years his senior. Renier and Maria were later killed during the usurpation of Andronikos, and the family rebuilt ties with Barbarossa. Crusade in Outremer In 1183, with the accession of his grandson Baldwin V, a minor, as co-king of Jerusalem, William, then probably in his late sixties, left the government of Montferrat to Conrad and Boniface, and returned to the east. He was granted the castle of St. Elias (present-day Taybeh). He fought in the Battle of Hattin in 1187, where he was captured by Saladin's forces. In the meantime, his second son, Conrad, had arrived at Tyre from Constantinople. Conrad was given the command of the defences. During the siege of Tyre in November that year, he is said to have refused to surrender as much as a stone of its walls to liberate his father, even threatening to shoot him with a crossbow himself when Saladin had him presented as a hostage. Eventually, Saladin withdrew his army from Tyre. In 1188, William was released unharmed at Tortosa, and seems to have ended his days in Tyre, with his son. He probably died in the summer of 1191: Conrad last describes himself as "marchionis Montisferrati filius" in a charter of May that year. Popular culture William de Montferrat appears as an assassination target in the video game Assassin's Creed (2007), set during the Third Crusade in 1191. In the game, de Montferrat is Liege Lord of Acre under King Richard and is portrayed as middle aged, rather than in his early eighties. Unbeknowst to Richard, de Montferrat is also a member of the Templar Order with secret instructions to prepare the people of Acre for the Templars' vision of the "New World". He does this by hoarding food and forcefully conscripting soldiers in order to teach them hardship and discipline, making him a target for the Assassins. De Montferrat's assassination in the game is inspired by the real-life death of his son Conrad, who was also killed by the Assassins. References Sources Haberstumpf, Walter. Dinastie europee nel Mediterraneo orientale. I Monferrato e i Savoia nei secoli XII–XV, 1995 (external link to downloadable text). Hamilton, Bernard. The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, 2000. Settia, Aldo A. "Guglielmo V di Monferrato, detto il Vecchio", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. LX, Roma 2003 (external link) Usseglio, Leopoldo. I Marchesi di Monferrato in Italia ed