Conrad of Montferrat

Also known as defender of Tyre

A Montferrat prince already famous for defending Constantinople against a palace coup in 1187, Conrad sailed into Acre in July of that year just as Saladin was about to take the city, found the harbour chain already cut, and sailed straight on north to Tyre. He reached the great peninsular fortress days before Saladin's troops arrived, took charge of the demoralised defenders, and in a few weeks turned Tyre into the rock on which the entire Third Crusade would eventually land.

For the next four years he held Tyre as a de facto separate lordship while Guy of Lusignan was besieging Acre. In 1190, on Sibylla's death, the nobility annulled Isabella of Jerusalem's first marriage and gave her to Conrad instead — giving him the hereditary claim to the throne that Guy had lost. Richard the Lionheart reluctantly confirmed the transfer in April 1192, and a great council at Ascalon elected Conrad king.

He never reigned. On 28 April 1192, two men of the Order of Assassins — dressed as Christian monks and settled as converts in the household of the bishop of Tyre for weeks — killed him with daggers in a Tyre street as he returned from supper. Rashid ad-Din Sinan, the Old Man of the Mountain, had sent them. Contemporaries loudly speculated about Richard the Lionheart's complicity — a charge later exploited by the Austrians who imprisoned him on his way home — but modern historians generally acquit him. Conrad's widow Isabella, pregnant with their daughter, was married within a week to Henry of Champagne.

Preceded by Isabella I. Succeeded by Henry II of Champagne.

Read more on Wikipedia: English article