1.
Crusades
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned
2.
Richard I of England
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Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes and he was the third of five sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was known as Richard Cœur de Lion or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a military leader. He was also known in Occitan as Oc e No, because of his reputation for terseness, by the age of 16, Richard had taken command of his own army, putting down rebellions in Poitou against his father. Richard spoke both French and Occitan and he was born in England, where he spent his childhood, before becoming king, however, he lived most of his adult life in the Duchy of Aquitaine, in the southwest of France. Following his accession, he spent very little time, perhaps as little as six months, most of his life as king was spent on Crusade, in captivity, or actively defending his lands in France. Rather than regarding his kingdom as a responsibility requiring his presence as ruler, nevertheless, he was seen as a pious hero by his subjects. He remains one of the few kings of England remembered by his epithet, rather than regnal number, Richard was born on 8 September 1157, probably at Beaumont Palace, in Oxford, England, son of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was a brother of Count William IX of Poitiers, Henry the Young King. As the third son of King Henry II, he was not expected to ascend the throne. He was also a brother of Duke Geoffrey II of Brittany, Queen Eleanor of Castile, Queen Joan of Sicily, and Count John of Mortain. Richard was the younger maternal half-brother of Countess Marie of Champagne, the eldest son of Henry II and Eleanor, William, died in 1156, before Richards birth. Richard is often depicted as having been the son of his mother. His father was Angevin-Norman and great-grandson of William the Conqueror, contemporary historian Ralph of Diceto traced his familys lineage through Matilda of Scotland to the Anglo-Saxon kings of England and Alfred the Great, and from there linked them to Noah and Woden. According to Angevin legend, there was even infernal blood in the family, while his father visited his lands from Scotland to France, Richard probably spent his childhood in England. His first recorded visit to the European continent was in May 1165 and his wet nurse was Hodierna of St Albans, whom he gave a generous pension after he became king. Little is known about Richards education, during his captivity, English prejudice against foreigners was used in a calculated way by his brother John to help destroy the authority of Richards chancellor, William Longchamp, who was a Norman. One of the charges laid against Longchamp, by Johns supporter Hugh
3.
Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem
4.
Levant
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The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean. The term Levant entered English in the late 15th century from French and it derives from the Italian Levante, meaning rising, implying the rising of the sun in the east. As such, it is equivalent to the Arabic term Mashriq. Eventually the term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine, in 1581, England set up the Levant Company to monopolize commerce with the Ottoman Empire. The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and this is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used synonymously with Syria-Palestine. Some scholars misunderstood the term thinking that it derives from the name of Lebanon, today the term is typically used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. It does not include Anatolia, the Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper, the Sinai Peninsula is sometimes included. The Levant has been described as the crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and northeast Africa, the populations of the Levant share not only the geographic position, but cuisine, some customs, and a very long history. They are often referred to as Levantines, the term Levant, which appeared in English in 1497, originally meant the East in general or Mediterranean lands east of Italy. It is borrowed from the French levant rising, referring to the rising of the sun in the east, the phrase is ultimately from the Latin word levare, meaning lift, raise. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή, in Germanic Morgenland, in Italian, in Hungarian Kelet, in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant, most notably, Orient and its Latin source oriens meaning east, is literally rising, deriving from Latin orior rise. The notion of the Levant has undergone a process of historical evolution in usage, meaning. While the term Levantine originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it came to refer to regional native. The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire, at this time, the Far East was known as the Upper Levant. In early 19th-century travel writing, the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman empire, in 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon was called the Levant states, today, Levant is the term typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the history of the region. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to it being a wider, yet relevant, archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Levantine archaeology and archaeology of the Southern Levant. Two academic journals were launched, Journal of Levantine Studies, published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review
5.
Anatolia
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Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
6.
Crusader states
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The name also refers to other territorial gains made by medieval Christendom against Muslim and pagan adversaries. The Crusader States in the Levant were the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, the Eastern Romans, or Byzantines, partially recovered lost territory on numerous occasions but over time gradually lost all but Anatolia and parts of Thrace and the Balkans. In the West, the Roman Catholic kingdoms of northern Iberia launched a series of known as the Reconquista to reconquer the peninsula from the Arabized Berbers known as Moors. The conquered Iberian principalities are not customarily called Crusader states, except for the Kingdom of Valencia, professor Barber indicates that, in the Crusader State of the Kingdom of Jerusalem the Holy Sepulchre was added to in the 7th century and rebuilt in 1022, after a previous collapse. The situation represented an existential threat for the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire. The Emperor sent a plea to the Pope in Rome to send military aid with the goal of restoring the formerly Christian territories to Christian rule, the result was a series of western European military campaigns into the eastern Mediterranean, known as the Crusades. The first four Crusader states were created in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade, The first Crusader state, the Principality of Antioch, founded in 1098, lasted until 1268. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, founded in 1099, lasted until 1291, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia had its origins before the Crusades, but was granted the status of a kingdom by Pope Innocent III, and later became fully westernized by the Lusignan dynasty. During the Third Crusade, the Crusaders founded the Kingdom of Cyprus, Richard I of England conquered Cyprus on his way to Holy Land. The Templars promptly returned the island to Richard who resold it to the displaced King of Jerusalem Guy of Lusignan in 1192. For much of its history under the Lusignan Kings, Cyprus was a prosperous Medieval Kingdom, the Kingdoms decline began when it became embroiled in the dispute between the Italian Merchant Republics of Genoa and Venice. Indeed, the Kingdoms decline can be traced to a war with Genoa in 1373–74 which ended with the Genoese occupying the principal port City of Famagusta. Eventually with the help of Venice, the Kingdom recovered Famagusta but by then it was too late and in any event, venetian rule over Cyprus lasted for just over 80 years until 1571, when the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Selim II Sarkhosh invaded and captured the entire island. These states faced the attacks of the Byzantine Greek successor states of Nicaea and Epirus, thessalonica and the Latin Empire were reconquered by the Byzantine Greeks by 1261. Descendants of the Crusaders continued to rule in Athens and the Peloponnesus until the 15th century when the area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The military order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John established itself on Rhodes in 1310, with influx of new blood. The island of Kastellorizo was taken by the Knights of St, other neighbouring territories temporarily under the order were, the cities of Smyrna, Attaleia, the city of Salona and the islands of Ikaria and Kos, all now in Greece. The coins minted in Jerusalem during the 12th century show patriarchal crosses with various modifications, coins minted under Henry I show a cross with four dots in the four quarters, but the Jerusalem cross proper appears only on a coin minted under John II
7.
Pilgrim
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A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a journey to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system. Pilgrims and the making of pilgrimages are common in many religions, including the faiths of ancient Egypt, Persia in the Mithraic period, India, China, and Japan. The Greek and Roman customs of consulting the gods at local oracles, such as those at Dodona or Delphi, in Greece, pilgrimages could either be personal or state-sponsored. In the early period of Hebrew history, pilgrims traveled to Shiloh, Dan, Bethel, while many pilgrims travel toward a specific location, a physical destination is not always a necessity. One group of pilgrims in early Celtic Christianity were the Peregrinari Pro Christ, or white martyrs and this sort of pilgrimage was an ascetic religious practice, as the pilgrim left the security of home and the clan for an unknown destination, trusting completely in Divine Providence. These travels often resulted in the founding of new abbeys and the spread of Christianity among the population in Britain and in continental Europe. Many religions still espouse pilgrimage as a spiritual activity, the great Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, is an obligatory duty at least once for every Muslim who is able to make the journey. Other Islamic devotional pilgrimages, particularly to the tombs of Shia Imams or Sufi saints, are popular across the Islamic world. International Bible Students Association pilgrims were excellent speakers, and their talks were typically well-publicized and well-attended. A modern phenomenon is the cultural pilgrimage which, while involving a journey, is secular in nature. An example might be a baseball fan visiting Cooperstown, New York, destinations for cultural pilgrims include Auschwitz concentration camp, Gettysburg Battlefield or the Ernest Hemingway House. Under communist regimes, devout secular pilgrims visited locations such as the Mausoleum of Lenin, the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, sites such as these continue to attract visitors. The distinction between religious, cultural or political pilgrimage and tourism is not necessarily always clear or rigid, pilgrimage could also refer symbolically to journeys, largely on foot, to places where the concerned person expect to find spiritual and/or personal salvation. In the words of adventurer-author Jon Krakauer in his book Into The Wild, many national and international leaders have gone on pilgrimages for both personal and political reasons
8.
Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
9.
Kingdom of Cyprus
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The Kingdom of Cyprus was a Crusader kingdom on the island of Cyprus in the high and late Middle Ages, between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan and it comprised not only Cyprus, but also some possessions on the Anatolian mainland, Antalya between 1361 and 1373 and Corycus between 1361 and 1448. The island was conquered in 1191 by King Richard I of England during the Third Crusade, from Isaac Komnenos, an upstart local governor and self-proclaimed emperor claiming the Byzantine Empire. There were even rumours that Komnenus was secretly in league with Saladin in order to protect himself from his enemies in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, the ruling Angelos family. Moreover, control of the island of Cyprus would provide a strategic base of operations from which to launch. The English army disembarked on the shores of Limassol and engaged the Cypriots who proved no match for the English archers, fearing treachery at the hands of the new invaders however, Komnenos fled after making this pledge to Richard and escaped to the stronghold of Kantara. The English king left garrisons in the towns and castles of the island before he departed, a subsequent revolt after Richard left for the Holy Land caused him to doubt the island as a worthwhile gain and eventually prompted him to sell the territory to the Knights Templar. The English invasion of Cyprus marked the beginning of 400 years of Western dominance on the island and it also brought the Latin church to Cyprus, which had hitherto been Orthodox in religion. Richard took them up on the offer and the Templars returned to Syria, retaining, a small minority Roman Catholic population of the island was mainly confined to some coastal cities, such as Famagusta, as well as inland Nicosia, the traditional capital. Roman Catholics kept the reins of power and control, while the Orthodox inhabitants lived in the countryside and it is unclear whether Richard gave him the territory or sold it and it is highly unlikely that Richard was ever paid even if a deal was struck. In 1194, Guy de Lusignan died without any heirs and so his brother, Amalric, became King Amalric I of Cyprus, a crown and title which was approved by Henry VI. After the death of Amalric of Lusignan, the Kingdom continually passed to a series of boys who grew up as king. The Ibelin family, which had much power in Jerusalem prior its downfall. In 1229 one of the Ibelin regents was forced out of power by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, fredericks supporters were defeated in this struggle by 1233, although it lasted longer in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and in the Holy Roman Empire. The territory in Palestine was finally lost while Henry II was king in 1291, like Jerusalem, Cyprus had a Haute Cour, although it was less powerful than it had been in Jerusalem. The island was richer and more feudal than Jerusalem, so the king had more personal wealth, the most important vassal family was the multi-branch House of Ibelin. However, the king was often in conflict with the Italian merchants, especially because Cyprus had become the centre of European trade with Africa, the kingdom eventually came to be dominated more and more in the 14th century by the Genoese merchants. Cyprus therefore sided with the Avignon Papacy in the Great Schism, House of Brienne and several others
10.
Tyre, Lebanon
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Tyre, sometimes romanized as Sour, is a city in the South Governorate of Lebanon. There were approximately 117,000 inhabitants in 2003, however, the government of Lebanon has released only rough estimates of population numbers since 1932, so an accurate statistical accounting is not possible. Tyre juts out from the coast of the Mediterranean and is located about 80 km south of Beirut, the name of the city means rock after the rocky formation on which the town was originally built. The adjective for Tyre is Tyrian, and the inhabitants are Tyrians, Tyre is an ancient Phoenician city and the legendary birthplace of Europa and Dido. Today it is the fourth largest city in Lebanon and houses one of the major ports. The city has a number of ancient sites, including its Roman Hippodrome which was added to UNESCOs list of World Heritage Sites in 1979. Tyre originally consisted of two urban centres, Tyre itself, which was on an island just off shore. Alexander the Great connected the island to the mainland by constructing a causeway during his siege of the city, the original island city had two harbours, one on the south side and the other on the north side of the island. The harbour on the side has silted over, but the harbour on the north side is still in use. Tyre was founded around 2750 BC according to Herodotus and was built as a walled city upon the mainland. Phoenicians from Tyre settled in houses around Memphis, south of the temple of Hephaestus in a called the Tyrian Camp. Tyres name appears on monuments as early as 1300 BC, philo of Byblos quotes the antiquarian authority Sanchuniathon as stating that it was first occupied by Hypsuranius. Sanchuniathons work is said to be dedicated to Abibalus king of Berytus—possibly the Abibaal who was king of Tyre, there are ten Amarna letters dated 1350 BC from the mayor, Abimilku, written to Akenaten. The subject is often water, wood and the Habiru overtaking the countryside of the mainland, the commerce of the ancient world was gathered into the warehouses of Tyre. The city of Tyre was particularly known for the production of a rare and extraordinarily expensive sort of dye, produced from the murex shellfish. The colour was, in ancient cultures, reserved for the use of royalty or at least the nobility, Tyre was often attacked by Egypt, besieged by Shalmaneser V, who was assisted by the Phoenicians of the mainland, for five years. From 586 until 573 BC, the city was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar II until it agreed to pay a tribute. The Achaemenid Empire conquered the city in 539 BC and kept it under its rule until Alexander the Great laid siege to the city, in 315 BC, Alexanders former general Antigonus began his own siege of Tyre, taking the city a year later
11.
Jaffa
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Jaffa or Yafo, is the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the stories of Jonah, Solomon and Saint Peter as well as the mythological story of Andromeda. The town was mentioned in Egyptian sources and the Amarna letters as Yapu, mythology says that it is named for Japheth, one of the sons of Noah, the one who built it after the Flood. The Hellenist tradition links the name to Iopeia, or Cassiopeia, an outcropping of rocks near the harbor is reputed to have been the place where Andromeda was rescued by Perseus. Pliny the Elder associated the name with Iopa, daughter of Aeolus, the Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi referred to it as Yaffa. The tell of Jaffa rises to a height of 40 metres, with a view of the coastline. The accumulation of debris and landfill over the centuries made the even higher. Archaeological evidence shows that Jaffa was inhabited roughly 7500 BCE, the natural harbour of Jaffa has been in use since the Bronze Age. The city is mentioned in the Amarna letters under its Egyptian name Ya-Pho. The city was under Egyptian rule until around 800 BCE, Jaffa is mentioned in the Book of Joshua as the territorial border of the Tribe of Dan, hence the modern term Gush Dan for the center of the coastal plain. The tribe of Dan did not manage to dislocate the Philistines from Jaffa, in the Song of Deborah the prophetess asks, דן למה יגור אוניות, Why doth Dan dwell in ships. After Canaanite and Philistine dominion, King David and his son King Solomon conquered Jaffa, the city remained in Israelite hands even after the split of the united Kingdom of Israel. In 701 BCE, in the days of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, after a period of Babylonian occupation, under Persian rule, Jaffa was governed by Phoenicians from Tyre. Alexander the Greats troops were stationed in Jaffa and it later became a port of the Seleucid Empire until it was taken over by the Maccabees and ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty. During the First Jewish–Roman War, Jaffa was captured and burned by Cestius Gallus, the Roman Jewish historian Josephus writes that 8,400 inhabitants were massacred. Pirates operating from the rebuilt port incurred the wrath of Vespasian, the New Testament account of Saint Peter bringing back to life the widow Dorcas (recorded in Acts of the Apostles,9, 36–42, takes place in Jaffa, then called in Greek Ἰόππη. Peter retells the story of his vision in Acts 11, 4-17, in Midrash Tannaim in its chapter Deuteronomy 33,19, reference is made to Jose ben Halafta traveling through Jaffa. Jaffa seems to have attracted serious Jewish scholars in the 4th and 5th century, the Jerusalem Talmud in Moed Ketan references Rav Acha of Jaffa, and in Pesachim chapter 1 refers to Rav Phineas of Jaffa
12.
