The Kingdom of Jerusalem: The Crusader State in the Holy Land

After the capture of the city in July 1099, the leaders of the First Crusade faced an immediate question. Who was to rule? The most senior leader, Raymond of Toulouse, declined the role. Godfrey of Bouillon, the duke of Lower Lorraine, accepted it, but refused the title of king. He took instead the title Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri — Defender of the Holy Sepulchre — on the grounds, as the chronicler William of Tyre records, that he would not wear a crown of gold where Christ had worn a crown of thorns. Godfrey died on 18 July 1100, after a single year in office. His brother Baldwin, the Count of Edessa, hurried south and was crowned the first King of Jerusalem on Christmas Day 1100.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was born, in other words, of a small set of pragmatic decisions by men who had just survived a long and gruelling march. It would survive for nearly two centuries, until the fall of Acre in 1291, and it would become the most important of the Crusader States — the standard by which the others were measured, and the central object of the Latin East’s collective political life.

This pillar tells that story. For deeper dives into specific aspects, see the Crusader States, the Assizes of Jerusalem, how long the Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted, and the significance of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

A note on the historiography. Joshua Prawer’s The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages (1972) is still the standard treatment of the Kingdom’s history, and it shaped the “colonial” reading of the Kingdom that dominated Anglophone scholarship for a generation. Jonathan Riley-Smith’s The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1973) and The Crusades: A Short History (1987) are the other essential starting points. The newer scholarship, especially Ronnie Ellenblum’s Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1998) and the contributors to Crusader Landscapes in the Medieval Mediterranean (2016), has refined the picture considerably — most importantly, by showing that the Latin settlement was less total and the indigenous population more durable than the older colonial reading assumed. Benjamin Kedar’s many articles are also indispensable for the legal and social history.

The founding of the Kingdom

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was founded in the aftermath of the First Crusade and the Siege of Jerusalem (1099). The first ruler of the Kingdom was Godfrey of Bouillon, who was chosen as Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri (Defender of the Holy Sepulchre) after the capture of the city. Godfrey refused the title of king, calling himself only the defender of the Holy Sepulchre, but he exercised all the powers of a king.

Godfrey ruled for only one year, dying on 18 July 1100. He was succeeded by his brother Baldwin of Boulogne, who was crowned the first King of Jerusalem on 25 December 1100. The coronation was attended by the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem and the leading barons of the Kingdom.

The early years of the Kingdom were marked by expansion. Baldwin I and his successors expanded the Kingdom’s territory, taking Caesarea, Acre, Beirut, and other cities. The expansion was aided by the military prowess of the Knights Templar, which had been founded in 1119, and the Knights Hospitaller, which had been founded in 1099.

The Kingdom at its height

The Kingdom of Jerusalem reached its maximum extent in the mid-12th century, under King Baldwin III (r. 1143-1163). Baldwin III was a skilled military commander and a wise statesman, and he took advantage of the divisions among the Muslim powers to expand the Kingdom’s territory. By the time of his death, the Kingdom included most of the interior of the Holy Land, and it was the most powerful state in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The high point of the Kingdom was also marked by cultural and legal achievement. The Assizes of Jerusalem, the unique legal code of the Kingdom, was compiled during this period. The Assizes drew on the legal traditions of France, Italy, and the Byzantine Empire, and they formed the basis of the legal system of the Kingdom. The Assizes were one of the most important legal codes of the medieval period, and they were widely influential in the development of European law.

The high point of the Kingdom was also marked by the development of a sophisticated court culture. The court of the Kingdom was a major center of Western culture in the Eastern Mediterranean, and it was visited by pilgrims, scholars, and poets from all over Europe. The court was also a major center of the Crusading movement, and it was the base from which the great Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries were launched.

The high point of the Kingdom was not without its challenges. The Second Crusade (1147-1149) was launched in response to the fall of the County of Edessa, and it ended in the embarrassing failure at the Siege of Damascus in 1148. The failure of the Second Crusade was a major setback, but the Kingdom survived, and it continued to expand under Baldwin III and his successors.

The decline of the Kingdom

The Kingdom of Jerusalem began to decline in the 1160s and 1170s, with the rise of Saladin and the unification of Egypt, Syria, and the Jazira under his rule. The decline was accelerated by the political instability of the Kingdom, especially the reign of Baldwin IV, the Leper King, who suffered from leprosy and was unable to provide effective leadership. The succession crises that followed Baldwin’s death in 1185 further weakened the Kingdom.

The Battle of Hattin in 1187 was a major turning point in the history of the Kingdom. The battle was a decisive defeat for the Crusader States, and it was followed by Saladin’s conquest of Jerusalem and most of the major cities of the Kingdom. The loss of Jerusalem was a profound shock to the Latin West, and it triggered the Third Crusade, the most famous expedition of the medieval period.

The Third Crusade failed to recapture Jerusalem, but it secured the coast of Palestine for the Crusader States. The capital of the Kingdom was moved from Jerusalem to Acre, and the Kingdom entered a new phase of its history, centered on the coastal cities. The Kingdom survived for another century, but it was a much smaller and weaker state than it had been before Hattin.

