Conrad of Montferrat Conrad of Montferrat ( or Conrad I of Jerusalem ) ( Italian : Corrado del Monferrato ; Piedmontese : Conrà ëd Monfrà ) ( mid - 1140s – 28 April 1192 ) was a northern Italian nobleman , one of the major participants in the Third Crusade . He was the " de facto " King of Jerusalem , by marriage , from 24 November 1190 , but officially elected only in 1192 , days before his death . He was also marquis of Montferrat from 1191 . Early life . Conrad was the second son of Marquis William V of Montferrat , " the Elder " , and his wife Judith of Babenberg . He was a first cousin of Frederick Barbarossa , Holy Roman Emperor , as well as Louis VII of France and Leopold V of Austria . Conrad was born in Montferrat , which is now a region of Piedmont , in northwest Italy . The exact place and year are unknown . He is first mentioned in a charter in 1160 , when serving at the court of his maternal uncle , Conrad , Bishop of Passau , later Archbishop of Salzburg . ( He may have been named after him , or after his mother ' s half - brother , Conrad III of Germany . ) A handsome man , with great personal courage and intelligence , he was described in the " Brevis Historia Occupationis et Amissionis Terræ Sanctæ " ( " A Short History of the Occupation and Loss of the Holy Land " ) : He was active in diplomacy from his twenties , and became an effective military commander , campaigning alongside other members of his family in the struggles with the Lombard League . He first married an unidentified lady , possibly a daughter of Count Meinhard I of Görz ( It : Gorizia ) , before 1179 , but she was dead by the end of 1186 , without leaving any surviving issue . Byzantine Empire . In 1179 , following the family ' s alliance with Manuel I Comnenos , Conrad led an army against Frederick Barbarossa ' s forces , then commanded by the imperial Chancellor , Archbishop Christian of Mainz . He defeated them at Camerino in September , taking the Chancellor hostage . ( He had previously been a hostage of the Chancellor . ) He left the captive in his brother Boniface ' s care and went to Constantinople to be rewarded by the Emperor , returning to Italy shortly after Manuel ' s death in 1180 . Now in his mid - thirties , his personality and good looks made a striking impression at the Byzantine court : Niketas Choniates describes him as " " of beautiful appearance , comely in life ' s springtime , exceptional and peerless in manly courage and intelligence , and in the flower of his body ' s strength " " . In the winter of 1186 – 1187 , Isaac II Angelus offered his sister Theodora , as a bride to Conrad ' s younger brother Boniface , to renew the Byzantine alliance with Montferrat , but Boniface was married . Conrad , recently widowed , had taken the cross , intending to join his father in the Kingdom of Jerusalem ; instead , he accepted Isaac ' s offer and returned to Constantinople in spring 1187 . On his marriage , he was awarded the rank of Caesar . However , almost immediately , he had to help the Emperor defend his throne against a revolt , led by General Alexios Branas . According to Choniates , Conrad inspired the weak Emperor to take the initiative . He fought heroically , without shield or helmet and wearing a linen cuirass instead of mail , in the battle in which Branas was killed . He was slightly wounded in the shoulder , but unhorsed Branas , who was then killed and beheaded by his bodyguards . However , feeling that his service had been insufficiently rewarded , wary of Byzantine anti - Latin sentiment ( his youngest brother Renier had been murdered in 1182 ) and of possible vengeance - seeking by Branas ' s family , Conrad set off for the Kingdom of Jerusalem in July 1187 aboard a Genoese merchant vessel . Some popular modern histories have claimed that he was fleeing vengeance after committing a private murder : this is due to a failure to recognise Branas ' s name , garbled into " Lyvernas " in the Old French " Continuation of William of Tyre " ( sometimes known as " The Chronicle of Ernoul " ) , and Roger of Howden ' s abridgement of his own " Gesta regis Henrici Secundi " ( formerly attributed to Benedict of Peterborough ) . Roger had initially referred to Conrad " having slain a prominent nobleman in a rebellion " — meaning Branas ; in his " Chronica " , he condensed this to " having committed homicide " , omitting the context . Defense of Tyre . Conrad evidently intended to join his father , who held the castle of St Elias . He arrived first off Acre , which had recently fallen to Saladin ( Ṣalāḥ ad - Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb ) , and so sailed north to Tyre , where he found the remnants of the Crusader army . After his victory at the Battle of Hattin over the army of Jerusalem , Saladin was on the march north , and had already captured Acre , Sidon , and Beirut . Raymond III of Tripoli and his stepsons , Reginald of Sidon and several other leading nobles who had escaped the battle had fled to Tyre , but most were anxious to return to their own territories to defend them . Raymond of Tripoli was in failing health , and died soon after he went home . According to the Old French " Continuation of William of Tyre " , Reginald of Sidon had taken charge in Tyre and was in the process of negotiating its surrender with Saladin . Conrad allegedly threw Saladin ' s banners into the ditch , and made the Tyrians swear total loyalty to him . His rise to power seems to have been less dramatic in reality . Reginald went to refortify his own castle of Belfort on the Litani River . With the support of the established Italian merchant communities in the city , Conrad re - organised the defence of Tyre , setting up a commune , similar to those he had so often fought against in Italy . When Saladin ' s army arrived they found the city well - defended and defiant . As the chronicler Ibn al - Athir wrote of the man the Arabs came to respect and fear as " " al - Markis " " : " " He was a devil incarnate in his ability to govern and defend a town , and a man of extraordinary courage " " . Tyre successfully withstood the siege , and desiring more profitable conquest , Saladin ' s army moved on south to Caesarea , Arsuf , and Jaffa . Meanwhile , Conrad sent Joscius , Archbishop of Tyre , to the West in a black - sailed ship , bearing appeals for aid . Arabic writers claimed that he also carried propaganda pictures to use in his preaching , including one of the horses of Saladin ' s army stabled ( and urinating ) in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre , and another of a Saracen slapping Christ ' s face . In November 1187 , Saladin returned for a second siege of Tyre . Conrad was still in command of the city , which was now heavily fortified and filled with Christian refugees from across the north of the Kingdom of Jerusalem . This time Saladin opted for a combined ground and naval assault , setting up a blockade of the harbour . In an incident described by the " Itinerarium Peregrinorum " ( which is generally hostile to Conrad ) , the Old French " Continuation " and Sicardus of Cremona ' s second chronicle ( now known through quotations by Salimbene di Adam and Alberto Millioli ) , Saladin presented Conrad ' s aged father , William V of Montferrat , who had been captured at Hattin , before the walls of the city . He offered to release William and bestow great gifts upon Conrad if he surrendered Tyre . The old man told his son to stand firm , even when the Egyptians threatened to kill him . Conrad declared that William had lived a long life already , and aimed at him with a crossbow himself . Saladin allegedly said , " " This man is an unbeliever and very cruel " " . But he had succeeded in calling Saladin ' s bluff : the old Marquis William was released , unharmed , at Tortosa in 1188 , and returned to his son . On December 30 , Conrad ' s forces launched a dawn raid on the weary Egyptian sailors , capturing many of their galleys . The remaining Egyptian ships tried to escape to Beirut , but the Tyrian ships gave chase , and the Egyptians were forced to beach their ships and flee . Saladin then launched an assault on the landward walls , thinking that the defenders were still distracted by the sea battle . However , Conrad led his men in a charge out of the gates and broke the enemy : Hugh of Tiberias distinguished himself in the battle . Saladin was forced to pull back yet again , burning his siege engines and ships to prevent them from falling into enemy hands . Struggle for the crown . In summer 1188 , Saladin released Guy of Lusignan , the husband of Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem , from captivity . A year later , in 1189 , Guy , accompanied by his brother Geoffrey , appeared at Tyre and demanded that Conrad hand over the keys to the city to him . Conrad refused this demand , and declared that Guy had forfeited his rights to be king of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin . He said that he was holding the city until the arrival of the kings from Europe . By this , he was invoking the terms of Baldwin IV ' s will , terms already broken by Guy and Sibylla : in the event