Renaud de Chatillon is an ambiguous character: on one hand, most experts consider the Crusades responsible for the failure of 1187 and strongly criticized his actions in the Latin kingdoms of the East. The other, it was held to a much less negative by his contemporaries because he was responding to a certain ideal of the warrior.
Pierre Aubé has released this excellent biography by Fayard, and despite incomplete sources (we know nothing of the first 30 years of Renaud, nor his 15 years where he was imprisoned in Aleppo), manages to track an exceptional destiny, that of a cadet of a noble family in France who found fortune in the Holy Land but died by the hand of Saladin the evening of the Frankish defeat of Hattin in 1187.
Drawing from all sources at the time, they either Latin or Arabic, the author recounts the life of Renaud de Chatillon, probably arrived in the East during the 2nd Crusade of 1147. Quickly, he married Constance, heiress of the principality Antioch and became, ipso facto, political leaders in the region. However, Renaud was not really the diplomacy necessary to understand a complicated East. The author also just sort out the alliances, conspiracies, reprisals between the Latins, the Fatimids, the Sultan of Damascus, one of Mosul .... Rene Bousquet in his monumental History of the Crusade was more successful this aspect but it had 5 times more pages. It therefore follows the knight in his disputes with its neighbors and the growing hatred that will inspire Muslims. It is true that Renaud did not hesitate to plunder the caravans which pass within range of his stronghold!
Imprisoned 1160 to Aleppo, his biography suffers a new ellipse 15. Never mind, Pierre Aubé the opportunity to look at the other protagonists of this story: Raymond, Nur ad-Din, Baldwin IV the Leper King, Guy de Lusignan. With a style very interesting and despite a few anachronisms (the spectrum of the Iraq war haunts several times the book without that one really understands why), so this is the entire second half of the twelfth century Latin kingdoms that scrolls before our eyes.
The return to public life Renaud, following his release, sees him confront Saladin. Here, the book gets more controversial. The author of a hand does not believe that the knight is the only evil genius of the time, on the other hand, it gives up much of the legend of Saladin and notes that it is a real victory, that of Hattin. Armed with the Arab chronicles, it shows that the aura of one who will unite the two crushing jaws Muslim kingdoms Latin came later but that at the time, his contemporaries found it more harshly, saying that some of his actions been missed opportunities and even failures. Thus, a review report an analysis of Nur ad-Din, who believes he has "a certain warmth to combat the Franks." It also makes the image below chivalrous one's self in the West. Like all military leaders of his time, Saladin has plundered, slaughtered, gutted .... and civilians have not really been spared. Thus, the takeover comes on the Fatimid massacre of Sudanese custody ANCI scheme: can be 40 000 deaths.
Pierre Aubé tells us then attempts audacious but totally irresponsible of Chatillon to seize Arab wealth. It mounts an expedition in the Red Sea by vessels transporting spare parts camel, it directly threatens Mecca, Medina. That was enough for Saladin, who will face off several times but never carry the song.
And only at the Battle of Hattin, when Guy de Lusignan, ill advised and ill-prepared, will flow into the trap of Saladin, that ends the epic Renaud de Chatillon. His death is told in several different ways. In one of them, he would have braved Saladin to the end, refusing to convert.
Anyway, this biography, which concludes with a copious bibliography, even including the Ridley Scott film, Kingdom of Heaven, can only delight lovers of history and specialists in this time that the politically correct is now relegated to the dustbin of the chronology !
(A crusader against Saladin. AUBE Pierre, Fayard, 20 €)
