TheKingdom of Jerusalem, also known as theCrusader Kingdom, was one of theCrusader states established in theLevant immediately after theFirst Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession ofGodfrey of Bouillon in 1099 until thefall of Acre in 1291. Its history is divided into two periods with a brief interruption in its existence, beginning with its collapse after thesiege of Jerusalem in 1187 and its restoration after theThird Crusade in 1192.
The original Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted from 1099 to 1187 before being almost entirely overrun by theAyyubid Sultanate underSaladin. Following the Third Crusade, it was re-established inAcre in 1192. The re-established state is commonly known as the "Second Kingdom of Jerusalem" or, alternatively, as the "Kingdom of Acre" after its new capital city. Acre remained the capital for the rest of its existence, even during the two decades that followed the Crusaders' establishment of partial control overJerusalem during theSixth Crusade, through the diplomacy ofFrederick II of Hohenstaufen face to face the Ayyubids.
The vast majority of the Crusaders who settled the Kingdom of Jerusalem were from theKingdom of France, as were the knights and soldiers who made up the bulk of the steady flow of reinforcements throughout its two-hundred-year existence; its rulers and elite were therefore predominantlyFrench.[4] French Crusaders also brought their language to the Levant, thus establishingOld French as thelingua franca of the Crusader states, in whichLatin served as the official language. While the majority of the population in the countryside comprisedChristians andMuslims from local Levantine ethnicities, many Europeans (primarily French andItalian) also arrived to settle in villages across the region.
At first the kingdom was little more than a loose collection of towns and cities captured during theFirst Crusade, but at its height in the mid-12th century, the kingdom encompassed roughly the territory of modern-dayIsrael,Palestine, and the southern half ofLebanon, includingBeirut. From theMediterranean Sea, the kingdom extended in a thin strip of land fromBeirut in the north to theSinai Desert in the south; into modernJordan andSyria in the east, and towardsEgypt in the west. Three otherCrusader states founded during and after the First Crusade were located further north: theCounty of Edessa (1097–1144), thePrincipality of Antioch (1098–1268), and theCounty of Tripoli (1109–1289). While all three were independent, they were closely tied to Jerusalem. Beyond these to the north and west lay the states ofArmenian Cilicia and theByzantine Empire, with which Jerusalem had a close relationship in the twelfth century. Further east, various Muslim emirates were located which were ultimately allied with theAbbasid caliph inBaghdad. The kingdom was ruled by King Aimery of Lusignan (1197–1205), theKing of Cyprus, another crusader state founded during the Third Crusade. Dynastic ties also strengthened with Tripoli, Antioch, and Armenia. The kingdom was soon increasingly dominated by theItalian city-states ofVenice andGenoa. TheHoly Roman Emperor,Frederick II (reigned 1220–1250), had ambitions in the Crusader state, claiming the kingdom by marriage, but his presence sparkeda civil war (1228–1243) among the kingdom's nobility. The kingdom became little more than a pawn in the politics and warfare of theAyyubid andMamluk dynasties in Egypt, as well as theKhwarezmian andMongol invaders. As a relatively minor kingdom, it received little financial or military support from Europe; despite numerous small expeditions, Europeans generally proved unwilling to undertake an expensive journey to the east for an apparently losing cause. The Mamluk sultansBaibars (reigned 1260–1277) andal-Ashraf Khalil (reigned 1290–1293) eventually reconquered all the remaining crusader strongholds, culminating in thedestruction of Acre in 1291.
The kingdom was ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse, although the Crusaders established themselves and their descendants as an elite Catholic minority. They imported many customs and institutions from their homelands in Europe, and there were close familial and political connections with the West throughout the kingdom's existence. The kingdom also inherited "oriental" qualities, influenced by pre-existing customs and populations. The majority of the kingdom's inhabitants were native Christians, especiallyGreek andSyriac Orthodox, as well asSunni andShi'a Muslims. The native Christians and Muslims, who were a marginalized lower class, tended to speak Greek and Arabic, while the crusaders, who came mainly fromFrance, spokeFrench. There were also a small number ofJews andSamaritans.
According toBenjamin of Tudela, who travelled through the kingdom around 1170, there were 1,000 Samaritans inNablus, 200 inCaesarea and 300 inAscalon. This sets a lower bound for the Samaritan population at 1,500, since the contemporaryTolidah, a Samaritan chronicle, also mentions communities inGaza andAcre. Benjamin of Tudela estimated the total Jewish population of 14 cities in the kingdom to be 1,200, making the Samaritan population of the time larger than the Jewish, perhaps for the only time in history.[5]
The First Crusade was preached at theCouncil of Clermont in 1095 byPope Urban II, with the goal of assisting theByzantine Empire against the invasions of the "Turks and Arabs" and "to destroy this vile race from the lands of our friends."[6] However, the main objective quickly became the control of theHoly Land. The Byzantines were frequently at war with the Seljuks and other Turkish dynasties for control ofAnatolia andSyria. The Sunni Seljuks had formerly ruled theSeljuk Empire, but this empire had collapsed into several smaller states after the death ofMalik-Shah I in 1092. Malik-Shah was succeeded in the AnatolianSultanate of Rum byKilij Arslan I, and in Syria by his brotherTutush I, who died in 1095. Tutush's sonsFakhr al-Mulk Radwan andDuqaq inheritedAleppo andDamascus respectively, further dividing Syria amongst emirs antagonistic towards each other, as well asKerbogha, theatabeg ofMosul. This disunity among the Anatolian and Syrian emirs allowed the Crusaders to overcome any military opposition they faced on the way to Jerusalem.[7]
Egypt and much of Palestine were controlled by theFatimid Caliphate, which had extended further into Syria before the arrival of the Seljuks. Warfare between the Fatimids and Seljuks caused great disruption for the local Christians and for Western pilgrims. The Fatimids, under the nominal rule ofcaliphal-Musta'li but actually controlled byvizieral-Afdal Shahanshah, had lost Jerusalem to the Seljuks in 1073;[8] they recaptured it in 1098 from theArtuqids, a smaller Turkish tribe associated with the Seljuks, just before the arrival of the crusaders.[9]
After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099,Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem in June 1099; a few of the neighbouring towns (Ramla,Lydda,Bethlehem, and others) were taken first, and Jerusalem itselfwas captured on July 15.[10] On 22 July, a council was held in theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre to establish a king for the newly created Kingdom of Jerusalem.Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse andGodfrey of Bouillon were recognized as the leaders of the crusade and the siege of Jerusalem. Raymond was the wealthier and more powerful of the two, but at first he refused to become king, perhaps attempting to show his piety and probably hoping that the other nobles would insist upon his election anyway.[11] The more popular Godfrey did not hesitate like Raymond, and accepted the position as leader. Most modern historians chronicle that he took the titleAdvocatus Sancti Sepulchri ("advocate" or "defender" of the Holy Sepulchre). Others report that Godfrey himself seems to have used the more ambiguous termprinceps, or simply retained his title ofdux from Lower Lorraine. According to William of Tyre, writing in the later 12th century when Godfrey had become a legendary hero, he refused to wear "a crown of gold" where Christ had worn "acrown of thorns".[12][13][14] Raymond was incensed and took his army to forage away from the city. The new kingdom, and Godfrey's reputation, was secured with the defeat of the Egyptian army underal-Afdal Shahanshah at theBattle of Ascalon one month after the conquest, on August 12, but Raymond and Godfrey's continued antagonism prevented the crusaders from taking control ofAscalon itself.[15]
There was still some uncertainty about what to do with the new kingdom. Thepapal legateDaimbert of Pisa convinced Godfrey to hand over Jerusalem to him asLatin patriarch, with the intention to set up a theocratic state directly under papal control. According to William of Tyre, Godfrey may have supported Daimbert's efforts, and he agreed to take possession ofone or two other cities and thus enlarge the kingdom if Daimbert were permitted to rule Jerusalem.[16] Godfrey did indeed increase the boundaries of the kingdom, by capturingJaffa,Haifa,Tiberias, and other cities, and reducing many others to tributary status. He set the foundations for thesystem of vassalage in the kingdom, establishing thePrincipality of Galilee and theCounty of Jaffa, but his reign was short, and he died of an illness in 1100. His brotherBaldwin of Boulogne successfully outmanoeuvred Daimbert and claimed Jerusalem for himself as "King of the Latins of Jerusalem". Daimbert compromised by crowning Baldwin I in Bethlehem rather than Jerusalem, but the path for amonarchy had been laid.[17] Within this framework, aCatholic church hierarchy was established, overtop of the localEastern Orthodox andSyriac Orthodox authorities, who retained their own hierarchies (the Catholics considered them schismatics and thus illegitimate, and vice versa). Under the Latin patriarch, there were four suffragan archdioceses and numerous dioceses.[18]
DuringBaldwin I's reign, the kingdom expanded even further. The number of European inhabitants increased, as the minorcrusade of 1101 brought reinforcements to the kingdom. Baldwin repopulated Jerusalem with Franks and native Christians, after his expeditionacross the Jordan in 1115.[19] With help from the Italian city-states and other adventurers, notably KingSigurd I of Norway, Baldwin captured the port cities of Acre (1104),Beirut (1110), andSidon (1111), while exerting hissuzerainty over the othercrusader states to the north – Edessa (which he had founded in 1097 during the crusade), Antioch, and Tripoli, which he helped capture in 1109. He successfully defended against Muslim invasions, from the Fatimids at the numerousbattles at Ramla and elsewhere in the southwest of the kingdom, and fromDamascus andMosul at theBattle of al-Sannabra in the northeast in 1113.[20] AsThomas Madden says, Baldwin wasthe true founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem, whohad transformed a tenuous arrangement into a solid feudal state. With brilliance and diligence, he established a strong monarchy, conquered the Palestinian coast, reconciled the crusader barons, and built strong frontiers against the kingdom's Muslim neighbours.[21]
Baldwin brought with him an Armenian wife, traditionally namedArda (although never named such by contemporaries), whom he had married to gain political support from the Armenian population in Edessa, and whom he quickly set aside when he no longer needed Armenian support in Jerusalem. He bigamously marriedAdelaide del Vasto, regent of Sicily, in 1113, but was convinced to divorce her as well in 1117; Adelaide's son from her first marriage,Roger II of Sicily, never forgave Jerusalem, and for decades withheld much-needed Sicilian naval support.[22]
