{in lang|de}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|William of Tyre}}
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tyre-cde.html Excerpts from the ''Historia''] from the [[Internet Medieval Sourcebook]]
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tyre-damascus.html Fiasco at Damascus 1148] from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121210042020/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/williamtyre.html Latin version] from the [[Patrologia Latina]], via [[The Latin Library]] {{in lang|la}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071212091103/http://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/latinsourcewilliamoftyre.html Latin version] from Crusades-Encyclopedia.com {{in lang|la}}
* [http://www.intratext.com/X/LAT0901.HTM Latin version with concordance] from Intertext.com {{in lang|la}}
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/GuillaumeTyr1.html Old French translation and continuation] from [[Internet Medieval Sourcebook]] {{in lang|fr}}
* [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb06057 English translation] by E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey, from ACLS Humanities E-Books (login required)

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{{s-bef|before=[[Frederick, Archbishop of Tyre|Frederick]]}} 
{{s-ttl|title= [[Archbishop of Tyre]]|years=1175–1185}} 
{{s-aft|after=[[Joscius (archbishop of Tyre)|Joscius]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{featured article}}

[[Category:1130s births]]
[[Category:1186 deaths]]
[[Category:12th-century historians]]
[[Category:12th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Kingdom of Jerusalem]]
[[Category:Archdeacons of Tyre]]
[[Category:Archbishops of Tyre]]
[[Category:Chancellors of Jerusalem]]
[[Category:Canon law jurists]]
[[Category:Medieval writers about the Crusades]]
[[Category:12th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:12th-century jurists]]
[[Category:Ambassadors to the Byzantine Empire]]