Kingdom of Jerusalem, County of Edessa,
Principality of Antioch, County of Tripoli
 The Latin States (Crusader States) were developed on feudal principles by
their rulers, feudalism tailored to meet the different circumstances of the
near East.
 Baldwin of Flanders/Baldwin of Boulogne founded the county of Edessa
on the way to Jerusalem in 1098
 Bohemond of Taranto set up the principality of Antioch (not completing
the pilgrimage to Jerusalem)
 Godfrey of Bouillon (descended from Charlemagne) became first ruler of
the Kingdom of Jerusalem as ‘Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre’
 Raymond of Toulouse established the county of Tripoli after the capture of
Jerusalem
 The most vulnerable kingdom and had the shortest life.
 An Armenian kingdom, usurped by Baldwin of Boulogne
 Ruled by Baldwin of Boulogne (1098-1100).
 Ruled by Baldwin of Le Bourg (1100-1108)
 Both Baldwins later became kings of Jerusalem
 Ruled by Jocelin of Courtenay (1118-31)
 Ruled by Jocelin II (1131-1144) when the city fell to Zengi and
marked the end of the County of Edessa
Settled by Normans (southern Italian Normans)
Under princes of the house of Hauteville, surviving with
diminished territory until captured by Baibars (Baybars) from
Bohemond VI in 1268.
County of Tripoli
Settled by those from Provence
Only Frankish state based on a maritime city, ruled by the
decendants of Raymond of Toulouse until 1187, when taken over by
Hauteville family (Antioch). Lost in 1289
 Settled by men from Lorraine and from northern
France/Flanders
 Lasted until Saladin took the city in 1187.
 Thereafter the capital was centred on the coastal city of Acre.
 Rulers: Baldwin I of Boulogne (1100-1118), Baldwin II of Le Bourg
(1118-1131), Count Fulk of Anjou (1131-43) with Queen Melisende,
Baldwin III (1143-63), Amalric I (1163-74). Baldwin IV (1174-85),
Baldwin V (1185-6), Guy of Lusignan (1186-92), Conrad of
Montferrat (1192), Henry of Champagne (1192-7), Amalric II
(1197-1205)….
1.
Chronic shortage of western military manpower
(most crusaders returned home including, for ex.
Robert of Normandy and Robert of Flanders.
In Jerusalem Godfrey had just 300 knights and 2000
footsoldiers to call on for support. In all, there were
never more than 2000 knights available in the entire
Latin controlled territories for defence.
2) The Franks/crusaders were always in the
minority within the four Latin States – estimated
population of Frankish settlers – 250,000 – half in the Kingdom
of Jerusalem. Acre approx. 60,000, Tyre and Jerusalem 20,00030,000.
This meant they had to come to terms with both the mixture of predominantly
Eastern, Jewish and Muslim people who made up most of their subjects.
The need to make agreements with local Muslim rulers led to disagreements
and misunderstandings among the first western settlers and with later
contingents of crusades who came from Western Europe to support the states in
the early years of the 12th century.
Later crusaders regarded all Muslims as enemies, and made
no distinction between those Muslim rulers who were
friendly or hostile towards the established crusader states.
This was an important contributory cause of the failure of the
Second Crusade in the 1140s.
3) The crusading states generally, and Jerusalem in
particular, lacked natural geograhphical boundaries
which, combined with their shortage of manpower,
created major problems of defence.
Two key strategic needs were to extend the crusader’s control
from the confines of the coastal plains to the desert frontier
cities of Aleppo and Damascus, but the crusaders never
successfully achieved this.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem required control of its southern
boundary with Egypt if it was to gain permanent stability.
The crusaders failed to achieve this.
Attempts at settlement
To solve the problem of manpower a number of measures were taken:
 Settlers from the West were offered lands to settle. Towns such as
Caesarea were deliberately developed as crusading settlements.
 This solved the problem of manpower in two ways:
(i) It constituted a kind of colonising settlement for further
crusaders from the West to settle
(ii) It was a gateway (like the other coastal towns) through which
further settlers and crusaders from the West could reach the
states.
There were never quite enough settlers for the needs of the
crusader states, and the inhospitably hot climate seems to
have been particularly severe on male new-born children.
This meant that the manpower shortage was not solved.
Crusader Castles and the Monastic Orders
Two orders of monks were founded, unique to the Latin
States. These were military orders of knights dedicated to the
protection of Christians in the Holy Land, and the
preservation of the Latin States in the East.
The Military Orders represent the fundamental crusading
ideal of knighthood fighting as religious warriors against the
enemies of Christ.
Members of the Orders were few but often remarkable men.
The Orders were entrusted with substantial areas of territory
to defend, usually in regions bordering Muslim states, for
example in northern Tripoli
Though their numbers never exceeded a few hundred, the
Military Orders were important elements in the military
resources available to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and its
neighbouring Latin States.
Many grants of land and wealth were made to the Templars
and Hospitallers by the inhabitants of the Latin States, and
the heads or Masters of the two Orders became important
figures in the politics of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Belvoir, near the Sea of Galilee was the first genuinely
concentric castle (1168). Only a few knights were needed to
man Belvoir due to the superbly planned defensive principles
behind its structure.
The most famous castle of the Hospitallers was Krak des
Chevaliers. It was the greatest and most ambitious of the
Military Order’s fortifications, with walls 10 meters thick in
places.
