William of Tyre

William grew up in Jerusalem at the height of the Crusader kingdom, then spent twenty years studying liberal arts and canon law in European universities. After returning in 1165, King Amalric sent him as ambassador to Byzantium and made him tutor to the young Baldwin, whom William discovered to be a leper. He rose to chancellor and archbishop of Tyre, and in 1179 led the eastern delegation to the Third Council of the Lateran. But when a rival faction took control during Baldwin IV's reign, William's influence crumbled; he was passed over for Patriarch of Jerusalem and died in obscurity in 1186. His chronicle of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, written in polished Latin thick with classical allusion, was translated into French almost immediately and became the essential source for the Crusades - though modern historians have traced the biases born of his entanglement in the court's power struggles.