ABSTRACT
At the Military Orders Conference held in London in 2005, Malcolm Barber read a characteristically robust essay entitled “The Reputation of Gerard of Ridefort”. In it he surveyed what can be known of Gerard’s career from the surviving sources, pointing out inter alia how historians have had to come to terms with the contentious evidence presented by the various surviving versions of the narrative that came originally from the pen of Ernoul, a squire of Balian of Ibelin. This chapter examines how the texts, or, rather, how some of them, constructed the events surrounding the Battle of Le Cresson, which took place on 1 May 1187, and, in particular, how they present the role of Gerard of Ridefort. The story is well known. There are two versions of the story printed. The first is from the Chronique d’Ernoul. The second version of this narrative comprises a later recension.
