Crusader states

The Crusader States are, strictly speaking, the four states established in Palestine and Syria as a result of the First Crusade:

• the Kingdom of Jerusalem
• the Principality of Antioch
• the county of Edessa
• the county of Tripoli

Although the Crusaders were militarily inferior to the Muslims, they were able to hold out due to the constant wars between the Islamic powers. This enabled them to occupy the coast and keep it open for reinforcements.

history

The County of Edessa was founded in 1098 as the first Crusader state. Under Joscelin II it fell against the Islamic lord of Mosul and Aleppo as early as 1144, which was the cause of the Second Crusade.

The principality of Antioch, also established in 1098, was expanded by conquests against the Muslims and Byzantium under its first Norman ruler, Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred. They left behind a strong state, for which Raymond of Poitiers had to pay homage to the Byzantine emperor in 1137. In 1268 the now economically impoverished Antioch was taken by the Mameluke army of Sultan Baibars of Egypt. In 1289 Tripoli fell, which was the last of the Crusader states to be established in 1109 and given to Bertrand of St. Gilles as a vassal county of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Under Baldwin I the first king of Jerusalem (1100) and his next successors Baldwin II (1118-1131), Fulk of Anjou (1131-1143) and Baldwin III. (1143-1162) the area could be enlarged and thus withstood the Saracens. Saladin defeated the Crusaders at Hattin in 1187 and then took Jerusalem. The Christians reclaimed Akko in 1191 under the leadership of Richard the Lionheart, who in 1192 contracted with Saladin for Christian dominion over the coastline from Tire to Jaffa.

The crusade of Frederick II, who crowned himself king of Jerusalem in 1229, brought Jerusalem and other areas back under Crusader control. However, in 1244 Jerusalem was finally lost. Akko, the center of the rest of the kingdom, was weakened by internal fighting and fell in 1291. Except for the city of Byblos, the rest of Palestine and the island fortress of Ruan were evacuated from the Syrian coast in the same year (flight to Cyprus.)

Crusader states on the fringes of the Crusades

The Kingdom of Cyprus is also counted among the Crusader states. Cyprus was founded during the 3rd Crusade. Richerd the Lionheart conquered the island on his way to the Holy Land. In the years that followed, Cyprus became the domain of the dethroned kings of Jerusalem until 1489.

The Kingdom of Armenia Lesser was another Christian state on the fringes of the Crusades. The kingdom was established a few years earlier under native rulers fleeing the Seljuk scoundrels and lasted for around 300 years.

During the Fourth Crusade, four more states emerged from the conquest of the Byzantine Empire:

• the Latin Empire,
• the Kingdom of Thessaloniki,
• the Duchy of Athens and
• the principality of Achaia

In addition, as a result of the Fourth Crusade, the Venetians created the Duchy of Archipelagos in the Aegean.