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 Melisende 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 Ch�tillon, 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
Ch�tillon 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 Melisende 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-Bundukd�ree), 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 A�la 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 Montreal with its four castles of Crac, Crac de Montreal,
Ahamant, and Vau de Mo�se, situated between the Dead and Red Seas,
formed a really independent state. Renaud de Ch�tillon, who became
Lord of Montreal 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 soudee; 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 Melisende, 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 BREHIER
Transcribed by Donald J. Boon

From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this  worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For  more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.

-------------------------------------------------------

  Provided courtesy of:

       Eternal Word Television Network
       PO Box 3610
       Manassas, VA 22110
       Voice: 703-791-2576
       Fax: 703-791-4250
       Web: http://www.ewtn.com
       Email address: [email protected]

-------------------------------------------------------

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.ratthing.com. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.