of the death of his nephew Baldwin V it had been Baldwin ' s will that Baldwin V ' s " " most rightful heirs " " were to hold the regency until the succession could be settled by the King of England , the King of France , and the Holy Roman Emperor . Conrad would not allow Guy and Sibylla to enter the city , but did allow them to camp outside Tyre ' s walls with their retainers . Conrad was persuaded by his cousin once - removed , Louis III , Landgraf of Thuringia , to join Guy in the Siege of Acre in 1189 . The siege lasted for over two years . In summer 1190 , Conrad travelled north to Antioch to lead another young kinsman , Frederick of Swabia , safely back to Acre with the remnants of his cousin Frederick Barbarossa ' s imperial army . When Queen Sibylla and their daughters died of disease later that year , Guy , who had only held the crown matrimonial , no longer had a legal claim to the throne — but refused to step aside . The heiress of Jerusalem was Isabella of Jerusalem , Queen Sibylla ' s half - sister , who was married to Humphrey IV of Toron , of whom she was fond . However , Conrad had the support of her mother Maria Comnena and stepfather Balian of Ibelin , as well as Reginald of Sidon and other major nobles of Outremer . They obtained an annulment on the grounds that Isabella had been under - age at the time of the marriage and had not been able to give consent . Conrad then married Isabella himself , despite rumours of bigamy because of his marriage to Theodora , who was still alive . ( However , Choniates , who usually expresses strong disapproval of marital / sexual irregularities , makes no mention of this . This may imply that a divorce had been effected from the Byzantine side before 1190 , by which time it was obvious that Conrad would not be returning . ) There were also objections on grounds of canonical ' incest ' , since Conrad ' s brother had previously been married to Isabella ' s half - sister , and Church law regarded this kind of " affinity " as equal to a blood - relationship . However , the Papal Legate , Ubaldo Lanfranchi , Archbishop of Pisa , gave his approval . ( Opponents claimed he had been bribed . ) The marriage , on 24 November 1190 , was conducted by Philip of Dreux , Bishop of Beauvais — son of Conrad ' s cousin Robert I of Dreux . Conrad was now " de jure " King of Jerusalem . However , he had been wounded in battle only nine days previously , and returned with his bride to Tyre to recover . He came back to the siege in spring , making an unsuccessful sea - attack against the Tower of Flies at the harbour entrance . As Guy was a vassal of Richard I of England for his lands in Poitou , Richard supported him in this political struggle , while Conrad was supported by his cousin Leopold V of Austria and cousin once - removed Philip II of France . Conrad acted as chief negotiator in the surrender of Acre , and raised the kings ' banners in the city . Afterwards , the parties attempted to come to an agreement . Guy was confirmed as king of Jerusalem , and Conrad was made his heir . Conrad would retain the cities of Tyre , Beirut , and Sidon , and his heirs would inherit Jerusalem on Guy ' s death . In July 1191 Conrad ' s kinsman , King Philip , decided to return to France , but before he left he turned over half the treasure plundered from Acre to Conrad , along with all his prominent Muslim hostages . King Richard asked Conrad to hand over the hostages , but Conrad refused as long as he could . After he finally relented ( since Richard was now leader of the Crusade ) , Richard had all the hostages killed . Conrad did not join Richard on campaign to the south , preferring to remain with his wife Isabella in Tyre — believing his life to be in danger . It was probably around this time that Conrad ' s father died . During that winter , Conrad opened direct negotiations with Saladin , suspecting that Richard ' s next move would be to attempt to wrest Tyre from him and restore it to the royal domain for Guy . His primary aim was to be recognised as ruler in the north , while Saladin ( who was simultaneously negotiating with Richard for a possible marriage between his brother Al - Adil and Richard ' s widowed sister Joan , Dowager Queen of Sicily ) hoped to separate him from the Crusaders . The situation took a farcical turn when Richard ' s envoy , Isabella ' s ex - husband Humphrey of Toron , spotted Conrad ' s envoy , Reginald of Sidon , out hawking with Al - Adil . There seems to have been no conclusive agreement with Conrad , and Joan refused marriage to a Muslim . Assassination . In