In my last blog about the movie Kingdom of Heaven I commented that Balian did not exist. Well, that was a bit of poor scholarship on my part. I simply did not do my homework! Unfortunately, the church history sources I have at home do not mention Balian at all. Wikipedia mentions Balian as Balian of Ibelin (also as Balian the Younger) who died in 1193. His father Balian the Elder died in 1150.
Balian is also mentioned in the article In Search of the Real Balian. Here is a quote from that article:
"Balian did in fact play a crucial role as a Crusader noble in the events surrounding the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 to the Muslim sultan Saladin. But Balian never had to travel to the Holy Land—as he does in the movie—because he was already part of the nobility there. His father Balian the Old (not Godfrey) fathered three sons, Hugh, Baldwin, and Balian, all of whom were legitimate and recognized as such. Long before Saladin made his masterful invasion of the Holy Land, Balian and his elder brother Baldwin had established their reputations as competent members of Palestine's feudal nobility. Indeed, Balian was married to royalty even before the events Scott portrays—and he wasn't at all romantically involved with the princess Sybilla, sister to the king of Jerusalem. (Actually Balian's brother Baldwin was the one who had a love interest in Sybilla.)"
So, you can read about who Balian really was at the links given above. My comments in the original article still stand that "the creators of Kingdom of Heaven played fast and loose with the facts of the crusades," that if "you are interested in an accurate historical movie, this is also not for you, especially if you are a history buff" and finally "like most other historic epics produced by Hollywood... Hollywood gets it wrong once again!"
Just thinking...
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