May 1189

Montreal (castle)

Surrender of Montréal to Saladin’s forces

Montréal held out for roughly two years after the kingdom's field army disappeared at Hattin.

Spring 1189: the last Transjordan fortress

Montréal — also called Shawbak or Shobak — went on resisting until approximately April or May 1189, and surrendered after a siege reported as lasting about two years.

Sources place the surrender in April or May; an exact day is not securely established.

Its fall ended the remaining major Frankish resistance in Oultrejordain, and the fortress passed to al-Adil.

Kerak had already gone

Kerak and Montréal did not fall together. Kerak surrendered to al-Adil in November 1188 after a prolonged blockade — roughly six months earlier.

After Hattin removed any prospect of relief, Saladin's forces isolated the strong Transjordan fortresses and starved their garrisons into negotiated surrender.

Tyre was not all that was left

Saladin had devastated the Principality of Antioch during the summer of 1188, taking places from Jabala to Baghras, before accepting an eight-month truce requested by Bohemond III.

That truce ran from 1 October 1188 through the last day of May 1189. Its expiry may explain why a generalised chronology placed the northern situation under “May 1189.”

Reginald of Sidon held Beaufort until spring 1190, and Tripoli, Antioch, Margat and the Tortosa citadel also remained outside Saladin's control.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~1189-05.

What the sources leave uncertain

Sources place Montréal’s surrender in April or May 1189; an exact day is not securely established.
The listed entry bundles Kerak’s November 1188 surrender, Montréal’s spring 1189 surrender and the results of Saladin’s 1188 northern campaign into one supposed May event.
The political boundaries of the northern Latin states make blanket claims about the 'Principality of Antioch' especially prone to error.