Crusader States

• Muslim World was too disunited to mount an organised counter-attack because the Christian Hold on the Holy Land was tenuous after the departure of the majority of crusaders in 1100
• 1100- King of Jerusalem Baldwin I held just Jerusalem, Jaffa and Bethlehem
• May 1101, Crusaders captured the port of Caesarea
• Another Crusade was needed to capture Antioch. The crusade reached the Holy Land in 1102. It had been much depleted by attacks during its journey through Asia Minor and many more died at the battle of Ramla. 

• Bohemond launched another crusade
• Lead crusade to the port od Duruzzo
• Attack against the Greeks had been sanctioned
• Unsuccessful and Bohemond had to become an imperial vassal of Emperor Alexius

• Baldwin II faced a major threat from the Muslim World
• 28^th June 1119- Roger of Antioch’s army surrounded to the west of Aleppo and the crusader army was wiped out
• 700 knights and 3000 foot soldiers killed or captured
• King Baldwin had to march north and take control of Antioch- he restored order but crusader resources had taken a big hit

• Church council convened at Nabulus early in 1120 and forbade sexual relations between Christians and Muslims
• Punishment for men was castration and for women the slitting of the nose
• Conference approved the new Order of the Temple and sent an appeal to Pope Calixtus II for a new crusade
• Limited response but resources came from Venice and in 1124 the crusaders began to besiege the port of Tyre. Eventually the town surrendered and left Ascalon as the only Muslim-held coastal port

• First 30 years were years of continual campaigning
• Confrontation of Muslim forces
• Internal disputes involving succession
• Antioch was the most problematic- King (Baldwin II) had to intervene frequently with internal affairs
• Christian communities needed protection, Baldwin, Godfrey, Bohemond and Raymond remained in the Holy Land to govern them 

• In more of a vulnerable position than Jerusalem as it was in close proximity to Muslim Lords of Aleppo and Homs and Seljuks
• Bohemond was captured by Muslims in July 1100 and only released in 103 and in 1104 there was the battle at Harran and much land around Antioch was lost.
• Post 1108 Crusade- Bohemond returned to Italy but was killed in 1112, leaving his son who was too young to govern. Bohemond’s cousins ruled

• The first ever crusader state established by Baldwin of Boulogne
• After becoming King he passed the county on to his cousin/son Baldwin II who became king in 1144

• Raymond of Toulouse- Count of Tripoli, died in 1105 without ever having taken the town.
• Began to form after the capture of Tortosa in 1101.
• After Raymond’s death there was a dispute between successions between Raymond’s eldest son and his cousin. His son, Bertrand, took the possession of the county

Independence highlighted by their separate legal systems, each region had a different set of laws depending on the origin of the leader and local customs

Crusaders dominated the governance of the states and the kingdom replicating the feudal systems of the west

• King of Jerusalem was the lord Jerusalem, Tyre, Acre, Jaffa and Nabulus, he could enfeoff his lands to his vassals and take them back
• Under Baldwin II, the monarchy remained strong. He arranged marriages between widows and daughters of deceased vassals- created cohesion within the nobility

• Noble families in Europe families in Europe sent their sons to the Outremer to maintain the supply of nobles
• European nobles regarded the feudal kingdom of Outremer as a province of feudal Europe but no king or emperor in the west had power over it
• Territorial land around Crusaders’ castles were garrisoned by troops who were bound by oaths of loyalty to their lords just as in Europe
• Flexibility and semi-independence of crusader states were based on feudal customs of military service and loyalty

• Muslim armies remained disunited for 50 years
• Fatimid Sunni Muslims of Egypt did not have a common cause with the Shia of Aleppo and Damascus, who in turn had no solidarity with Seljuk Turks of Asia Minor
• Relations with Muslim population had to be conducted in peaceful means- the crusaders were outnumbered, thus they couldn’t risk betrayal and rebellion all the time
• Trade and farming were vital to the survival and prosperity of the kingdom so it was in the interest of the Westerners to allow the labourers and merchants to continue their work
• Nobles of the new kingdom exploited the lack of Muslim unity by forming alliances with Muslims and sometimes against fellow Christians
• 1105- Tancred of Antioch and King Baldwin I clashed and both had Turkish allies. Such alliances contravened the ideas of Holy War and the destruction of the infidel, but they were practical necessities at the time. 

• Developed into 2 forms:
• 1.       Internal spiritual struggle to achieve personal purity
• 2.       Military struggle against the Infidels
• Jihad was fundamental to Muslim faith, an individual obligation
• Al Sulami urged moral reform within Islam as a preparation for the military reconquest, preaching at the great mosque in Damascus
• Battle of Field of Blood in 1119 gave the Muslim’s hope that the Christians could be driven out. This crushing defeat and the killing of the Prince of Antioch gave them hope, but politically they weren’t ready to unite against their common foe.
• It was not transformed into concerted political and military action until after the capture of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Crusader Kingdom
• Lack of great Muslim leader  was one of the major reasons for the survival of the new kingdom in the first decades