April 1192 , the kingship was put to the vote . To Richard ' s consternation , the barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem unanimously elected Conrad as King . Richard sold Guy the lordship of Cyprus ( where he continued to use a king ' s title ) to compensate him and deter him from returning to Poitou , where his family had long had a reputation for rebelliousness . Richard ' s nephew Henry II of Champagne brought the news of the election result to Tyre on 24 April , then returned to Acre . But Conrad was never crowned . Around late morning or noon on 28 April , Isabella , who was pregnant , was late in returning from the hammam to dine with him , so he went to eat at the house of his kinsman and friend , Philip , Bishop of Beauvais . The bishop had already eaten , so Conrad returned home . On his way , he was attacked by two Hashshashin , who stabbed him at least twice in the side and back . His guards killed one of his attackers and captured the other . It is not certain how long Conrad survived . Some sources claimed he died at the scene of the attack , or in a nearby church , within a very short time . Richard ' s chroniclers claimed that he was taken home , received the last rites , and urged Isabella to give the city over only to Richard or his representative : this death - bed scene is open to doubt . He was buried in Tyre , in the Church of the Hospitallers . " " [ T ] he Frankish marquis , the ruler of Tyre , and the greatest devil of all the Franks , Conrad of Montferrat — God damn him ! — was killed , " " wrote Ibn al - Athir . Certainly , the loss of a potentially formidable king was a blow to the kingdom . The murder remains unsolved . Under torture , the surviving Hashshashin claimed that Richard was behind the killing , though this is impossible to prove . A less likely suspect was Humphrey IV of Toron , Isabella ' s first husband . Saladin ' s involvement has also been alleged , but as Conrad was in the middle of negotiations with him , this also seems unlikely ; Saladin himself had no love for the Hashshashin . In 1970 , Patrick A . Williams argued a plausible case for Henry of Champagne ' s guilt , but if so , it is difficult to imagine him taking such a bold step without his uncle Richard ' s approval . Later , while returning from the crusade in disguise , Richard was recognised by Meinhard II of Görz , who is described as Conrad ' s nephew ( which suggests the identity of his first wife ) , and then imprisoned by Conrad ' s cousin , Leopold V of Austria . Conrad ' s murder was one of the charges against him . Richard requested that the Hashshashin vindicate him , and in a letter allegedly from their leader , Rashid al - Din Sinan , they appeared to do so . The letter claimed that in 1191 , Conrad had captured a Hashshashin ship that had sought refuge in Tyre during a storm . He killed the captain , imprisoned the crew , and stripped the ship of its treasure . When Rashid al - Din Sinan requested that the ship ' s crew and treasure be returned , he was rebuffed , and so a death sentence was issued for Conrad of Montferrat . However , this letter is believed to have been forged : Sinan was already dead , and apart from this letter and the chronicle entries based upon it , there is no other evidence for the Hashashin being involved in shipping . The timing of the murder , and its consequences — the pregnant Isabella was married off to Henry of Champagne only seven days later , much to the disgust of Muslim commentators — suggest that the chief motive may be sought in Frankish politics . Family . Conrad ' s brother Boniface was the leader of the Fourth Crusade and a notable patron of troubadours , as was their sister Azalaïs , Marchioness of Saluzzo . Their youngest brother Renier was a son - in - law of Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus , and the eldest , William , had been the first husband of Sibylla and father of Baldwin V of Jerusalem . Conrad was also briefly Marquis of Montferrat , following his father ' s death in 1191 . In Montferrat he was succeeded by Boniface , but his own heiress was born posthumously : a daughter Maria of Montferrat , ' La Marquise ' , who in 1205 became Queen of Jerusalem on Isabella ' s death , but died young in childbirth . Conrad ' s ex - wife , Theodora , was still living in the mid - late 1190s , when she was having the monastery of Dalmatios converted into a convent , possibly for her own residence . Role in fiction , film and art . The Monferrine court was Occitan in its literary culture , and provided patronage to numerous