The surrender of Jerusalem and the birth of one of the best-known and most controversial medieval kings

October 2nd 1187 was the day that Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin, having been persuaded by Balian d’Ibelin not to take the city by storm, which would have resulted in the same sort of bloodbath that occurred when Jerusalem fell to the crusaders in 1099. Balian resorted to promises—the offer to ransom the citizens, using the money that Henry II had been providing over the years for the kingdom’s support—and threats—vowing that if they were not allowed to surrender peacefully, they would kill all of the 5,000 Saracen prisoners they held, destroy all of the sites in the city that were revered by Muslims, and fight to the death since they had nothing to lose. Balian’s desperate actions saved thousands of lives and Saladin’s reputation as a man of honor and mercy, for it is doubtful that history would have judged the sultan so favorably if he’d given the order that resulted in a massacre of the city’s inhabitants. The peaceful surrender of the city reflects well on all concerned. Thousands were ransomed with Henry’s money. Saladin’s brother, al-Malik al-Adil, asked for 1,000 of those who could not be ransomed (the money having run out) and then freed them immediately. Saladin agreed to “give” Balian another 500 of these unfortunates and spared the elderly from the slave markets, sending his men to guard the hospitals and protect the patients, agreeing to free the husbands of any women who were freed. It has been estimated that as many as 11,000 were enslaved, but had the city been taken by storm, as Saladin had vowed, it would have been catastrophic for all those trapped within its walls. When I said the surrender reflected well on “all concerned,” there was one notorious exception—the Patriarch of Jerusalem paid his own ransom and those of his household and then left the city with their saddlebags stuffed with as much silver plate and riches as they could carry away, money that could have saved many of the men, women, and children who would end up in the slave markets in Cairo.
And on October 2nd, 1452, Cecily Neville, gave birth to her 12th child and 8th son, whom she named Richard, after his father, the Duke of York.