The fortifications were vastly expensive.
They partially compensated for the Crusader States’ lack of
manpower, but proved insufficient to enable the States’ rulers
to extend their authority from the central plain in the West to
the desert strongholds of Aleppo and Damascus.
They were substantial contributions to the defences of the
Crusading States, but not very effective in enabling them to
realise their basic need of establishing readily defended
natural boundaries by extending their territorial controls.
After almost a century during which they preserved a
precarious existence, the Crusading States began to be
retaken by the Muslims.
They were defeated by their basic manpower problem and
the lack of sucess, partly due to this, in gaining easily
defended natural frontiers.
In the mid-12th century, the Muslim world, which had been
divided at the time of the First Crusade, became reunited
under a series of great leaders.
 Rise of Muslim opposition
 Zengi, Nur ad-Din, Salah ad-Din (Saladin).
 ZENGI
 1128, Zengi, the govenor of Mosul entered the city of Aleppo
and embarked on a series of conquests of Muslims and
Christians.
 1135 Zengi cleared the south-western approaches of Aleppo
of Christian forces
 1137 he took Ba’rin from the county of Tripoli
 November 1144 attacked the County of Edessa
 Christmas Eve 1144 Edessa fell to Zengi and this sparked
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the Second Crusade
He had taken advantage of the idea of jihad, holy war,
against the Franj.
Zengi died in 1146 at the hands of one of his slaves, whilst
he slept.
He was succeeded by his younger son, Nur ad-Din
June 1149 Nur ad-Din defeated an Antiochene (from
Antioch) army, a victory which heralded him as the
champion of Islam.
The concept of jihad during the crusades had two aspects….
Two aspects of jihad during the crusades:
Reconquest of the coastal lands, especially Jerusalem
from the Christians
2) Achievement of Muslim religious and political unity
1)
Over the next 20 years, Nur ad-Din consolidated his hold on
the Muslim world.
 April 1154 took Damascus
 June 1155 took Ba’albek, unifying Syria
 1170 took Mosul
By his death in 1174, Nur ad-Din had transformed the Muslim
political scene: «In place of a confused jumble of petty states there
was now a powerful and united Syria, with Egypt under its
suzerainty» (Jonathan Riley-Smith)
In spite of this new-found unity, there was a power struggle after
his death, in which Saladin, the Vizier of Egypt was successful by
1175.
 Saladin took over the smaller Muslim states in a series of
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great victories from his power base in Egypt.
1174 Damascus fell to him
1183 Aleppo fell to him
Saladin’s territories encircled the Crusader States
He launched a series of attacks on the Kingdom of
Jerusalem (1170, 1171, 1173, 1177, 1179, 1180, 1182, 1183, 1184),
though with no real concrete progress to show for these
efforts.
Jerusalem remained a Christian state.
 On 2nd July 1187, Saladin attacked the Kingdom of Jerusalem
at the frontier town of Tiberias.
 The Christians were, at this stage exceptionally weak and
divided following the ddeath of the leper king Baldwin IV.
 Saladin’s army of 30,000 included 12,000 cavalry, and King
Guy of Jerusalem could only muster 20,000 men of who
1,200 were knights, to oppose Saladin’s forces.
 On 4th July 1187, at the Battle of Hattin, Saladin virtually
annihilated the crusading army.
 King Guy and the fragment of the True Cross (a holy
Christian relic) were captured by the victorious Muslims.
 On 2nd October 1187, Jerusalem was occupied by Saladin’s
forces.
 The city’s fall shocked the western world.
 Within two years, Saladin had captured over 50 crusader
castles and little more than the port of Tyre remained in
Christian hands.
 The capture of Jerusalem sparked the Third Crusade in an
attempt to retake Jerusalem from Saladin’s control.
 1100-1130 – Period characterised by Latin
expansion and advances
 1130-1153 – Christians on the defensive
 1153-1169 – Campaigns against Egypt
 1169-1187 – Latin States back on defensive
 Invasion from Egypt (1101, 1102, 1103, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1110,
1115, 1118, 1123)
 Capture of key towns (Arsuf and Caesarea 1101, Acre 1104,
Beirut and Sidon 1110, Tyre 1124, Ascalon 1154)
 Drive into the interior of Palestine – eastwards towards
Damascus (1122, 1129) and Aleppo (1100, 1125)
 Invasion of Egypt by Baldwin I (died 1118)
 Inability to recover what they lost, though capable of some
sporadic attacks.
 Lost Edessa, Ba’rin
 Only two major offensives (Seijar in 1137 with
Greek/Byzantine help & Damascus in 1148 with the Second
Crusade)
 Occupation of Ascalon in 1154
 Invasions of Egypt by King Amalric (1163, 1164, 1167, 1168,
1169) all strained the kingdom’s resources
 Saladin regularly invaded the Kingdom of Jerusalem, taking
it on 2nd October 1187
The First Crusade and the Crusader States 1073-1192
 Chapter 5, pages 54-68
 Chapter 6, pages 69-79
 Chapter 7, pages 80-83
 Chapter 8, pages 93-103
 Chapter 9, pages 104-116
Course Booklet: The Crusades 1095-1291
 Section 3 – Foundation of the Crusader States
 Section 6 – Military Asepcts of the Crusades and Crusader States