The First Crusade in 1099 had been a brilliant success, culminating as it had with the capture of Jerusalem. By 1124, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the County of Edessa had captured many important cities in the Holy Land, namely Beirut, Acre, Sidon, Tripoli, Homs, and Tyre.
By the time of the Third Crusade, however, the Holy Land and the Crusader States looked very different. By 1187, Saladin, the sultan of Egypt, had captured Jerusalem and arrested Guy of Lusignan, the king of Jerusalem (though Guy would be released in 1189). It was this – the fall of Jerusalem and the arrest of Guy – that convinced Richard I of England take the cross and commit himself to the Third Crusade. Even after repeated attempts, the Third Crusade never succeeded in retaking Jerusalem. When Queen Sibylla, Guy of Lusignan's wife and the daughter of the previous king of Jerusalem Baldwin V, died in 1189, Guy of Lusignan had no legal claim over the throne of Jerusalem. Through a series of events that do not pertain to this article, the barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem elected Conrad, Marquis de Montferrat, as the new king of Jerusalem in April of 1192.
Who was Conrad, Marquis de Montferrat?
Conrad of Montferrat, or as contemporary sources referred to him, the Marquis, was