The end of the Kingdom

The final phase of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was marked by a long and slow decline. The Mamluk Sultanate, which had taken power in Egypt in 1250, was a much more formidable enemy than the Ayyubid dynasty that it had replaced. The Mamluks were professional soldiers, and they were determined to finish off the Crusader States once and for all.

The end came in 1291, when the Mamluks captured Acre, the last major Crusader city in the Holy Land. The fall of Acre marked the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and of the Crusader presence in the Holy Land. The title of King of Jerusalem continued to be used by various European rulers, including the kings of Cyprus and the kings of Naples, but it was an empty title with no real power.

The fall of Acre was a major blow to the Latin West. The Crusader presence in the Holy Land had lasted for nearly 200 years, and its loss marked the end of an era. The fall of Acre was followed by the loss of the other Crusader cities, including Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut, and the Latin population of the Crusader States was either killed, enslaved, or forced to flee.

The Kingdom’s government and society

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was governed by a feudal monarchy, with the king at the top and a hierarchy of barons, knights, and burgesses below. The Kingdom was divided into a number of feudal territories, each of which was held by a baron or a knight. The barons were required to provide military service to the king, and they were required to maintain their own castles and garrisons.

The Kingdom’s social structure was complex. The Latin population was a small minority, and it was divided into a number of different groups. The most important groups were the knights, who held the feudal fiefs, the burgesses, who lived in the cities, and the clergy, who held the church lands. There were also substantial populations of Greek Orthodox Christians, Syrian Christians, Jews, and Muslims, who lived in the Kingdom under the rule of the Latin minority.

The older “colonial” reading of the Kingdom, associated with Prawer, treated the Latin population as a small ruling class exploiting a much larger subject population. The newer scholarship, especially Ellenblum’s, has shown that the picture was more complicated. The Latin settlement was not as total as the colonial reading suggested, and the indigenous Christian and Muslim populations were more durable. The Kingdom’s economy was based on agriculture, trade, and the income from the pilgrimages. The Kingdom was a major center of trade, and it was connected to the major trading networks of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Italian maritime republics, especially Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, had important commercial interests in the Kingdom, and they played a major role in its economy.

The Assizes of Jerusalem

The Kingdom’s legal system was based on the Assizes of Jerusalem, a unique code of law that was compiled in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Assizes drew on the legal traditions of France, Italy, and the Byzantine Empire, and they were a major contribution to the development of European law. The Assizes are examined in detail in the Assizes of Jerusalem article.

The Assizes were organized in a number of different sections, each of which dealt with a specific aspect of the legal system. The most important were the Assizes of the High Court, which dealt with matters of feudal law, the Assizes of the Burgesses, which dealt with matters of commercial law, and the Assizes of the Syrian Court, which dealt with matters involving the non-Latin population. The Assizes were administered by a system of courts, with the High Court at the top and local courts below.

The Assizes were a major contribution to the development of European law. They were widely influential in the development of feudal law and commercial law, and they have been studied by legal historians for centuries. The most important modern work on the Assizes is John La Monte’s Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100 to 1291 (1932), which provides a detailed and balanced account of the Kingdom’s legal system.

The Kingdom’s legacy

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was one of the most important political entities of the medieval period, and its legacy continues to shape the modern world. The Kingdom’s unique legal system, its distinctive culture, and its long history of conflict with the Muslim world have all been the subject of intense historical and popular interest. The Kingdom’s story is a central part of the history of the Crusades, and it is a story that continues to be told and retold.

The most important modern works on the Kingdom include Joshua Prawer’s The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages (1972) and Crusader Institutions (1980). Prawer’s work is the most comprehensive and the most authoritative, and it has helped to refine our understanding of the Kingdom’s history. Other important works include those by Jonathan Riley-Smith, who has written extensively on the Crusades, and Benjamin Kedar, who has written on the Kingdom’s archaeology and history.

The Kingdom’s legacy is also significant for the modern Middle East. The Kingdom’s presence in the Holy Land, the Crusader States’ relations with the Muslim world, and the question of the status of Jerusalem are all issues that continue to shape the modern political discourse. The story of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, in this sense, is not just a medieval story: it is a story that continues to resonate in the modern world.

A closing observation, after writing this pillar. The Kingdom of Jerusalem is one of the most-studied polities of the medieval world, in part because it was one of the most distinctive. It was a Latin Christian state in a non-Christian land, governed by a feudal law code that blended European and local traditions, and it survived for nearly two centuries in conditions that should have destroyed it. The fact that it did survive, and that it produced the Assizes of Jerusalem, the Crusader castles, and a real culture of chivalric literature, is one of the more interesting things in medieval history. The fact that it ultimately fell, after Hattin and Acre, is the other half of the same story. The Kingdom of Jerusalem is a study in how small polities can survive for a long time in difficult places — and how they eventually stop surviving.