Tiberias
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Tiberias is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Established around 20 CE, it was named in honour of the 2nd Emperor of the Roman Empire Tiberius, in 2015 it had a population of 42,610. In the 2nd–10th centuries, Tiberias was the largest Jewish city in the Galilee and the political and religious hub of the Jews of Israel. Its immediate neighbour to the south, Hammat Tiberias, which is now part of modern Tiberias, has known for its hot springs, believed to cure skin and other ailments. Herod Antipas made it the capital of his realm in the Galilee, the city was built in immediate proximity to a spa which had developed around 17 natural mineral hot springs, Hammat Tiberias. Tiberias was at first a pagan city, but later became populated mainly by Jews, with its growing spiritual. The Jewish oral tradition holds that Tiberias was built on the site of the ancient Israelite village of Rakkath or Rakkat, in Talmudic times, the Jews still referred to it by this name. Conversely, in The Antiquities of the Jews, the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus calls the village with hot springs Emmaus, todays Hammat Tiberias and this name also appears in The Wars of the Jews. Antipas settled many non-Jews there from rural Galilee and other parts of his domains in order to populate his new capital, and built a palace on the acropolis. The prestige of Tiberias was so great that the Sea of Galilee soon came to be named the Sea of Tiberias, however, the Jewish population continued to call it Yam Ha-Kineret, its traditional name. The city was governed by a city council of 600 with a committee of 10 until 44 CE when a Roman procurator was set over the city after the death of Herod Agrippa I. Tiberias is mentioned in John 6,23 as the location from which boats had sailed to the side of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd seeking Jesus after the feeding of the 5000 used these boats to travel back to Capernaum on the north-western part of the sea. Under the Roman Empire, the city was known by its Greek name Τιβεριάς, in 61 CE Herod Agrippa II annexed the city to his kingdom whose capital was Caesarea Philippi. It became a city after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, with Judea subdued. It was to be its final meeting place before its disbanding in the early Byzantine period, when Johanan bar Nappaha settled in Tiberias, the city became the focus of Jewish religious scholarship in the land. The Jerusalem Talmud would follow being compiled by Rabbi Jochanan between 230–270 CE, Tiberias 13 synagogues served the spiritual needs of a growing Jewish population. In the 6th century Tiberias was still the seat of Jewish religious learning, in 628, the Byzantine army returned to Tiberias upon the surrender of Jewish rebels and the end of the Persian occupation after they were defeated in the battle of Nineveh
13.
Angevin Empire
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Its rulers were Henry II, Richard I, and John. The empire was established by Henry II, as King of England, Count of Anjou, in 1152, through marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, he became ruler of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Despite the extent of Angevin rule, Henrys son, John, was defeated in the Anglo-French War by Philip II of France of the House of Capet following the Battle of Bouvines, John lost control of all his continental possessions, apart from Gascony in southern Aquitaine. This defeat set the scene for the Saintonge War and the Hundred Years War, the term Angevin Empire is a neologism defining the lands of the House of Plantagenet, Henry II and his sons Richard I and John. Another son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, ruled Brittany, the term Angevin Empire was coined by Kate Norgate in her 1887 publication, England under the Angevin Kings. In France, the term Espace Plantagenêt is sometimes used to describe the fiefdoms the Plantagenets had acquired. The term Angevin itself is the demonym for the residents of Anjou and its capital, Angers. The demonym, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, has been in use since 1653, the use of the term Empire has engendered controversy among some historians, over whether the term is accurate for the actual state of affairs at the time. The area was a collection of the inherited and acquired by Henry. Other historians argue that Henry IIs empire was powerful, centralised. There was no title, as implied by the term Angevin Empire. However, even if the Plantagenets themselves did not claim any imperial title, some chroniclers, often working for Henry II himself, Auvergne was also in the empire for part of the reigns of Henry II and Richard, in their capacity as dukes of Aquitaine. Henry II and Richard I pushed further claims over the County of Berry but these were not completely fulfilled and the county was lost completely by the time of the accession of John in 1199. The frontiers of the empire were sometimes well known and therefore easy to mark, one characteristic of the Angevin Empire was its polycratic nature, a term taken from a political pamphlet written by a subject of the Angevin Empire, the Policraticus by John of Salisbury. This meant that rather than the empire being controlled fully by the ruling monarch, he would delegate power to specially appointed subjects in different areas. England was under the firmest control of all the lands in the Angevin Empire, due to the age of many of the offices that governed the country, England was divided in shires with sheriffs in each enforcing the common law. A justiciar was appointed by the king to stand in his absence when he was on the continent, as the kings of England were more often in France than England they used writs more frequently than the Anglo-Saxon kings, which actually proved beneficial to England. Under William Is rule, Anglo-Saxon nobles had been replaced by Anglo-Norman ones who couldnt own large expanses of contiguous lands
14.
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and it was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia, the half of the Carolingian Empire. A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, the territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself Roi de France was Philip II, France continued to be ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 during the French Revolution. France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy, in Brittany and Catalonia the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France, during the Late Middle Ages, the Kings of England laid claim to the French throne, resulting in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. Subsequently, France sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain in the ensuing Italian Wars, religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion. France laid claim to large stretches of North America, known collectively as New France, Wars with Great Britain led to the loss of much of this territory by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America, the Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the great powers in 1814. During the later years of the elderly Charlemagnes rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks, after Charlemagnes death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France. Viking advances were allowed to increase, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine rivers and other waterways, wreaking havoc. During the reign of Charles the Simple, Normans under Rollo from Norway, were settled in an area on either side of the River Seine, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years. Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married Frances newly divorced ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne. The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line, under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman, so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois
15.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
16.
Republic of Genoa
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It began when Genoa became a self-governing commune within the Regnum Italicum, and ended when it was conquered by the French First Republic under Napoleon and replaced with the Ligurian Republic. Corsica was ceded to France in the Treaty of Versailles of 1768, before 1100, Genoa emerged as an independent city-state, one of a number of Italian city-states during this period. Nominally, the Holy Roman Emperor was overlord and the Bishop of Genoa was president of the city, however, actual power was wielded by a number of consuls annually elected by popular assembly. The Adorno, Campofregoso, and other merchant families all fought for power in this Republic, as the power of the consuls allowed each family faction to gain wealth. The Republic of Genoa extended over modern Liguria and Piedmont, Sardinia, Corsica, through Genoese participation on the Crusades, Genoese colonies were established in the Middle East, in the Aegean, in Sicily and Northern Africa. The collapse of the Crusader States was offset by Genoa’s alliance with the Byzantine Empire, as Venices relations with the Byzantine Empire were temporarily disrupted by the Fourth Crusade and its aftermath, Genoa was able to improve its position. Genoa took advantage of opportunity to expand into the Black Sea and Crimea. Internal feuds between the families, the Grimaldi and Fieschi, the Doria, Spinola, and others caused much disruption. However, this prosperity did not last, the Black Death was imported into Europe in 1347 from the Genoese trading post at Caffa in Crimea, on the Black Sea. Following the economic and population collapse, Genoa adopted the Venetian model of government, the wars with Venice continued, and the War of Chioggia -- where Genoa almost managed to decisively subdue Venice—ended with Venices recovery of dominance in the Adriatic. In 1390 Genoa initiated a crusade against the Barbary pirates with help from the French, though it has not been well-studied, the fifteenth century seems to have been a tumultuous time for Genoa. After a period of French domination from 1394–1409, Genoa came under rule by the Visconti of Milan, Genoa lost Sardinia to Aragon, Corsica to internal revolt and its Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Asia Minor colonies to the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Under the ensuing economic recovery, many aristocratic Genoese families, such as the Balbi, Doria, Grimaldi, Pallavicini, according to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and others, the practices Genoa developed in the Mediterranean were crucial in the exploration and exploitation of the New World. At the time of Genoa’s peak in the 16th century, the city attracted many artists, including Rubens, Caravaggio and Van Dyck. The architect Galeazzo Alessi designed many of the city’s splendid palazzi, as did in the decades that followed by fifty years Bartolomeo Bianco, a number of Genoese Baroque and Rococo artists settled elsewhere and a number of local artists became prominent. At the time of its founding in the early 11th century the Republic of Genoa consisted of the city of Genoa, as the commerce of the city increased, so did the territory of the Republic. By 1015 all of Liguria fell under the Republic of Genoa, after the First Crusade in 1098 Genoa gained settlements in Syria. In 1261 the city of Smyrna in Asia Minor became Genoese territory, in 1255 Genoa established the colony of Caffa in Crimea
17.
