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| Official language | Latin, French, Italian, and other western languages; Greek and Arabic also widely spoken | ||||
| Capital | Jerusalem, later Acre | ||||
| Constitution | Various laws, so-called "Assizes of Jerusalem" | ||||
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christian kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 by the First Crusade. It was finally destroyed in 1291 with the fall of Acre.
Foundation and early history
The kingdom came into being with the Crusader capture of Jerusalem in 1099, the climax of the First Crusade. Godfrey of Bouillon, one of the leaders of the crusade, was chosen as its first king. He refused, however, to take this title, saying that no man should wear a crown where Christ had worn his crown of thorns; instead, he took the title Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri ("Defender of the Holy Sepulchre"). Godfrey died the next year, and his brother and successor, Baldwin I, was not so scrupulous, having himself immediately crowned King of Jerusalem.
Baldwin successfully expanded the Kingdom, capturing the port cities of Acre, Sidon, and Beirut, and also exerted his suzerainty over the other Crusader States to the north - the County of Edessa (which he had founded), the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Tripoli. He also saw an increase in the numbers of Latin inhabitants, as the minor crusade of 1101 brought reinforcements and a Latin Patriarch to the kingdom. The Italian city-states of Venice, Pisa, and Genoa also began to play a role in the kingdom. Their fleets assisted in the capture of the ports, where they were given their own autonomous trading quarters.
Baldwin died without heirs in 1118, and was succeeded by his cousin, Baldwin of Le Bourg, the Count of Edessa. Baldwin II was also an able ruler, and though he was imprisoned by the Turks several times throughout his reign, the boundaries of the Kingdom continued to expand, with the city of Tyre captured in 1124.
Life in the kingdom
Jerusalem came to be known as Outremer, the French word for "overseas." As new generations grew up in the kingdom, they began to think of themselves as native, rather than immigrants. Thus, in many senses, they behaved and thought more like "orientals" (Syrians) than like Western-Europeans of their day. They often learned to speak Greek, Arabic, and other eastern languages, and married Greeks or Armenians: as the chronicler Fulcher of Chartres wrote, "we who were Occidentals now have been made Orientals".
The kingdom was essentially based on the feudal system of contemporary western Europe, but with many important differences. First of all, the kingdom was situated within a relatively small area, with little agricultural land. Since ancient times it had been an urban economy, unlike medieval Europe; in fact, although the nobility technically owned land, they preferred to live in Jerusalem or the other cities.
As in Europe the nobles had vassals and were themselves vassals to the king. However, agricultural production was regulated by the Muslim equivalent of the feudal system (the iqta), and this system was not disrupted by the Crusaders. Although Muslims (as well as Jews and Eastern Christians) were persecuted somewhat in the cities (and were not allowed in Jerusalem at all), in rural areas they continued to live as they had before. The rais, the leader of a community, was a kind of vassal to whatever noble owned his land, but as the Crusader nobles were absentee landlords the rais and their communities had a high degree of autonomy. They grew food for the Crusaders, but owed no military service as vassals would have in Europe; likewise, the Italian city-states owed nothing despite living in the port cities. As a result, Crusader armies tended to be small, and drawn from the French families of the cities.
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. Israel had always been a crossroads for trade; now, this trade extended to Europe as well. European goods, such as the textiles of northern Europe, made their way to the Middle East and Asia, while Asian goods were transported back to Europe. The Italian city-states made enormous profits from this trade, and it influenced their Renaissance in later centuries.
Because the nobles tended to live in Jerusalem rather than an estate in the countryside, they had a larger influence on the king than they would have in Europe. The nobles formed the haute cour (high court), one of the earliest forms of parliament that was also developing in western Europe. The court consisted of the bishops and the higher nobles, and was responsible for confirming the election of a new king, allotting money to the king, and raising armies.
The problem of lack of manpower for armies was solved to some extent by the creation of the military orders. The Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller were both formed in early years of the kingdom, and they often took the place of the nobles in the countryside. Although their headquarters were in Jerusalem, they often lived in vast castles and bought land that the other nobles could no longer afford to keep. The military orders were under the direct control of the Pope, however, not the king; they were essentially autonomous and technically owed no military service, though in reality they participated in all the major battles.
Some important sources of information about life in the Kingdom of Jerusalem are William of Tyre from the Christian perspective, and Usamah ibn Munqidh from the Muslim perspective.
Mid-12th century
Baldwin II was succeded in 1131 by his daughter Melisende, who ruled jointly with her husband Fulk. During their reign Jerusalem exercised its greatest economic and artistic expansion, with the Melisende Psalter commissioned between 1135 and 1143. Fulk, a renowned military commander, was faced with a new and more dangerous enemy - the Atabeg Zengi of Mosul. Although Fulk held off Zengi throughout his reign, William of Tyre criticized Fulk for not securing the borders. Fulk died in a hunting accident in 1143. Zengi took advantage of Fulk's death by successfully conquering Edessa. 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, and a Second Crusade arrived by 1147.
Meeting in Tripoli in 1147, the crusading Kings of France and Germany decided to attack the friendly Emir of Damascus, seen as an easy target, despite a peace treaty between Jerusalem and Damascus. This was in direct opposition to the advice Queen Melisende and constable Manasses gave, as they and other Crusader states saw Aleppo as the main target that would allow the recapture of Edessa. The Crusade ended in defeat by 1148. Melisende ruled as regent until her government was overthrown by her son Baldwin III in 1153, but Baldwin appointed her his regent and chief advisor the next year. Baldwin III conquered Ascalon from the Fatimids, the last Egyptian outpost on the Palestinian coast. At the same time, though, the overall crusader situation became worse, as Nur ad-Din succeeded in taking Damascus and unifying Muslim Syria under his rule.
Baldwin III died in 1162, a year after his mother Melisende, and was succeeded by his brother Amalric I. Amalric's reign was taken up with competition with Nur ad-Din and his wily some-time subordinate Saladin over control of Egypt. Although supported by Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus, Amalric ultimately failed in his bid to conquer Egypt. His and Nur ad-Din's deaths in 1174 ensured the dominance of Saladin.
Disaster and recovery
Amalric was succeeded by his young son, Baldwin IV, who was discovered at a very young age to be a leper. During Baldwin's reign the Kingdom began to collapse internally, as factions formed behind Baldwin's cousin, Count Raymond III of Tripoli, who led the "nobles' party" of native barons, and Baldwin's incompetent brother-in-law, Guy of Lusignan, who led the "court party", backed by the royal family and relative newcomers to the kingdom.
Baldwin IV died in 1185, and was succeeded by his infant nephew Baldwin V, son of his sister Sibylla. Baldwin V died within a year and the kingdom passed to his mother Sibylla and her husband Guy. Guy proved a disastrous ruler. His close ally Raynald of Chatillon, the lord of Oultrejourdan and the fortress of Kerak, provoked Saladin into open war, and in 1187 the army of the Kingdom was utterly destroyed at the Battle of Hattin. Over the next few months Saladin easily overran the entire Kingdom, save for the port of Tyre, which was ably defended by the newcomer Conrad of Montferrat.
The fall of Jerusalem shocked Europe, resulting in the Third Crusade. Due to the efforts of Richard Lionheart, most of the coastal cities of Syria, especially Acre, were recovered, and the Treaty of Ramla was signed with Saladin in 1192 after the Battle of Arsuf. Conrad of Montferrat was married to Isabella, daughter of Amalric I, and made King of this rump state, but he was killed by the Hashshashin almost immediately thereafter. Isabella was married again to Henry II of Champagne.
The later kingdom
For the next hundred years, the Kingdom of Jerusalem clung to life as a tiny kingdom hugging the Syrian coastline. Its capital was moved to Acre and at best, it included only a couple of other significant cities (Beirut, Tyre), as well as overlordship over Tripoli and disputedly Antioch. A Fourth Crusade was planned after the failure of the Third, but it resulted in the sack of Constantinople in 1204 and the Crusaders involved never arrived in the Kingdom. Isabella and her last husband Amalric I of Cyprus died 1205 and again an underage girl, Isabella and Conrad's daughter Maria of Montferrat, became queen of Jerusalem. Maria was then married to an experienced sexagenarian knight John of Brienne who succeeded in keeping the tiny kingdom safe. Schemes were hatched to reconquer Jerusalem through Egypt, resulting in the failed Fifth Crusade against Damietta in 1217. In 1229 Emperor Frederick II, who was King of Jerusalem by virtue of his marriage to the heiress, managed to recover Jerusalem by a treaty with the Ayyubid Sultan Al-Kamil (the Sixth Crusade). The recovery was short-lived - not enough territory had been ceded to make the city defensible, and in 1244 the city was reconquered by the Ayyubids. The Seventh Crusade under Louis IX of France was inspired by this, but it accomplished little save to replace the Ayyubids with the more powerful Mamluks as the Crusaders' main enemy in 1250.
For the period from 1229 to 1268, the monarch resided in Europe and usually had a larger realm to pursue or take care of. Kings of Jerusalem were represented by their baillis and regents. The title of King of Jerusalem was inherited by Conrad IV of Germany, son of Frederick II and Yolande of Jerusalem, and later by his own son Conrad III of Jerusalem.
In their later years, the Crusaders' hopes rested with the Mongols, who were thought to be sympathetic to Christianity. Although the Mongols invaded Syria on several occasions, they were repeatedly defeated by the Mamluks, who took their revenge on the practically defenseless Kingdom, taking its cities one by one until, in 1291, Acre, the last stronghold, was taken by the Sultan Khalil.
Thereafter, the Kingdom of Jerusalem ceased to exist on the mainland, but the kingship was claimed by the Kings of Cyprus, who for many decades hatched plans to regain the Holy Land. For the next seven centuries, up to today, a veritable multitude of European monarchs have used the title of King of Jerusalem. See Kings of Jerusalem.
Arms of Kingdom of Jerusalem
The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which has gone through several different varieties of a cross Or (gold) on an argent (silver) field, is a famous violation of or exception to the rule of tincture in heraldry, which prohibits the placement of metal on metal or colour on colour. It is one of the earliest known coats of arms.
See also
- Crusade
- Kings of Jerusalem
- Kings of Jerusalem family tree
- Vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
- Officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
- Haute Cour of Jerusalem
- Assizes of Jerusalem