Kingdom of jerusalem

The kingdom was created after the crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099. Gottfried of Bouillon , one of the leaders of the First Crusade, was elected the first king of the new state. He refused to accept this title, “not wanting to wear the royal crown where the Savior wore thorns ” and adopted another - Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri (“Defender of the Holy Sepulcher”). After Godfried died in 1100, his brother, Baldwin, who succeeded him, immediately assumed the title of "King of Jerusalem".

Balduin I successfully expanded the kingdom, capturing the port cities of Acre , Sidon and Beirut , as well as establishing his rule over the states of the Crusaders in the North - the county of Edessa (founded by him), the principality of Antioch and the county of Tripoli . When it increased the number of inhabitants - Latins, who came with the rearguard crusade , and also appeared the Latin patriarch . The Italian city-states ( Venice , Pisa and Genoa ) began to play an important role in the kingdom. Their fleet participated in the seizure of ports, where they received their quarters for trade.

Around 1080, in Jerusalem, the Order of St. John (Hospitallers) founded a hospital for pilgrims. Another monastic order - the Templar - settled in the temple, converted from the al-Aqsa mosque .

Balduin died in 1118, leaving no heirs. He was succeeded by his cousin Balduin de Bourg , Count of Edessa. Balduin II was also a capable ruler, and although he was captured by the Seljuks several times during the reign, the borders of the state expanded, and in 1124 Tire was taken.

The new generation, born and raised in the Levant, considered the Holy Land to be their homeland and had a negative attitude to the newly arrived crusaders. They also often looked more like Syrians, rather than francs. Many people knew Greek , Arabic and other Oriental languages, married Greek women or Armenians .

As Fulcher Chartres wrote: “ We, the inhabitants of the West, have become inhabitants of the East; he who was a Roman or a franc, turned here into a Galilean or an inhabitant of Palestine; the one who lived in Reims or Chartres sees himself as a city dweller from Tire or Antioch . ”

The device was largely based on the feudal order of the then Western Europe , but with many important differences. The kingdom was located on a small territory, there was little land suitable for agriculture. From ancient times in this region, the entire economy was concentrated in cities, unlike in medieval Europe. The feudal lords, owning the land, nevertheless preferred to live in Jerusalem and other cities.

As in Europe, the barons had vassals, while being vassals of the king. Agriculture was based on the Muslim version of the feudal system - iqta (a set of land plots), this order was not changed. Although Muslims (as well as Jews and Eastern Christians ) were persecuted in some cities and had no right to live in Jerusalem, they lived in rural areas as before.

Rais, the community headman, was a vassal of the baron who owned the land, and since the barons lived in the cities, the communities had a high degree of independence. They supplied the troops of the kingdom food, but did not carry military service, in contrast to Europe; similarly, the Italians did not bear any duties, despite living in port cities. As a result, the army of the kingdom was small and consisted of francs - residents of cities.

The predominance of cities in the region and the presence of Italian merchants led to the development of an economy that was more commercial than agricultural. Palestine has always been the intersection of trade routes; Now trade has spread to Europe. European goods — for example, textiles from Northern Europe — appeared in the Middle East and Asia, while Asian goods went to Europe. Italian city-states made huge profits, which influenced their heyday in the next centuries.

Since noble lords lived more in Jerusalem than in the provinces, they had a much greater influence on the king than was in Europe. Notable barons constituted the High Council , one of the earliest forms of parliament in Western Europe. The council consisted of bishops and influential barons, was responsible for electing the king, providing money to the king, and convening troops.

The lack of troops was largely compensated by the creation of spiritual and knightly orders. The orders of the Templars and the Hospitallers were created in the early years of the kingdom and often replaced the barons in the province. Their leaders were in Jerusalem, lived in huge castles, and often bought land that the barons could not protect. The orders were directly under papal control, not royal; they were largely independent and did not have to bear military service, but, in fact, participated in all major battles.

Important sources of information on the life of the kingdom are the works of Wilhelm of Tyr and the Muslim writer Osama ibn Munkiz .

Balduin II was succeeded by his daughter Melisanda of Jerusalem , who reigned with her husband, Fulk of Anjou . During their reign, the greatest cultural and economic development was achieved, the symbol of which is Melisende Psalter , commissioned by the Queen between 1135 and 1143 . Fulk, the famous commander, faced a new dangerous enemy - the attacker of Mosul Zangi . Although Fulk successfully opposed Zangi during his reign, Guillaume of Tyr condemned him for his poor border guard. Fulk died on the hunt in 1143. Zangi took advantage of this and seized the county of Edessa in 1146 . Queen Melisande, who became regent with her son Baldwin III , appointed a new constable Manasse Yerzh , who led the army after the death of Fulka. In 1147, members of the Second Crusade arrived in the kingdom.