Republic of Pisa
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The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa during the late 10th and 11th centuries. It rose to become a powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century before being surpassed and superseded by the Republic of Genoa. The power of Pisa as a mighty maritime nation began to grow, during the High Middle Ages the city grew into a very important commercial and naval center and controlled a significant Mediterranean merchant fleet and navy. It expanded its influence through the sack of Reggio di Calabria in the south of Italy in 1005, Pisa was in continuous conflict with the Saracens, whose bases were in the Italian astersa, for control of the Mediterranean. In alliance with Genoa, Sardinia was captured in 1016 with the defeat of the Saracen leader Mujāhid al-‘Āmirī and this victory gave Pisa supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the Pisans subsequently ousted the Genoese from Sardinia, a new conflict, between 1030 and 1035 Pisa went on to successfully defeat several rival towns in the Emirate of Sicily and conquer Carthage in North Africa. In 1051-1052 Admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered Corsica, provoking more resentment from the Genoese. In 1063, the Pisans approached the Norman Roger I of Sicily, Roger declined due to other commitments. With no land support, the Pisan attack against Palermo failed, in 1060 Pisa engaged in its first battle against Genoa and the Pisan victory helped to consolidate its position in the Mediterranean. This was simply a confirmation of the present situation, because at the time the marquis of Tuscany had already excluded from power. Pisa sacked the Zirid city of Mahdia in 1088, four years later, Pisan and Genoese ships helped Alfonso VI of Castile force El Cid out of Valencia. In 1092 Pope Urban II awarded Pisa supremacy over Corsica and Sardinia, a Pisan fleet of 120 ships participated in the First Crusade and the Pisans were instrumental in the siege of Jerusalem in 1099. On their way to the Holy Land the Pisan ships did not miss the opportunity to sack several Byzantine islands, the Pisan crusaders were led by their archbishop, Dagobert, the future Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Pisa and the maritime republics took advantage of the crusade to establish trading posts and colonies in the eastern coastal regions of Syria, Lebanon. In particular the Pisans founded colonies in Antioch, Acre, Jaffa, Tripoli, Tyre, in all these cities the Pisans were granted privileges and immunity from taxation, but had to contribute to their defence in case of attack. In the 12th century the Pisan quarter in the part of Constantinople had grown to 1,000 people. For some years of that century Pisa was the most prominent merchant and military ally of the Byzantine Empire, Pisa, as an international power, was destroyed forever by the crushing defeat of its navy in the Battle of Meloria against Genoa in 1284. In this battle, most of the Pisan galleys were destroyed, in 1290, an assault by Genoese ships against the Porto Pisano sealed the fate of the independent Pisan state
18.
Kingdom of Hungary
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The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed from the Middle Ages into the twentieth century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom in about the year 1000, by the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world. The House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács until 1918, from 1867 territories connected to the Hungarian crown were incorporated into Austria-Hungary under the name of Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen. The monarchy ended with the deposition of the last king Charles IV in 1918, the kingdom was nominally restored during the Regency of 1920–46, ending with the Soviet occupation in 1946. From 1102 it also included Croatia, being in union with it. Today, the feast day of the first king Stephen I is a holiday in Hungary. The Latin forms Regnum Hungariae or Ungarie, Regnum Marianum, or simply Hungaria, were the used in official documents in Latin from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s. The German name Königreich Ungarn was used officially from 1784 to 1790, the Hungarian name was used in the 1840s, and then again from the 1860s to 1946. The non-official Hungarian name of the kingdom was Magyarország, which is still the colloquial, in Austria-Hungary, the unofficial name Transleithania was sometimes used to denote the regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially, the term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, the Hungarians led by Árpád settled the Carpathian Basin in 895, established Principality of Hungary. The Hungarians led several successful incursions to Western Europe, until they were stopped by Otto I, the principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. The first kings of the kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty and he fought against Koppány and in 998, with Bavarian help, defeated him near Veszprém. The Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I, who with Christian Hungarians, Stephen I of Hungary was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1083 and an Orthodox saint in 2000. After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles, in 1051 armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes Mountain. The armies of the Holy Roman Empire continued to suffer defeats, before 1052 Peter Orseolo, a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, was overthrown by king Samuel Aba of Hungary. This period of revolts ended during the reign of Béla I, Hungarian chroniclers praised Béla I for introducing new currency, such as the silver denarius, and for his benevolence to the former followers of his nephew, Solomon. The second greatest Hungarian king, also from the dynasty, was Ladislaus I of Hungary. He was also canonized as a saint, however, kingship over all of Croatia would not be achieved until the reign of his successor Coloman
19.
Kingdom of Sicily
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The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of the Apennine peninsula from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of the southern peninsula. Until 1282 the Kingdom covered not only the island of Sicily, but also the whole Mezzogiorno region of the southern Apennines, the island was divided into three regions, Val di Mazara, Val Demone and Val di Noto, val being the Arabic word meaning district. In 1282, a revolt against Angevin rule, known as the Sicilian Vespers, the island became a separate kingdom under the Crown of Aragon. After 1302 the island kingdom was called the Kingdom of Trinacria. Often the kingship was vested in another such as the King of Aragon. In 1816 the island Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1860 the Two Sicilies were amalgamated with Sardinia and several northern city-states and duchies to form the Kingdom of Sardinia which in 1861 renamed itself the Kingdom of Italy, after taking Apulia and Calabria, Roger occupied Messina with an army of 700 knights. In 1068, Roger I of Sicily and his men defeated the Muslims at Misilmeri but the most crucial battle was the siege of Palermo, which led to Sicily being completely under Norman control by 1091. The Norman Kingdom was created on Christmas Day,1130, by Roger II of Sicily, with the agreement of Pope Innocent II, Roger threw his support behind the Antipope Anacletus II, who enthroned him as King of Sicily on Christmas Day 1130. In 1136, the rival of Anacletus, Pope Innocent II, convinced Lothair III, Two main armies, one led by Lothair, the other by Duke of Bavaria Henry the Proud, invaded Sicily. On the river Tronto, William of Loritello surrendered to Lothair and this was followed by Count Hugh II of Molise. The two armies were united at Bari, from where in 1137 they continued their campaign, Roger offered to give Apulia as a fief to the Empire, which Lothair refused after being pressured by Innocent. At the same period the army of Lothair revolted, then Lothair, who had hoped for the complete conquest of Sicily, gave Capua and Apulia from the Kingdom of Sicily to Rogers enemies. Innocent protested, claiming that Apulia fell under papal claims, Lothair turned north, but died while crossing the Alps on December 4,1137. At the Second Council of the Lateran in April 1139, Innocent excommunicated Roger for maintaining a schismatic attitude, on March 22,1139, at Galluccio, Rogers son Roger III, Duke of Apulia ambushed the papal troops with a thousand knights and captured the pope. On March 25,1139, Innocent was forced to acknowledge the kingship and it was through his admiral George of Antioch that Roger then proceeded to conquer the Mahdia in Africa, taking the unofficial title King of Africa. At the same time Rogers fleet attacked the Byzantine Empire, making Sicily the leading power in the Mediterranean Sea for almost a century
20.