Baldwin died without heirs in 1118, during a campaign against Egypt, and the kingdom was offered to his brotherEustace III of Boulogne, who had accompanied Baldwin and Godfrey on the crusade. Eustace was uninterested, and instead the crown passed to Baldwin's relative, probably a cousin,Baldwin of Le Bourg, who had previously succeeded him in Edessa. Baldwin II was an able ruler, and he too successfully defended against Fatimid and Seljuk invasions. Although Antioch was severely weakened after theBattle of Ager Sanguinis in 1119, and Baldwin himself was held captive by the emir of Aleppo from 1123 to 1124, Baldwin led the crusader states to victory at theBattle of Azaz in 1125. His reign saw the establishment of the firstmilitary orders, theKnights Hospitaller and theKnights Templar; the earliest surviving written laws of the kingdom, compiled at theCouncil of Nablus in 1120; and the first commercial treaty with theRepublic of Venice, thePactum Warmundi, in 1124. The increase of naval and military support from Venice led to the capture ofTyre that year. The influence of Jerusalem was further extended over Edessa and Antioch, where Baldwin II acted as regent when their own leaders were killed in battle, although there were regency governments in Jerusalem as well during Baldwin's captivity.[23] Baldwin was married to the Armenian noblewomanMorphia of Melitene, and had four daughters:Hodierna andAlice, who married into the families of the Count of Tripoli and Prince of Antioch;Ioveta, who became an influential abbess; and the eldest,Melisende, who was his heir and succeeded him upon his death in 1131, with her husbandFulk V of Anjou as king-consort. Their son, the futureBaldwin III, was named co-heir by his grandfather.[24]
Depiction of Crusaders from a 1922 edition ofPetit Larousse
Fulk was an experiencedcrusader and had brought military support to the kingdom during apilgrimage in 1120. He brought Jerusalem into the sphere of theAngevin Empire, as the father ofGeoffrey V of Anjou and grandfather of the futureHenry II of England. Not everyone appreciated the imposition of a foreigner as king. In 1132 Antioch, Tripoli, and Edessa all asserted their independence and conspired to prevent Fulk from exercising the suzerainty of Jerusalem over them. He defeated Tripoli in battle, and settled the regency in Antioch by arranging a marriage between the countess, Melisende's nieceConstance, and his own relativeRaymond of Poitiers.[25] Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, the native crusader nobles opposed Fulk's preference for his Angevin retinue. In 1134Hugh II of Jaffa revolted against Fulk, allying with the Muslim garrison at Ascalon, for which he was convicted of treasonin absentia. The Latin patriarch intervened to settle the dispute, but an assassination attempt was then made on Hugh, for which Fulk was blamed. This scandal allowed Melisende and her supporters to gain control of the government, just as her father had intended.[26] Accordingly, Fulkbecame so uxorious that...not even in unimportant cases did he take any measures without her knowledge and assistance.[27]
Fulk was then faced with a new and more dangerous enemy: the atabegZengi of Mosul, who had taken control ofAleppo and had set his sights onDamascus as well; the union of these three states would have been a serious blow to the growing power of Jerusalem. A brief intervention in 1137–1138 by the Byzantine emperorJohn II Comnenus, who wished to assert imperial suzerainty over all the crusader states, did nothing to stop the threat of Zengi; in 1139 Damascus and Jerusalem recognized the severity of the threat to both states, and an alliance was concluded which halted Zengi's advance. Fulk used this time to construct numerous castles, includingIbelin andKerak.[28] After the death of both Fulk and Emperor John in separate hunting accidents in 1143, Zengi invaded andconquered Edessa in 1144. Queen Melisende, now regent for her elder son Baldwin III, appointed a new constable,Manasses of Hierges, to head the army after Fulk's death, but Edessa could not be recaptured, despite Zengi's own assassination in 1146.[29] The fall of Edessa shocked Europe, and aSecond Crusade arrived in 1148.
Aftermeeting in Acre in June, the crusading kingsLouis VII of France andConrad III of Germany agreed with Melisende, Baldwin III and the major nobles of the kingdom to attackDamascus. Zengi's territory had been divided amongst his sons after his death, and Damascus no longer felt threatened, so an alliance had been made with Zengi's sonNur ad-Din, the emir of Aleppo. Perhaps remembering attacks launched on Jerusalem from Damascus in previous decades, Damascus seemed to be the best target for the crusade, rather than Aleppo or another city to the north which would have allowed for the recapture of Edessa. The subsequentSiege of Damascus was a complete failure; when the city seemed to be on the verge of collapse, the crusader army suddenly moved against another section of the walls, and was driven back. The Crusaders retreated within three days. There were rumours of treachery and bribery, and Conrad III felt betrayed by the nobility of Jerusalem. Whatever the reason for the failure, the French and German armies returned home, and a few years later Damascus was firmly under Nur ad-Din's control.[30]
The failure of the Second Crusade had dire long-term consequences for the kingdom. The West was hesitant to send large-scale expeditions; for the next few decades, only small armies came, headed by minor European nobles who desired to make apilgrimage. The Muslim states of Syria were meanwhile gradually united by Nur ad-Din, who defeated the Principality of Antioch at theBattle of Inab in 1149 and gained control of Damascus in 1154. Nur ad-Din was extremely pious and during his rule the concept ofjihad came to be interpreted as a kind of counter-crusade against the kingdom, which was an impediment to Muslim unity, both political and spiritual.[31]
In Jerusalem, the Crusaders were distracted by a conflict between Melisende and Baldwin III. Melisende continued to rule as regent long after Baldwin came of age. She was supported by, among others, Manasses of Hierges, who essentially governed for her as constable; her sonAmalric, whom she set up asCount of Jaffa;Philip of Milly; and theIbelin family. Baldwin asserted his independence by mediating disputes in Antioch and Tripoli, and gained the support of the Ibelin brothers when they began to oppose Manasses' growing power, thanks to his marriage to their widowed motherHelvis of Ramla. In 1153 Baldwin had himself crowned as sole ruler, and a compromise was reached by which the kingdom was divided in two, with Baldwin taking Acre and Tyre in the north and Melisende remaining in control of Jerusalem and the cities of the south. Baldwin was able to replace Manasses with one of his own supporters,Humphrey II of Toron. Baldwin and Melisende knew that this situation was untenable. Baldwin soon invaded his mother's possessions, defeated Manasses, and besieged his mother in theTower of David in Jerusalem. Melisende surrendered and retired to Nablus, but Baldwin appointed her his regent and chief advisor, and she retained some of her influence, especially in appointing ecclesiastical officials.[32] In 1153, Baldwin launchedan offensive against Ascalon, the fortress in the south from which Fatimid Egyptian armies had continually raided Jerusalem since the foundation of the kingdom. The fortress was captured and was added to the County of Jaffa, still in the possession of his brother Amalric.[33]
With the capture of Ascalon the southern border of the kingdom was now secure, and Egypt, formerly a major threat to the kingdom but now destabilized under the reign of several underaged caliphs, was reduced to a tributary state. Nur ad-Din remained a threat in the east, and Baldwin had to contend with the advances of the Byzantine emperorManuel I Comnenus, who claimed suzerainty over the Principality of Antioch. In order to bolster the defences of the kingdom against the growing strength of the Muslims, Baldwin III made the first direct alliance with the Byzantine Empire, by marryingTheodora Comnena, a niece of emperor Manuel; Manuel married Baldwin's cousinMaria.[34] As William of Tyre put it, it was hoped that Manuel would be able "to relieve from his own abundance the distress under which our realm was suffering and to change our poverty into superabundance".[35]
The relationship between Byzantium and Jerusalem has divided historians, with some historians supporting the Byzantine interpretation that Amalric recognised Manuel as his overlord, while other scholars such as Andrew Jotischky see the relationship as one of Byzantine protection of Orthodox Christians in Jerusalem.[36]
When Baldwin died childless in 1162, a year after his mother Melisende, the kingdom passed to his brother Amalric, who renewed the alliance negotiated by Baldwin. In 1163 the chaotic situation in Egypt led to a refusal to pay tribute to Jerusalem, and requests were sent to Nur ad-Din for assistance; in response,Amalric invaded, but was turned back when the Egyptians flooded the Nile atBilbeis. The Egyptian vizierShawar again requested help from Nur ad-Din, who sent his generalShirkuh, but Shawar quickly turned against him and allied with Amalric. Amalric and Shirkuh both besieged Bilbeis in 1164, but both withdrew due to Nur ad-Din's campaigns against Antioch, whereBohemond III of Antioch andRaymond III of Tripoli were defeated at theBattle of Harim. It seemed likely that Antioch itself would fall to Nur ad-Din, but he withdrew when Emperor Manuel sent a large Byzantine force to the area. Nur ad-Din sent Shirkuh back to Egypt in 1166, and Shawar again allied with Amalric, who was defeated at theBattle of al-Babein. Despite the defeat, both sides withdrew, but Shawar remained in control with a crusader garrison in Cairo.[37][38] Amalric cemented his alliance with Manuel by marrying Manuel's nieceMaria Komnene in 1167, and an embassy led by William of Tyre was sent to Constantinople to negotiate a military expedition, but in 1168 Amalric pillaged Bilbeis without waiting for the naval support promised by Manuel. Amalric accomplished nothing else, but his actions prompted Shawar to switch sides again and seek help from Shirkuh. Shawar was promptly assassinated, and when Shirkuh died in 1169, he was succeeded by his nephew Yusuf, better known asSaladin. That year, Manuel sent a large Byzantine fleet of some 300 ships to assist Amalric, and the town ofDamietta was placed under siege. However, the Byzantine fleet sailed with enough provisions for only three months. By the time the Crusaders were ready, supplies were already running out and the fleet retired. Each side sought to blame the other for the failure, but both knew that they could not take Egypt without the other's assistance: the alliance was maintained, and plans for another campaign in Egypt were made, which ultimately were to come to nought.[39]
In the end, Nur ad-Din was victorious and Saladin established himself asSultan of Egypt. Saladin soon began to assert his independence from Nur ad-Din, and with the death of both Amalric and Nur ad-Din in 1174, he was well-placed to begin exerting control over Nur ad-Din's Syrian possessions as well.[40] Upon the death of the pro-western Emperor Manuel in 1180, the Kingdom of Jerusalem lost its most powerful ally.
