Balian of Ibelin Balian of Ibelin ( ; 1143 – 1193 ) was an important French noble in the crusade r Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century . Early years . Balian was the youngest son of Barisan of Ibelin , and brother of Hugh and Baldwin . His father , a knight in the County of Jaffa , had been rewarded with the lordship of Ibelin after the revolt of Hugh II of Le Puiset . Barisan married Helvis of Ramla , heiress of the wealthy lordship of Ramla . Balian ' s name was also Barisan , but he seems to have adapted the name to the Old French " Balian " c . 1175 – 76 ; he is sometimes known as Balian the Younger or Balian II when his father is also referred to as Balian . He is also called Balian of Ramla or Balian of Nablus . In Latin his name appears variously as Balian , Barisan , Barisanus , Balianus , Balisan , and Balisanus . Arabic sources call him " Balian ibn Barzan " , which translates " Balian , son of Barzan ( or Barisan ) " . His precise year of birth is unknown , but he was of the age of majority ( usually 15 ) by 1158 , when he first appears in charters , having been described as under - age ( " " infra annos " " ) in 1156 . After the death of Balian ' s eldest brother Hugh c . 1169 , the castle of Ibelin passed to the next brother , Baldwin . Baldwin , preferring to remain lord of Ramla , gave it to Balian . Balian held Ibelin as a vassal of his brother , and indirectly as a rear - vassal of the king , from whom Baldwin held Ramla . Succession disputes . Baldwin supported Raymond III of Tripoli over Miles of Plancy as regent for King Baldwin IV in 1174 , and in 1177 the brothers were present at the Battle of Montgisard , leading the vanguard victoriously against the strongest point of the Muslim line . That year Balian also married Maria Comnena , widow of King Amalric I , and became stepfather to their daughter Princess Isabella . He received the lordship of Nablus , which had been a dower gift to Maria following her marriage to Amalric . In 1179 , Baldwin was captured by Saladin after the Battle of Jacob ' s Ford , and Balian helped arrange for his ransom and release the next year ; the ransom was eventually paid by Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus , Maria ' s great - uncle . In 1183 Balian and Baldwin supported Raymond against Guy of Lusignan , husband of Sibylla of Jerusalem and by now regent for Baldwin IV , who was dying of leprosy . The king had his 5 - year - old nephew Baldwin of Montferrat crowned as co - king in his own lifetime , in an attempt to prevent Guy from succeeding as king . Shortly before his death in spring 1185 , Baldwin IV ordered a formal crown - wearing by his nephew at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre . It was Balian himself — a notably tall man — who carried the child Baldwin V on his shoulder at the ceremony , signifying the support of Isabella ' s family for her nephew . Soon after , the eight - year - old boy became sole king . When he , too , died in 1186 , Balian and Maria , with Raymond ' s support , put forward Maria ' s daughter Isabella , then about 14 , as a candidate for the throne . However , her husband , Humphrey IV of Toron , refused the crown and swore fealty to Guy . Balian reluctantly also paid homage to Guy , while his brother refused to do so and exiled himself to Antioch . Baldwin placed Balian in charge of raising his son Thomas , the future lord of Ramla , who did not go with his father to Antioch . Dispute between Raymond and Guy . Balian remained in the kingdom , as an advisor to Guy . At the end of 1186 , Saladin , the sultan of Egypt and Damascus , threatened the borders of the kingdom after Guy ' s ally Raynald of Châtillon , lord of Oultrejordain , had attacked a Muslim caravan . Saladin was allied with the garrison of Tiberias in the north of the kingdom , a territory held by Raymond III . Guy gathered his army at Nazareth , planning to besiege Tiberias , but Balian disagreed with this , and instead suggested that Guy send an emissary to Raymond in Tripoli , hoping the two could be reconciled before Guy made a foolish attack on Saladin ' s larger army . The first embassy was a failure and the situation remained unchanged throughout the early months of 1187 . After Easter of that year , Balian , Gerard of Ridefort ( Grand Master of the Knights Templar ) , Roger des Moulins ( Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller ) , Reginald of Sidon , and Joscius , Archbishop of Tyre were sent on a new embassy to Tripoli . During the journey they stopped at Balian ' s fief of Nablus , and Balian planned to remain behind briefly while the others went ahead . On May 1 , the Templars and Hospitallers were defeated by Saladin ' s son al - Afdal at the Battle of Cresson ; Balian was still a day behind , and had also stopped at Sebastea to celebrate a feast day . After reaching the castle of La Fève , where the Templars and Hospitallers had camped , he found that the place was deserted , and soon heard news of the disastrous battle from the few survivors . Raymond heard about the battle as well and met the embassy at Tiberias , and agreed to accompany them back to Jerusalem . The Battle of Hattin . Since al - Afdal ' s army had been allowed to enter the kingdom through their alliance with Raymond , the count now regretted his actions