Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100-1291

309 Pages·1932·92.739 MB·English

by  John L. La Monte

MONOGRAPHS OF
THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY
OF AMERICA
No. 4
ACADEMY PUBLICATIONS
No. 1, A Concordance of Boethius, by Lane Cooper
No. 2, A Concordance to the Historia Ecdesiastica of Bede,
by P. F. Jones
No. 3, A Survey ofthe Manuscripts of Tours, by E. K. Rand,
two volumes, text and plates
No. 4, Lupus ofFerrieres as Scribe and Text Critic, by C. H.
Beeson, with a fascimile of MS. Harley 2736
No. 5, Genoese Shipping in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Cen
turies, by E. H. Byrne, (Monograph No. 1)
No. 6, Greek and Syrian Miniatures in Jerusalem, by W.
H. P. Hatch, with reproductions
No. 7, HarunU'l-Rashld and Charles the Great, by F. W.
Buckler, (Monograph No. 2)
No. 8, Alien Merchants in England, 1350 to 1377, by Alice
Beardwood (Monograph No. 3)
No. 9, A Concordance of Prudentius, by R. J. Deferrari
and J. M. Campbell
No. 10, The Script of Cologne from Hildebald to Hermann, by
L. W. Jones, text and plates
No. 11, Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom ofJerusalem,
1100-1291, by J. L. La Monte (Monograph No. 4)
No. 12, Alexander's Gate, Gog and Magog, and the Indosed
Nations, by A. R. Anderson (Monograph No. 5)
The publication of this book was made pos
sible by a fund granted the Academy by the
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Copyright, 1932
BY
THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA
Printed in U.S.A.
PRINTED BT THE WATEBLT PRESS,INC
BALTIUORE, 1UBTLAND
^^i
Lb"
DEDICATED TO
CHARLES L. LA MONTE
MY FATHER
CHARLES H. HASKINS
MY MASTER
PREFACE
Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, as a typical feudal state, has
THE
long been studied by scholars inteJrested in feudal institutions,
who have discerned in the Assises de erusalem as clear a picture
of the workings of feudal government as it is possible to find any
where. Even though the kingdom of Jerusalem has never enjoyed
the vogue accorded the crusades themselves, it has not been without
its historians from the time of William of Tyre to the present. Stu
dents of legal history have explored the Assises, economic historians
have studied the trade relations of the western commercial cities
with theports of the Latin states, and the general history of the cru
sading principalities, especially with emphasis on their relations
with their Moslem neighbors, has been written. The Geschichte des
Konigreichs Jerusalem of Reinhold Rbhricht stands out as the monu
mental study of the crusading states and provides an invaluable
basis on which any more specialized treatises may be reared. The
renaissance of crusading studies which is connected with the names
of Von Seybel, Rohricht, and Hagenmeyer in Germany, Riant, Mas
Latrie, Rey, and Delaville LeRoulx in France, Stevenson and Kings-
ford in England, and Munro in America, has made the crusades
and the Latin states comparatively familiar fields of mediaeval
history. None the less the only study hitherto made on the in
stitutions of the kingdom of Jerusalem, that of Gaston Dodu,
Histoire des Institutions Monarchiques dans le Royaume Latin de
Jerusalem (Paris; Hachette, 1894), was written before much of the
best work had been done and suffered from the consequent draw
backs. Dodu was particularly unfortunate in having written
before Rohricht's Regesta Regni Hierusalimitani had appeared, the
indispensible guide to the documentary sources of the kingdom.
Dodu bases his view of the monarchical institutions of Jerusalem
upon the Assises and upon the chroniclers, especially William of
Tyre, making but slight use of the documentary materials. In
I
the present reconsideration of the institutions of Jerusalem have
relied essentially upon documents, which afforded materials in some
vii
viii Feudal Monarchy in Jerusalem, 1100-1291
I
cases confirming, in others, think, disproving the conclusions
reached by Dodu.
