Contents
Kingdom of Jerusalem
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Regnum HierosolimitanumRoiaume de Jherusalem
Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
←
1099–1291
→
Flag Coat of arms
Capital Jerusalem (1099-1187)
Tyre (1187-1191)
Acre (1191-1229)
Jerusalem (1229-1244)
Acre (1244-1291)
Language(s) Latin, Old French, Italian (also Arabic and Greek)
Religion Roman Catholicism (official), Greek Orthodoxy, Syrian Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism
Government Monarchy
King
- 1100-1118 Baldwin I
- 1118-1131 Baldwin II
- 1131-1152 Melisende
- with Fulk 1131-1143
- 1143-1152-1162 Baldwin III
- 1162-1174 Amalric I
- 1174-1185 Baldwin IV
Legislature Haute Cour
Historical era High Middle Ages
- First Crusade 1099
- Second Crusade 1145
- Siege of Jerusalem 1187
- Third Crusade 1189
- Treaty of Ramla 1191
- Capture of Acre 1291
This article is about the Christian kingdom. For the history of the city, see History of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christian kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. It lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks.
At first the kingdom was little more than a loose collection of towns and cities captured during the crusade. Later kings expanded its size so that at its height in the mid-twelfth century, the kingdom roughly encompassed the territory of modern-day Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. It extended from Lebanon in the north to the Sinai Desert in the south, and into modern Jordan and Syria in the east. There were also attempts to expand the kingdom into Fatimid Egypt. Its kings also held a certain amount of authority over the other crusader states, Tripoli, Antioch, and Edessa.
Many customs and institutions were imported from the crusaders' original homelands in Western Europe, and there were close familial and political connections with the West throughout the kingdom's existence. It was, however, a relatively minor kingdom in comparison, and often lacked financial and military support from Europe. The kingdom had closer ties to the neighbouring Kingdom of Armenia and the Byzantine Empire, from which it inherited "oriental" qualities, and the kingdom was also influenced by pre-existing Muslim institutions. Socially, however, the "Latin" inhabitants were dominant and the Muslims and eastern Christians were a marginalized lower class.
At first the Muslim world held little concern for the fledgling kingdom, but as the twelfth century progressed, the kingdom's Muslim neighbours were united by Nur ad-Din Zangi and Saladin, who vigorously began to recapture lost territory. Jerusalem itself was lost to Saladin in 1187, and by the thirteenth century the Kingdom was reduced to a few cities along the Mediterranean coast. In this period, the kingdom, sometimes referred to as the "Kingdom of Acre", was ruled by the Lusignan dynasty of the crusader Kingdom of Cyprus, and ties were also strengthened with Tripoli, Antioch, and Armenia. The kingdom was also increasingly dominated by the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa, as well as the imperial ambitions of the Holy Roman Emperors. The kingdom became little more than a pawn in the politics and warfare of the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties in Egypt, as well as the Khwarezmian and Mongol invaders. The Mamluk sultans Baibars and al-Ashraf Khalil eventually reconquered all the remaining crusader strongholds, culminating in the destruction of Acre in 1291.
History
The First Crusade and the foundation of the kingdom
The First Crusade was preached at the Council of Clermont in 1095 by Pope Urban II, with the goal of assisting the Byzantine Empire against the invasions of the Seljuk Turks. Very soon, however, the participants saw the main objective as the capturing or recapturing of the Holy Land. The kingdom came into being with the arrival of the crusaders in June 1099; a few of the neighbouring towns (Ramla, Lydda, Bethlehem, and others) were taken first, and Jerusalem itself was captured on July 15.[1] There was immediately a dispute among the various leaders as to who would rule the newly-conquered territory, the two most worthy candidates being Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, and Raymond of St. Gilles, Count of Toulouse. Neither wished to be crowned king in the city where Christ had worn his crown of thorns; Raymond was perhaps attempting to show his piety and hoped that the other nobles would insist upon his election anyway, but Godfrey, the more popular of the two, did no damage to his own piety by accepting a position as secular leader with an unknown or ill-defined title.[2] With the election of Godfrey on July 22, Raymond, incensed, took his army to forage away from the city. The foundation of the kingdom, as well as Godfrey's reputation, was secured with the defeat of the Fatimid Egyptian army under al-Afdal Shahanshah at the Battle of Ascalon one month after the conquest, on August 12. However, Raymond and Godfrey's continued antagonism prevented the crusaders from taking control of Ascalon itself.[3]
There was still some uncertainty as to the nature of the new kingdom. The papal legate Daimbert of Pisa convinced Godfrey to hand over Jerusalem to him as Latin Patriarch, forming the basis for a theocratic state. According to William of Tyre, Godfrey may have supported Daimbert's efforts, and he agreed to take possession of "one or two other cities and thus enlarge the kingdom" if Daimbert were permitted to rule Jerusalem.[4] During his short reign, Godfrey indeed increased the boundaries of the kingdom, by capturing Jaffa, Haifa, Tiberias, and other cities, and reducing many others to tributary status; he also set the foundations for the system of vassalage in the kingdom, including the Principality of Galilee and the County of Jaffa.
The path for a secular state was therefore set during Godfrey's rule, and when Godfrey died of an illness in 1100, his brother Baldwin of Boulogne successfully outmanoeuvered Daimbert and claimed Jerusalem for himself as a secular "king of the Latins of Jerusalem." Daimbert compromised by crowning Baldwin in Bethlehem rather than Jerusalem, but the path for a secular state had been laid.[5] Within this secular framework, a Catholic church hierarchy was established, overtop of the local Eastern Orthodox and Syrian Orthodox authorities, who retained their own hierarchies. Under the Latin Patriarch there were four suffragan archdioceses and numerous dioceses.[6]
Expansion
During Baldwin's reign the kingdom expanded even further. The numbers of Latin inhabitants increased, as the minor crusade of 1101 brought reinforcements to the kingdom. He also repopulated Jerusalem with Franks and native Christians, after his expedition across the Jordan in 1115.[7] With help from the Italian city-states and other adventurers, notably King Sigurd I of Norway, Baldwin captured the port cities of Acre (1104), Beirut (1110), and Sidon (1111), while also exerting his suzerainty over the other Crusader states to the north – the County of Edessa (which he had founded), the Principality of Antioch, and, after Tripoli was captured in 1109, the County of Tripoli. He successfully defended against Muslim invasions, from the Fatimids at the numerous battles at Ramla and elsewhere in the southwest of the kingdom, and from Damascus and Mosul in the northeast in 1113.[8] As Thomas Madden says, Baldwin was "the true founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem", who "had 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."[9] However, the kingdom would never overcome its geographic isolation from Europe. For almost its entire history it was confined to the narrow strip of land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River; land beyond this was subject to constant raiding and warfare. The kingdom's population centres could also easily be isolated from each other in the event of a major invasion, which eventually led to the kingdom's downfall in the 1180s.
Baldwin brought with him an Armenian wife, traditionally named Arda (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 found that he had no need of Armenian support in Jerusalem. He bigamously married Adelaide 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.[10]