Kingdom of Jerusalem

Kingdom Of Jerusalem

The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods. The first kingdom lasted from 1099 to 1187, when it was almost entirely overrun by Saladin. After the subsequent Third Crusade, the kingdom was re-established in Acre in 1192, and lasted until that city's destruction. This second kingdom is sometimes called the Kingdom of Acre.

At first the kingdom was little more than a loose collection of towns and cities captured during the crusade, but at its height in the mid-12th century the kingdom roughly encompassed the territory of modern-day Israel, Lebanon and Palestine. From the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the kingdom extended from Lebanon in the north to the Sinai Desert in the south, into modern Jordan and Syria in the east, and towards Fatimid Egypt in the west. To the north were the three other crusader states founded during and after the First Crusade, the County of Edessa (1097–1144), the Principality of Antioch (1098–1268), and the County of Tripoli (1109–1289), which were all independent but closely tied to Jerusalem. To the east were various Muslim emirates, which were ultimately allied with the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. Further north and east were Armenian Cilicia and the Byzantine Empire, with which Jerusalem had a close relationship in the twelfth century.

The fragmentation of the Muslim east allowed for the initial success of the crusade, but as the 12th 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 in the 13th century the kingdom was reduced to a few cities along the Mediterranean coast. In this period, the kingdom was ruled by the Lusignan dynasty of the Kingdom of Cyprus, another crusader state founded during the Third Crusade. Dynastic ties were also strengthened with Tripoli, Antioch, and Armenia. The kingdom was soon increasingly dominated by the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa, as well as the imperial ambitions of the Holy Roman Emperors. Emperor Frederick II claimed the kingdom by marriage, but his presence sparked a civil war among the kingdom's nobility. 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. As a relatively minor kingdom there was little financial and military support from Europe; despite numerous small expeditions, Europeans were generally unwilling to undertake an expensive journey to the east for what appeared to be a losing cause. The Mamluk sultans Baibars and al-Ashraf Khalil eventually reconquered all the remaining crusader strongholds, culminating in the destruction of Acre in 1291.

The kingdom was ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse, although the crusaders themselves and their descendants were an elite Catholic minority. They imported many customs and institutions from their homelands in Western Europe, and there were close familial and political connections with the West throughout the kingdom's existence. The kingdom also inherited "oriental" qualities, influenced by the pre-existing customs and populations. The majority of the kingdom's inhabitants were native Christians, especially Greek and Syrian Orthodox, as well as Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. There were also a small number of Jews and Samaritans. The native Christians and Muslims, who were a marginalized lower class, tended to speak Greek and Arabic, while the crusaders spoke Latin, French, and other Western European languages.

Despite its small size and relatively short existence, the exact nature of the kingdom and its origins, customs, laws, and population is still debated. The title to the Kingdom of Jerusalem also continues to be claimed by modern royalty.