The Crusades, the Genoese and the Latin East - DSpace at ...

crusader politics before 1187, ' is one of Friedman's main arguments. 70 At the beginning of the
thirteenth century a change had occurred in Europe's attitude towards captives. Friedman argued
that this change was primarily a consequence of the battle of Hattin, `when many if not most of
the nobles of the Latin Kingdom became captives, the public image of the captives changed . 9271
The change was to affect many features of everyday life in Europe, from political thought to
patterns of charity and other forms of religious life. One of the most significant changes Friedman
indicated is the change in liturgy. This was also a result of the fall of Jerusalem, `the Jerusalem
liturgy containing prayers for peace, for the liberation of Jerusalem, and for the Christian captives
detained in Saracen fetters were recited by order of the pope and the cardinals and reflect
universal, not local liturgy. '272
Friedman demonstrated how important the role of Pope Innocent III in leading the change
of attitude towards the captives was. In her words, Innocent `opened a campaign for a new
crusade, and at the same time made strenuous efforts to redeem captives... Innocent not only
encouraged ransom; he transformed the image of the captive... Innocent III described the captive
as weak and suffering both physical and mental humiliation, but did not depict him as a failure or
as connected with shame. '273 The captivity of King Richard I and his ransoming did not affect his
image: `in the eyes of [his] contemporaries, Richard remained a lion-heart... '. The case of King
Richard must have contributed to the changing image of captivity and captives. Friedman seems
to ignore the fact that Richard's fortunate image was not shared by all of his contemporaries. For
example, Guy of Lusignan, the king of Jerusalem, himself left a rather different image to
posterity. 274
In a book on captivity in the Christian and Muslim worlds at the time of
Innocent Ill,
Giulio Cipollone showed in detail how acute was the issue of captivity to the pope: `Un profondo
sentimento teologico della cattivitä cristiana e delta necessitä di redenzione e
di liberazione
illumina tutto il pontificato di Innocenzo III. ' Cipollone argued that Innocent was not concerned
only with Christian captives in Muslim hands but also with those kept in Christian regimes such
as Germany. 275 Two years before his letter to the captives in Alexandria Innocent wrote to
console some captives in Morocco.
276
270
Yvonne Friedman, Encounter between Enemies: Captivity and Ransoming in the Latin Kingdom of
Jerusalem (Leiden, 2002), p. 86.
271
Ibid, p. 236.
272
Ibid, p. 87.
273
Ibid, pp. 236-237.
274
In fact, Friedman vividly described King Guy's fear and humiliation when he was taken captive: `the
helplessness
of the vanquished king was even more humiliating than the other captives' fright'. Ibid, p.
124.
275
Giulio Cipollone, Cristianitä - Islam cattivitä e liberazione in nome di Dio: it tempo di Innocenzo III
dopo 'il 1187' (Rome, 1992), pp. 351-52.
276 Ibid, p. 377.
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