Latin Law in the Crusader States
Latin Law in the Crusader States
Necessity. Once the First Crusaders were able to conquer the Holy Land and establish their kingdoms there in 1099, they were faced with the necessity of ruling a disparate population, most of whom had never been governed by European laws or customs. Furthermore, it quickly became apparent, with the return of many of these Crusaders to their homes in Europe, that the majority of administrative and judicial officials needed to govern the newly conquered population would also be subject peoples, probably Jews and Muslims. These officials, while they might function based on their own laws and traditions, would have to be controlled from above by the Resident Crusaders, based on a European legal system.
Dual Offices. Local officials collected taxes and sent them to their Secretes, Resident Crusader revenue offices, and from there to the Grant Secrete, the kingdom’s central treasury. Courts, too, functioned in this two-tradition manner. The Cour des Bourgeois was established to deal with violations of maritime and merchant laws and with claims involving large amounts of money, while the Cows des Syriens was founded to rule on matters concerning the violations of Muslim and Jewish customs and laws. However, if a jurisdictional dispute between the two courts occurred, it was always the Cour des Bourgeois that was awarded the right to decide the legal matter. Additionally, all cases involving “High Justice,” the ability to impose the death penalty, and all cases concerning property held by Resident Crusaders were decided in the Cour des Bourgeois alone. With this type of administrative flexibility, as Usamah Ibn-Munquidh and other witnesses testify, the Resident
Crusaders were able to rule over a subject population with justice and peace.
Sources
Hans Eberhard Mayer, The Crusades, translated by John Gillingham (London: Oxford University Press, 1972).
Jean Richard, The Crusades, C.1071-C.1291, translated by Jean Birrell (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A Short History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987).