a state founded by participants in the First Crusade after the capture of Jerusalem in 1099.
The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem assumed its final form, with respect to territory, after subsequent conquests by the Crusaders in the eastern Mediterranean. The kingdom consisted of the Kingdom of Jerusalem proper and three virtually independent vassal states: the counties of Tripoli and Edessa and the principality of Antioch. Godfrey of Bouillon was proclaimed the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099.
The kingdom went down in history as an example of feudal divisiveness, which was clearly expressed in the Jerusalem Assizes. The power of the rulers of the kingdom was limited by a Supreme Chamber, consisting of secular and ecclesiastical feudal lords. In socioeconomic structure the Kingdom of Jerusalem was characterized by strict forms of a serf system, the arbitrary rule of the lords in collecting duties from the villeins (peasants of the conquered local population), and the widespread use of slavery. There was considerable development in the cities, in which great privileges were accorded to the Italian merchants, who monopolized the kingdom’s trade. The rising indignation of the cruelly oppressed local population and military encounters with neighboring states compelled the Crusaders to erect a number of castles and fortresses in the kingdom.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem played a major role in the international relations of the eastern Mediterranean, where the interests of the Western European states, Byzantium, and the Muslim East were interwoven. In 1137, Byzantium succeeded in reducing the Principality of Antioch to a vassal dependency. In 1144 the Seljuk Turks captured Edessa, and the threat of a Muslim attack compelled the kingdom in the 1160’s to seek an alliance with Byzantium. In 1168 these allies undertook an unsuccessful war against Egypt. Internal feudal dissension, rivalry among the Italian merchants, a shortage of knights, wars between the Crusader states themselves and with Egypt, the Seljuks, and Byzantium, and the lack of regular support from the states of Western Europe all served to weaken the kingdom. Its principal military forces, the Order of St. John and the Templars, were mutually hostile and could not therefore effectively oppose the onslaught of the Muslims, who had been gaining strength since the middle of the 12th century. In 1187 the Egyptian Sultan Saladin inflicted a defeat upon the Crusaders at Hattin; he then captured Jerusalem itself and most of the kingdom. In 1229, Frederick II Staufen took the throne and succeeded temporarily in restoring the power of the Crusaders in Jerusalem by taking advantage of the conflicts among the Muslim states; however, the Egyptians captured Jerusalem again in 1244 and this time held onto it more firmly. During the 1260’s most of the cities still remaining in the Crusaders’ hands were captured by the Egyptian Mamelukes. The year 1291 saw the fall of the Crusaders’ last bastion, the city of Acre.
M. A. ZABOROV