ABSTRACT
Contemporary sources did not record where Sybil was during the Battle of Hattin, but after the battle, as Saladin captured her kingdom’s fortresses, towns and cities one after the other, she garrisoned her city of Ascalon for defence against Saladin. The city surrendered on Saladin’s promise to release her husband Guy in exchange, but Saladin did not surrender Guy until the following summer. Sybil was in Jerusalem during Saladin’s siege of the city, although the chief negotiator with Saladin was her stepfather, Balian of Ibelin, who had married her stepmother, Maria Komnene. Meanwhile, Sybil’s brother-in-law Conrad of Montferrat, younger brother of her first husband, arrived in the kingdom and took over the defence of Tyre against Saladin. Conrad initially co-operated with Sybil: he defended Tyre and mounted a propaganda campaign in Europe to raise a new crusade while Sybil stayed in the county of Tripoli as a focus for the assembling forces from the West. After Saladin released Guy from prison in early summer 1188, Conrad’s influence in the kingdom declined as many of his allies transferred their support to the king. Nevertheless, the Christian leaders did work together over the summer of 1188, and at the end of August Guy began the siege of Acre. Sybil and their daughters were with him, encamped on the ancient tell of Acre to the east of the city.