Further, this study differs essentially from that of Dodu in the
materials selected to illustrate the Assises. In searching for his
torical data to confirm the provisions of the Assises, Dodu drew
most of his illustrations from the history of William of Tyre, which
chronicles the Outremer States from their founding to 1184, and from
the other chroniclers of the first crusade. Grandclaude, however,
has conclusively established that the oldest of the books which
make up the Assises dates from the last decade of the twelfth cen
tury or the first of the thirteenth, and that the institutions which are
reflected in the majority of the books of the Assises are not those of
the early kingdom of Jerusalem but those of the so-called 'second
kingdom' of the thirteenth century. Thus the historical facts
which really illustrate the statements of the Assises must be drawn
not, as Dodu did, from the twelfth century historians, but from the
(cid:2802)
chroniclers of the thirteenth century, from the Gestes des Chiprois,
and the continuators of William of Tyre. To cite but a single ex
ample of the distorted perspective which Dodu gives, the account of
the relations of the kings with the patriarchs given in the Institutions
Monarchiques is the story of the rivalry and hostility which marked
I II
the first decades of the kingdom, the struggles of Baldwin and
with the patriarchs Daimbert, Evremar, Arnulf, and Stephen;
Dodu takes no account of the friendly and peaceful relations which
prevailed throughout thelater years of the kingdom.
This volume seeks to study as a whole the monarchical institutions
of the kingdom of Jerusalem. The first section of the work is de
voted to a study of the chief constitutional developments within the
kingdom, traced chronologically. The history of the kingdom is
(cid:2802)
divided arbitrarily into three periods: the first kingdom from 1100
to 1174; the years of transition from 1174 to 1210; and the second
kingdom from 1210 to 1291. In the first two periods the historical
background for the Assises is sketched ; the third shows how the laws
were applied to the actual constitutional history of the state. Fol
lowing this historical section come, in the second division of the
book, chapters devoted to certain of the more important aspects of
the administration: (cid:2802)the courts, high and low; the chancery and the
grand officers; the military establishment; and the administration of
ix
Preface
finance. The third section of the book shows the relations of the
(cid:2802)
Jerusalemite monarchs to some of their contemporaries: their
vassals, the counts of Tripoli and Edessa, and the princes ofAntioch;
their overlord, the Pope; the patriarchs; the Orders of the Hos
pitallers, Templars, and Teutonic Knights; and the Italian and
Provengal communes which established colonies in the ports of
Outremer and played such important roles in the political and eco
nomic life of the crusading principalities. In each case we have
sought to show whether thegroup or institution under consideration
helped or hindered the monarchy, and to emphasize the significance
of the relationship to the kingdom of Jerusalem. The author hopes
that in the section devoted to the institution he has brought to
light some new facts concerning the administration of the kingdom,
but the real purpose of the work is not so much to bring out facts
hitherto unknown as to focus into a single study the various phases
of the institutional development and organization of the kingdom.
Much of the material covered in this volume is not new, but it is so
scattered that a single treatise which aims to cover the entire field
should not be out of place.
The scope of the work has been strictly limited. The kingship
is the center around which the work was built. The relations with
the Arab states, the social organization of the Frankish and native
populations, and the intellectual history of the crusading states
havebeen purposely omitted. The present volumedoes not approxi
mate the scope of Prutz's Kulturgeschichte der Kreuzzuge; social
history will have to be sought in Rey's Colonies Franques, commer
cial history in Heyd's Histoire du Commerce du Levant, the wars and
campaigns against the Saracens in Rohricht's Geschichte. While
all of these subjects are of vital importance to a rounded view of Out
remer civilization, they do not belong in a study which is confessedly
constitutional and institutional. Not even all the institutions have
been discussed; private law has been slighted save as it affected pub
lic, the ecclesiastical hierarchy and organization has been con
sidered only as it was related to the monarchy; the institutions of
the kingdom of Cyprus have been reserved for treatment in a sep
arate volume.
The name, 'Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,' as used in the title refers
to all the states whichwere underthe overlordship of the king of Jeru
x Feudal Monarchy in Jerusalem, 1100-1291
salem. There is some confusion inevitably in the use of a title which
may refer to two distinct things: the kingdom of Jerusalem in its
larger sense is that referred to above, but in a lesser sense the king
dom of Jerusalem may refer only to the royal domain lands, ex
cluding the counties of Edessa and Tripoli and the principality of
I
Antioch. To avoid this confusion have made use of the terms
Outremer and principality of Jerusalem. But as Outremer properly
includes the kingdom of Cyprus as well as Jerusalem, the use of this
term has been limited. Unfortunately there is no convenient differ
entiating term for Jerusalem like the He de France for the French
royal domain exclusive of the feudal dependencies of the French
I
crown. For this reason have fallen back on the use of the term
principality where the sense might have been confused by the use
of the more technically correct title of kingdom.