Kingdom of Jerusalem
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The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was a crusader state established in the Southern Levant by Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, the sometimes so-called First Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted from 1099 to 1187, when it was almost entirely overrun by Saladin. This second kingdom is called the Second Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Kingdom of Acre. Three other crusader states founded during and after the First Crusade were located north, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch. While all three were independent, they were tied to Jerusalem. Beyond these to the north and west lay the states of Armenian Cilicia, further east, various Muslim emirates were located which were ultimately allied with the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. Jerusalem itself fell to Saladin in 1187, and in the 13th century the kingdom was reduced to a few cities along the Mediterranean coast. In this period, the kingdom was ruled by the Lusignan dynasty of the Kingdom of Cyprus, dynastic ties also strengthened with Tripoli, Antioch, and Armenia. The kingdom was soon dominated by the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa. Emperor Frederick II claimed the kingdom by marriage, but his presence sparked a war among the kingdoms nobility. The kingdom became more than a pawn in the politics and warfare of the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties in Egypt, as well as the Khwarezmian. The Mamluk sultans Baibars and al-Ashraf Khalil eventually reconquered all the remaining crusader strongholds, the kingdom was ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse, although the crusaders themselves and their descendants were an elite Catholic minority. They imported many customs and institutions from their homelands in Western Europe, the kingdom also inherited oriental qualities, influenced by the pre-existing customs and populations. The majority of the inhabitants were native Christians, especially Greek and Syrian Orthodox, as well as Sunni. The native Christians and Muslims, who were a lower class, tended to speak Greek and Arabic, while the crusaders spoke French. There were also a number of Jews and Samaritans. According to the Jewish writer Benjamin of Tudela, who travelled through the kingdom around 1170, since sets a lower bound for the Samaritan population at 1,500, since the contemporary Tolidah, a Samaritan chronicle, also mentions communities in Gaza and Acre. The First Crusade was preached at the Council of Clermont in 1095 by Pope Urban II, however, the main objective quickly became the control of the Holy Land
21.
County of Tripoli
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The County of Tripoli was the last of the Crusader states. It was founded in the Levant in the region of Tripoli, northern Lebanon and parts of western Syria which supported an indigenous population of Christians, Druze. When the Crusaders, captured the region in 1109, Bertrand of Toulouse became the first Count of Tripoli as a vassal of King Baldwin I of Jerusalem. From that time, rule of the county was decided not strictly by inheritance but by such as military force, favour. In 1289 the County of Tripoli fell to Sultan Qalawun of the Muslim Mamluks of Cairo, the county was absorbed into Mamluk Egypt. Raymond IV of Toulouse was one of the wealthiest and most powerful of the Prince Crusaders, even so, after the First Crusade, he had failed to secure any land holdings in the Near East. Meanwhile, the County of Edessa, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Tripoli was an important strategic goal as it linked the French in the south with the Normans in the north. It was a fertile and well populated area, in 1102, Raymond IV occupied Tortosa and in 1103, he prepared, together with veterans of the 1101 crusade, to take Tripoli. On a natural ridge, which he named Mons Peregrinus,3 kilometres from Tripoli, Raymond IV began the construction of a large castle, despite this new fortress and seasoned troops, Raymond IVs siege of Tripoli failed to secure the port. He died on 25 February 1105, Bertrand of Toulouse, who was supported by Baldwin I of Jerusalem, arrived in the Near East with a substantial army and a large Genoese fleet. In order to resolve the issue, Baldwin I created a partition treaty. It specified that William was to hold northern Tripoli and pay homage to Tancred while Bertrand was to hold south Tripoli as a vassal of Baldwin, under a united Christian onslaught, Tripoli fell on 12 July 1109, completing the Kingdom of Jerusalem. When William died of an arrow through the heart, Bertrand became the first Count of Tripoli, the extent of the County of Tripoli was determined in part by pre-existing Byzantine borders and in part by victory in battle, tempered by the demands of neighbouring crusader states. At its height, the county controlled the coastline from Maraclea in the north to Beirut in the south, inland, the countys control extended to the Krac des Chevaliers fortress. The rich inland agricultural land of the Homs Gap was known as La Bocquée, the county was divided into lordships, areas based roughly around its coastal ports. The Count of Tripoli himself held the port of Tripoli and its surrounds and he also controlled the hostile region of Montferrand, now modern-day Barin, Syria, lying to the east. Approximately one quarter of the land seized around Tripoli was given to the Genoese as payment for military aid, the Genoese admiral Guglielmo Embriaco was awarded the city of Jubail. Despite his contribution to its establishment, Baldwin I did not directly control the County of Tripoli, nevertheless, the County of Tripoli owed fealty and homage to him, and he, in return, provided support to the county in times of trouble
22.
Principality of Antioch
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The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem and it had roughly 20,000 inhabitants in the 12th century, most of whom were Armenians and Greek Orthodox Christians, with a few Muslims outside the city itself. Few of the inhabitants apart from the Crusaders were Roman Catholic even though the city was turned into a Latin Patriarchate in 1100. While Baldwin of Boulogne and Tancred headed east from Asia Minor to set up the County of Edessa, Bohemond of Taranto commanded the siege which commenced in October 1097. With over four hundred towers, the defenses were formidable. Bohemond convinced a guard in one of the towers, an Armenian and former Christian named Firouz, only four days later, a Muslim army from Mosul, led by Kerbogha, arrived to besiege the Crusaders themselves. Alexius I Comnenus, the Byzantine emperor, was on his way to assist the Crusaders, the Crusaders withstood the siege, with help from a mystic named Peter Bartholomew. Peter claimed he had visited by St. Andrew, who told him that the Holy Lance. The cathedral of St. Peter was excavated, and the Lance was discovered by Peter himself, although Peter most likely planted it there himself, it helped raise the spirits of the Crusaders. There was a dispute over who should control the city. Bohemond and the Italian Normans eventually won, and Bohemond named himself prince, meanwhile, an unknown epidemic spread throughout the Crusader camp, Adhemar of Le Puy was one of the victims. Following Bohemonds capture in battle with the Danishmends in 1100, his nephew Tancred became regent, Tancred expanded the borders of the Principality, seizing the cities of Tarsus and Latakia from the Byzantine Empire. However those newly captured cities along with other territory were lost after the Battle of Harran when Baldwin II of Edessa was captured, Bohemond was released in 1103 and went to Italy to raise more troops in 1104, during which time Tancred remained regent of Antioch. Bohemond used the troops he raised to attack the Byzantines in 1107, Bohemond was defeated at Dyrrhachium in 1108 and was forced by Alexius I to sign the Treaty of Devol, making Antioch a vassal state of the Byzantine Empire upon Bohemonds death. Bohemond had promised to any land that was seized from the Muslims when the Crusaders passed through Constantinople in 1097. Bohemond also fought at Aleppo with Baldwin and Joscelin of the County of Edessa, Bohemond left Tancred as regent once more and returned to Italy, where he died in 1111. Alexius wanted Tancred to return the Principality in its entirety to Byzantium, but Tancred was supported by the County of Tripoli, Tancred, in fact, had been the only Crusade leader who did not swear to return conquered land to Alexius. Tancred died in 1112 and was succeeded by Bohemond II, under the regency of Tancreds nephew Roger of Salerno, on June 27,1119, Roger was killed at the Ager Sanguinis, and Antioch became a vassal state of Jerusalem with King Baldwin II as regent until 1126
23.
