CRUSADERS' STATES

States founded in the Levant by the Franks (i.e., Westerners, Latin settlers), in the aftermath of the cru sades.

Foundation and Settlement. When the First Crusade (1095–99), conquered the Holy Land the franks took control of an area of considerable cultural, political, and religious complexity. After the capture of jerusalem in 1099, many of the crusaders returned home, leaving those leaders who had planned to settle in the Levant to impose their authority and to give each of the four Crusader states a particular character, based on a combination of their own background and that of the native populace. The county of Edessa was founded in 1097 by Baldwin of Boulogne who was invited to join the local Armenian Christians in their struggle against the surrounding Muslim rulers. Baldwin soon took control of the area for himself and created a large and wealthy county astride the River Euphrates. The Franks intermarried with the Armenian nobility although the inland location of the county meant that it was particularly vulnerable to pressure from the northern Muslim cities of Aleppo and Mosul.

The principality of antioch was set up by Bohemond of Taranto (a Norman from southern Italy) in particularly controversial circumstances. As the leaders of the First Crusade had traveled to the Levant they had, in return for military help, promised the Byzantine emperor, Alexius Comnenus, to restore lands that had formerly belonged to him. Antioch had been held by the Greeks until 1085 and was the seat of an Orthodox patriarch; it was, therefore, of particular significance to the Byzantines. Bohemond, however, was an old adversary of the Greeks and when he captured the city in June 1098 he refused to hand it over to Alexius. This dispute would develop further and the status of Antioch would be a cause of considerable tension between the settlers and the Greeks in future decades. The native population of Antioch was largely Greek Orthodox, although areas of Armenian Christian and Sunni Muslim farmers also existed.

When the First Crusade conquered Jerusalem in July 1099 godfrey of bouillon was chosen to rule the city, and he took the title advocatus, because he did not wish to be called a king in Christ's city. Godfrey died in 1100 and his successor, Baldwin of Edessa (Godfrey's brother) took a more pragmatic view and adopted a royal title, probably for reasons of status on both the local and international political stages. The population of the kingdom was particularly diverse, with many Muslims in rural areas and also regions of Greek Orthodox villages as well. The selection of Godfrey as ruler of Jerusalem had frustrated the rival candidacy of Raymond of St. Gilles, count of Toulouse. He retired northwards to create the county of Tripoli, although it was not until after his death that the city itself fell (1109) and the fourth and final Crusader State effectively came into being. Tripoli had a large native Christian population, with a particularly strong maronite community in the inland mountains. It also had an enclave of Nizaris, a renegade Shi‘i sect, known popularly as the Assassins. At times, military campaigns meant there was the possibility of further Frankish states being created, particularly at Damascus (1148) and Shaizar (1157), but tensions over whom should rule these lands—Western newcomers or the existing settlers—led to the failure of these campaigns.

Throughout the territory that they settled the Franks had to establish their authority, starting with the imposition of military strength. They then had to set up their own political and religious hierarchies (see below), as well as the organs of administration, justice, and taxation. In all their actions, however, the Franks were constrained by their limited numbers. After the capture of Jerusalem only a few hundred knights remained and while there was a significant level of immigration over subsequent decades (farmers were offered highly attractive terms to hold land), the Franks were always in a minority. This meant that they needed to form a modus operandi with the native populace, of whatever faith, to ensure that the day-today practicalities of food production, trade, and taxation could continue.

Other than the massacres that followed the sieges of Jerusalem, Acre, and Sidon, the native population was generally treated with restraint. In 1110, for example, Tancred of Antioch urged the wives of Muslim farmers to return to their lands from Aleppo where they had fled to for safety from the Christians. In other words, Tancred appreciated the importance of a settled and content labor force. For that reason the Franks also imposed a relatively light burden of taxation on their Muslim subjects—lighter, in fact, than that in many Muslim lands, which was another way of ensuring security and productivity. Furthermore, the indigenous populace was permitted to practice the Islamic faith, although public prayers on Fridays were not allowed.

The rulers of the Frankish states granted nobles land or privileges (such as rights to tax trade, or the use of mills, baths, and ovens), in return for homage and military service. Other landowners, such as religious institutions, also had to contribute knights to the defense of the Holy Land. There were rebellions against the crown of Jerusalem in 1134 and in 1187, but these reflected disquiet at the actions of particular kings, rather than the system of government itself.

