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once given a special position as representative and forerunner to the Kings.
He took command of the actual siege operations, which hitherto James of Avesnes
and the Landgrave of Thuringia had directed. The Landgrave, who had been ill
for some time, probably with malaria, used his coming as an excuse to return to
Europe. Frederick of Swabia, with the remnant of Barbarossa’s army, arrived at
Acre early in October. A few days later an English contingent landed at Tyre
and came down to Acre. At its head was Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury.
    There was desultory fighting throughout
the summer, each side awaiting the reinforcements that would enable it to take
the offensive. The fall of Beaufort in July relieved men for Saladin’s army,
but he had sent troops to the north to intercept Frederick Barbarossa and they
did not return till the winter. Meanwhile skirmishes alternated with
fraternization. The Christian chroniclers noted with complacency several
incidents in which, by the hand of God, Saracens were discomfited and Crusader
heroism rewarded; but every attempt to scale the walls of the city failed.
Frederick of Swabia launched a fierce attack soon after his arrival and the
Archbishop of Besancon soon afterwards tried out some newly constructed
battering-ram. Both efforts were in vain. In November the Crusaders managed to
dislodge Saladin from his position at Tel Keisan, five miles from the city; but
he established himself in a stronger position at Tel Kharruba, a little further
away. This enabled them to break through to Haifa on a foraging expedition,
which slightly relieved the hunger in the camp. But both in the city and in the
two camps there was hunger and illness. Neither side was fitted to make a
supreme effort.
    1190: Marriage of Conrad and Isabella
    Amongst the victims of disease that autumn
was Queen Sibylla. The two little daughters that she had borne to King Guy died
a few days before her own death. The heiress to the kingdom was now the
Princess Isabella; and Guy’s crown was in jeopardy. He had won the crown as the
Queen’s husband. Did his rights survive her death? To the surviving barons of
the kingdom, led by Balian of Ibelin, it seemed an opportunity for ridding
themselves of his weak unlucky rule. Their candidate for the throne was Conrad
of Montferrat. If he could be married to Isabella, his claims would be higher
than Guy’s. There were difficulties in this solution. Conrad was rumoured to
have one wife living at Constantinople and possibly another in Italy, and never
to have troubled about any annulment or divorce. But Constantinople and Italy
were far away, and if there were deserted ladies there, they could be
forgotten. A more pressing problem was the existence of Isabella’s husband,
Humphrey of Toron, who was not only alive but present in the camp. Humphrey was
a charming youth, gallant and cultured; but his beauty was too feminine for him
to be respected by the tough soldiers around him; nor had the barons ever
forgotten his weak desertion of their cause in 1186, when Guy had secured the
crown in defiance of the terms of Baldwin IV’s will. They decided that he must
be divorced. Humphrey himself was easily persuaded to agree. He was not fitted
for married life, and he was terrified of political responsibility. But
Isabella was less amenable. Humphrey had always been kind to her, and she had
no wish to exchange him for a grim middle-aged warrior. Nor had she ambitions
for the throne. The barons left the matter to the capable hands of her mother,
Queen Maria Comnena, Balian’s wife. She used her maternal authority to make the
reluctant princess abandon Humphrey. Then she declared before the assembled
bishops that her daughter had been forced into the marriage by her uncle
Baldwin IV, and had only been eight years old when the engagement was arranged.
In view of her extreme youth and Humphrey’s known effeminacy, the marriage
should be annulled. The Patriarch Heraclius was too ill to attend