Having met in Tripoli , the leaders of the crusaders, King Louis VII of France Young and King Conrad III Staufen of Germany , decided to attack the kingdom-friendly Emir of Damascus as the most vulnerable enemy, despite the treaty between Damascus and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This was a complete contradiction to the advice of Melisande and Manasse, who considered the main opponent - Aleppo , the victory over which made it possible to return Edessa.

The crusade ended in 1148 with complete failure. Melisande ruled the country as regent until Baldwin III overthrew her government in 1153 , but the following year Baldwin appointed her as regent and chief adviser. Balduin III selected Ascalon from the Fatimids , the last Egyptian fortress on the Palestinian coast. At the same time, the overall situation of the crusading states deteriorated as Nur ad-Din captured Damascus and united Muslim Syria under his rule.

Balduin III died in 1162 , a year later than his mother, he was succeeded by his brother, Amory . His rule was accompanied by confrontation with Nur-ad-Din and insidious attempts to prevent the capture of Egypt by Saladin .

In 1163, the Crusaders succeeded in taking revenge on the battle with the army of Emir Nur-ad-Din in Al-Buqayah , but in 1176 the Byzantine emperor Manuel suffered a terrible defeat from the Seljuks at Miriokefale . Nur-ad-Din took possession of the lands that lay in the northeast of Antioch , took Damascus, and became a close and extremely dangerous neighbor for the Crusaders. His commander Asad al-Din Shirkuh established in Egypt, the campaign against him ended in failure.

Amori and Nur-ad-Din died in 1174 .

Amory I was succeeded by his young son, Balduin IV . From an early age, he learned that he was sick of leprosy , but this did not prevent him from proving that he was an active and strong ruler and a good military leader. He was able to temporarily push the external threat from the kingdom, but his illness and early death brought new civil strife and discord into the already paralyzed life of the kingdom.

Balduin IV died in the spring of 1185 , the title of king passed to his nephew, a minor Balduin V. Regent was Count Raymond Tripoli. Baldwin V was a weak child and died in the summer of 1186. The royal power passed to Sybil , the sister of Baldwin IV and mother Baldwin V.

The fall of Jerusalem that followed in 1187 essentially ended the first Kingdom of Jerusalem. The capture of the city shook Europe and led to the Third Crusade, which began in 1189 . They were led by Richard I the Lionheart and Philip Augustus ( Friedrich Barbarossa died on the way). The army of the crusaders twice approached Jerusalem, but did not dare to attack the city.

In 1192, Richard the Lionheart acted as a mediator in the negotiations, as a result of which the margrave Conrad of Montferrat became king of Jerusalem, and Cyprus was granted to Guy de Lusignan . In the same year, Conrad fell from the hand of a murderer in Tire . After the death of Conrad, a relative of Henry II of Champagne married Isabella.

When Frederick II Staufen became King of Jerusalem in 1225 , he succeeded in temporarily returning Jerusalem to Christians, taking advantage of the contradictions between Muslim rulers. The capture of Jerusalem in 1244 by Khorezmians (remnants of Turkmen troops Jelal ad-Din Mankburn ), called up by Ayyubid sultan of Egypt Al-Salih Najm ad-Din Ayyub ibn Muhammad , marked the end of Christian dominion over this ancient city. Although at that time the king of Jerusalem was Conrad II Hohenstaufen , de facto power in the kingdom passed into the hands of the kings of Cyprus from the Lusignan dynasty. The kingdom of Jerusalem itself ceased to exist in 1291 , when the Mamluks seized its capital, Acre, during the siege.

• List of Kings of Jerusalem
• Top Posts of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
• Possessions of the Order of Malta
• Kingdom of heaven (film)

• Brown R. In the Footsteps of the Crusaders: A Guide to the Castles of Israel. - Modiin: Evgenia Ozerov Publishing House, 2010. - 180 pp., Ill. - ISBN 978-965-91407-1-8 .
• Brown R. In the Footsteps of the Crusaders-2: A Historical Guide to the Battle Grounds of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. - Tel Aviv: Artel, 2013. - 167 pp., Ill.
• Praver joshua Kingdom crusaders. Two centuries of the reign of European knights in ancient biblical lands / Trans. from English V.S. Mukhina. - M .: CJSC " Tsentrpoligraf ", 2019. - 512 pp., Ill. - ISBN 978-5-9524-5382-1 .
• Richard, Jean . Latin-kingdom of Jerusalem / Trans. with fr. A. Yu. Karachinsky; Intro. Art. S.V. Bliznyuk. - SPb. : Eurasia Publishing Group, 2002. - 448 p. - 2000 copies - ISBN 5-8071-0057-3 .
• Ferdinandi, Sergio. La Contea Franca di Edessa. Fondazione e Profilo Storico del Primo Principato Crociato nel Levante (1098-1150). - Pontificia Università Antonianum - Rome, 2017. - ISBN 978-88-7257-103-3 .

• Jerusalem, Latin Kingdom of (1099-1291)
• History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem on the site "Internet project" History of the Order of the Temple "(IPAOH)