Gerard of Ridefort

Gerard of Ridefort (died 4 October 1189) was Grand Master of the Knights Templar from the end of 1184 until his death in 1189.

Gerard of Ridefort is thought probably to have been of Flemish origin, although some nineteenth-century writers suggested an Anglo-Norman background, apparently through misreading his designation as "of Bideford". It is uncertain when he arrived in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He appears in the charter record in the service of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem in the late 1170s, and by 22 October 1179 held the rank of Marshal of the kingdom.

It seems that he expected Raymond III of Tripoli to give him the hand of an available heiress. However, when Cécile Dorel inherited her father's coastal fief of Botrun in the County of Tripoli, Raymond married her (before March 1181) to Plivain or Plivano, the nephew of a Pisan merchant, for a bride price of 10,000 bezants. By the mid-thirteenth century, when the Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (the so-called Chronicle of Ernoul) was compiled, the story of the bride of Botrun had evolved into a fanciful legend in which Plivain's uncle put the young lady (there renamed Lucie) on the scales, and offered Raymond her weight in gold, to obtain the marriage.

Gerard fell seriously ill, after which he took vows as a Templar. By June 1183 he held the rank of seneschal of the Order. He was elected Grand Master in late 1184 or early 1185, after the death of Arnold of Torroja in Verona.

Gerard continued to hold a grudge against Raymond of Tripoli, which influenced some of his political manœuvrings. In 1186, when Baldwin V of Jerusalem died, Gerard took the side of Queen Sibylla and her husband Guy of Lusignan in the ensuing succession struggle. Raymond and his allies the Ibelin family were the leaders of the opposing faction, who supported the claim of Sibylla's younger half-sister Isabella.

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