The subsequent events have often been interpreted as a struggle between two opposing factions, the "court party", made up of Baldwin's mother, Amalric's first wifeAgnes of Courtenay, herimmediate family, and recent arrivals from Europe who were inexperienced in the affairs of the kingdom and who were in favour of war with Saladin; and the "noble party", led by Raymond of Tripoli and the lesser nobility of the kingdom, who favoured peaceful co-existence with the Muslims. This is the interpretation offered byWilliam of Tyre, who was firmly placed in the "noble" camp, and his view was taken up by subsequent historians; in the 20th century,Marshall W. Baldwin,[41]Steven Runciman,[42] andHans E. Mayer[43] favoured this interpretation.Peter W. Edbury, on the other hand, argues that William, as well as the thirteenth-century authors who continued William's chronicle in French and were allied to Raymond's supporters in the Ibelin family, cannot be considered impartial.[44] Although the events were clearly a dynastic struggle,the division was not between native barons and newcomers from the West, but between the king's maternal and paternal kin.[45]
Miles of Plancy was brieflybailli or regent duringBaldwin IV's minority. Miles was assassinated in October 1174, and CountRaymond III of Tripoli, Amalric's first cousin, became regent. It is highly probable that Raymond or his supporters engineered the assassination.[46] Baldwin reached his majority in 1176, and despite his illness he no longer had any legal need for a regent. Since Raymond was his nearest relative in the male line with a strong claim to the throne, there was concern about the extent of his ambitions, although he had no direct heirs of his own. To balance this, the king turned from time to time to his uncle,Joscelin III of Edessa, who was appointed seneschal in 1176; Joscelin was more closely related to Baldwin than Raymond was, but had no claim to the throne himself.[47]
As a leper, Baldwin had no children and could not be expected to rule much longer, so the focus of his succession passed to his sisterSibylla and his younger half-sisterIsabella. Baldwin and his advisors recognised that it was essential for Sibylla to be married to a Western nobleman in order to access support from European states in a military crisis; while Raymond was still regent, a marriage was arranged for Sibylla andWilliam of Montferrat, a cousin of Louis VII of France and ofFrederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor. It was hoped that by allying with a relative of the Western emperor, Frederick would come to the kingdom's aid.[48] Jerusalem looked again towards the Byzantine Empire for help, and Emperor Manuel was looking for a way to restore his empire's prestige after his defeat at theBattle of Myriokephalon in 1176; this mission was undertaken byRaynald of Châtillon.[49] After William of Montferrat arrived in 1176, he fell ill and died in June 1177, leaving Sibylla widowed and pregnant with the futureBaldwin V. Raynald was then named regent.[50]
An idealized twelfth-century map of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Soon afterwards,Philip of Flanders arrived in Jerusalem onpilgrimage; he was Baldwin IV's cousin, and the king offered him the regency and command of the army, both of which Philip refused, although he objected to the appointment of Raynald as regent. Philip then attempted to intervene in the negotiations for Sibylla's second husband, and suggested one of his own retinue, but the native barons refused his suggestion. In addition, Philip seemed to think he could carve out a territory of his own in Egypt, but he refused to participate in the planned Byzantine-Jerusalem expedition. The expedition was delayed and finally cancelled, and Philip took his army away to the north.[51]
Most of the army of Jerusalem marched north with Philip, Raymond III, and Bohemond III to attackHama, and Saladin took the opportunity to invade the kingdom. Baldwin proved to be an effective and energetic king as well as a brilliant military commander: he defeated Saladin at theBattle of Montgisard in September 1177 despite being greatly outnumbered and having to rely on alevee-en-masse. Although Baldwin's presence despite his illness was inspirational, direct military decisions were actually made by Raynald.[52]
Hugh III of Burgundy was expected to come to Jerusalem and marry Sibylla, but Hugh was unable to leave France due to the political unrest there in 1179–1180 following the death of Louis VII. Meanwhile, Baldwin IV's stepmother Maria, mother of Isabella and stepmother of Sibylla, marriedBalian of Ibelin. At Easter in 1180, Raymond and his cousinBohemond III of Antioch attempted to force Sibylla to marry Balian's brotherBaldwin of Ibelin. Raymond and Bohemond were King Baldwin's nearest male relatives in the paternal line, and could have claimed the throne if the king died without an heir or a suitable replacement. Before Raymond and Bohemond arrived, Agnes and King Baldwin arranged for Sibylla to be married to aPoitevin newcomer,Guy of Lusignan, whose older brotherAmalric of Lusignan was already an established figure at court.[53] Internationally, the Lusignans were useful as vassals of Baldwin and Sibylla's cousinHenry II of England. Baldwin betrothed eight-year-old Isabella toHumphrey IV of Toron, stepson of the powerfulRaynald of Châtillon, thereby removing her from the influence of theIbelin family and that of her mother.[54]
The dispute between the two factions in the kingdom affected the election of a new Patriarch in 1180. When Patriarch Amalric died on 6 October 1180, the two most obvious choices for his successor were William of Tyre and Heraclius of Caesarea. They were fairly evenly matched in background and education, but politically they were allied with opposite parties, as Heraclius was one of Agnes of Courtenay's supporters. The canons of the Holy Sepulchre asked the king for advice, and Heraclius was chosen through Agnes' influence. There were rumours that Agnes and Heraclius were lovers, but this information comes from the partisan 13th-century continuations of William of Tyre's history, and there is no other evidence to substantiate such a claim.[55]
At the end of 1181, Raynald of Châtillon raided south into Arabia, in the direction ofMedina, although he did not make it that far. It was probably around this time that Raynald also attacked a Muslim caravan. The kingdom had a truce with Saladin at the time, and Raynald's actions have been seen as an independent act of brigandage; it is possible that he was trying to prevent Saladin from moving his forces north to take control of Aleppo, which would have strengthened Saladin's position.[56] In response, Saladin attacked the kingdom in 1182, but was defeated atBelvoir Castle. King Baldwin, although quite ill, was still able to command the army in person. Saladin attempted to besiege Beirut from land and sea, and Baldwin raided Damascene territory, but neither side did significant damage. In December 1182,Raynald launched a naval expedition on theRed Sea, which made it as far south asRabigh. The expedition was defeated and two of Raynald's men were actually taken toMecca to be executed in public. Like his earlier raids, Raynald's expedition is usually seen as selfish and ultimately fatal for Jerusalem, but according to Bernard Hamilton, it was actually a shrewd strategy, meant to damage Saladin's prestige and reputation.[57]
In 1183 a general tax was levied throughout the kingdom, which was unprecedented in Jerusalem and almost all of medieval Europe to that point. The tax helped pay for larger armies for the next few years. More troops were certainly needed, since Saladin was finally able to gain control of Aleppo, and with peace in his northern territories, he could focus on Jerusalem in the south. King Baldwin was so incapacitated by his leprosy that it was necessary to appoint a regent, and Guy of Lusignan was chosen, as he was Baldwin's legal heir and the king was not expected to live. The inexperienced Guy led the Frankish army against Saladin's incursions into the kingdom, but neither side made any real gains, and Guy was criticized by his opponents for not striking against Saladin when he had the chance.[58]
In October 1183, Isabella married Humphrey of Toron atKerak during asiege by Saladin, who perhaps hoped to take some valuable prisoners. As King Baldwin, although now blind and crippled, had recovered enough to resume his reign and his command of the army, Guy was removed from the regency and his five-year-old stepson, King Baldwin's nephewand namesake Baldwin, was crowned as co-king in November. King Baldwin himself then went to relieve the castle, carried on a litter, and attended by his mother. He was reconciled with Raymond of Tripoli and appointed him military commander. The siege was lifted in December and Saladin retreated to Damascus.[59] Saladin attempted another siege in 1184, but Baldwin repelled that attack as well, and Saladin raidedNablus and other towns on the way home.[60]
In October 1184, Guy of Lusignan led an attack on theBedouin nomads from his base in Ascalon. Unlike Raynald's attacks on caravans, which may have had some military purpose, Guy attacked a group that was usually loyal to Jerusalem and provided intelligence about the movements of Saladin's troops. At the same time, King Baldwin contracted his final illness and Raymond of Tripoli, rather than Guy, was appointed as his regent. His nephew Baldwin was paraded in public, wearing his crown as Baldwin V. Baldwin IV finally succumbed to his leprosy in May 1185.[61]
Meanwhile, the succession crisis had prompted a mission to the West to seek assistance. In 1184, Patriarch Heraclius travelled throughout the courts of Europe, but no help was forthcoming. Heraclius offered thekeys of the Holy Sepulchre, those of the Tower of David and the banner of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but not the crown itself, to bothPhilip II of France andHenry II of England; the latter, as a grandson of Fulk, was a first cousin of the royal family of Jerusalem, and had promised to go on crusade after the murder ofThomas Becket. Both kings preferred to remain at home to defend their own territories, rather than act as regent for a child in Jerusalem. The few European knights who did travel to Jerusalem did not even see any combat, since the truce with Saladin had been re-established.William V of Montferrat was one of the few who came to his grandson Baldwin V's aid.[62]
The tomb of Baldwin V on an 18th-century drawing byElzear Horn
Baldwin V's rule, with Raymond of Tripoli as regent and his great-uncle Joscelin of Edessa as his guardian, was short. He was a sickly child and died in the summer of 1186. Raymond and his supporters went to Nablus, presumably in an attempt to prevent Sibylla from claiming the throne, but Sibylla and her supporters went to Jerusalem, where it was decided that the kingdom should pass to her, on the condition that her marriage to Guy be annulled. She agreed but only if she could choose her own husband and king, and after being crowned, she immediately crowned Guy with her own hands. Raymond had refused to attend the coronation, and in Nablus he suggested that Isabella and Humphrey should be crowned instead, but Humphrey refused to agree to this plan which would have certainly started a civil war. Humphrey went to Jerusalem and swore allegiance to Guy and Sibylla, as did most of Raymond's other supporters. Raymond himself refused to do so and left for Tripoli;Baldwin of Ibelin also refused, gave up his fiefs, and left for Antioch.[63]
Raymond of Tripoli allied with Saladin against Guy and allowed a Muslim garrison to occupy his fief inTiberias, probably hoping that Saladin would help him overthrow Guy. Saladin, meanwhile, had pacified his Mesopotamian territories, and was now eager to attack the crusader kingdom; he did not intend to renew the truce when it expired in 1187. Before the truce expired, Raynald of Chatillon, the lord of Oultrejourdain and of Kerak and one of Guy's chief supporters, recognized that Saladin was massing his troops, and attacked Muslim caravans in an attempt to disrupt this. Guy was on the verge of attacking Raymond, but realized that the kingdom would need to be united in the face of the threat from Saladin, andBalian of Ibelin effected a reconciliation between the two during Easter in 1187. Saladin attacked Kerak again in April, and in May, a Muslim raiding party ran into the much smaller embassy on its way to negotiate with Raymond, and defeated it at theBattle of Cresson near Nazareth. Raymond and Guy finally agreed to attack Saladin at Tiberias, but could not agree on a plan; Raymond thought a pitched battle should be avoided, but Guy probably remembered the criticism he faced for avoiding battle in 1183, and it was decided to march out against Saladin directly. On 4 July 1187, the army of the kingdom was utterly destroyed at theBattle of Hattin. Raymond of Tripoli, Balian of Ibelin, andReginald of Sidon escaped, but Raynald was executed by Saladin and Guy was imprisoned in Damascus.[64]
Over the next few months, Saladin easily overran the entire kingdom. Only the port of Tyre remained in Frankish hands, defended byConrad of Montferrat, who had coincidentally arrived just in time fromConstantinople. Thefall of Jerusalem essentially ended the first Kingdom of Jerusalem. Much of the population, swollen with refugees fleeing Saladin's conquest of the surrounding territory, was allowed to flee to Tyre, Tripoli, or Egypt (whence they were sent back to Europe), but those who could not pay for their freedom were sold into slavery, and those who could were often robbed by Christians and Muslims alike on their way into exile. The capture of the city led to theThird Crusade, launched in 1189 and led byRichard the Lionheart,Philip Augustus andFrederick Barbarossa, though the last drowned en route.[65]
Guy of Lusignan, who had been refused entry to Tyre by Conrad, began to besiege Acre in 1189. During thelengthy siege, which lasted until 1191, Patriarch Heraclius, Queen Sibylla and her daughters, and many others died of disease. With the death of Sibylla in 1190, Guy now had no legal claim to the kingship, and the succession passed to Sibylla's half-sister Isabella. Isabella's mother Maria and the Ibelins (now closely allied to Conrad) argued that Isabella and Humphrey's marriage was illegal, as she had been underage at the time; underlying this was the fact that Humphrey had betrayed his wife's cause in 1186. The marriage was annulled amid some controversy. Conrad, who was now the nearest kinsman to Baldwin V in the male line, and had already proved himself a capable military leader, then married Isabella, but Guy refused to concede the crown.[66]
When Richard arrived in 1191, he and Philip took different sides in the succession dispute. Richard backed Guy, his vassal from Poitou, while Philip supported Conrad, a cousin of his late father Louis VII. After much ill feeling and ill health, Philip returned home in 1191, soon after the fall of Acre. Richard defeated Saladin at theBattle of Arsuf in 1191 and theBattle of Jaffa in 1192, recovering most of the coast, but could not recover Jerusalem or any of the inland territory of the kingdom. It has been suggested that this may have actually been a strategic decision by Richard rather than a failure as such, as he may have recognized that Jerusalem, in particular, was in fact a strategic liability as long as the Crusaders were obligated to defend it, as it was isolated from the sea where Western reinforcements could arrive.[67] Conrad was unanimously elected king in April 1192, but was murdered by theHashshashin only days later. Eight days after that, the pregnant Isabella was married to CountHenry II of Champagne, nephew of Richard and Philip, but politically allied to Richard. As compensation, Richard sold Guy theisland of Cyprus, which Richard had captured on the way to Acre, although Guy continued to claim the throne of Jerusalem until his death in 1194.[68]
The crusade came to an end peacefully, with theTreaty of Ramla negotiated in 1192; Saladin allowedpilgrimages to be made to Jerusalem, allowing the crusaders to fulfil their vows, after which they all returned home. The native crusader barons set about rebuilding their kingdom from Acre and the other coastal cities.
