Most of what we know about the life and work of William, archbishop of Tyre, comes from what he himself recorded in the Historia Ierosolymitana. The Historia, both by what it is and by what it tells us about its author, makes it abundantly clear that he was a gifted man, and thanks to its survival more is known about him than about any of his contemporaries in the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the East. William enjoyed a successful career, but one which followed a well-trodden path, familiar to many successful churchmen in twelfth-century Latin Christendom. What is distinctive about him was that he added the vocation of historian to the vocations of royal servant and prelate. His legacy is among the more memorable and important pieces of historical writing from the entire medieval period.

A detailed reconstruction of his life is not possible, and there are major questions, in particular about the nature of his political role in his closing years, which remain unanswerable. However, the discovery of the autobiographical chapter in which he described his early career has done much to illuminate his life before the mid-1160s. We now know for certain that he was born in the city of Jerusalem and that he spent almost twenty years studying in the Schools of western Europe. The date for his return to the East can be established as 1165, and this would put the date for his departure to Europe as c. 1146.