Military order (monastic society)
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As such, it was in the military orders that the Medieval concept of chivalry reached its apogee in an exceptionate fusion under Just war theory of military discipline and Christian virtues. Prominent examples include the Knights Hospitaller, and the Knights Templar in Outremer, many military orders were suppressed by the Holy See in Rome around the end of the Middle Ages, with few new recognised establishments afterwards. Notably, the Teutonic Order became exclusively monastic except a limited associated confraternity of honorary Knights, moreover, it inspired many subsequent modern era secular Western cultural phenonomens, such as fraternities, or brotherhoods, such as the Freemasonry. Already in 1053, for the Battle of Civitate the Knights of Saint Peter was founded as a militia by Pope Leo IX to counter the Normans, the larger threat that would definitively establish the tradition, however, came from the east. In response to the Islamic conquests of the former Byzantine Empire and Christianity in the Holy Land, the founding of such orders suited the Catholic churchs plan of channelising the devotion of the European nobility, and also complemented the Peace and Truce of God. The first secularised military order was the Order of Saint George, founded in 1326 by the King Charles I of Hungary, on which he made all the Hungarian nobility swear loyalty to him. The next secular order which is known to appear was the Order of the Knights of the Band, both orders existed only for about a century. The original features of the orders were the combination of religious. Some of them, like the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights of Saint Thomas, also had charitable purposes and cared for the sick, however, they were not purely male institutions, as nuns could attach themselves as convents of the orders. One significant feature of the orders is that clerical brothers could be. In 1818, the orientalist Joseph von Hammer compared the Catholic military orders, in particular the Knights Templar, with certain Islamic models such as the Shia Islamic sect of Assassins. In 1820, José Antonio Conde suggested they were modeled on the ribat, however popular such views may have become, others have criticised this view, suggesting there were no such ribats around the Outremer until after the military orders had been founded. Yet, the innovation of the role and function of the military orders has sometimes been obscured by the concentration on their exploits in the Holy Land, Prussia. In fact, they had holdings and staff throughout Western Europe. They provided a conduit for cultural and technical innovation, for example the introduction of fulling into England by the Knights Hospitaller, because of the necessity to have a standing army, the military orders were founded, being adopted as the fourth monastic religious vows. Their militarisation may vary from case to case, the foundation of an order, its ecclesiastical approval, presently active institutions are listed in consideration with their legitimacy according to the International Commission on Orders of Chivalry. Chivalric and/or military orders that could qualify depending on definition, awarded to both Spanish and Moroccan military officers and soldiers, the single-class order was abolished in 1956. In contrast, inspired by the legacy of the military orders, besides legitimate chivalric orders, in addition, vast modern imitations flourish
24.
Knights Templar
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The order was founded in 1119 and active from about 1129 to 1312. The order, which was among the wealthiest and most powerful, became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and they were prominent in Christian finance. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades, the Templars were closely tied to the Crusades, when the Holy Land was lost, support for the order faded. Rumours about the Templars secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and King Philip IV of France – deeply in debt to the order – took advantage of the situation to control over them. In 1307, he had many of the members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions. Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312 under pressure from King Philip, the abrupt reduction in power of a significant group in European society gave rise to speculation, legend, and legacy through the ages. The re-use of their name for later organizations has kept the name Templar alive to the modern day, after Europeans in the First Crusade recovered Jerusalem in 1099, many Christians made pilgrimages to various sacred sites in the Holy Land. Although the city of Jerusalem was under relatively secure Christian control, in 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims. The Temple Mount had a mystique because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. The Crusaders therefore referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as Solomons Temple, and from this location the new order took the name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or Templar knights. The order, with about nine knights including Godfrey de Saint-Omer and André de Montbard, had few financial resources and their emblem was of two knights riding on a single horse, emphasising the orders poverty. The impoverished status of the Templars did not last long, another major benefit came in 1139, when Pope Innocent IIs papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes, with its clear mission and ample resources, the order grew rapidly. One of their most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard, although the primary mission of the order was military, relatively few members were combatants. The others acted in support positions to assist the knights and to manage the financial infrastructure, the Templar Order, though its members were sworn to individual poverty, was given control of wealth beyond direct donations. A nobleman who was interested in participating in the Crusades might place all his assets under Templar management while he was away, based on this mix of donations and business dealing, the Templars established financial networks across the whole of Christendom. The Order of the Knights Templar arguably qualifies as the worlds first multinational corporation, in the mid-12th century, the tide began to turn in the Crusades. The Muslim world had become united under effective leaders such as Saladin, and dissension arose amongst Christian factions in, and concerning
25.
Knights Hospitaller
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It was headquartered variously in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, until it became known by its current name. Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thoms order and it regained strength during the early 19th century as it redirected itself toward religious and humanitarian causes. In 1834, the order, by this time known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, acquired new headquarters in Rome, in 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1005, Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital, in 1023, merchants from Amalfi and Salerno in Italy were given permission by the Caliph Ali az-Zahir of Egypt to rebuild the hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital, which was built on the site of the monastery of Saint John the Baptist and it was served by the Order of Saint Benedict. Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem, under his successor, Raymond du Puy de Provence, the original hospice was expanded to an infirmary near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Initially the group cared for pilgrims in Jerusalem, but the order extended to providing pilgrims with an armed escort. Thus the Order of St. John imperceptibly became military without losing its charitable character. Raymond du Puy, who succeeded Gerard as Master of the Hospital in 1118, organised a militia from the orders members, in 1130, Pope Innocent II gave the order its coat of arms, a silver cross in a field of red. The Hospitallers and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land, frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a charter of privileges granted in 1185. The statutes of Roger de Moulins deal only with the service of the sick, the order numbered three distinct classes of membership, the military brothers, the brothers infirmarians, and the brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service. In 1248 Pope Innocent IV approved a military dress for the Hospitallers to be worn during battle. Instead of a closed cape over their armour, they wore a red surcoat with a cross emblazoned on it. Many of the more substantial Christian fortifications in the Holy Land were built by the Templars, at the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers held seven great forts and 140 other estates in the area. The two largest of these, their bases of power in the Kingdom and in the Principality of Antioch, were the Krak des Chevaliers, the property of the Order was divided into priories, subdivided into bailiwicks, which in turn were divided into commanderies. As early as the late 12th century the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England, as a result, buildings such as St Johns Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility. An Irish house was established at Kilmainham, near Dublin, after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291, the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli and, when Acre was captured in 1291, the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus. His successor, Foulques de Villaret, executed the plan, and on 15 August 1310, after four years of campaigning
26.
Teutonic Order
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The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious order founded as a military order in the 12th century in Acre. Purely religious since 1929, it still confers limited honorary knighthoods, the order was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Formed in the year 1190 in Acre, in the Levant, after Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to Transylvania in 1211 to help defend the South-Eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Kipchaks. Starting from there, the Order created the independent Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights, adding continuously the conquered Prussians territory, the Order theoretically lost its main purpose in Europe with the Christianization of Lithuania. However, it initiated numerous campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Novgorod Republic. The Teutonic Knights had an economic base, and so hired mercenaries from throughout Europe to augment their feudal levies. In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald, however, the capital of the Teutonic Knights was successfully defended in the following Siege of Marienburg and the Order was saved from collapse. In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made an alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter, the empire did not support the Order against Poland, in 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism, becoming Duke of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Soon after, the Order lost Livonia and its holdings in the Protestant areas of Germany, the Order did keep its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings. However, the Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body and it was outlawed by Adolf Hitler in 1938, but re-established in 1945. Today it operates primarily with charitable aims in Central Europe, the Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross. A cross pattée was sometimes used as their coat of arms, the motto of the Order was, Helfen, Wehren, Heilen. The full name of the Order in German is Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem or in Latin Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum, thus, the term Teutonic refers to the German origins of the order in Latin. It is commonly known in German as the Deutscher Orden, historically also as Deutscher Ritterorden, Deutschherrenorden, Deutschritterorden or Die Herren im weißen Mantel. However, based on the model of the Knights Templar, it was transformed into an order in 1198. It received papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Christianity, during the rule of Grand Master Hermann von Salza the Order changed from being a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order. The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchased Montfort, northeast of Acre, the Order also had a castle at Amouda in Armenia Minor
27.
