page_title: Kingdom of Heaven (film)
section_title: Historical accuracy
hierarchical_section_title: Kingdom of Heaven (film) / Historical accuracy
caption_attribution_description: English: Miniature from a French translation of William of Tyre's Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, (British Library, London) It depicts William's discovery of leprosy in the future Baldwin IV. Français&#160;: Miniature tirée d'une traduction française de l'Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum de Guillaume de Tyr (British Library, Londres). Elle représente la façon dont Guillaume découvre que le futur Baudouin IV de Jérusalem est atteint de la lèpre. Nederlands: Willem van Tyrus ontdekt de symptomen van lepra bij de jonge Boudewijn IV.
context_page_description: Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 epic historical drama film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It stars Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Ghassan Massoud, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Iain Glen, Marton Csokas, Liam Neeson, Edward Norton, Michael Sheen, Velibor Topić and Alexander Siddig.
  The story is set during the Crusades of the 12th century. A French village blacksmith goes to the aid of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in its defence against the Ayyubid Muslim Sultan, Saladin, who is fighting to claim the city from the Christians; this leads to the Battle of Hattin. The screenplay is a heavily fictionalised portrayal of the life of Balian of Ibelin.
  Filming took place in Ouarzazate, Morocco, where Scott had previously filmed Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, and in Spain, at the Loarre Castle, Segovia, Ávila, Palma del Río, and Seville's Casa de Pilatos and Alcázar. The film received mixed reviews upon theatrical release. On 23 December 2005, Scott released a director's cut, which received critical acclaim, with many reviewers calling it the definitive version of the film.
context_section_description: Bloom's character, Balian of Ibelin, was a close ally of Raymond III of Tripoli, the film's Tiberias, and a member of that faction which sought a place within the patchwork of the Near East and opposed the aggressive policy of Raynald of Châtillon, the Templars, and "fanatics newly from Europe", who refused to come to terms of peace with the Muslims. Balian was a mature gentleman, just a year or two younger than Raymond, and one of the most important nobles in the kingdom, not a French blacksmith. His father, Barisan (the French "Balian"), founded the Ibelin family in the east, and probably came from Italy. Balian and Sibylla were indeed united in the defence of Jerusalem but no romantic relationship existed between the two. Balian married Sibylla's stepmother Maria Comnena, Dowager Queen of Jerusalem and Lady of Nablus. Nablus, rather than Ibelin, was Balian's fief at the time of Jerusalem's fall.
  The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (the so-called Chronicle of Ernoul) claimed that Sibylla had been infatuated with Balian's older brother Baldwin of Ibelin, a widower over twice her age, but this is doubtful; instead, it seems that Raymond of Tripoli attempted a coup to marry her off to him to strengthen the position of his faction. This legend seems to have been behind the film's creation of a romance between Sibylla and a member of the Ibelin family.
  King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, who reigned from 1174 to 1185, was a leper, and his sister Sibylla did marry Guy of Lusignan, though on her own initiative. Baldwin IV had a falling out with Guy, and so Guy did not succeed Baldwin IV immediately. Baldwin crowned Sibylla's son from her previous marriage to William of Montferrat, five-year-old Baldwin V, co-king in 1183. The little boy reigned as sole king for one year, dying in 1186 at nine years of age. After her son's death, Sibylla and Guy (to whom she was devoted) garrisoned the city, and she claimed the throne. The coronation scene in the movie was—in real life—more of a shock: Sibylla had been forced to promise to divorce Guy before becoming queen, with the assurance that she would be permitted to pick her own consort. After being crowned by Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem (who is unnamed until late in the movie), she chose to crown Guy as her consort. Raymond of Tripoli was not present, but was in Nablus attempting a coup, with Balian of Ibelin, to raise Sibylla's half-sister (Balian's stepdaughter), Princess Isabella of Jerusalem, to the throne. Isabella's husband, Humphrey IV of Toron, refused to precipitate a civil war and swore allegiance to Guy.
  Raymond of Tripoli was a cousin of Amalric I of Jerusalem, one of the Kingdom's most powerful nobles, and sometime regent. He had a claim to the throne himself, but, being childless, instead tried to advance his allies in the Ibelin family. He was often in conflict with Guy and Raynald of Châtillon, who had risen to their positions by marrying wealthy heiresses and through the king's favour. The film's portrayal of Raynald of Châtillon as insane is not supported by contemporary sources, though the same sources do portray Raynald as a reckless, aggressive freebooting warlord who frequently violated truces between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Sultanate of Egypt. The film's picture of Guy encouraging Raynald of Châtillon to attack Muslim pilgrimage convoys on their way to Mecca to provoke a war with Saladin is false. Guy was a weak, indecisive king who wanted to avoid a war with Saladin and who was simply unable to control the reckless Raynald. Saladin's abortive march on Kerak followed Raynald's raid on the Red Sea, which shocked the Muslim world by its proximity to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Guy and Raynald also harassed Muslim caravans and herders, and the claim that Raynald captured Saladin's sister is based on the account given in the Old French Continuation of William of Tyre. This claim, unsupported by any other account, is generally believed to be false. In actuality, after Raynald's attack on one caravan, Saladin made sure that the next one, in 
caption: William of Tyre discovers Baldwin IV's leprosy; his accounts form the historical basis for much of the film.
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