John | |
|---|---|
| Count of Jaffa and Ascalon | |
| Predecessor | Hugh of Brienne |
| Successor | Guy of Ibelin |
| Born | 1215 Peristerona,Cyprus |
| Died | December 1266(1266-12-00) (aged 50–51) Nicosia, Cyprus |
| Noble family | House of Ibelin-Jaffa |
| Spouse | Maria of Armenia |
| Issue more... | Guy |
| Father | Philip of Ibelin |
| Mother | Alice of Montbéliard |
John of Ibelin (French:Jean d'Ibelin, 1215 – December 1266),count of Jaffa and Ascalon, was a noted jurist and the author of the longest legal treatise from theKingdom of Jerusalem. He was the son ofPhilip of Ibelin,bailli of theKingdom of Cyprus, and Alice of Montbéliard, and was the nephew ofJohn of Ibelin, the "Old Lord of Beirut". To distinguish him from his uncle and other members of theIbelin family named John, he is sometimes calledJohn of Jaffa.
His family was the first branch of Ibelins to have their seat in Cyprus, due to his father's regency there 1218–1227.[1] In 1229 John fledCyprus with his family whenFrederick II, Holy Roman Emperor seized the Ibelin territories on the island. They settled temporarily in northernPalestine, where the family had holdings. He was present at theBattle of Casal Imbert in 1232, when his uncle John the "Old Lord of Beirut" was defeated byRiccardo Filangieri, Frederick's lieutenant in the east.[2] Around 1240 he married Maria of Barbaron (d. 1263), the sister ofHethum I of Armenia and sister-in-law of KingHenry I of Cyprus.[3] In 1241 he was probably responsible for drafting a compromise between the Ibelins and the emperor, in whichSimon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester would govern the kingdom. This proposal was never implemented, and Simon never came to the Holy Land; the Ibelins continued to quarrel with the representatives of theHohenstaufens, and in 1242 they capturedTyre from their rivals. John participated in the siege.[4]
Shortly thereafter, sometime between 1246 and the beginning of theSeventh Crusade, John became count ofJaffa andAscalon andlord of Ramla.Ramla was an old holding of the Ibelins, but Jaffa and Ascalon had belonged to others, most recently to the murderedWalter IV of Brienne, whose sonJohn, Count of Brienne (king Henry's nephew) was supplanted by this Ibelin acquisition. This probably occurred when king Henry, John's first cousin, became regent of Jerusalem, and distributed continental lands to his Cypriot barons to create a loyal base there. Jaffa was by now a minor port and Ascalon was captured from theKnights Hospitaller by theMamluks in 1247.[5]
In 1249 John joined the Seventh Crusade and participated inLouis IX of France's capture ofDamietta. Louis was taken prisoner when Damietta was recaptured, but John seems to have escaped the same fate. Louis was released in 1252 and moved his army to Jaffa. Louis' constable and chroniclerJean de Joinville portrays John very favourably; he describes John's coat-of-arms as "a fine thing to see...or with a crosspateé gules".[6] John was by now an extremely famous lord in the east, corresponding also withHenry III of England andPope Innocent IV, who had confirmed Henry I's grant to John.[7]
Henry I died in 1253, and Louis IX left for France in 1254, leaving John as bailli of Jerusalem. John made peace withDamascus and used the forces of Jerusalem to attack Ascalon; the Egyptians besieged Jaffa in 1256 in response. John marched out and defeated them, and after this victory he gave up thebailliage to his cousin John of Arsuf.[8]
Meanwhile, theGenoese andVenetian trading communities inAcre came into conflict, in the "War of Saint Sabas." John supported the Venetians. In order to bring some order back to the kingdom, John andBohemund VI of Antioch summoned Dowager QueenPlaisance of Cyprus to take over the regency of the kingdom for the absentee king,Conradin. Nevertheless, the Venetians defeated the Genoese in a naval battle in 1258 and the Genoese left Acre. With Plaisance and Hugh in Acre, the Ibelin family began to decline in importance, but around 1263 John began a scandalous affair with Plaisance, possibly promptingPope Urban IV to send an official letter in protest,De sinu patris.[9] John's wife and children were believed to have been living apart from him at the time. Maria was visiting her family in Cilicia in 1256 and 1263, and died after visiting her father,Constantine of Baberon, on his own deathbed.
John could do little whileBaibars, the Mamluksultan of Egypt, fought with theMongols in Palestine. Baibars may have reduced Jaffa to vassalage, and certainly used its port to transport food to Egypt. John's truce with Baibars did not last, and he himself died in 1266. By 1268 Baibars had captured Jaffa.[10]
From 1264 to 1266, John of Ibelin wrote an extensive legal treatise, now known as theLivre des Assises, the longest such treatise known from the Levant, dealing with the so-calledAssizes of Jerusalem and the procedure of theHaute Cour It also included details about the ecclesiastical and baronial structure of the Kingdom, as well as the number of knights owed to the crown by each of the kingdom's vassals.[11]
With Maria of Armenia (sister ofHethum I, King of Armenia and daughter ofConstantine of Baberon), John had the following children:
