Caesarea

Who he is

Name

Juliana Grenier and her second husband Aymar of Lairon

Title

Lady of Caesarea, with her husband the lord

Since

Juliana succeeded her brother Walter II between 1189 and 1193; Aymar married her before 1192 (Lignages)

Born

Not pinned

Family

Juliana is the daughter of Hugh Grenier, lord of Caesarea. Her first husband was Guy of Beirut (Brisebarre), and their son Walter (Gautier) is her heir (named in charters of 1201 and 1206). Aymar of Lairon is a knight from the West (later marshal of the kingdom about 1206; killed at Damietta in 1219).

Confidence

high

fmg quotes three charters: 24 October 1197 (Juliana, 'domina Caesareae', gives property to the Hospital with the consent of her husband Ademar), February 1201 ('Ademarius dominus Caesareae' with the consent of his wife Juliana and her son Walter) and February 1206 (to the Teutonic order). So the couple hold Caesarea on both sides of 1 January 1200.

Overlord

King Aimery and Queen Isabella.

What it holds

• The town and harbour of Caesarea.
• The villages of the coastal plain from Merle (Tantura) to the Alexander river, with the marshes of the Crocodile river.
• Rights given away to the orders: property to the Hospital (1197).

How it was acquired

Inherited by Juliana from her brother Walter II (died 1189-1191); recovered from the Ayyubids by the Third Crusade in 1191.

Allies and rivals

Grenier kin of Reginald of Sidon; patrons of the Hospital and later of the Teutonic order.

How things stand that morning

Held by Juliana and Aymar on 1 January 1200 under the truce.

Wealth

Modest: a small port and the coastal plain's villages; no figures in the sources used.

Military

The town walls slighted in 1191 and only partly repaired (the full rebuilding comes in 1217-1218 and later): not pinned for 1200. The lord's own knights.

Threats

• Exposed to raids from the Nablus hills if the truce breaks.

Places of note

• Merle (Tantura, Dor): Coastal village and small fort at the north end of the lordship; its holder in 1200 is not pinned.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Dated charters of 1197 and 1201 bracket 1 January 1200.

On the map: The bounds with Haifa to the north and Arsuf to the south are approximate.

Primary sources for Kingdom of Jerusalem

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Book of the Two Gardens, on the Reigns of Nur al-Din and Saladin, and its Sequel, Abu Shama (Shihab al-Din Abd al-Rahman al-Maqdisi) (about 1240 to 1267, at Damascus). The Rawdatayn ends with Saladin's death in 1193 and matters for 1200 as the store of Imad al-Din al-Isfahani's lost al-Barq al-Shami and of al-Qadi al-Fadil's letters, quoted at length, which describe the Ayyubid princes, the Jazira and the frontier a few years earlier. Read online
• The Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer, Ernoul, squire of Balian of Ibelin, and later compilers (the 1187 core soon after the event; the whole in its present form 1227 to 1232). The Ibelin household's version of events in Outremer. Read online
• The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (Eracles), Anonymous continuators, the earliest drawing on Ernoul (about 1220 to 1277; the first continuation (1184 to 1197, the Lyon Eracles) compiled about 1230 from material of the 1190s). For the Latin East at 1200 it narrates the aftermath of the Third Crusade: the truce of 1192, the succession to Jerusalem through Queen Isabella's marriages to Henry of Champagne (died September 1197) and Aimery of Lusignan, Aimery's rule as king of Jerusalem from 1198 while king of Cyprus, the German crusade of 1197 to 1198 and the recovery of Beirut and Sidon, the truce with al-Adil of 1198, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond IV and Leo of Armenia, and the Pisan plot against Aimery. Read online
• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• The Chronicle of Smbat Sparapet (Sempad the Constable), Smbat Sparapet, brother of King Hetum I of Cilicia (about 1270 to 1276). The Cilician court chronicle, drawing on Matthew of Edessa for its early part and on family memory later. Read online
• The Eloquent Exposition of the Conquest of Jerusalem, Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (al-Katib) (about 1192 to 1193). Saladin's secretary's ornate account of the conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade, ending with Saladin's death in 1193. Read online
• The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad (after 1193, probably between about 1198 and 1228, at Aleppo). Ends with Saladin's death in March 1193 and so gives no event of 1200, but it is the formative portrait of the Ayyubid house of 1200: al-Adil, al-Afdal, al-Aziz and al-Zahir Ghazi as Saladin's lieutenants, the Mosul and Jazira campaigns, the war of Acre and the treaty of Jaffa of 1192. Read online
• Calendar of the Acts of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Various, calendared by Reinhold Rohricht (documents 1097 to 1291; calendar published 1893, Additamentum 1904). A chronological calendar of every charter, letter and treaty of the Latin East then known, with date, parties, witnesses and the edition where each is printed. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Latin East and the Ayyubids.