For the next hundred years, the Kingdom of Jerusalem remained a tiny kingdom hugging the Syrian coastline. Its capital was moved to Acre and controlled most of the coastline of present-day Israel and southern and central Lebanon, including the strongholds and towns of Jaffa, Arsuf, Caesarea, Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut. At best, it included only a few other significant cities, such as Ascalon and some interior fortresses, as well assuzerainty over Tripoli and Antioch. The new king, Henry of Champagne, died accidentally in 1197, and Isabella married for a fourth time, toAimery of Lusignan, Guy's brother. Aimery had already inherited Cyprus from Guy, and had been crowned king by Frederick Barbarossa's son, EmperorHenry VI. Henry led acrusade in 1197 but died along the way. Nevertheless, his troops recaptured Beirut and Sidon for the kingdom before returning home in 1198.[69][70] A five-year truce was then concluded with the Ayyubids in Syria in 1198.[71]
The Ayyubid empire had fallen into civil war after the death of Saladin in 1193. His sons claimed various parts of his empire:az-Zahir took control of Aleppo,al-Aziz Uthman held Cairo, while his eldest son,al-Afdal, retained Damascus. Saladin's brotherAl-Adil Sayf ad-Din (often called "Saphadin" by the Crusaders) acquiredal-Jazira (northern Mesopotamia), and al-Adil's sonal-Mu'azzam took possession ofKarak andTransjordan. In 1196, al-Afdal was driven out of Damascus by al Adil in alliance with Uthman. When Uthman died in 1198, al Afdal returned to power as regent in Egypt for Uthman's infant son. Allied with az-Zahir, he then attacked his uncle in Damascus. The alliance fell apart, and al-Adil then defeated al Afdal in Egypt and annexed the country. In 1200 Al-Adil proclaimed himself Sultan of Egypt and Syria, entrusting Damascus to al-Mu'azzam and al-Jazira to another son,al-Kamil. Following a second unsuccessful siege of Damascus by the two brothers, Al Afdal accepted a fief consisting ofSamosata and a number of other towns. Az-Zahir of Aleppo submitted to his uncle in 1202, thus re-uniting the Ayyubid territories.[72]
Meanwhile, schemes were hatched to reconquer Jerusalem through Egypt. AFourth Crusade was planned after the failure of the Third, but it resulted in thesack of Constantinople in 1204, and most of the crusaders involved never arrived in the kingdom. Aimery, however, not knowing of the diversion to Constantinople, raided Egypt in advance of the expected invasion.[73] Both Isabella and Aimery died in 1205 and again an underage girl, Isabella and Conrad's daughterMaria of Montferrat, became queen of Jerusalem. Isabella's half-brotherJohn of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut governed as regent until 1210 when Maria married an experienced French knight,John of Brienne.[74] Maria died in childbirth in 1212, and John of Brienne continued to rule as regent for their daughterIsabella II.[75]
TheFourth Lateran Council in 1215 called for a new, better-organized crusade against Egypt. In late 1217 KingAndrew II of Hungary and DukeLeopold VI of Austria arrived in Acre and, along with John of Brienne, raided territory further inland, includingMount Tabor, but without success.[76] After the departure of the Hungarians, the remaining Crusaders set about refortifyingCaesarea and the Templar fortress ofChâteau Pèlerin throughout the winter of 1217 and spring of 1218.[77]
In the spring of 1218 theFifth Crusade began in earnest when German crusader fleets landed at Acre. Along with King John, who was elected leader of the crusade, the fleets sailed to Egypt and besiegedDamietta at the mouth of the Nile in May. The siege progressed slowly, and the Egyptian sultan al-Adil died in August 1218, supposedly of shock after the Crusaders managed to capture one of Damietta's towers. He was succeeded by his sonal-Kamil. In the autumn of 1218 reinforcements arrived from Europe, including the papal legatePelagius of Albano. In the winter the crusaders were affected by floods and disease, and the siege dragged on throughout 1219, whenFrancis of Assisi arrived to attempt to negotiate a truce. Neither side could agree to terms, despite the Ayyubid offer of a thirty-year truce and the restoration of Jerusalem and most of the rest of the former kingdom. The Crusaders finally managed to starve out the city and captured it in November. Al-Kamil retreated to the nearby fortress ofal-Mansurah, but the crusaders remained in Damietta throughout 1219 and 1220, awaiting the arrival of Holy Roman EmperorFrederick II, while King John returned to Acre briefly to defend against al-Mu'azzam, who was raiding the kingdom from Damascus in John's absence. Still expecting the emperor's imminent arrival, in July 1221, the Crusaders set off towards Cairo, but they were stopped by therising Nile, which al-Kamil allowed to flood by breaking the dams along its course. The sultan easily defeated the trapped Crusader army and regained Damietta. Emperor Frederick had, in fact, never left Europe at all.[78]
After the failure of the crusade, John travelled throughout Europe seeking assistance, but found support only from Frederick, who then married John and Maria's daughter Isabella II in 1225. The next year, Isabella died giving birth to their sonConrad IV, who succeeded his mother to the throne although he never appeared in the East. Frederick had reneged on his promise to lead the Fifth Crusade, but was now eager to cement his claim to the throne through Conrad. There were also plans to join with al-Kamil in attacking al-Mu'azzam in Damascus, an alliance which had been discussed with Egyptian envoys in Italy. But after continually delaying his departure for the Holy Land, including suffering an outbreak of disease in his fleet, he was excommunicated byPope Gregory IX in 1227. The crusaders, led not by Frederick but by his representativesRichard Filangieri,Henry IV, Duke of Limburg, andHermann of Salza,Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, arrived in the east late in 1227, and while waiting for the emperor they set about refortifyingSidon, where they built thesea castle, andMontfort, which later became the headquarters of theTeutonic Knights. The Ayyubids of Damascus did not dare attack, as al-Mu'azzam had suddenly died not long before. Frederick finally arrived on theSixth Crusade in September 1228, and claimed the regency of the kingdom in the name of his infant son.[79]
Frederick immediately came into conflict with the native nobles of Outremer, some of whom resented his attempts to impose Imperial authority over both Cyprus and Jerusalem. The Cypriot nobles were already quarrelling amongst themselves about the regency forHenry I of Cyprus, who was still a child. The High Court of Cyprus had elected John of Ibelin as regent, but Henry's motherAlice of Champagne wished to appoint one of her supporters; Alice and her party, members or supporters of theLusignan dynasty, sided with Frederick, whose father had crowned Aimery of Lusignan king in 1197. AtLimassol, Frederick demanded that John give up not only the regency of Cyprus, but also John's own lordship of Beirut on the mainland. John argued that Frederick had no legal authority to make such demands and refused to give up either title. Frederick then imprisoned John's sons as hostages to guarantee John's support for his crusade.[80]
John did accompany Frederick to the mainland, but Frederick was not well-received there; one of his few supporters wasBalian, Lord of Sidon, who had welcomed the crusaders the year before and now acted as an ambassador to the Ayyubids. The death of al-Mu'azzam negated the proposed alliance with al-Kamil, who along with his brotheral-Ashraf had taken possession of Damascus (as well as Jerusalem) from their nephew, al-Mu'azzam's sonan-Nasir Dawud. However, al-Kamil presumably did not know of the small size of Frederick's army, nor the divisions within it caused by his excommunication, and wished to avoid defending his territories against another crusade. Frederick's presence alone was sufficient to regain Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and a number of surrounding castles without a fight: these were recovered in February 1229, in return for a ten-year truce with the Ayyubids and freedom of worship for Jerusalem's Muslim inhabitants. The terms of the treaty were unacceptable to the Patriarch of JerusalemGerald of Lausanne, who placed the city underinterdict. In March, Frederick crowned himself in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but because of his excommunication and the interdict Jerusalem was never truly reincorporated into the kingdom, which continued to be ruled from Acre.[81]
Meanwhile, in Italy, the Pope used Frederick's excommunication as an excuse to invade his Italian territories; the papal armies were led by Frederick's former father-in-law John of Brienne. Frederick was forced to return home in 1229, leaving the Holy Landnot in triumph, but showered with offal by the citizens of Acre.[82]
Nevertheless, Fredericksent an Imperial army in 1231, under Richard Filangieri, who occupied Beirut and Tyre, but was unable to gain control of Acre. John's supporters formed acommune in Acre, of which John himself was elected mayor in 1232. With the help of theGenoese merchants, the commune recaptured Beirut. John also attacked Tyre, but was defeated by Filangieri at theBattle of Casal Imbert in May 1232.[80]
In Cyprus, King Henry I came of age in 1232 and John's regency was no longer necessary. Both John and Filangieri raced back to Cyprus to assert their authority, and the imperial forces were defeated at theBattle of Agridi on June 15. Henry became the undisputed king of Cyprus, but continued to support the Ibelins over the Lusignans and the imperial party. On the mainland, Filangieri had the support ofBohemund IV of Antioch, theTeutonic Knights, theKnights Hospitaller, and thePisan merchants. John was supported by his nobles on Cyprus, and by his continental holdings in Beirut,Caesarea, andArsuf, as well as by theKnights Templar and the Genoese. Neither side could make any headway, and in 1234 Gregory IX excommunicated John and his supporters. This was partly revoked in 1235, but still no peace could be made. John died in 1236 and the war was taken up by his sonBalian of Beirut and his nephewPhilip of Montfort.[83]
Meanwhile, the treaty with the Ayyubids was set to expire in 1239. Plans for a new crusade to be led by Frederick came to nothing, and Frederick himself was excommunicated by Gregory IX again in 1239. However, other European nobles took up the cause, includingTheobald IV,Count of Champagne andKing of Navarre,Peter of Dreux, andAmaury de Montfort, who arrived in Acre in September 1239. Theobald was elected leader ofthe crusade at a council in Acre, attended by most of the important nobles of the kingdom, includingWalter of Brienne,John of Arsuf, andBalian of Sidon. The arrival of the crusade was a brief respite from the Lombard War; Filangieri remained in Tyre and did not participate. The council decided to refortify Ascalon in the south and attack Damascus in the north.