and reconciled with Guy . Guy marched north and camped at Sephoria , but insisted on marching the army across a dry and barren plain to relieve Tiberias . The army had no water and was constantly harassed by Saladin ' s troops , and was finally surrounded at the Horns of Hattin outside Tiberias early in July . In the battle that followed on July 4 , Balian and Joscelin III of Edessa commanded the rearguard , but the crusader army was completely defeated . The anonymous text , " De Expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum Libellus " claims that Balian , Raymond and Reginald of Sidon fled the field in the middle of the battle , trampling " " the Christians , the Turks and the Cross " " in the process — but this is not corroborated by other accounts , and likely reflects the author ' s hostility to the " Poleins " ( a European born in the Levant ) . The defeat was a disaster for the Kingdom of Jerusalem : King Guy was taken prisoner , and nearly every town and castle soon fell to Saladin . Balian , Raymond , Reginald , and Payen of Haifa were among the few leading nobles who managed to escape to Tyre . Raymond and Reginald soon left to attend to the defence of their own territories , and Tyre came under the leadership of Conrad of Montferrat , Baldwin V ' s paternal uncle , who had arrived not long after Hattin . Balian was to become one of his closest allies . Leaving Tyre , Balian asked Saladin for permission to return through the lines to Jerusalem to escort his wife and their children to Tripoli . Saladin allowed this , provided that Balian leave the city and take an oath to never raise arms against him . Defense of Jerusalem . When Balian and his small group of knights arrived in the city , the inhabitants begged them to stay , and Balian was absolved of his oath to Saladin by Patriarch Eraclius , who argued that the greater need of Christendom was stronger than his oath to a non - Christian . Balian was recruited to lead the defence of the city , but he found that there were under fourteen , possibly as few as two , other knights there , so he created 60 new knights from the ranks of the burgesses . Queen Sibylla seems to have played little part in the defence , and oaths were taken to Balian as lord . With Eraclius , he prepared for the inevitable siege by storing food and money . Saladin indeed arrived to besiege the city in September , after he had conquered almost all of the rest of the kingdom , including Ibelin , Nablus , Ramla , and Ascalon . The sultan felt no ill - will to Balian for breaking his oath , and arranged for an escort to accompany Maria and their children to Tripoli . As the highest ranking lord remaining in Jerusalem , Balian , as Ibn al - Athir wrote , was seen by the Muslims as holding a rank " more or less equal to that of a king . " Saladin was able to knock down portions of the walls , but was unable to gain entrance to the city . Balian then rode out to meet with the sultan , to report to him that the defenders would rather kill each other and destroy the city than see it taken by force . After negotiations , it was decided that the city would be handed over peacefully , and that Saladin would free seven thousand men for 30 , 000 bezants ; two women or ten children would be permitted to take the place of one man for the same price . Balian handed over the keys to the Tower of David ( the citadel ) on October 2 . There was a 50 - day period for the payment of ransoms . Those who could not pay for their freedom were forced into slavery ; Saladin freed some of them , however , and allowed for an orderly march away from Jerusalem , preventing the sort of massacre that had occurred when the Crusaders captured the city in 1099 . Balian and Patriarch Eraclius had offered themselves as hostages for the ransoming of the remaining Frankish citizens , but Saladin had refused . The ransomed inhabitants marched away in three columns . Balian and the Patriarch led the third , which was the last to leave the city , probably around November 20 . Balian joined his wife and children in Tripoli . Balian as king - maker , and the Third Crusade . The fall of Jerusalem , and the death of Sibylla at the Siege of Acre in 1190 , led to a dispute over the throne of the kingdom . Balian ' s stepdaughter Isabella was now rightful queen , but Guy refused to concede his title , and Isabella ' s husband Humphrey — who had let her cause down in 1186 — remained loyal to him . If Isabella were to succeed , she needed a politically acceptable and militarily competent husband , the obvious candidate being Conrad of Montferrat , who also had some claim as Baldwin V ' s paternal uncle . Balian and Maria seized Isabella and talked her into agreeing to a divorce . There were precedents : the annulment of Amalric I ' s marriage to Agnes of Courtenay , and the unsuccessful attempts to force Sibylla to divorce Guy . Isabella ' s marriage was annulled by Ubaldo Lanfranchi , Archbishop of Pisa , who was Papal legate , and Philip of Dreux , Bishop of Beauvais . The Bishop of Beauvais then married her to Conrad ( controversially , since his brother had been married to her half - sister and it was uncertain whether he had been divorced by his Byzantine wife ) . The succession dispute was prolonged by the arrival of Richard I of England and Philip II of