440 law
recover the region. He had to fight primarily against the
emir of ALEPPO. In 1108, he bequeathed his principality to
his nephew, TANCRED OFHAUTEVILLE, and his successors,
but they had to agree to pay homage to the emperors of
Byzantium, John II (r. 1118–43) and Manuel I (r.
1143–80), both of the Komnenos family. Tancred later set
up frontier regions under the TEMPLARSand the HOSPI-
TALLERS, and managed to limit the power of the great
noble families in the area. This principality lasted until the
successful invasion of the MAMLUKSof EGYPTin 1268.
TORTOSA AND TRIPOLIRaymond of Saint-Gilles (r. 1101–05) established a new
Latin county around Tortosa and TRIPOLI. His descen-
dants failed in their efforts to occupy the upper Orontes
Valley, battled NUR AL-DINand SALADIN, but managed
only to hold on to the county until 1187. It passed then
to Bohemond IV (r. 1201–33) of Antioch and his heirs,
who held it until 1287.
JERUSALEMThis kingdom of JERUSALEMwas an original creation, to
defend the holy places under the leadership of a lay
prince. The clergy with the army dreamed of but failed to
get a theocratic state ruled by the pope or his representa-
tive. The council of barons first elected GODFREY of
BOUILLONas king. In 1100 his brother, BALDWINI, suc-
ceeded and was the main architect of the kingdom’s slow
expansion. TYREwas added in 1124 and Ascalon in 1153.
From that date the kingdom was on the defensive against
first Nur al-Din and then Saladin. The kingdom’s army
was essentially wiped out at the Battle of the HATTINin
- The Third Crusade and RICHARDI LIONHEARTmade
a partial reconstruction of the kingdom, but now limited
to a narrow coastal strip, with ACREas its capital. Limited
access to Jerusalem was later recovered by Emperor
FREDERICKII under the treaty of Jaffa in 1229. In 1244
mercenaries in the service of Egypt captured it. The king-
dom then fell prey to profound divisions. Along the
coasts and in the towns, Italian merchant communities
opposed each other and contributed little to the long-
term survival of the kingdom.
CYPRUSFrom 1265 the MAMLUKs of Egypt, fearing possible
MONGOLand Frankish cooperation in the region, began
the reconquest of the remaining principalities. They
completed that in 1291 when Acre fell, followed by the
last towns and fortresses of the Holy Land. With the dis-
appearance of Frankish Syria, refugees flowed into
CYPRUS, a former Byzantine possession retaken by the
armies of the English king Richard I Lionheart during
the Third Crusade in 1191. Richard handed the island
over to the Templars, then to Guy de Lusignan. His suc-
cessors held it together until 1489, when the Venetians
took it over.
TENUOUS CONTROL
In all these Latin states, the population of Western and
Christian origin was never more than a minority. Control
was tenuous in the towns and and was backed up by
powerful fortresses, such as the KRAK DESCHEVALIERS.
The indigenous Christians and Muslims in SYRIAlived
according to earlier practices but were somewhat willing
to pay rent to their new masters. The cities on the
Mediterranean coast had colonies of Italian MERCHANTS,
exploiting jurisdictional privileges and exemptions to
conduct trade, but constantly in conflict with each other.
The temporarily victorious Latin Church created two
patriarchates, one at Jerusalem and the other at Antioch,
and an archbishopric at Nicosia on Cyprus. It was never
able to impose Roman rites or Roman doctrine.
See alsoBEIRUT;LATIN STATES INGREECE;RHODES.
Further reading:Benjamin Arbel, Bernard Hamilton,
and David Jacoby, eds., Latins and Greeks in the Eastern
Mediterranean after 1204(London: Frank Cass, 1989);
Meron Benvenisti, The Crusaders in the Holy Land(1970;
reprint, New York: Macmillan, 1972); T. S. R. Boase,
Kingdoms and Strongholds of the Crusaders (London:
Thames and Hudson, 1971); Peter Edbury, “The Crusader
States,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History.Vol. 5, c.
1198–c.1300,ed. David Abulafia (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999), 590–606; Anthony Luttrell, “The
Latin East,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History.Vol.
7, c. 1415–c. 1500,ed. Christopher Allmand (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1998), 799–811.law See CORPUS IURIS CIVILIS;LAW, CANON AND
ECCLESIASTICAL.law, canon and ecclesiastical In the Middle Ages the
law was considered the basic necessity and framework of
the social and political body. The product of a long tradi-
tion, the law, as an expression of a divine will, often had
to be discerned or rediscovered. Canon law was the legal
system of the medieval Catholic Church. It covered rules
for both the CLERGYand the LAITY. In the West, religious
and civil or secular laws were independent, and two par-
allel, often conflicting, systems of jurisdiction developed.
In the Byzantine East, there was only one combined
imperial law.ISLAMIC LAW (SHARIA)
ISLAMrecognized no division or distinction between the
religious and the secular worlds. Islamic teachings
applied to all situations of life. The sharia, or “the way,”
was the fundamental and comprehensive law for all and a
central element of Islam. Some, such as AL-GHAZALI,
equated it with Islam itself. Islamic law developed
throughout the Middle Ages from the QURANand the
HADITH. There were four schools of law for the SUNNIS,