Order of the Holy Sepulchre
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The pope is sovereign of the order. Founded as Milites Sancti Sepulcri attached to the Augustinian Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, recognised in 1113 by Papal bull of Pope Paschal II and of Pope Calistus II in 1122. Besides the Canons Regular, early members included secular canons, Milites Sancti Sepulcri, armed knights of valour and dedication chosen from the crusader troops. Together they vowed to obey the Augustinian Rule of poverty and obedience, and undertook specifically to defend the Holy Sepulchre, still today, the order bestows Canons as well as Knights, with the primary mission to support the Christian presence in the Holy Land. In 1496, Pope Alexander VI vested the Grand Magistry in the Papacy, in 1847, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem was restored by Pope Pius IX and the chivalric order was reorganised based on legal and spiritual ties to the Holy See. From 1949, Grand Masters have been Cardinals and it is the only order of chivalry, together with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, that is recognised and protected by the Holy See. The order today is estimated to have some 23,000 members in 52 Lieutenancies around the world, including monarchs, heads of state, the current Cardinal Grand Master is Edwin Frederick OBrien since 2011, and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is Grand Prior. Its headquarters are situated at Palazzo Della Rovere and its church in SantOnofrio al Gianicolo. The name of the Knights and Order varied over the centuries, including the Milites Sancti Sepulcri, the current name was determined on 27 July 1931 as the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Ceremonies of the Holy See. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were a common, if hazardous, numerous detailed commentaries have survived as evidence of this early Christian devotion. While there were places the pious visited during their travels. During the era of the Islamic expansion, Emperor Charlemagne sent two embassies to the Caliph of Baghdad, asking Frankish protectorate over the Holy Land, an epic chanson de geste recounts his legendary adventures in the Mediterranean and pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Tradition maintains that long before the Crusades, a form of knighthood was bestowed upon worthy men at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In any case, during the 11th century, prior to the Crusades, milites sancti Petri were established to protect Christians, persecution of Christians in the Holy Land intensified. Relations with the worlds Christian rulers was further strained when Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009. The crusades coincided with a concern in Europe for the holy places. After the capture of Jerusalem at the end of the First Crusade in 1099, the men in charge of securing its defense and its community of canons were called Milites Sancti Sepulcri. Together, the canons and the formed part of the structure of which evolved into the modern Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
28.
Order of Saint Lazarus
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The titular seat was successively situated at Jerusalem, Saint-Jean-dAcre and - after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem - the Château Royal de Boigny-sur-Bionne in France. After several centuries, the order went into decline and ceased to perform its original functions after the French Revolution, in 1489, Pope Innocent VIII attempted to merge the order and its land holdings with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. This was resisted by several French kings and in countries where it still retained its premises. The original symbol of the order was a green cross and this was in later centuries changed to a green eight-pointed Maltese Cross. The use of the cross as a universal symbol of pharmacies worldwide also is believed to have originated with the Order of St. Lazarus. The military order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem originated in a hospital founded in the twelfth century by crusaders of the Latin Kingdom. According to Charles Moeller, this pretension is apocryphal, the Order of St. Lazarus was purely an order of hospitallers in the beginning, and adopted the hospital Rule of St. Augustine in use in the West. It is unclear when the Order assumed a military role, Louis VII of France, on his return from the Second Crusade, gave it the Château of Broigny, near Orléans in 1154. This example was followed by Henry II of England, and by Emperor Frederick II, the Order remained primarily a hospitaller order but did take part in a number of battles. The Ordinis Fratrum & Militum Hospitalis Leprosorum S. Lazari Hierosolymitani under Augustinian Rule was confirmed by Papal Bull Cum a nobis petitur of Pope Alexander IV in April 1255, in 1262 Pope Urban IV assured it the same immunities as were granted to the monastic orders. The order quickly abandoned their military activities after the fall of Acre in 1291, the order ceased to be an order of hospitallers and became purely military, although the knights who resided in these commanderies had no specific tasks. In 1490, Pope Innocent VIII suppressed the order and transferred its possessions to the Knights of St. John. Although this was confirmed in 1505 by Pope Julius II, the Order of Saint Lazarus resisted this move, in France, the Bull of suppression was ignored and French Grand Masters appointed. The order of Saint John claimed the possession of the French holdings, in 1565 Pope Pius IV annulled the Bulls of his predecessors and restored all possessions to the order so that he might give the grand magistry to a favorite, Giovanni de Castiglione. But the latter did not succeed in securing the devolution of the commanderies in France, by the end of the 16th century, the order had retained a significant presence only in France and in Italy. This order was then linked in perpetuity with the Crown of Savoy and thenceforth the title of its Grand Master was hereditary in that house. By the time of Pope Clement VIII the order had two houses, one at Turin, was to contribute to combats on land, while the other, at Nice, had to provide galleys to fight the Turks at sea. But when thus reduced to the states of the Duke of Savoy, the order merely vegetated until the French Revolution, in 1816 the King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel I, re-established the titles of Knight and Commander of Sts
29.
Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
30.
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
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Located outside of the Armenian Highland and distinct from the Armenian Kingdom of antiquity, it was centered in the Cilicia region northwest of the Gulf of Alexandretta. Their capital was originally at Tarsus, and later became Sis, Cilicia was a strong ally of the European Crusaders, and saw itself as a bastion of Christendom in the East. It also served as a focus for Armenian nationalism and culture, in 1198, with the crowning of Levon the Magnificent of the Rubenid dynasty, Cilician Armenia became a kingdom. In 1226, the crown was passed to rival Hethumids through Isabellas second husband, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Crusader states disintegrated and the Mongols became Islamized, leaving the Armenian Kingdom without any regional allies. After relentless attacks by the Mamluks in Egypt in the fourteenth century, commercial and military interactions with Europeans brought new Western influences to the Cilician Armenian society. Many aspects of Western European life were adopted by the nobility including chivalry, fashions in clothing, and the use of French titles, names, moreover, the organization of the Cilician society shifted from its traditional system to become closer to Western feudalism. The European Crusaders themselves borrowed know-how, such as elements of Armenian castle-building, Cilician Armenia thrived economically, with the port of Ayas serving as a center for East to West trade. Armenian presence in Cilicia dates back to the first century BC, when under Tigranes the Great, in 83 BC, the Greek aristocracy of Seleucid Syria, weakened by a bloody civil war, offered their allegiance to the ambitious Armenian king. Tigranes then conquered Phoenicia and Cilicia, effectively ending the Seleucid Empire, the southern border of his domain reached as far as Ptolemais. Many of the inhabitants of conquered cities were sent to the new metropolis of Tigranakert, at its height, Tigranes Armenian Empire extended from the Pontic Alps to Mesopotamia, and from the Caspian to the Mediterranean. Tigranes invaded as far southeast as the Parthian capital of Ecbatana, in 27 BC, the Roman Empire conquered Cilicia and transformed it into one of its eastern provinces. After the 395 AD partition of the Roman Empire into halves, Cilicia became incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire, in the sixth century AD, Armenian families relocated to Byzantine territories. Many served in the Byzantine army as soldiers or as generals, Cilicia fell to Arab invasions in the seventh century and was entirely incorporated into the Rashidun Caliphate. However, the Caliphate failed to gain a permanent foothold in Anatolia, Nicephorus thus expelled the Muslims living in Cilicia, and encouraged Christians from Syria and Armenia to settle in the region. Emperor Basil II tried to expand into Armenian Vaspurakan in the east, as a result of the Byzantine military campaigns, the Armenians spread into Cappadocia, and eastward from Cilicia into the mountainous areas of northern Syria and Mesopotamia. The formal annexation of Greater Armenia to the Byzantine Empire in 1045, the Armenians could not re-establish an independent state in their native highland after the fall of Bagratid Armenia as it remained under foreign occupation. The Armenians came to serve the Byzantines as military officers or governors, the Seljuks also played a significant role in the Armenian population movement into Cilicia. In 1064, the Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan made their advance towards Anatolia by capturing Ani in Byzantine-held Armenia, seven years later, they earned a decisive victory against Byzantium by defeating Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes army at Manzikert, north of Lake Van
31.