troubadors . Bertran de Born and Peirol mention Conrad in songs composed at the time of the Third Crusade ( see external links below ) . He was seen as a heroic figure , the noble defender of Tyre — the " " Marqués valens e pros " " ( " the valiant and worthy Marquis " ) as Peirol called him . In " Carmina Burana " 50 : " Heu , voce flebili cogor enarrare " , he is described as " " marchio clarissimus , vere palatinus " " ( " the most famous Marquis , truly a paladin " ) . However , subsequently , the long - term prejudice of popular English - language writing towards Richard I and his " Lionheart " myth has adversely affected portrayals of Conrad in English - language fiction and film . Because Richard ( and his chroniclers ) opposed his claim to the throne , he is generally depicted negatively , even when Richard himself is treated with some scepticism . A rare exception to this is the epic poem " Cœur de Lion " ( 1822 ) , by Eleanor Anne Porden , in which he is depicted as a tragic Byronic hero . An entirely fictionalised , unambiguously wicked version of Conrad appears in Walter Scott ' s " The Talisman " , misspelled as ' Conrade of Montserrat ' ( the novelist apparently misreading ' f ' as a long ' s ' in his sources ) and described as a " marmoset " and " popinjay " . He is also a villain in Maurice Hewlett ' s fanciful " The Life and Death of Richard Yea - and - Nay " ( 1900 ) . He appears briefly , again in a negative light , in Ronald Welch ' s " Knight Crusader " ( 1954 ) : the description owes much to his portrayal in Cecil B . de Mille ' s " The Crusades " , mentioned below . The nadir of his fictional appearances is in Graham Shelby ' s 1970 novel " The Kings of Vain Intent " . In this , he is thoroughly demonised — depicted as a sinister figure , physically resembling a vampire ; in a chapter added by the author to the U . S . edition , he beats and rapes Isabella . These works reflect the later Renaissance and Gothic novel cultural / ethnic stereotype of the ' Machiavelli an ' Italian : corrupt , scheming , dandified , not averse to poisoning , even ( as in Shelby ' s novel ) sexually sadistic . In contrast , the Russian - born French novelist Zoé Oldenbourg gives him a more positive but fleeting cameo - role — proud , strong , and as handsome as Choniates described him — in her 1946 novel " Argile et Cendres " ( " Clay and Ashes " , published in English as " The World Is Not Enough " in 1948 ) . He is the hero of Luigi Gabotto ' s 1968 novel " Corrado di Monferrato " , which covers his whole career . Another sympathetic portrayal is in Alan Gordon ' s mystery novel , " The Widow of Jerusalem " ( 2003 ) , which investigates his murder . In film , he has been consistently depicted as a villain , and with scant regard for accuracy . In Cecil B . de Mille ' s 1935 film " The Crusades " , he is played by Joseph Schildkraut as a scheming traitor , plotting Richard ' s death with Prince John in England at a time when he was actually already defending Tyre . The 1954 film " King Richard and the Crusaders " , loosely based on " The Talisman " , similarly depicts him as a villain , played by Michael Pate . Egypt ian director Youssef Chahine ' s 1963 film " Al Nasser Salah Ad - Din " also shows Scott ' s influence in its hostility towards Conrad ( played by Mahmoud El - Meliguy ) and Philip , while depicting Richard more favourably . On television , he was played by Michael Peake in the 1962 British television series " Richard the Lionheart " , which derived some of its plotlines loosely from Scott ' s " The Talisman " . In the more faithful 1980 – 1981 BBC serialisation of " The Talisman " , he was played by Richard Morant . In painting and drawing , Conrad figures in a small contemporary manuscript sketch of his ship sailing to Tyre in the " Annals of Genoa " , and various illustrations to Scott ' s " The Talisman " . There is an imaginary portrait of him , c . 1843 , by François - Édouard Picot for the Salles des Croisades at Versailles : it depicts him as a handsome , rather pensive man in his forties , wearing a coronet and fanciful pseudo - medieval costume . He is shown with dark hair and beard ; it is more likely that , like his father and at least two of his brothers , he was blond . In the game Assassin ' s Creed , set in 1191 during the height of the Crusades , William V of Montferrat , father of Conrad of Montferrat , is one of nine Templars the main character must assassinate . This is based on the real life death of Conrad , who was assassinated by the real life Hashshashin . External links . < BR > < BR >