Conrad of Montferrat, Baldwin V's paternal uncle,…

Conrad of Montferrat, Baldwin V's paternal uncle, lands at Tyre with a small Italian fleet and a number of followers barely two weeks after Hattin.

Conrad had evidently intended to join his father, who holds the castle of St. Elias.

He had arrived first off Acre, which had recently fallen to Saladin, and so had sailed north to Tyre, where he finds the remnants of the Crusader army.

Raymond III of Tripoli and his stepsons, Reginald of Sidon, Balian of Ibelin, Payen of Haifa and several other leading nobles who had escaped the battle, have fled to Tyre, but most are anxious to return to their own territories to defend them.

Raymond, despairing of Tyre's defense and in failing health, had returned to Tripoli, where he will die soon afterwards; Reginald returns to Sidon.

According to the Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, Reginald of Sidon had taken charge in Tyre and was in the process of negotiating its surrender with Saladin.

Conrad allegedly threw Saladin's banners into the ditch, and made the Tyrians swear total loyalty to him.

His rise to power seems to have been less dramatic in reality.

Reginald goes to refortify his own castle of Belfort on the Litani River.

With the support of the established Italian merchant communities in the city, Conrad reorganizes the defense of Tyre, setting up a commune, similar to those he had so often fought against in Italy.

When Saladin's army arrived, they found the city well defended and defiant.

Saladin presents Conrad's aged father, William V of Montferrat, who had been captured at Hattin, before the walls of the city, and offers to release his father and bestow great gifts upon Conrad if he surrenders Tyre.

The old man tells his son to stand firm, even when the Egyptians threaten to kill him.

Conrad declares that William has lived a long life already, and aims at him with a crossbow himself.

According to the Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, Saladin said, "This man is an unbeliever and very cruel".

Conrad succeeds, however, in calling Saladin's bluff: the old Marquess William in 1188 will be released unharmed at Tortosa and returned to his son.

Saladin's sudden success, which sees the crusaders reduced to the occupation of only three important cities, is marred by his failure to capture Tyre, an almost impregnable coastal fortress to which the scattered Christian survivors of the recent battles flock.

Balian is to become one of Conrad’s closest allies.

Leaving Tyre, Balian asks Saladin for permission to return through the lines to Jerusalem to escort his wife and their children to Tripoli.

Saladin allows this, provided that Balian leave the city and take an oath to never raise arms against him.