Today we discuss the Battle of Montgisard.
In 1177, the young King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem — crippled by leprosy and barely able to ride — faced an army twenty times the size of his own. Saladin, commanding over twenty-six thousand men, marched north to crush the Crusader Kingdom once and for all.
Baldwin had only a few hundred knights and a few thousand foot soldiers. But he refused to flee. Carried into battle on a litter, the boy-king ordered the charge. What followed was chaos — steel and dust colliding on the plains near Ramla. Against all odds, the Christian host shattered Saladin’s army, forcing the Sultan himself to retreat.
Montgisard became one of the most astonishing victories in Crusader history — proof that faith and will can overcome flesh and weakness, that even a dying king can humble an empire.