Two other key features of the Latin states were the prominence of the Latin Church and the emergence of the military orders. The settlers established a Catholic hierarchy in the Frankish east with the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem at its head. The Latins took over many of the lands of the Orthodox Church, particularly in the north, although a Greek presence remained highly visible at the great shrine churches of the Holy Sepulchre (rebuilt by the Franks in the form we see today and reconsecrated in 1149), Bethlehem, and Nazareth. Latin Churches such as the Holy Sepulchre had considerable landholdings in the Levant and were also heavily endowed by Western pilgrims. Latin monasteries and nunneries were founded, often in urban areas, although again this was frequently at the expense of Orthodox institutions. The eastern churches also survived and there were attempts to bring them into the Catholic fold with the Maronites of the Lebanon recognizing papal authority in 1181.

The Military Orders emerged in the second quarter of the 12th century and soon became important and enormously wealthy institutions. As well as providing protection and shelter for pilgrims they owned considerable areas of land and numerous castles. In northern Antioch the Templars ruled an area around Baghras as, effectively, a sovereign territory, and in northern Tripoli, the Hospitallers held similar sway over the region around Krak des Chevaliers.

In 1191 Richard the Lionheart conquered the island of Cyprus from the renegade Byzantine ruler Isaac Comnenus. Richard soon sold the island to the Templars, whose harsh treatment of the native populace made the Templars unsuitable rulers. Through Richard's intervention the island then came into the possession of the displaced king of Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan, who set up a dynasty that was to rule Cyprus until the 16th century. At first, as the Catholics tried to impose their religious authority on the island, the Orthodox Church was dealt with harshly, but promises of allegiance to the Latin bishops and the continued presence of Orthodox priests (to minister to the majority of the population), resulted in compromise in the Constitutia Cypria of 1260.

The Fourth Crusade created the Latin empire of con stantinople after the capture of the city by the crusaders in 1204. These lands covered much of mainland Greece and the islands with some areas under the control of Western lords and others, such as Crete, under Venetian authority.

Relations between the Crusader States and with Byzantium. The four Frankish states were, on their foundation, independent of one another. The complex effects of political and military needs, and the realities of their relative strengths would soon change this. From the early 12th century the counties of Tripoli and Edessa were vassals of the kingdom of Jerusalem, although the nature of this was not one of especially strict dependence. The princes of Antioch managed to impose their authority on Edessa at times, but the counts were reluctant to acknowledge this. Antioch itself was independent of Jerusalem, although the political crises of 1119 (after the Battle of the Field of Blood) and 1130 (the succession to Count Bohemond II), meant that the king of Jerusalem was obliged to journey north; in the first case, to establish order in the principality and to act as regent, and in the second, to choose a new prince.

During the 12th century it was relations with the by zantine empire that dominated the affairs of Antioch. As we saw above, Bohemond rejected the Greek claim to the principality. When the prince tried to invade Byzantium in 1108 his defeat led to the Treaty of Devol in which he acknowledged imperial overlordship, although his successors sought to evade this by arguing Bohemond's oaths were personal and did not tie subsequent rulers. Distractions elsewhere in the Byzantine Empire prevented the Greeks from pursuing their claims until 1137–38 when Emperor John Comnenus (1118–43) brought a large army to northern Syria. The Antiochenes wanted to preserve their independence and the Latin Church hierarchy was determined to avoid the imposition of an Orthodox patriarch. Nevertheless, John's presence forced a nominal acceptance of Byzantine authority, although so plain was the Antiochenes' hostility to this that 1138, 1142–43 and 1145 saw the need for further threats to the Franks. After this final episode Prince Raymond (1136–49) was compelled to travel in person to Constantinople and to swear homage to the emperor.

Raymond's successor, Reynald of Châtillon, rashly attacked the Byzantine-controlled island of Cyprus in 1156, and Emperor Manuel Comnenus (1143–80) chose to march down to Antioch to bring him to heel. It was agreed that a Byzantine patriarch should be restored, although when Patriarch Athanasius perished in an earthquake in 1170 the Franks rather smugly regarded this as God's judgment on the issue. On this occasion, Manuel's assertion of authority over Antioch was supported by the kings of Jerusalem who, for reasons of military necessity, sought a close rapprochement with the Greeks.

The failure of the Second Crusade (1145–49) had caused a rift between the Latin settlers and Western Europe: each blamed the other for the collapse of the expedition. The Franks still had to face the growing power of the Muslims and, in light of their shared faith, their relative geographical proximity, and interest in the Eastern Mediterranean a more positive relationship with the Greeks was prudent. King Baldwin III of Jerusalem (1143–63) took a Byzantine bride and Manuel Comnenus married an Antiochene princess. Amalric of Jerusalem (1163–74) also had a Greek wife. Such was the pressure on the settlers after the Syrian Muslims took control of Egypt (1169), thereby surrounding the Christians on land, that Amalric took the unprecedented step on journeying to Constantinople in 1171 to swear homage to Manuel in return for military support. Little was achieved, however, before the arrival of an anti-Latin regime in Constantinople in 1182 marked the end of this rapprochement for both Antioch and Jerusalem.