The crusaders may have been aware of the new divisions among the Ayyubids; al-Kamil had occupied Damascus in 1238 but had died soon afterwards, and his territory was inherited by his family. His sonsal-Adil abu Bakr andas-Salih Ayyub inherited Egypt and Damascus. Ayyub marched on Cairo in an attempt to drive out al-Adil, but during his absence al-Kamil's brotheras-Salih Isma'il took over Damascus, and Ayyub was taken prisoner by an-Nasir Dawud. The Crusaders, meanwhile, marched to Ascalon. Along the way, Walter of Brienne captured livestock intended to resupply Damascus, as the Ayyubids had probably learned of the Crusaders' plans to attack it. The victory was short-lived, however, as the Crusaders were then defeated by the Egyptian army at Gaza in November 1239.Henry II, Count of Bar was killed and Amaury of Montfort captured. The Crusaders returned to Acre, possibly because the native barons of the kingdom were suspicious of Filangieri in Tyre. Dawud took advantage of the Ayyubid victory to recapture Jerusalem in December, the ten-year truce having expired.
Although Ayyub was Dawud's prisoner, the two now allied against al-Adil in Egypt, which Ayyub seized in 1240. In Damascus, Isma'il recognized the threat of Dawud and Ayyub against his own possessions, and turned to the Crusaders for assistance. Theobald concluded a treaty with Isma'il, in return for territorial concessions that restored Jerusalem to Christian control, as well as much of the rest of the former kingdom, even more territory than Frederick had recovered in 1229. Theobald, however, was frustrated by the Lombard War, and returned home in September 1240. Almost immediately after Theobald's departure,Richard of Cornwall arrived. He completed the rebuilding of Ascalon, and also made peace with Ayyub in Egypt. Ayyub confirmed Isma'il's concessions in 1241, and prisoners taken at Gaza were exchanged by both sides. Richard returned to Europe in 1241.[84]
Although the kingdom had essentially been restored, the Lombard War continued to occupy the kingdom's nobility. As the Templars and Hospitallers supported opposite sides, they also attacked each other, and the Templars broke the treaty with the Ayyubids by attacking Nablus in 1241. Conrad proclaimed that he had come of age in 1242, eliminating both Frederick's claim to the regency and the need for an imperial guardian to govern in his place, although he had not yet turned 15, the age of majority according to the customs of Jerusalem. Through Conrad, Frederick tried to send an imperial regent, but the anti-imperial faction in Acre argued that Jerusalem's laws allowed them to appoint their own regent. In June theHaute Cour granted the regency to Alice of Champagne, who, as the daughter of Isabella I, was Conrad's great-aunt and his closest relative living in the kingdom. Alice ordered Filangieri to be arrested, and along with the Ibelins and Venetians, besieged Tyre, which fell in July 1243. The Lombard War was over, but the king was still absent, as Conrad never came to the East. Alice was prevented from exercising any real power as regent by Philip of Montfort, who took control of Tyre, and Balian of Beirut, who continued to hold Acre.[83]
The Ayyubids were still divided between Ayyub in Egypt, Isma'il in Damascus, and Dawud in Kerak. Isma'il, Dawud, andal-Mansur Ibrahim of Homs went to war with Ayyub, who hired theKhwarazmians to fight for him. The Khwarazmians were nomadic Turks from central Asia, who had recently been displaced by theMongols further to the east and were now residing in Mesopotamia. With Ayyub's support, theysacked Jerusalem in the summer of 1244, leaving it in ruins and useless to both Christians and Muslims. In October, the Khwarazmians, along with the Egyptian army under the command ofBaibars, were met by the Frankish army, led by Philip of Montfort, Walter of Brienne, and the masters of the Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights, along with al-Mansur and Dawud. On October 17 the Egyptian-Khwarazmian army destroyed the Frankish-Syrian coalition, and Walter of Brienne was taken captive and later executed. By 1247, Ayyub had reoccupied most of the territory that had been conceded in 1239, and had also gained control of Damascus.[85]
A new crusade was discussed at theCouncil of Lyon in 1245 byPope Innocent IV. The council deposed Frederick II, so no help could be expected from the empire, but KingLouis IX of France had already vowed to go on crusade. Louis arrived in Cyprus in 1248, where he gathered an army of his own men, including his brothersRobert of Artois,Charles of Anjou, andAlphonse of Poitiers, and those of Cyprus and Jerusalem, led by the Ibelin familyJohn of Jaffa,Guy of Ibelin, andBalian of Beirut. Once again the target was Egypt. Damietta was captured without resistance when the Crusaders landed in June 1249, but the crusade halted there until November, by which time the Egyptian sultan Ayyub had died and had been succeeded by his sonTuranshah. In February, the Crusaders were defeated at theBattle of al-Mansurah, where Robert of Artois was killed. The crusaders were unable to cross the Nile, and, suffering from disease and lack of supplies, retreated towards Damietta in April. They were defeated along the way at theBattle of Fariskur, with Louis being taken captive by Turanshah. During Louis' captivity, Turanshah was overthrown by his Mamluk soldiers, led by the generalAybak, who then released Louis in May in return for Damietta and a large ransom. For the next four years Louis resided in Acre, and helped refortify that city along with Caesarea, Jaffa, and Sidon. He also made truces with the Ayyubids in Syria, and sent embassies to negotiate with the Mongols, who were beginning to threaten the Muslim world, before returning home in 1254. He left behind a large garrison of French soldiers in Acre, under the command ofGeoffrey of Sergines.[86]
In the midst of these events, Alice of Champagne had died in 1246 and had been replaced as regent by her son KingHenry I of Cyprus, for whom John of Jaffa served asbailli in Acre. During Louis IX's stay in Acre, Henry I died in 1253, and was succeeded in Cyprus by his infant sonHugh II. Hugh was technically regent of Jerusalem as well, both for Conrad and for Conrad's sonConradin after Conrad died in 1254. Both Cyprus and Jerusalem were governed by Hugh's motherPlaisance of Antioch, but John remainedbailli for Hugh in Acre. John made peace with Damascus and attempted to regain Ascalon; the Egyptians, now ruled by theMamluk sultanate, besieged Jaffa in 1256 in response. John defeated them, and afterwards gave up the bailliage to his cousinJohn of Arsuf.[87]
In 1256 the commercial rivalry between the Venetian and Genoese merchant coloniesbroke out into open warfare. In Acre, the two colonies disputed possession of themonastery of Saint Sabas. The Genoese, assisted by the Pisan merchants, attacked the Venetian quarter and burned their ships, but the Venetians drove them out. The Venetians were then expelled from Tyre by Philip of Monfort. John of Arsuf, John of Jaffa,John II of Beirut, the Templars, and the Teutonic Knights supported the Venetians, who also convinced the Pisans to join them, while the Hospitallers supported the Genoese. In 1257 the Venetians conquered the monastery and destroyed its fortifications, although they were unable to expel the Genoese completely. They blockaded the Genoese quarter, but the Genoese were supplied by the Hospitallers, whose complex was nearby, and by Philip of Montfort who sent food from Tyre. In August 1257, John of Arsuf tried to end the war by granting commercial rights in Acre to theRepublic of Ancona, an Italian ally of Genoa, but aside from Philip of Montfort and the Hospitallers, the rest of the nobles continued to support Venice. In June 1258, Philip and the Hospitallers marched on Acre while a Genoese fleet attacked the city by sea. The naval battle was won by Venice, and the Genoese were forced to abandon their quarter and flee to Tyre with Philip. The war also spread to Tripoli and Antioch, where theEmbriaco family, descended from Genoese crusaders, was pitted againstBohemond VI of Antioch, who supported the Venetians. In 1261 the Patriarch,Jacques Pantaleon, organised a council to re-establish order in the kingdom, though the Genoese did not return to Acre.[88]
