How a teenage leper king defeated Saladin against impossible odds at Montgisard
In 1177, Saladin invaded the Kingdom of Jerusalem, confident that the teenage King Baldwin IV, ravaged by leprosy, posed no threat. He was wrong. Baldwin launched a desperate, surprise counter-attack that shattered the Sultan’s forces, forcing Saladin to flee back to Cairo with only a fraction of his army.
By November 1177, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was dangerously exposed. Philip of Alsace, a visiting crusader, had led the bulk of the Frankish army north to Syria, leaving Baldwin IV with a skeleton force to defend his lands. Seizing the opportunity, Saladin marched from Egypt with a massive army, looting as he traveled. Baldwin, despite suffering from malaria and the advanced stages of leprosy, rode out to meet him. Initially, the King retreated into the city of Ascalon after seeing the sheer size of the Sultan’s host, but he soon regrouped with the Knights Templar to launch a daring, unexpected strike.
Saladin, underestimating the threat, had allowed his troops to spread out over a wide area to forage, believing the King would not dare follow him. This tactical error proved fatal. Baldwin caught the Egyptian army by surprise near the mound of Al-Safiya, or Montgisard. Before the engagement, the King reportedly dismounted and prayed before the True Cross, an act that galvanized his men. When the battle commenced, the Crusader forces attacked their exhausted foes with such ferocity that the Egyptian lines collapsed. Saladin himself narrowly escaped capture, reportedly fleeing the battlefield on a camel.
The victory was profound but costly. While the Crusaders successfully repelled the invasion, they suffered significant losses, with reports suggesting over 1,000 men killed and hundreds more wounded. Baldwin commemorated the triumph by building a monastery on the site dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria. For Saladin, the defeat was a severe blow that he would not fully redeem until his later victories at Hattin and the Siege of Jerusalem a decade later. The battle remains a testament to the unpredictable nature of medieval warfare, where a single miscalculation by a seasoned commander could be exploited by a desperate, smaller force.
Modern historians have worked to clarify the scale of the conflict, noting that contemporary estimates of army sizes were often exaggerated. While some chroniclers claimed tens of thousands of participants, current analysis suggests the Frankish force likely consisted of fewer than 500 heavy cavalry and a few thousand infantry. Regardless of the exact numbers, the strategic impact was clear: Saladin’s retreat prevented him from relieving his vassals in Syria, altering the trajectory of the Crusades in the Levant.
Source: Battle of Montgisard
