Kingdom of Heaven

          The Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 historical fiction film loosely based on the life of Balian of Ibelin, a crusading French noble in the 12^th century. Like most films set in the middle ages, it is riddled with inaccuracies from the start. Many events are blatantly made up and the protagonist only very slightly resembles the Balian of history. While The Kingdom of Heaven portrays several battles relatively accurately and includes a few truths about Balian’s life, it is far too muddled with fiction to be considered historically accurate.

                The plot of The Kingdom of Heaven takes off quickly, with Balian learning of his wife’s suicide and subsequently murdering his half-brother and town priest for decapitating her corpse before burial. Partially out of rage and partially pilgrimage, Balian flees his French village with a band of crusaders heading for the Holy land. True to Hollywood, blood begins flying when the village’s lord ambushes the band of crusaders after discovering the priest’s murderer was among them. The crusaders put up a righteous fight and manage to defeat their attackers, although the crusaders’ leader (later revealed to be Balian’s true father) is killed. Before he dies, however, he knights Balian and makes him promise he will restore holiness in Jerusalem.

Liam Neeson... much better in Non-Stop

                Balian takes on his father’s vision and makes it to the Holy Land relatively unscathed. Soon after arriving, a company of rogue Christian cavalry massacre one of Salah ad-Din’s trade caravan, provoking Salah ad-Din to lay siege to castle Kerek, a strategically important fortress. Balian gathers his band of knights and directly confronts Salah ad-Din, giving the civilians of Kerek time to escape. Needless to say, the entirety of his “army” of less than a hundred is either killed or taken captive. Balian negotiates a diplomatic escape, but the same group of Christians again recklessly antagonizes Salah ad-Din. Low on supplies and short on water, they engage in a confrontation with the Arabian army and are predictably decimated. While this Christian army was led by foolhardy nobles, it was sizeable, well-equipped, and formally trained. This unfortunately leaves Balian as essentially the only commander of a Crusader army.

                Encouraged, Salah ad-Din prepares to finally siege Christian Jerusalem while Balian rushes to the city’s defense. The French knight shows his ability as a tactician by holding off the superior Arabian force for three days, toppling siege towers, defending an unwalled portion of the city, and finally negotiating admirably light surrender conditions when defeat is inevitable.

Balian beseaching Salah ad-Din for surrender

               The Christians are to be allowed safe passage to Crusader lands, and Salah ad-Din honors these arrangement. Our protagonist returns to France and the film closes with King Richard the Lionhearted passing through Balian’s home village. The English king requests Balian join him in his march to Holy Crusade, but he refuses, telling Richard he is just a simple blacksmith.

                While The Kingdom of Heaven certainly has a basis in history, most of the plotline is completely fictional. Balian was no common blacksmith, having inherited castle Ibelin and named vassal to his brother Baldwin. Balian, after a series of political skirmishes, became advisor to Guy of Lusignan, ruler of Jerusalem. The initial conflict between the crusaders and Salah ad-Din was indeed started when Guy’s ally Raymond of Chatillon attacked a caravan, but the film depicts Guy and Raymond acting in accordance with one another, when in truth Guy was furious with his ally. Balian actually travelled to Tripoli with the Grand Master of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller to reconcile Raymond with Guy, as opposed to the film’s depiction of Balian heroically leading an outnumbered cavalry charge against the Arabian army to give Raymond enough time to escape. After Salah ad-Din slaughtered most of the Christian embassy, Raymond returned with Balian and the Christian forces coalesced at the city of Sephoria. At this point, history and The Kingdom of Heaven fall out of agreement, save a few small details.

The Christian army led by Guy begins to march across a desolate, uninhabitable wasteland, intending to relieve the siege of the Christian castle of Tiberius and bolster their forces with those at the castle. Unfortunately for the Christians, this is where The Kingdom of Heaven is on par with fact; the army had no water to speak of, very little food, and were relentlessly harassed by Salah ad-Din’s light cavalry. Seeing what they thought was their salvation ahead, a landmark called the Horns of Hattin, the beleaguered Christians made their stand between the two earthen mounds and prepared to fight the full force of Salah ad-Din. 

The Horns of Hattin

The battle that ensued is perhaps one of the greatest defeats in history, leaving nearly every Christian in a pool of their own dehydrated blood and the Arabians scarcely sweating. Salah ad-Din swept across the land and, with victory after victory, reclaimed Christian domain. Balian, who managed to survive the bloodbath, returned to Jerusalem and helped defend the city. In surprising agreement with the film, Salah ad-Din besieged Jerusalem for a time, leveling several walls but never gaining entrance. Balian did indeed negotiate the same surrender as depicted in the film, but the successive event is the most laughable inconstancy of all.

Richard the Lionhearted made his way to the Holy Land, but instead of seeking out Balian as was shown in the film, he vehemently despised the man, saying he was worse than a goblin and he and his wife (in fact, was living) were “steeped in Greek filth from the cradle, she had a husband whose morals matched her own: he was cruel, she was godless; he was faithless, she was fraudulent.” The fact that the directors of The Kingdom of Heaven did not bother to adhere to this last detail draws doubt to the rest of the production, and upon closer examination, it is clear the film is very inaccurate in regards to the majority of events. While the film would be of some limited use in a history class, the professor would be so weary of explaining what was true and what was Hollywood, he/she would likely follow suit of Balian’s wife.                                                                                                                                            

http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars10011200/p/jerusalem.htm

http://king-baldwin.livejournal.com/45702.html