It was during this period that the Mongols arrived in the Near East. Their presence further east had already displaced the Khwarazmians, and emissaries had been sent by various popes as well as Louis IX to ally or negotiate with them, but they wereuninterested in alliances. Theysacked Baghdad in 1258,and Aleppo and Damascus in 1260, destroying both the Abbasid caliphate and the last vestiges of the Ayyubid dynasty.Hethum I of Armenia and Bohemond VI of Antioch had already submitted to the Mongols as vassals. Some of the Mongols were Nestorian Christians, includingKitbuqa, one of the generals at the sieges of Baghdad and Damascus, but despite this, the nobles of Acre refused to submit. As the kingdom was by now a relatively unimportant state, the Mongols paid little attention to it, but there were a few skirmishes in 1260: the forces ofJulian of Sidon killed the nephew of Kitbuqa, who responded by sacking Sidon, and John II of Beirut was also captured by the Mongols during another raid. The apparently inevitable Mongol conquest was stalled whenHulagu, the Mongol commander in Syria, returned home after the death of his brotherMöngke Khan, leaving Kitbuqa with a small garrison. The Mamluks of Egypt then sought, and were granted, permission to advance through Frankish territory, and defeated the Mongols at theBattle of Ain Jalut in September 1260. Kitbuqa was killed and all of Syria fell under Mamluk control. On the way back to Egypt, the Mamluk sultanQutuz was assassinated by the general Baibars, who was far less favourable than his predecessor to alliances with the Franks.[89]
John of Arsuf had died in 1258 and was replaced asbailli by Geoffrey of Sergines, Louis IX's lieutenant in Acre. Plaisance died in 1261, but as her son Hugh II was still underage, Cyprus passed to his cousinHugh of Antioch-Lusignan, whose motherIsabella of Cyprus, Alice of Champagne and Hugh I of Cyprus' daughter and Hugh II's aunt, took over the regency in Acre. She appointed, asbailli, her husbandHenry of Antioch (who was also Plaisance's uncle), but died in 1264. The regency in Acre was then claimed by Hugh of Antioch-Lusignan and his cousinHugh of Brienne, and Hugh II died in 1267 before he reached the age of majority. Hugh of Antioch-Lusignan won the dispute and succeeded Hugh II on Cyprus as Hugh III. When Conradin was executed in Sicily in 1268, there was no other Hohenstaufen heir to succeed him, and Hugh III inherited the Kingdom of Jerusalem as well in 1269. This was disputed by another branch of the Lusignan family:Maria of Antioch, daughter of Bohemond IV of Antioch andMelisende of Lusignan (herself a daughter of Isabella I and Amalric II), claimed the throne as the oldest living relative of Isabella I, but for the moment her claim was ignored. By this time, the Mamluks under Baibars were taking advantage of the kingdom's constant disputes, and began conquering the remaining crusader cities along the coast. In 1265, Baibars took Caesarea, Haifa and Arsuf, and Safad and Toron in 1266. In 1268 he captured Jaffa and Beaufort, and thenbesieged and destroyed Antioch.[90]
Hugh III and Baibars made a one-year truce after these conquests; Baibars knew that Louis IX was planning another crusade from Europe, and assumed that the target would once again be Egypt. But instead the crusade was diverted toTunis, where Louis died. Baibars was free to continue his campaigns: in 1270 he had the Assassins kill Philip of Montfort, and in 1271 he captured the Hospitaller and Teutonic Knights strongholds of Krak des Chevaliers and Montfort Castle. He alsobesieged Tripoli, but abandoned it in May whenPrince Edward of England arrived, the only part of Louis IX's crusade to arrive in the east. Edward could do nothing except arrange a ten-year truce with Baibars, who nevertheless attempted to have him assassinated as well. Edward left in 1272, and despite theSecond Council of Lyon's plans for another crusade in 1274, no further large-scale expedition ever arrived. Hugh III's authority on the mainland began to break down; he was an unpopular king, and Beirut, the only territory left outside of Acre and Tyre, started to act independently. Its heiress,Isabella of Ibelin (widow of Hugh II), actually placed it under Baibars' protection. Finding the mainland ungovernable, Hugh III left for Cyprus, leavingBalian of Arsuf asbailli. Then in 1277, Maria of Antioch sold her claim to the kingdom to Charles of Anjou, who sentRoger of San Severino to represent him. The Venetians and Templars supported the claim, and Balian was powerless to oppose him. Baibars died in 1277 and was succeeded byQalawun. In 1281 the ten-year truce expired and was renewed by Roger. Roger returned to Europe after theSicilian Vespers in 1282, and was replaced byOdo Poilechien. Hugh III attempted to re-assert his authority on the mainland by landing at Beirut in 1283, but this was ineffective and he died in Tyre in 1284. He was succeeded briefly by his sonJohn II, who died soon after in 1285, and was succeeded by his brother, Hugh III's other sonHenry II. That year Qalawun captured the Hospitaller fortress ofMarqab. Charles of Anjou also died in 1285, and the military orders and the commune of Acre accepted Henry II as king; Odo Poilechen refused to recognize him, but was allowed to hand Acre over to the Templars rather than Henry directly, and the Templars then handed it to the king. War broke out between the Venetians and Genoese again in 1287, andTripoli fell to Qalawun in 1289. Although it was only a matter of time before Acre also fell, the end of the crusader kingdom was actually instigated in 1290 by newly arrived Crusaders, who rioted in Acre and attacked the city's Muslim merchants. Qalawun died before he could retaliate, but his sonal-Ashraf Khalil arrived tobesiege Acre in April 1291. Acre was defended by Henry II's brotherAmalric of Tyre, the Hospitallers, Templars, and Teutonic Knights, the Venetians and Pisans, the French garrison led byJean I de Grailly, and the English garrison led byOtton de Grandson, but they were vastly outnumbered. Henry II himself arrived in May during the siege, but the city fell on May 18. Henry, Amalric, Otton, and Jean escaped, as did a young Templar namedRoger de Flor, but most of the other defenders did not, including the master of the TemplarsGuillaume de Beaujeu. Tyre fell without a fight the next day, Sidon fell in June, and Beirut in July.[91]
The Crusaders moved their headquarters north to cities such as Tortosa, but lost that too, and were forced to relocate their headquarters offshore to Cyprus. Some naval raids and attempts to retake territory were made over the next ten years, but with the loss of the island ofArwad in 1302–1303, the Kingdom of Jerusalem ceased to exist on the mainland.
Animation of twelfth-century Jerusalem, Latin with English subtitles
The Latin population of the kingdom was always small; although a steady stream of settlers and new crusaders continually arrived, most of the original crusaders who fought in the First Crusade simply went home. According toWilliam of Tyre,barely three hundred knights and two thousand foot soldiers could be found in the kingdom in 1100 during Godfrey's siege ofArsuf.[92] From the very beginning, the Latins were little more than a colonial frontier exercising rule over the native Jewish, Samaritan, Muslim, Greek Orthodox, and Syriac populations.
As new generations grew up in the kingdom, they began to think of themselves as natives. Although they never gave up their core identity as Western Europeans orFranks, their clothing, diet, and commercialism integrated much oriental, particularly Byzantine, influence. As the chroniclerFulcher of Chartres wrote around 1124,
For we who were Occidentals now have been made Orientals. He who was a Roman or Frank has in this land been made into a Galilaean, or an inhabitant of Palestine. He who was ofRheims orChartres has now become a citizen of Tyre or Antioch. We have already forgotten the places of our birth; already they have become unknown to many of us, or, at least, are unmentioned.[93]
The crusaders and their descendants often learned to speakGreek,Arabic, and other eastern languages, and intermarried with the native Christians (whether Greek, Syriac, or Armenian) and sometimes with converted Muslims.[94] Nonetheless, the Frankish principalities remained a distinctive Occidental colony in the heart of Islam.
Fulcher, a participant in the First Crusade and chaplain of Baldwin I, continued his chronicle up to 1127. Fulcher's chronicle was very popular and was used as a source by other historians in the West, such asOrderic Vitalis andWilliam of Malmesbury. Almost as soon as Jerusalem had been captured, and continuing throughout the 12th century, many pilgrims arrived and left accounts of the new kingdom; among them are the EnglishSæwulf, theKievanAbbot Daniel, the FrankFretellus, the Byzantine Johannes Phocas, and the GermansJohn of Würzburg andTheoderich.[95] Aside from these, thereafter there is no eyewitness to events in Jerusalem untilWilliam of Tyre,archbishop of Tyre andchancellor of Jerusalem, who began writing around 1167 and died around 1184, although he includes much information about the First Crusade and the intervening years from the death of Fulcher to his own time, drawn mainly from the writings ofAlbert of Aix and Fulcher himself. From the Muslim perspective, a chief source of information isUsamah ibn Munqidh, a soldier and frequent ambassador from Damascus to Jerusalem and Egypt, whose memoirs,Kitab al i'tibar, include lively accounts of crusader society in the east. Further information can be gathered from travellers such asBenjamin of Tudela andIbn Jubayr.
The Kingdom at first was virtually bereft of a loyal subject population and had fewknights to implement the laws and orders of the realm. With the arrival of Italian trading firms, the creation of the military orders, and immigration by European knights, artisans, and farmers, the affairs of the Kingdom improved and afeudal society developed, similar to but distinct from the society the crusaders knew in Europe. The nature of this society has long been a subject of debate among crusade historians.[citation needed]
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, French scholars, such as E. G. Rey, Gaston Dodu, andRené Grousset believed that the Crusaders, Muslims and Christians lived in a totally integrated society. Ronnie Ellenblum claims this view was influenced by French imperialism and colonialism; if medieval French crusaders could integrate themselves into local society, then certainly modern French colonies in the Levant could thrive.[96] In the mid-20th century, scholars such asJoshua Prawer, R. C. Smail,Meron Benvenisti, andClaude Cahen argued instead that the Crusaders lived totally segregated from the native inhabitants, who were thoroughly Arabicized and/or Islamicized and were a constant threat to the foreign crusaders. Prawer argued further that the kingdom was an early attempt at colonization, in which the Crusaders were a small ruling class, who were dependent on the native population for survival but made no attempt to integrate with them.[97] For this reason, the rural European society to which the Crusaders were accustomed was replaced by a more secure urban society in the pre-existing cities of the Levant.[98]
According to Ellenblum's interpretation, the inhabitants of the Kingdom (Latin Christians living alongside nativeGreek andSyriac Christians,Shia andSunni Arabs,Sufis,Bedouin,Druze,Jews, and Samaritans) all had major differences between each other as well as with the crusaders. Relations between eastern Christians and the Latin Crusaders werecomplex and ambiguous, not simply friendly or hostile. He argues that Eastern Christians probably felt closer ties to their fellow Christian crusaders than Muslim Arabs.[99]
Although the Crusaders came upon an ancient urban society, Ellenblum argues that they never completely abandoned their rural European lifestyle, nor was European society completely rural to begin with. Crusader settlement in the Levant resembled the types of colonization and settlement that were already being practised in Europe, a mixture of urban and rural civilization centred around fortresses. The Crusaders were neither totally integrated with the native population, nor segregated in the cities away from the rural natives; rather they settled in both urban and rural areas; specifically, in areas traditionally inhabited by Eastern Christians. Areas that were traditionally Muslim had very little crusader settlement, just as they already had very few native Christian inhabitants.[100]
Into this mixed society the crusaders adapted existing institutions and introduced their familiar customs from Europe. As in Europe the nobles had vassals and were themselves vassals to the king. Agricultural production was regulated by theiqta, a Muslim system of land ownership and payments roughly (though far from exactly) equivalent to the feudal system of Europe, and this system was not heavily disrupted by the Crusaders.[101]
As Hans Mayer says,the Muslim inhabitants of the Latin Kingdom hardly ever appear in the Latin chronicles, so information on their role in society is difficult to find. The Crusadershad a natural tendency to ignore these matters as simply without interest and certainly not worthy of record.[102] Although Muslims, as well as Jews and Eastern Christians, had virtually no rights in the countryside, where they were essentially the property of the crusader lord who owned the land,[b] tolerance for other faiths was, in general, no higher or lower than that found elsewhere in the Middle East. Greeks, Syriacs, and Jews continued to live as they had before, subject to their own laws and courts, with their former Muslim overlords simply replaced by the Crusaders; Muslims now joined them at the lowest level of society. Thera'is, the leader of a Muslim or Syriac community, was a kind of vassal to whatever noble owned his land, but as the crusader nobles were absentee landlords thera'is and their communities had a high degree of autonomy.[104]
Arab-Andalusian geographer and travellerIbn Jubayr, who was hostile to the Franks, described the Muslims living under the Christian crusaders' Kingdom of Jerusalem in the late 12th-century:
We leftTibnin by a road running past farms where Muslims live who do very well under the Franks-may Allah preserve us from such a temptation! The regulations imposed on them are the handing over of half of the grain crop at the time of harvest and the payment of a poll tax of one dinar and seven qirats, together with a light duty on their fruit trees. The Muslims own their own houses and rule themselves in their own way. This is the way the farms and big villages are organized in Frankish territory. Many Muslims are sorely tempted to settle here when they see the far from comfortable conditions in which their brethren live in the districts under Muslim rule. Unfortunately for the Muslims, they always have reason for complaint about the injustices of their chiefs in the lands governed by their coreligionists, whereas they can have nothing but praise for the conduct of the Franks, whose justice they can always rely on.[105]
In the cities, Muslims and Eastern Christians were free, although no Muslims were permitted to live in Jerusalem itself. They were second-class citizens and played no part in politics or law, and owed no military service to the crown, although in some cities they may have been the majority of the population. Likewise, citizens of the Italian city-states owed nothing as they lived in autonomous quarters in the port cities.[106]
21st century positions on the question of cultural integration or cultural apartheid remain divergent. Interactions between the Franks and the native Muslims and Christians, though muddled, exhibited a practical coexistence. Though likely overstated, the accounts of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh of Shaizar's travels through Antioch and Jerusalem described a level of aristocratic exchange elevated above ethnic prejudice.[107] Contact between Muslims and Christians came on the administrative or personal level (on the basis of taxes or translation), not communal or cultural, representative of a hierarchical lord over subject relationship.[108] Evidence of inter-cultural integration remains scarce, but evidence of inter-cultural cooperation and complex social interaction proves more common. Key use of the worddragoman, literally translator, with Syriac administrators and Arabic headsmen represented the direct need for negotiation of interests on both sides.[109] Comments on households with Arabic-speaking Christians and a few Arabized Jews and Muslims represent a less dichotomous relationship than the mid-20th-century historians depicted.[110] Rather, the commonality of Frankish Christians having non-Frankish priests, doctors, and other roles within households and inter-cultural communities presents the lack of standardized discrimination.[110] Jerusalemite William of Tyre complained about a trend to hire Jewish or Muslim medical practitioners over their Latin and Frankish counterparts. Evidence even indicates alterations to Frankish cultural and social customs regarding hygiene (notorious amongst Arabs for their lack of washing and knowledge of bathhouse culture), going so far as to ensure water supplies for domestic use in addition to irrigation.[111]
It is impossible to give an accurate estimate of the population of the kingdom. Josiah Russell calculates that all of Syria had about 2.3 million people at the time of the crusades, with perhaps eleven thousand villages; most of these, of course, were outside of crusader rule even at the greatest extent of all four crusader states.[112] It has been estimated by scholars such asJoshua Prawer andMeron Benvenisti that there were at most 120,000 Franks and 100,000 Muslims living in the cities, with another 250,000 Muslim and Eastern Christian peasants in the countryside. The Crusaders accounted for 15–25% of the total population.[113]Benjamin Z. Kedar estimates that there were between 300,000 and 360,000 non-Franks in the Kingdom, 250,000 of whom were villagers in the countryside, andone may assume that Muslims were in the majority in some, possibly most parts of the kingdom of Jerusalem…[113] AsRonnie Ellenblum points out, there simply is not enough existing evidence to accurately count the population and any estimate is inherently unreliable.[114] Contemporary chronicler William of Tyre recorded the census of 1183, which was intended to determine the number of men available to defend against an invasion, and to determine the amount of tax money that could be obtained from the inhabitants, Muslim or Christian. If the population was actually counted, William did not record the number.[115] In the 13th century,John of Ibelin drew up a list of fiefs and the number of knights owed by each, but this gives no indication of the non-noble, non-Latin population.
The Mamluks, led by Baibars, eventually made good their pledge to cleanse the entire Middle East of the Franks. With the fall ofAntioch (1268),Tripoli (1289), andAcre (1291), those Christians unable to leave the cities were massacred or enslaved and the last traces of Christian rule in the Levant disappeared.[116][117]
An unknown number of Muslimslaves lived in the Kingdom. There was a very large slave market in Acre that functioned throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Italian merchants were sometimes accused of selling Southeastern European Christians as slaves along with Muslim slaves.[118] Slavery was less common than ransom, especially for prisoners of war; the large numbers of prisoners taken during raids and battles every year ensured that ransom money flowed freely between the Christian and Muslim states.[119] Escape for prisoners and slaves was probably not difficult, as the inhabitants of the countryside were majority Muslim, and fugitive slaves were always a problem. The only legal means of manumission was conversion to (Catholic) Christianity. No Christian, whether Western or Eastern, was permitted by law to be sold into slavery.[120]
Theassizes of Jerusalem provided a legal framework for slavery in the Kingdom. The document stipulated thatvilleins, animals or some other chattel could be traded. "Villeins" were rural semi-free laborers akin toserfs. There were also multiple ways to become chattel slaves. People could be slaves by birth, enslaved by being captured in a raid, or as a penalty for debt or for helping a runaway slave.[121]
The nomadicBedouin tribes were considered to be the property of the king and under his protection. They could be sold or alienated just like any other property, and later in the 12th century, they were often under the protection of a lesser noble or one of the military orders.[122]
Crusader coins of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Left:Denier in European style withHoly Sepulchre (1162–75). Center:Kufic goldbezant (1140–80). Right: gold bezant with Christian symbol (1250s). Gold coins were first copied dinars and bore Kufic script, but after 1250Christian symbols were added following Papal complaints (British Museum).
The urban composition of the area, combined with the presence of the Italian merchants, led to the development of an economy that was much more commercial than it was agricultural.Palestine had always been a crossroads for trade; now, this trade extended to Europe as well. European goods, such as thewoolentextiles of northern Europe, made their way to the Middle East and Asia, while Asian goods were transported back to Europe. Jerusalem was especially involved in thesilk,cotton andspice trade; other items that first appeared in Europe through trade with crusader Jerusalem includedoranges andsugar, the latter of which chronicler William of Tyre calledvery necessary for the use and health of mankind. In the countryside, wheat, barley, legumes, olives, grapes, and dates were grown. The Italian city-states made enormous profits from this trade, thanks to commercial treaties like thePactum Warmundi, and it influenced theirRenaissance in later centuries.
Colonies of Genoa andVenice in Palestine also took on agricultural ventures in their concessions. They especially cultivated Sugar for export to Europe. Sugar cane had been introduced in Palestine by the Arabs. To work on the sugar fields, Italian colonists utilizedslaves orserfs of Arab or Syrian origin, or local serfs. Sugar manufacturing began inTyre. In the 13th century, sugar production continued to increase in Palestine, and merchants could export it duty-free through the port of Acre until its conquest in 1291. The sugar exploitation system pioneered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem is seen as a precursor to thesugar plantations in the Americas.[123]
Jerusalem collected money through tribute payments, first from the coastal cities which had not yet been captured, and later from other neighbouring states such as Damascus and Egypt, which the Crusaders could not conquer directly. After Baldwin I extended his rule over Oultrejordain, Jerusalem gained revenue from the taxation of Muslimcaravans passing from Syria to Egypt orArabia. The money economy of Jerusalem meant that their manpower problem could be partially solved by paying formercenaries, an uncommon occurrence in medieval Europe. Mercenaries could be fellow European crusaders, or, perhaps more often, Muslim soldiers, including the famousTurcopoles.[citation needed]
Jerusalem was the centre of education in the kingdom. There was a school in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the basic skills of reading and writingLatin were taught;[124] The relative wealth of the merchant class meant that their children could be educated there along with the children ofnobles – it is likely that William of Tyre was a classmate of future kingBaldwin III. Higher education had to be undertaken at one of theuniversities in Europe;[125] the development of a university was impossible in the culture ofcrusader Jerusalem, where warfare was far more important than philosophy or theology. Nonetheless, the nobility and general Frankish population were noted for their high literacy: lawyers and clerks were in abundance, and the study of law, history, and other academic subjects was a beloved pastime of the royal family and the nobility.[126] Jerusalem had an extensive library not only of ancient and medieval Latin works but of Arabic literature, much of which was apparently captured from Usamah ibn Munqidh and his entourage after a shipwreck in 1154.[127] The Holy Sepulchre contained the kingdom'sscriptorium and the city had achancery where royal charters and other documents were produced. Aside from Latin, the standard written language of medieval Europe, the populace of crusader Jerusalem communicated in vernacular forms of French and Italian; Greek, Armenian, and even Arabic were used by Frankish settlers.
In Jerusalem itself, the greatest architectural endeavour was the expansion of theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre inwestern Gothic style. This expansion consolidated all the separate shrines on the site into one building, and was completed by 1149. Outside of Jerusalem, castles and fortresses were the major focus of construction:Kerak andMontreal inOultrejordain andIbelin nearJaffa are among the numerous examples of crusader castles.
Crusader art was a mix ofWestern,Byzantine, andIslamic styles. The major cities featured baths, interior plumbing, and other advanced hygienic tools which were lacking in most other cities and towns throughout the world. The foremost examples of crusader art are perhaps theMelisende Psalter, anilluminated manuscript commissioned between 1135 and 1143 and now located in theBritish Library, and the sculptedNazareth Capitals. Paintings and mosaics were popular forms of art in the kingdom, but many of these were destroyed by theMamluks in the 13th century; only the most durable fortresses survived the reconquest.
Immediately after the First Crusade, land was distributed to loyal vassals of Godfrey, forming numerousfeudal lordships within the kingdom. This was continued by Godfrey's successors. The number and importance of the lordships varied throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and many cities were part of the royal domain. The king was assisted by a number ofofficers of state. The king and the royal court were normally located in Jerusalem, but due to the prohibition on Muslim inhabitants, the capital was small and underpopulated. The king just as often held court at Acre,Nablus, Tyre, or wherever else he happened to be. In Jerusalem, the royal family lived firstly on theTemple Mount, before the foundation of theKnights Templar, and later in the palace complex surrounding theTower of David; there was another palace complex in Acre.
Because the nobles tended to live in Jerusalem rather than on estates in the countryside, they had a larger influence on the king than they would have had in Europe. The nobles, along with the bishops, formed thehaute cour (French for 'high court'), which was responsible for confirming the election of a new king (or a regent if necessary), collecting taxes, minting coins, allotting money to the king, and raising armies. Thehaute cour was the only judicial body for the nobles of the kingdom, hearing criminal cases such as murder, rape, and treason, and simpler feudal disputes such as the recovery of slaves, sales and purchases offiefs, and default of service. Punishments included forfeiture of land and exile, or in extreme cases death. The first laws of the kingdom were, according to tradition, established during Godfrey of Bouillon's short reign, but were more probably established by Baldwin II at theCouncil of Nablus in 1120. Benjamin Z. Kedar argued that the canons of the Council of Nablus were in force in the 12th century but had fallen out of use by the thirteenth. Marwan Nader questions this and suggests that the canons may not have applied to the whole kingdom at all times.[128] The most extensive collection of laws, together known as theAssizes of Jerusalem, were written in the mid-13th century, although many of them are purported to be twelfth-century in origin.[129]
There were other, lesser courts for non-nobles and non-Latins; theCour des Bourgeois provided justice for non-noble Latins, dealing with minor criminal offences such as assault and theft, and provided rules for disputes between non-Latins, who had fewer legal rights. Special courts such as theCour de la Fond (for commercial disputes in the markets) and theCour de la Mer (an admiralty court) existed in the coastal cities. The extent to which native Islamic and Eastern Christian courts continued to function is unknown, but thera'is probably exercised some legal authority on a local level. TheCour des Syriens judged non-criminal matters among the native Christians (the "Syriacs"). For criminal matters, non-Latins were to be tried in theCour des Bourgeois (or even theHaute Cour if the crime was sufficiently severe).[130]
The Italian communes were granted almost complete autonomy from the very early days of the Kingdom, thanks to their military and naval support in the years following the First Crusade. This autonomy included the right to administer their own justice, although the kinds of cases that fell under their jurisdiction varied at different times.[131]
The king was recognised as head of the Haute Cour, although he was legally onlyprimus inter pares.
After the loss of all territory in the Levant in 1291, there were late attempts at further crusades, nominally proposing to recapture Jerusalem, but with therise of the Ottoman Empiretheir character was more and more that of a desperate defensive war rarely reaching beyondthe Balkans (Alexandrian Crusade,Smyrniote crusades).Henry IV of England made apilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1393–4, and he later vowed to lead a crusade to recapture the city, but he did not undertake such a campaign before his death in 1413.[132]The Levant remained under Ottoman control from1517 until thePartition of the Ottoman Empire in 1918.
With theFall of Ruad in 1302, the Kingdom of Jerusalem lost its final outpost on the Levantine coast, its possession closest to the Holy Land now beingCyprus.Henry II of Jerusalem retained the title ofking of Jerusalem until his death in 1324, and the title continued to be claimed by his successors, thekings of Cyprus.The title of "king of Jerusalem" was also continuously used by the Angevinkings of Naples, whose founder, Charles of Anjou, had in 1277 bought a claim to the throne fromMary of Antioch. Thereafter, this claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem was treated as a tributary of the crown of Naples, which often changed hands by testament or conquest rather than direct inheritance. As Naples was a papal fief, the Popes often endorsed the title of King of Jerusalem as well as of Naples, and the history of these claims is that of the Neapolitan Kingdom.In 1441, control of the Kingdom of Naples was lost toAlfonso V of Aragon and the title thus was claimed by thekings of Spain, and after theWar of the Spanish Succession both by theHouse of Bourbon and theHouse of Habsburg.The title is still inde facto use by theSpanish Crown, currently held byFelipe VI of Spain. It was also claimed byOtto von Habsburg as Habsburg pretender until 1958, and by thekings of Italy until 1946.
^The First Crusade is extensively documented in primary and secondary sources. See for exampleThomas Asbridge,The First Crusade: A New History (Oxford: 2004); (Tyerman 2006);Jonathan Riley-Smith,The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (Pennsylvania: 1991); and the lively but outdatedSteven Runciman,A History of the Crusades: Volume 1, The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge: 1953).
^Marshall W. Baldwin, "The Decline and Fall of Jerusalem, 1174–1189", inA History of the Crusades (gen. ed. Kenneth M. Setton), vol. 1: The First Hundred Years (ed. Marshall W. Baldwin, University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), pg. 592ff.
^Steven Runciman,A History of the Crusades, vol. 2: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East (Cambridge University Press, 1952), pg. 404.
^Peter W. Edbury, "Propaganda and faction in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the background to Hattin", inCrusaders and Moslems in Twelfth-Century Syria (ed. Maya Shatzmiller, Leiden: Brill, 1993), pg. 174.
^Hamilton, pp. 162–163; Edbury and Rowe, "William of Tyre and the Patriarchal election of 1180",The English Historical Review 93 (1978), repr.Kingdoms of the Crusaders: From Jerusalem to Cyprus (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Series Studies, 1999), pp. 23–25.
^James M. Powell,Anatomy of a Crusade: 1213–1221 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986), pp. 128–135.
^Thomas C. Van Cleve, "The Fifth Crusade", inA History of the Crusades (gen. ed. Kenneth M. Setton), vol. 2: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 (ed. R.L. Wolff and H.W. Hazard, University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), pp. 394–395.
^Fulcher of Chartres,A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, trans. Frances Rita Ryan, University of Tennessee Press, 1969, bk. III, ch. XXXVII.3. pg. 271 (available onlineArchived 15 April 2008 at theWayback Machine).
^Many chronicles of individual pilgrims are collected together in thePalestine Pilgrims' Text Society (London, 1884–); "Recueil de voyages et mémoires", published by the Société de Géographie (Paris, 1824–66); "Recueil de voyages et de documents pour servir à la géographie" (Paris, 1890–).
^Ronnie Ellenblum, Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 3–4, 10–11.
^Joshua Prawer,The Crusaders' Kingdom: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages (Praeger, 1972), pg. 60; pp. 469–470; and throughout.
^Josiah C. Russell, "Population of the Crusader States", in Setton, ed. Crusades, vol. 5, pg. 108.
^abBenjamin Z. Kedar, "The Subjected Muslims of the Frankish Levant", inMuslims Under Latin Rule, 1100–1300, ed. James M. Powell, Princeton University Press, 1990, pg. 148; reprinted inThe Crusades: The Essential Readings, ed. Thomas F. Madden, Blackwell, 2002, pg. 244. Kedar quotes his numbers fromJoshua Prawer,Histoire du royaume latin de Jérusalem, tr. G. Nahon, Paris, 1969, vol. 1, pp. 498, 568–72.
^William of Tyre, vol. 2, bk. 22, ch. 23, pp. 486–488.
^According to Ludolph of Suchem (which seems exaggeration):In Acre and the other places nearly a hundred and six thousand men were slain or taken, and more than two hundred thousand escaped from thence. Of the Saracens more than three hundred thousand were slain, as is well known even to this day. (Ludolph of Suchem, p. 268-272)
^Michaud,The History of the Crusades, Vol. 3, p. 18; availablein full at Internet Archive. Note that in a footnote Michaud claims reliance on "the chronicle of Ibn Ferat" (Michaud, Vol.3, p.22) for much of the information he has concerning theMussulmans.
^Note the famous example of William of Tyre,Willemi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon, ed. R. B. C. Huygens, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis, vol. 38 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1986), bk. 19, ch. 12, pp. 879–881. This chapter was discovered after the publication of Babcock and Krey's translation and is not included in the English edition.
^For example, King Baldwin IIIwas fairly well educated, andparticularly enjoyed listening to the reading of history... (William of Tyre, vol. 2, bk. 16, ch. 2, pg. 138.) King Amalric Iwas fairly well educated, although much less so than his brother Baldwin III; hewas well skilled in the customary law by which the kingdom was governed, andlistened eagerly to history and preferred it to all other kinds of reading. (William of Tyre, vol. 2, bk. 19, ch. 2, pg. 296.)
^William of Tyre, introduction by Babcock and Krey, pg. 16.
^Benjamin Z. Kedar,On the origins of the earliest laws of Frankish Jerusalem: The canons of the Council of Nablus, 1120 (Speculum 74, 1999), pp. 330–331; Marwan Nader,Burgesses and Burgess Law in the Latin Kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1099–1325) (Ashgate: 2006), pg. 45.
Holt, P. M. (1989).The age of the crusades: the Near East from the eleventh century to 1517. London: Longman.ISBN9780582493025.
Edbury, Peter W. (1991).The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191-1374. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Humphreys, R. S. (1997)From Saladin to the Mongols: The Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193–1260, SUNY Press
Benjamin Z. Kedar, Hans Eberhard Mayer & R. C. Smail, ed.,Outremer: Studies in the history of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem presented to Joshua Prawer. Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Institute, 1982.
John L. La Monte,Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100–1291. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932.
Ferdinandi, Sergio (2017).La Contea Franca di Edessa. Fondazione e Profilo Storico del Primo Principato Crociato nel Levante (1098–1150) (in Italian). Rome, Italy: Pontificia Università Antonianum.ISBN978-88-7257-103-3.
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