ABSTRACT
On the death of her son Baldwin V, Sybil successfully outmanoeuvred her rival claimants to the kingdom and was crowned queen of Jerusalem, followed by the crowning of her husband Guy as king. Contemporary and later commentators gave different accounts of events; interpretation of these sources is complicated by the fact that some apparently contemporary accounts were in fact written decades after events and set out to justify the actions of Sybil’s rivals and detractors, who could otherwise have appeared as traitors and would-be allies of Saladin. What is clear is that although Guy had been crowned king through his wife’s support, he could not command the respect of all the nobility of the kingdom. When the truce with Saladin came to an end in spring 1187, both Guy and Saladin needed a military victory to reassure their allies and convince their detractors of their position as a champion of God. Saladin’s resounding victory at the Battle of Hattin on 4 July 1187, left Sybil isolated, with her husband and most of her allies in Saladin’s prison, while many of her detractors – who had tried to force her to divorce Guy before she could be crowned queen – escaped from the battle.
