Conrad of Montferrat

Conrad of Montferrat

marquess of Montferrat

Montferrat (45.050833, 8.389722)

1187

Conrad was the second son of William V, marquess of Montferrat. Conrad's father had participated in the Second Crusade and involved the family in the politics of the eastern Mediterranean by forming an alliance with Constantinople in 1179 and departing for the Latin East on his own independent expedition in 1183. Conrad took the cross some time around 1186, before the Third Crusade had officially been declared. During his crusade, he traveled to Constantinople and married a sister of the emperor, Theodora. After Saladin's victories in 1187, Conrad became famous for rallying the kingdom's defenses at Tyre. A contender for the throne of Jerusalem, he married (perhaps bigamously) Isabella, a potential heiress to the crown. In 1192, after being elected king by the barons of Jerusalem, he was assassinated, potentially on the orders of Richard I of England).

Patrick DeBrosse, "A Song of the Siege of Acre (1189–1191): Depictions of Conrad of Montferrat and the Carmen de Accone oppugnatione," Nottingham Medieval Studies 66 (2022), 99-136.