Royal domain

Who he is

Name

Aimery of Lusignan (Amalric II) and Isabella I

Title

King and queen of Jerusalem

Since

January 1198 (crowned together at Acre); Isabella queen since 1192

Born

Aimery about 1145 (not pinned); Isabella 1172

Family

See Kingdom of Jerusalem. Aimery is also king of Cyprus (cyp records).

Confidence

high

Coronation and titles from fmg (charter of October 1198) and Wikipedia; the extent of the domain from the lists of lordships (Tyre royal from 1192; Beirut royal from 1197 until granted to John of Ibelin between 1200 and 1205).

What it holds

• Acre: the royal castle in the north of the old city, the harbour and its customs (the Chain, Catena), the Fonde (the court and market of the land trade), the royal villages (casalia) of the plain from the Ladder of Tyre to the foot of Mount Carmel, and the gardens round Recordane (the mill of Recordane itself belongs to the Hospital).
• Tyre: two thirds of the city and of its villages, the harbour and its dues, the sugar plantations and mills of the plain and the springs of Ras al-Ain that water them, the glass and silk workshops' dues.
• Beirut: the town, its harbour and its plain from the Dog River to the Damour, in the king's hand since October 1197.
• The title and lost lands of the county of Jaffa and Ascalon, held by Aimery from 1193 and merged in the crown in 1198; Jaffa is Ayyubid since September 1197.
• Money fiefs and rents paid from these revenues to the king's knights, to the orders and to churches (not itemised in the sources used).

How it was acquired

Acre was retaken by the Third Crusade on 12 July 1191; Tyre has been royal since 1124 apart from Conrad of Montferrat's lordship (1187-1192); Beirut was occupied by the German crusaders and Aimery in late October 1197 (21 or 24 October in different accounts). The domain passes with the crown through Queen Isabella; Aimery holds it as her husband, crowned with her in January 1198.

Allies and rivals

The king's party: his Poitevin and Cypriot following, the patriarch Aymar who crowned him, the Pisans (whose side he took in 1193), the Germans who stayed (Conrad of Mainz proposed his marriage). The queen's kin, the Ibelins, are partners rather than followers: John of Ibelin is constable and wants a great fief. The Tiberias brothers are estranged since Ralph's banishment in 1198. The Genoese were Henry of Champagne's favourites.

How things stand that morning

On 1 January 1200 Acre, Tyre and Beirut are in the king's hand, governed by his viscounts and castellans (names not pinned). Where the king and queen are that morning is not pinned; Acre is their usual seat.

Wealth

The tolls and customs of Acre and Tyre (the caravan trade from Damascus under the truce, the spice and silk trade, pilgrims and their ships in the spring and autumn passages), the market dues, the rents of the royal villages, sugar from the plain of Tyre and Acre. Wealth is not measured in the sources used.

Military

Acre's land walls, rebuilt after the siege of 1189-1191, and the royal castle; Tyre's walls across its isthmus, which held against Saladin in 1187; Beirut's defences, whose state after the Ayyubid withdrawal is not pinned. The king's money-fief knights and sergeants, the Turcopoles and the burgess militia of the two cities. No figures in the sources used.

Threats

• A breach of the truce exposing Beirut and the Tyre plain first.
• The cost of rebuilding Beirut.
• The claims of the Ibelins on Beirut and of the communes on the tolls of Tyre.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. Between 1200 and 1205 (not pinned)Beirut leaves the domain: Aimery grants it to John of Ibelin in exchange for the constableship.Depends on: Aimery wanting the office back for his own man; the Ibelins' standing. Stopped by: A breach between the king and the Ibelins.

Places of note

• Royal castle of Acre: The king's castle and residence in the north of the old city.
• Casal Imbert (az-Zib): Village and halt on the coast road north of Acre (its holder in 1200 not pinned).
• Ras al-Ain, the springs of Tyre: The springs and aqueduct that water the gardens and sugar plantations of Tyre.

Where the sources disagree

• The date Beirut left the royal domain is given as c. 1200, c. 1202, 1204 and 1205 by different modern authorities (see Kingdom of Jerusalem).

Evidence: The royal status of Acre and Tyre is certain; Beirut's royal status on 1 January 1200 rests on the absence of any lord before John of Ibelin, whose grant all authorities date after 1 January 1200.

On the map: The inland edges of the three blocks follow the foot of the hills; the Venetian third of Tyre's villages lay scattered through the Tyre block and is not drawn separately.

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.