Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291)
The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was founded as
a result of the First Crusade, in 1099. Destroyed
a first time by Saladin in 1187, it was
re-established around Saint-Jean d'Acre and
maintained until the capture of that city in 1291.
During these two centuries it was for Western
Europe a genuine centre of colonization. As the
common property of Christendom it retained its
international character to the end, although the
French element predominated among the feudal
lords and the government officials, and the
Italians acquired the economic preponderance in
the cities.
(1) Kings and Succession to the Throne
The succession of kings is as follows:
Godfrey of Bouillon, elected Lord of Jerusalem, 22 July, 1099, did not
assume the royal crown and died 18 July, 1100, having strengthened the
new conquest by his victory over the Egyptians at Ascalon (12 August,
1099).
After his death the barons invited his brother Baldwin, Count of Edessa, to
assume the lordship of Jerusalem. Baldwin accepted and had himself
crowned King of Jerusalem by the Patriarch Daimbert in the basilica of
Bethlehem (25 December, 1100). Baldwin I (1100-1118) was the real
founder of the kingdom. With the aid of new crusaders, and more
especially the help afforded by the Genoese, Pisan, and Venetian fleets
he took possession of the principal cities on the coast of Syria. Besides,
the Countship of Tripoli and the Principality of Edessa became fiefs of the
new kingdom, but the Principality of Antioch preserved its independence.
Baldwin I attacked even the Caliphate of Egypt but died at El-Arish (1118)
in the course of this expedition.
His cousin, Baldwin du Bourg, Count of Edessa, was chosen by the
barons to succeed him. Baldwin II (1118-1131), who had followed Godfrey
of Bouillon to the crusade, was a valiant knight and, in 1124, took
possession of Tyre. In 1129 he married his daughter Mélisende to Fulc,
Count of Anjou, who was the father of Geoffrey Plantagenet and already
sixty years of age.
Fulc (1131-1141) succeeded his father-in-law.
Under his son, Baldwin III (1144-1162), who married Theodora Comnena,
the kingdom attained its greatest dimensions after the capture of Ascalon
(1153), but the principality of Edessa was wrested from it in 1144.
Amaury I (1162-1174), brother of Baldwin III, succeeded to the throne on
the latter's death, being only twenty-seven years of age. He was one of
Jerusalem's most brilliant sovereigns, and thought to profit by the anarchy
that prevailed in Egypt in order to acquire possession of that country,
reaching Cairo twice (1167 and 1168); and, for the moment, having Egypt
under his protectorate. But the formation of Saladin's power soon placed
the kingdom in peril.
Amaury died prematurely in 1174, leaving as his successor his son
Baldwin IV (1174-1185), a very gifted young man, who had been the pupil
of William of Tyre, but who was attacked with leprosy and rendered
incapable of taking charge of affairs. He at first reigned under the
guardianship of Milon de Planci and, assisted by Renaud de Châtillon,
inflicted a defeat upon Saladin at Ramleh (1177).
By 1182 the dreadful disease had gained such headway that the
unfortunate Baldwin "the Leprous" ("le Mesel") had the son of his sister
Sibylla by the Count of Montferrat crowned under the name of Baldwin V.
He also had Sibylla take as her second husband Guy of Lusignan, who
had put himself at Baldwin's service and had been appointed by him
regent of the kingdom. However, as Guy seemed incompetent, the barons
took the regency away from him and confided it to Raymond, Count of
Tripoli. Baldwin IV died in 1185, at the age of twenty-five, without having
married, and left the kingdom a prey to discord and exposed to the
attacks of Saladin.
The young Baldwin V, his nephew, died in 1186, supposedly of poisoning.
It was largely due to the instrumentality of Renaud de Châtillon that the
barons elected Guy of Lusignan, (1186-1192) and Sibylla sovereigns of
Jerusalem. Incapable of defending his kingdom against Saladin, Guy was
made prisoner at the battle of Tiberias (4 July, 1187), which was followed
by the capture of Jerusalem (2 October), and purchased his liberty by
yielding Ascalon to Saladin. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed.
Then took place the Crusade of Saint-Jean d'Acre, of which Guy
commenced the siege in 1188. However, Queen Sibylla died in 1190 and
Conrad of Montferrat, who had married Isabella, Sibylla's sister, disputed
the title of king with Guy of Lusignan, and this rivalry lasted throughout the
siege of Saint-Jean d'Acre, which city capitulated 11 July, 1191. On 28
July, Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England, imposed his arbitration
upon the two rivals and decided that Guy should be king during his lifetime
and have Conrad for his successor, the latter to receive Beirut, Tyre, and
Sidon as guarantees; but on 29 April, 1192, Conrad was assassinated by
emissaries of the "Old Man of the Mountain". Guy, on his side, renounced
the title of king (May, 1192) and purchased the Island of Cyprus from the
Templars.
He died in 1194 and his widow named Henry I, Count of Champagne
(1194-1197), who was elected king, but in 1197 Henry died from an
accident.
Isabella married a fourth husband, Amaury of Lusignan (1197-1205),
brother of Guy and already King of Cyprus. The turning of the course of
the crusade to Constantinople obliged him to conclude a truce with the
Moslems. Amaury died in 1205.
He left an only daughter Mélisende who married Bohemond IV, Prince of
Antioch. However, it was to Mary, daughter of Isabella and Conrad of
Montferrat, that the barons gave the preference, and they requested the
King of France to provide her with a husband.
Philip Augustus accordingly selected John of Brienne (1210-1225), who
hesitated for a long time before accepting and did not arrive in Palestine
until 1210, having first obtained from the pope a considerable loan of
money. He directed the Crusade of Egypt in 1218 and, after his defeat,
came to the West to solicit help. Hermann von Salza, the Grand Master of
the Teutonic Knights, advised him to give his only daughter Isabella
(Yolande) in marriage to the Emperor Frederick II.
In 1225, Henry of Malta, Admiral of Sicily, came to seek the young
princess at Saint-Jean d'Acre, and on 9 November she married Frederick
II at Brindisi. Immediately after the ceremony the emperor declared that
his father-in-law must renounce the title of King of Jerusalem, and he
himself adopted it in all his acts. After the death of Isabella, by whom he
had a son Conrad, Frederick II attempted to take possession of his
kingdom and to fulfill his crusader's vow, the execution of which he had so
long deferred, and landed at Saint-Jean d'Acre (September, 1228),
excommunicated by the pope and in disfavour with his new subjects. By a
treaty concluded with the Sultan of Egypt, Frederick regained Jerusalem,
and on 18 March, 1229, without any religious ceremony whatever,
assumed the royal crown in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Having
confided the regency to Balian d'Ibelin, Lord of Sidon, he returned to
Europe. To strengthen his power in the East he sent to Saint-Jean d'Acre
Richard Filangieri, Marshal of the Empire, whom he named baile
(guardian) of the kingdom. The new regent combated the influence of the
Ibelins and tried to secure possession of the Island of Cyprus, but was
conquered and had to content himself with placing an imperial garrison at
Tyre (1232).
In 1243 Conrad, son of Frederick II, having attained his majority, the court
of barons declared that the regency of the emperor must cease, and
invited the legitimate king to come in person and exercise his rights. Alix
of Champagne, Queen of Cyprus and daughter of King Henry I, claimed
the regency on the ground of being Isabella of Brienne's nearest relative;
and it was conferred upon her and her second husband Ralph, Count of
Soissons, the imperial garrison, besieged in Tyre, being forced to
capitulate.
On the death of Alix (1244) her son Henry of Lusignan, King of Cyprus,
assumed the regency but, in the month of September, 1244, a troop of
Kharizmians seized Jerusalem, whilst the Mongols threatened Antioch.
After his Crusade of Egypt, St. Louis landed at Saint-Jean d'Acre (1250)
and remained four years in Palestine, putting the fortresses of the
kingdom in a state of defence and endeavouring to reconcile the factious
barons. However, just at the time that the Christian states were menaced
by the Mongols and the Mamelukes of Egypt, interior strife was at its
height.
In 1257, Henry of Lusignan having died, some of the barons acknowledged
Queen Plaisance regent in the name of her son Hugh II, whereas others
would give their allegiance to none other than Conradin, grandson of
Frederick II. Moreover, civil war broke out at Acre between the Genoese
and the Venetians, between the Hospitallers and the Templars, and on 31
July, 1258, the Venetians destroyed the Genoese fleet before Acre. The
Mameluke Sultan Bibars, "the Cross-bowman" (El-Bundukdáree),
recommenced the conquest of Syria without meeting any resistance and,
in 1268, the last Christian cities, Tripoli, Sidon, and Acre, were cut off
from one another.
King Hugh II of Lusignan had died in 1267, and his succession was
disputed by his nephew, Hugh III, already King of Cyprus, and Mary of
Antioch whose maternal grandfather was Amaury of Lusignan. In 1269 the
barons acknowledged Hugh III, but the new king, unable to cope with the
lack of discipline among his subjects, retired to Cyprus after naming
Balian d'Ibelin regent of the kingdom (1276). But, in 1277, Mary of Antioch
sold her rights to Charles of Anjou, King of Naples, who, thinking to
subdue the East, sent a garrison under command of Roger of San
Severino to occupy Acre.
After the Sicilian Vespers (1282), which ruined the projects of Charles of
Anjou, the inhabitants of Acre expelled his seneschal and proclaimed
Henry II of Cyprus (15 August, 1286) their king. But at this time the
remnants of the Christian possessions were hard pressed by the
Mamelukes. On 5 April, 1291, the Sultan Malek-Aschraf appeared before
Saint-Jean d'Acre and, despite the courage of its defenders, the city was
taken by storm on 28 May. The Kingdom of Jerusalem no longer existed,
and none of the expeditions of the fourteenth century succeeded in
re-establishing it.
The title of King of Jerusalem continued to be borne in a spirit of rivalry: by the
Kings of Cyprus belonging to the House of Lusignan; and by the two Houses of
Anjou which claimed to hold their rights from Mary of Antioch. In 1459 Charlotte,
daughter of John III, King of Cyprus, married Louis of Savoy, Count of Geneva,
and in 1485 ceded her rights to Jerusalem to her nephew Charles of Savoy;
hence, from that time up to 1870, the title of King of Jerusalem was borne by the
princes of the House of Savoy.
(2) Institutions and Civilization
Towards the middle of the twelfth century, when the Kingdom of Jerusalem had
attained its greatest dimensions, it comprised the entire coast of Syria from
Beirut on the north to Raphia on the south. On the northeast its territory,
bounded by the Lebanon district, which separated it from the Moslem principality
of Damascus, was hardly more than a few leagues in breadth; on the southeast it
extended beyond the Dead Sea and the Jordan as far as the Arabian Desert and
even included the port of Aïla on the Red Sea. In the north the Countship of
Tripoli was under the suzerainty of the King of Jerusalem. But in the very interior
of the kingdom the power of the king was checked by numerous obstacles, and
the sovereignty belonged less to the king than to the body of feudatories whose
power was centered in the High Court, composed of vassals and rear-vassals. Its
authority governed even the succession to the throne, in event of dispute between
two members of the royal family; it alone was empowered to make laws or
"assizes", and to its initiative was due the compilation of the "Assizes of
Jerusalem", erroneously ascribed to Godfrey of Bouillon. The king took an oath in
presence of this court and had no right to confiscate a fief unless in accordance
with the regular judgment of that assembly. Moreover, if the king were to violate
his oaths, the assizes formally proclaimed the right of the lieges to resist. The
High Court, presided over by the constable or marshal, assembled only when
convoked by the king; in judicial matters it constituted the supreme tribunal and
its judgments were without appeal: "Nulle chose faite par court n'en doit estre
desfaite" (Assizes, I, clxxvii). A "Court of the Burgesses", organized in the twelfth
century, had analogous jurisdiction over the burgesses and could sentence to
exile or even condemn to death. In the great fiefs mixed courts of knights and
burgesses had similar control independently of the liege. Even within these limits
the king was incapable of compelling vassals to fulfill their feudal obligations.
Domiciled in impregnable castles, the architecture of which had been perfected
after Moslem models, the nobles led an almost independent life. A fief like that of
Montréal with its four castles of Crac, Crac de Montréal, Ahamant, and Vau de
Moïse, situated between the Dead and Red Seas, formed a really independent
state. Renaud de Châtillon, who became Lord of Montréal in 1174, himself waged
war against the Moslems, whom he terrified by his cruise in the Red Sea, and
his individual policy was counter to that of King Baldwin VI, who was powerless
to prevent him from waging war against Saladin.
The Church, at this period, was also a power independent of the kings, and, with
the exception of the king, the Patriarch of Jerusalem was the most important
personage in the realm. After the First Crusade a very powerful Latin Church was
established in Palestine; numerous monasteries were founded and received large
donations of landed property in Palestine as well as in Europe. Some patriarchs,
especially Daimbert, who was at enmity with Baldwin I, even endeavoured to
found a power thoroughly independent of royalty; nevertheless, both of these
powers generally lived in harmony. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, who was elected
by the clergy and acclaimed by the people, had his powers confirmed by the
pope, who continued to exercise great authority in Palestine. Moreover, the
orders of religious knighthood, the Hospitallers of St. John, organized in 1313,
the Templars founded by Hugh of Payens in 1128, and the Teutonic Knights
created in 1143, formed regular powers, equally independent of Church and
State. Most lavishly endowed, they soon owned an incalculable number of fiefs
and castles in Palestine and in Europe. In spiritual matters they were directly
subject to the pope; but the king could not interfere in their temporal affairs, and
each of the three orders had its own army and exercised the right of concluding
treaties with the Moslems.
Although royal authority was restricted to rather narrow limits by these various
powers, it nevertheless succeeded in having at its disposal resources adequate
to the defence of the Christian states. Its financial revenues were more
considerable than those of the majority of the European princes of the twelfth
century, amongst the most profitable sources of income being the customs
duties enforced at all the ports and of which the register was kept by natives who
wrote in Arabic. The king also levied toll upon caravans, had the monopoly of
certain industries, and the exclusive right to coin money. At times he obtained
from the court of barons authority to levy extraordinary taxes; and in 1182, in
order to meet the invasion of Saladin all revenues, even those of the Church were
subjected to a tax of 2 per cent. Although the kings of the twelfth century were
surrounded by high officials, and kept a sufficiently grand court, at which
Byzantine etiquette ruled, they devoted most of their income to the defence of
their kingdom. Their vassals owed military service, unlimited as to time, unlike
the prevailing Western customs, but in exchange they received pay. Moreover,
the king enlisted natives or foreigners, settling on them a life-annuity- or fief de
soudée; a light cavalry of Turcopoles mounted and equipped in Saracenic style,
Maronite archers from the Lebanon, and Armenian and Syrian foot-soldiers
completed the list of this cosmopolitan army of which the effective force was
hardly over 20,000 men, some few hundreds of them being knights. To these
regular resources already mentioned we must add the bands of crusaders
constantly arriving from Europe, but whose turbulence and lack of discipline often
rendered them more of an encumbrance than a help; besides, many considered
that, having once engaged in combat with the Moslems, they had accomplished
their vows and therefore returned to Europe, thus making continuous warfare well
nigh impossible. This explains why with the well-organized Moslem states
arrayed against it, the Kingdom of Jerusalem could only dispute the ground foot
by foot for two centuries.
Nevertheless, despite its imperfect organization, the economic prosperity of the
Latin kingdom attained an extraordinary height of development in the twelfth
century. In order to repopulate the country, Baldwin I held out inducements to the
Christian communities dwelling beyond the Jordan; in 1182 the Maronites of the
Lebanon abjured their Monothelite heresy. Most of the natives did likewise, and
constituted the influential middle class or burgesses of the various cities, having
the right to own land and an autonomous administration under magistrates called
reis. In the ports, the Italian cities of Genoa, Venice, and Pisa, and the French
cities of Marseilles, Narbonne, etc., received grants of houses and even of
districts independently administered by their own consuls. Each of these
colonies had lands or casaux on the outskirts of the city, where cotton and
sugar-cane were cultivated; the colonial merchants had the monopoly of
commerce between Europe and the East, and freighted their out-going ships with
costly merchandise, spices, China silk, precious stones, etc., which the
caravans brought from the interior of Asia. Industries peculiar to Syria, the
manufacture of silk and cotton materials, the dye-works and glass factories of
Tyre, etc., all helped to feed this commerce, as did also the agricultural products
of the land. In exchange, the Western ships brought to Palestine such European
products as were necessary to the colonists; two flotillas sailed yearly from
Western ports, at Easter and about the feast of St. John, thus ensuring
communication between Palestine and Europe. Thanks to this commerce, during
the twelfth century the Kingdom of Jerusalem became one of the most
prosperous states in Christendom. In the castles, as in the cities, the Western
knights loved to surround themselves with gorgeous equipments and choice
furniture, the latter often of Arabian workmanship. In Palestine there was a
marked development along artistic lines, and churches were erected in the towns
according to the rules of Roman architecture. Even now, the cathedral of St. John
at Beirut, built about 1130-1140 and transformed into a mosque, shows us the
style of edifice reared by Western architects, its structure recalling that of the
monuments of Limousin and Languedoe. The specimen of ivory used as a
binding for the Psalter of Mélisende, daughter of Baldwin II, and preserved in the
British Museum, displays a curious decoration in which are combined designs of
Byzantine and Arabian art. But it was military architecture that reached the
greatest development and probably furnished models to the West; even today the
ruins of the Crac of the Knights, built by the Hospitallers, astonish the beholder
by their double gallery, their massive towers, and elegant halls. The Kingdom of
Jerusalem, established as a result of the First Crusade, was thus one of the first
attempts made by Europeans at colonization.
LOUIS BRÉHIER
Transcribed by Donald J. Boon
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII
Copyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org