Antioch and Jerusalem remained independent of one another, although in 1187 Prince Bohemond IV took control of the county of Tripoli, while his father, Prince Bohemond III remained prince of Antioch. In 1201, however, when Bohemond senior died, claimants from Armenia disputed the succession and years of conflict followed (1201–18) before Bohemond IV (d.1233) triumphed. Cyprus became a kingdom in 1195 when Guy of Lusignan's successor, Aimery, acknowledged the overlordship of Emperor Henry VI of Germany. Cyprus was a fief of the empire, leading to imperial involvement in the island from the early 1230s. Jerusalem moved into the imperial orbit in 1225 when Emperor Frederick married Isabella, the heiress to the kingdom, but when she died he acted as regent for their son, Conrad. After 1229 Frederick was not present in the Holy Land in person and in 1243 Queen Alice of Cyprus was appointed regent for Conrad. In 1247 the pope absolved King Henry I of Cyprus of his imperial vassalage and took the island under the protection of the Holy See with the Lusignan dynasty recognized as the lords, if not the formally titled kings, of Jerusalem—the imperial connection was, therefore, ended. Charles of Anjou, the ruler of Sicily, tried to buy the royal title in the late 1270s and this provoked considerable unrest in the kingdom before finally, in 1286, King Henry II of Cyprus took Acre and was crowned king of Jerusalem.

Territorial History (1097–1188). After the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 the Franks had to consolidate and expand the land under their control and the period down to 1144 was generally one of positive achievement for the settlers. As the First Crusade hurried south to besiege the holy city, it had bypassed many Muslim towns and castles and these had to be persuaded to surrender peacefully, or to be taken by siege. The most important settlements were on the coast and it was essential that the Franks take these places to facilitate trade and the flow of pilgrim traffic and immigrants. In 1101 Arsuf and Caesarea were captured, in 1104 Acre and Haifa, in 1110, Sidon and Beirut, and in 1124, Tyre. These successes were usually achieved in conjunction with crusading expeditions from Western Europe and with the assistance of the Italian mercantile communities of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice who provided naval support for the settlers in return for extensive trading and property privileges. In addition to their successes on the coast they also moved inland into Galilee and Samaria and then, in 1115, based at the castle of Montreal, into the Transjordan region.

One of the key reasons for the settlers' expansion during this period was the fragmented nature of the Muslim world. One index of the relative strength of the Franks to the Muslims was the fact that down to 1144 there were only four appeals to the West for new crusades (1101, 1106–08, 1120–24, 1127–29), compared to at least 15 for the period 1144 to 1186. The disunity between Sunni and Shi‘i Muslims (the latter ruled Egypt), and the dissent amongst the Sunni rulers of northern Syria had been of great benefit to the First Crusade and this situation continued down to 1144 when Zengi, the atabeg of Aleppo and Mosul, captured the Christian city of Edessa. For the Muslims of northern Syria this marked their first major territorial success against the Franks, and it was hailed as a turning point in the jihad against the Christians. The settlers appealed to the West, but in spite of the efforts of the Second Crusade (which actually tried to capture Damascus in 1148), the threat posed by Islam began to grow.

In 1149 Zengi's successor, Nur ad-Din, killed Prince Raymond of Antioch at the Battle of Inab and in 1150 the remnants of the county of Edessa fell to him as well. While the Franks captured the remaining Muslim-held port of Ascalon in 1153 this success was negated the following year by Nur ad-Din's seizure of power in Damascus, which meant that the two most important cities of Muslim Syria were under the control of the same man for the first time.

The Franks remained an extremely potent force, however, and the 1160s were dominated by an intense rivalry between Nur ad-Din and King Amalric of Jerusalem as they both tried to conquer Egypt. The Fatimid regime in Cairo was on the verge of collapse and both the settlers and the Syrian Muslims desired the strategic and economic benefits of taking the country. In 1169 Nur ad-Din captured Egypt and the Franks were surrounded by a single Muslim power for the first time. Frantic efforts to persuade Western Europe to send out a new crusade were unsuccessful and, as noted above Amalric was forced to look to Constantinople for protection. In 1174 Amalric and Nur ad-Din died. The former was succeeded by the young leper-king, Baldwin IV (1174–85), the latter by Saladin (d.1193). The final stages of Baldwin's reign saw deep divisions amongst the nobility of Jerusalem as factions struggled to assert their claim to the succession.