France on the Third Crusade : Richard supported Guy , as a Poitevin vassal , while Philip supported Conrad , his late father ' s cousin . Balian and Maria ' s role in Isabella ' s divorce and their support for Conrad as king earned them the bitter hatred of Richard and his supporters . Ambroise , who wrote a poetic account of the crusade , called Balian " more false than a goblin " and said he " should be hunted with dogs " . The anonymous author of the " Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi " wrote that Balian was a member of a " council of consummate iniquity " around Conrad , accused him of taking Conrad ' s bribes , and said of Maria and Balian as a couple : On 28 April 1192 , only days after his kingship was confirmed by election , Conrad was assassinated in Tyre . It is said that one of the two Hashshashin responsible had entered Balian ' s household in Tyre some months previously , pretending to be a servant , in order to stalk his victim ; the other may have similarly infiltrated Reginald of Sidon ' s or Conrad ' s own household . Richard was widely suspected of involvement in the murder . Isabella , who was expecting her first child ( Maria of Montferrat ) , married Henry II of Champagne only a week later . Balian became one of Henry ' s advisors , and later that year ( along with William of Tiberias ) , he commanded the rearguard of Richard ' s army at the Battle of Jaffa . Later , he helped negotiate the Treaty of Ramla between Richard and Saladin , ending the crusade . Under this treaty , Ibelin remained under Saladin ' s control , but many sites along the coast which had been reconquered during the crusade were allowed to remain in Christian hands . After Richard departed , Saladin compensated Balian with the castle of Caymont and five other nearby sites , all outside Acre . Legacy . Balian died in 1193 , in his early fifties . With Maria he had four children : Balian ' s squire Ernoul , who was with him on the embassy to Tripoli in 1187 , wrote parts of the Old French continuation of the Latin chronicle of William of Tyre ( William had died in 1186 , before the fall of Jerusalem ) . Although this family of manuscripts now often bears his name , his account only survives in fragments within it , mainly for the period 1186 – 88 , with a heavy bias in favour of the Ibelin family . " Balian " became a common name in the Ibelin family in the 13th century . Balian , lord of Beirut , son of John and grandson of the above Balian , succeeded his father as lord of Beirut in 1236 . Balian of Beirut ' s brother , also named John , had a son named Balian ; this Balian was lord of Arsuf and married Plaisance of Antioch . The name also passed into the family of the Greniers of Sidon , since Balian ' s daughter Helvis and Reginald of Sidon named their son Balian . Balian in fiction and game . Balian appears in Ronald Welch ' s children ' s novel " Knight Crusader " ( 1954 ) as a fat , middle - aged baron . He is a sympathetic major character in British author Graham Shelby ' s two novels of Outremer , " The Knights of Dark Renown " ( 1969 ) and its sequel " The Kings of Vain Intent " ( 1970 ) . However , the first is based on now - outdated research . In the sequel , Balian and Maria are depicted as manipulated by Conrad , whom Shelby ( without any historical evidence ) portrays as an evil sadist , and they become his enemies . Shelby even depicts Balian telling Conrad he wishes he could kill him , although all the historical evidence indicates they were close friends and allies . Balian is also portrayed in Alan Gordon ' s fourth work in the Fool ' s Guild Mysteries , " The Widow of Jerusalem " ( 2003 ) , as the wise adviser of Conrad and Isabella . In Catherine Jinks ' book , " Pagan ' s Crusade " , Balian is portrayed a ' growing older ' yet is admired as an efficient military commander and a sensible man . A highly fictionalised version of Balian is the main character of the 2005 film " Kingdom of Heaven " , played by Orlando Bloom as a young man with a questioning sensibility regarding religion and social attitudes . In the film , Balian ' s father , a fictional character named Godfrey the Baron of Ibelin ( played by Liam Neeson ) , returns to Europe to find Balian , his long - lost illegitimate son , who is a blacksmith in France , and encourages him to come to the Holy Land as his heir . Balian is portrayed as having a love affair with Sibylla . ( This is possibly derived from the " Old French Continuation of William of Tyre " s claims about her and Baldwin . ) The film depicts Balian as the sole commander of the defence of Jerusalem and instead of working in close alliance with Patriarch Eraclius , Balian is depicted as his rival . In the film ' s coda , Balian returns to France ( with Sibylla ) where he meets Richard I of England , who rides up to Balian and says to him that he is looking for Balian , the defender of Jerusalem , to which Balian replies that he is a blacksmith . After some time passes Balian and Sibylla are seen to be riding up the crossroads his father had used when returning from Jerusalem . Balian also appears in Jan Guillou ' s book " The Knight Templar " , the second book in the Arn Trilogy . Balian is also a general of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Medieval : II Total War , Crusade Campaign .