In the matter of the spelling of proper names, as there is no ac
cepted rule for the standardization of medieval names, an arbi
trary method has been followed throughout this work, names
having a clear English equivalent have been given the English form
(John, Ralph, Walter, William, instead of Jean, Johannes, Raoul,
Gautier, Guilelmus, etc.) ; names which do not have ordinary English
equivalents have been kept in the French form (Amaury, Foulque,
Renaud) . The use of de or of before the last name has been gov
erned by attempting to use de where it is a family name (dTbelin,
de Lusignan, de Gibelet), and of where the name is that of a place
of which the individual was lord (of Beirut, of Jaffa, etc.); thus
John dTbelin of Beirut, Hugh de Puiset of Jaffa. In a few cases,
men well known under the modern vernacular form of their name
have been allowed to appear under that form,(cid:2802)Jacques de Vitry,
Dominico Michieli, Benedetta Zaccaria. Oriental names have
followed accepted English transliterations,(cid:2802)though Colonel Law
rence's attitude has more than once commended itself throughout
the process of standardizing proper names. In references in the
notes to the works of writers where the name of the author is given
as an abbreviation for the title of the work, the original spelling has
been preserved, as Jacques dTbelin, which is merely a shortening of
the title Le Livre de Jacques d'Ibelin. William of Tyre, Albert of
Aix, and a few others are, however, so well known under the English
forms of their names that these have been followed.
Preface xi
This volume is based upon a dissertation presented at Harvard
University in 1928. Since then, further study, the opportunity for
which was most generously made possible by the Social Science Re
search Council, which gave the author a travelling fellowship to
visit the Near East and to spend a year in collecting materials for
his projected history of Cyprus under the Lusignans, and the criti
cism kindly given by several scholars have led to a total revision
of the original thesis. Only a few sections bear any marked resem
blance to the manuscript in the Harvard University Library; one
chapter of the original was published separately in the Haskins
Anniversary Essays, others have been thrown out, several new ones
added, and the whole has been broadened and completely rewritten.
In acknowledging the assistance and encouragement which I have
received, thanks are due first of all to Professor Charles Homer Has
kins, under whose guidance and direction the subject was originally
approached, and who has followed the work with that unfailing in
terest which all who were privileged to work under him know so
well and appreciate so deeply. Professor Robert P. Blake has been
no less kind in encouraging the author at all stages of his work, in
reading the manuscript, offering suggestions, and finally subjecting
the completed work to an exhaustive editorial criticism. Among
other scholars who have read some or all of the book and who have
materially assisted the author with advice, for which thanks are
rendered, may be mentioned: Professor Charles H. Mcllwain and
Dr Gaines Post of Harvard University; Professor Dana C. Munro
of Princeton; Professor Max Handman of Michigan; Professors
August C. Krey and Herbert Heaton of the University of Minne
sota; and last but not least Professor Edgar H. McNeal of the Ohio
State University, who first taught the author to love the Middle
I
Ages and to seek therein his life work and enjoyment. wish also
to proffer my thanks to the Mediaeval Academy and Mr John Mar
shall, who have made possible andpleasurable the publication of the
work. Lastly, for many hours of labor spent in correcting the man
uscript, reading proof, and compiling the index, as well as for her
I
lively interest and unfailing encouragement, wish to express my
appreciation to Katherine R. La Monte, my wife.
John L. La Monte.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction xix
BOOK I
The Constitutional Development of the Latin Kingdom
of Jerusalem
1
1. The First Kingdom, 1099-1174 3
2. War and Reconstruction: the Years of Transition,
1174-1210 26
3. The Second Kingdom, 1210-1291 49
II
BOOK
The Administrative Machinery of the Latin Kingdom . 85
4. The Haute Cour 87
5. The Lesser Courts 105
6. The Grand Officers and the Chancery 114
7. The Military Establishment, Knight Service and
Feudal Tenure 138
8. The Administration of Finance 166
III
BOOK
Some Political Relationships of the Kings of Jeru
salem 185
9. Relations of the Kings of Jerusalem with the Princes
of Antioch and the Counts of Tripoli and Edessa . 187
10. Relations of the Kings of Jerusalem with the Church. 203
11. Relations of the Kings of Jerusalem with the Religio-
Military Orders 217
....
12. Relations of the Kings of Jerusalem with the Italian
and Provencal Commercial Communes 226
Conclusion 243
xiii