Saladin, meanwhile worked hard to reassemble the Muslims of the Middle East and used both military force and the message of the jihad to gather his strength, first in his power base in Egypt, then at Damascus and finally in Aleppo and Mosul. The Franks had defeated him in battles in 1177 and 1179, and had resisted invasion in 1183—he needed, therefore, as strong a force as possible to invade. In June 1187 the attack began and on July 4, at the Battle of Hattin the Christian army was routed. The Frankish lands were almost defenseless and in the next few months Saladin swept through their lands, taking Jerusalem itself in September. Parts of Antioch and Tripoli survived, but in the south, only the port of Tyre resisted and this would be a crucial bridgehead for the Third Crusade.

After the Third Crusade (1192 Onwards). The Third Crusade (1189–92) allowed the Christians to regain control over the coastal strip of the Mediterranean, with the kingdom of Jerusalem now based around Tyre, Acre, and Jaffa. Antioch and Tripoli were somewhat reduced as well, although those nobles dispossessed after the Battle of Hattin were able to find new and safer lands on Cyprus. A German-led crusade in 1197 succeeded in recapturing Beirut and the settlers began to strengthen their hold on the coast. Given their reduced numbers the construction or redevelopment of castles led to hugely sophisticated fortifications such as Krak des Chevaliers in northern Tripoli, Margat (in southern Antioch), and Chastel Pelerin (near Acre).

The early years of the 13th century were a time of relative peace and prosperity in the Levant. Acre was the wealthiest port in the region, while the Muslim world was again riven by internal divisions in the wake of Saladin's death in 1193. The Fifth Crusade (1217–22) failed to capture Egypt, but progress was made in 1229 when the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II persuaded Sultan al-Kamil to concede Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Sidon to him in return for peace. Frederick had become involved in the affairs of the kingdom through his marriage to Isabella, the heiress to the throne in 1225. The kingdom was drawn toward the orbit of the Holy Roman Empire, but Frederick's representatives in the Holy Land and Cyprus were opposed by many of the local nobles, particularly the powerful Ibelin clan, and there was considerable tension, exacerbated by the emperor's political struggles with the papacy.

The end of a period of truce with the Muslims brought a crusade in 1240–41, but in 1244, the Khwarizmians, a group of fierce tribesmen who had been pushed west by the Mongol invasions of Persia, joined with the Egyptians to capture and sack Jerusalem. The Christian army was decimated at the Battle of La Forbie (July 1244) and this precipitated a new crusade. Louis IX's expedition (1248–54) failed to capture Egypt, but managed to consolidate and strengthen the fortifications along the coast. Louis also left a regiment of French knights to serve in the East—a belated form of permanent support that the settlers would have benefited from decades before.

In c. 1250 the Mongols began to appear in northern Syria. As they grew in influence after the sack of Baghdad (1258), Prince Bohemond IV of Antioch submitted to them, but the kingdom of Jerusalem chose to resist. The latter group of Franks offered limited support to the Mamluks of Egypt who defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260), to end the nomads' incursions into the Holy Land. The Mamluk sultan Baibars emerged from this episode with his power enhanced and his ruthless military efficiency made significant progress against the Franks. Antioch, Jaffa, and Caesarea fell to him before 1271 and over the next two decades the settlers' lands were remorselessly eroded. Acre itself fell in May 1291 to mark the end of the Christian rule in the Levant, although Cyprus remained in Frankish hands and was a base for possible counterattacks onto the mainland.

The kingdom of Cyprus took the ports of Adalia (1361–78) and Gorgios (1359–1448) in southern Asia Minor, and participated in crusades against the Turks and Egypt. In 1373 the Genoese took Famagusta and in 1426 the Egyptians attacked and forced the king to become a tributary. In 1489 the kingdom was ceded to Venice, until, in 1571 the Turks took Famagusta after a lengthy siege.

Bibliography: t. s. asbridge, The Creation of the Principality of Antioch, 1098–1130 (Woodbridge 2000). p. w. edbury, The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191–1374 (Cambridge 1991). r. ellenblum, Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge 1998). j. folda, The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1098–1187 (Cambridge 1995). b. hamilton, The Latin Church in the Crusader States (London 1980); The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge 2000). c. hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (Edinburgh 2000). a. jotischky, The Perfection of Solitude: Monks and Hermits in the Crusader States (Philadelphia 1995). r.-j. lilie, Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096–1204 (Oxford 1994). c. j. marshall, Warfare in the Latin East, c.1187–1291 (Cambridge 1990). j. p. phillips, Defenders of the Holy Land: Relations between the Latin East and the West, 1119–1187 (Oxford 1996). j. richard, The Crusades, c.1071–1291 (Cambridge 1999). j. riley-smith, The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1174–1277 (London 1973); The Crusades. A Short History (London 1987); ed., The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades (Oxford 1995). r. c. smail, Crusading Warfare, 1097–1193 (Cambridge 1956).

[j. p. phillips]