Ayyubid dynasty
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The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries, Saladin had been the vizier of Fatimid Egypt before toppling the Fatimids in 1171. Three years later, he proclaimed himself sultan following the death of his former master, most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. However, the Crusaders regained control of Palestines coastline in the 1190s, by then, local Muslim dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids from Yemen, the Hejaz, and parts of Mesopotamia. After his death in 1249, as-Salih Ayyub was succeeded in Egypt by al-Muazzam Turanshah, however, the latter was soon overthrown by the Mamluk generals who had repelled a Crusader invasion of the Nile Delta. This effectively ended Ayyubid power in Egypt, attempts by the emirs of Syria, led by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, in 1260, the Mongols sacked Aleppo and conquered the Ayyubids remaining territories soon after. The Mamluks, who expelled the Mongols, maintained the Ayyubid principality of Hama until deposing its last ruler in 1341 and this period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of vigorously strengthening Sunni Muslim dominance in the region by constructing numerous madrasas in their major cities. The progenitor of the Ayyubid dynasty, Najm ad-Din Ayyub ibn Shadhi, belonged to the Kurdish Rawadiya tribe, Ayyubs ancestors settled in the town of Dvin, in northern Armenia. The Rawadiya were the dominant Kurdish group in the Dvin district, circumstances became unfavorable in Dvin when Turkish generals seized the town from its Kurdish prince. Shadhi left with his two sons Ayyub and Asad ad-Din Shirkuh and his friend Mujahid ad-Din Bihruz—the military governor of northern Mesopotamia under the Seljuks—welcomed him and appointed him governor of Tikrit. After Shadhis death, Ayyub succeeded him in governance of the city with the assistance of his brother Shirkuh, together they managed the affairs of the city well, gaining them popularity from the local inhabitants. In the meantime, Imad ad-Din Zangi, the ruler of Mosul, was defeated by the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mustarshid, in his bid to escape the battlefield to Mosul via Tikrit, Zangi took shelter with Ayyub and sought his assistance in this task. Ayyub complied and provided Zangi and his companions boats to cross the Tigris River, as a consequence for assisting Zangi, the Abbasid authorities sought punitive measures against Ayyub. Simultaneously, in an incident, Shirkuh killed a close confidant of Bihruz on charges that he had sexually assaulted a woman in Tikrit. The Abbasid court issued arrest warrants for both Ayyub and Shirkuh, but before the brothers could be arrested, they departed Tikrit for Mosul in 1138. When they arrived in Mosul, Zangi provided them all the facilities they needed. Ayyub was made commander of Baalbek and Shirkuh entered the service of Zangis son, according to historian Abdul Ali, it was under the care and patronage of Zangi that the Ayyubid family rose to prominence. In 1164, Nur al-Din dispatched Shirkuh to lead a force to prevent the Crusaders from establishing a strong presence in an increasingly anarchic Egypt
32.
Sultan of Egypt
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Sultan of Egypt was the status held by the rulers of Egypt after the establishment of the Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin in 1174 until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. From 1914 the title was again used by the heads of the Muhammad Ali dynasty of Egypt and Sudan, later being replaced by the title of King of Egypt. Prior to the rise of Saladin, Egypt was the center of the Shia Fatimid Caliphate, however, with Saladins rise to power in 1169, Egypt returned to the Sunni fold and the Abbasid Caliphate. In 1250, the Ayyubids were overthrown by the Mamelukes, who established the Bahri dynasty, the Bahri were later overthrown by a rival Mameluke group, who established the Burgi Dynasty in 1382. The Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517 ended the Egyptian Sultanate and it also marked the end of the Abbassid Caliphate, as the Ottomans captured the current Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III, and forced him to relinquish the title to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. The Ottomans subsequently paid little interest to Egyptian affairs, and the Mamelukes rapidly regained most of their power within Egypt, however, they remained vassals of the Ottoman Sultan and their leaders were limited to the title of Bey. In 1523, the Ottoman-appointed Turkish governor of Egypt, Hain Ahmed Pasha, following the defeat of Napoleon Is forces in 1801, Muhammad Ali Pasha seized power, overthrowing the Mamelukes, and declaring himself ruler of Egypt. In 1805, the Ottoman Sultan Selim III reluctantly recognized him as Wāli under Ottoman suzerainty, Muhammad Ali, however, styled himself as Khedive, and though technically a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, governed Egypt as if it were an independent state. Eventually he waged war on the Ottoman Empire with the intention of overthrowing the ruling Osman Dynasty, Muhammad Alis grandson, Ismail I, acceded to the Egyptian throne in 1863 and immediately set about achieving his grandfathers aims, though in a less confrontation manner. A combination of growing Egyptian power, deteriorating Ottoman strength, and he was persuaded otherwise by pressure from the Great Powers, who feared the consequences of further disintegration of Ottoman power. Ultimately, Ismails reign ended in failure, due to the debt his ambitious projects had incurred. European and Ottoman pressure forced his removal in 1879 and replacement by his far more pliant son Tewfik, the subsequent Orabi Revolt resulted in Great Britain invading Egypt in 1882 on the invitation of Khedive Tewfik, and beginning its decades long occupation of the country. The legal fiction of Ottoman sovereignty in Egypt was finally ended in 1914 when the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in First World War. Alarmed that the anti-British Khedive Abbas II would side with the Ottomans, symbolizing the official end of Ottoman rule, Hussein Kamel took the title Sultan as did his brother Fuad I who succeeded him in 1917, though in reality Egypt remained under British domination. Both Hussein Kamel and Fuad maintained Egypts claim to Sudan, with Egyptian nationalists declaring both in turn to be the Sultan of Egypt and Sudan, rising nationalist anger at the continued British occupation forced Britain to formally recognize Egyptian independence, in 1922. However, the title of Sultan was dropped and replaced with King, nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul, who was later exiled by the British, maintained that this was because the British refused to recognize a sovereign Egyptian ruler who outranked their own king. The following year, on 18 June 1953, the government officially abolished the monarchy
33.
Sultanate of Rum
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The name Rûm reflects the Arabic name of Anatolia, الرُّومُ ar-Rūm, a loan from Greek Ρωμιοί Romans. The Sultanate of Rum seceded from the Great Seljuk Empire under Suleiman ibn Qutulmish in 1077, following the Battle of Manzikert, with capitals first at İznik and then at Konya. It reached the height of its power during the late 12th and early 13th century, in the east, the sultanate absorbed other Turkish states and reached Lake Van. Trade from Iran and Central Asia across Anatolia was developed by a system of caravanserai, especially strong trade ties with the Genoese formed during this period. The increased wealth allowed the sultanate to absorb other Turkish states that had established in eastern Anatolia. The Seljuq sultans bore the brunt of the Crusades, and eventually succumbed to the Mongol invasion in 1243, for the remainder of the 13th century, the Seljuqs acted as vassals of the Ilkhanate. Their power disintegrated during the half of the 13th century. The last of the Seljuq vassals of the Ilkhanate, Mesud II, was murdered in 1308, the dissolution of the Seljuq state left behind a number of Anatolian beyliks, among them that of the Ottoman dynasty, which eventually became the Ottoman Empire. In 1075, he captured the Byzantine cities of Nicaea and Nicomedia, two years later, he declared himself sultan of an independent Seljuq state and established his capital at İznik. Suleyman was killed in Antioch in 1086 by Tutush I, the Seljuk ruler of Syria, when Malik Shah died in 1092, Kilij Arslan was released and immediately established himself in his fathers territories. Kilij Arslan was defeated by soldiers of the First Crusade and driven back into south-central Anatolia, in 1107, he ventured east and captured Mosul but died the same year fighting Malik Shahs son, Mehmed Tapar. Meanwhile, another Rum Seljuq, Malik Shah, captured Konya, in 1116 Kilij Arslans son, Mesud I, took the city with the help of the Danishmends. Upon Mesuds death in 1156, the sultanate controlled nearly all of central Anatolia, Mesuds son, Kilij Arslan II, captured the remaining territories around Sivas and Malatya from the last of the Danishmends. At the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176, Kilij Arslan II also defeated a Byzantine army led by Manuel I Komnenos, despite a temporary occupation of Konya in 1190 by the Holy Roman Empires forces of the Third Crusade, the sultanate was quick to recover and consolidate its power. During the last years of Kilij Arslan IIs reign, the experienced a civil war with Kaykhusraw I fighting to retain control. Suleiman II was routed by Kingdom of Georgia in Battle of Basian and he was succeeded by his son Kilij Arslan III, whose reign was unpopular. Kaykhusraw I seized Konya in 1205 reestablishing his reign, under his rule and those of his two successors, Kaykaus I and Kayqubad I, Seljuq power in Anatolia reached its apogee. Kaykhusraws most important achievement was the capture of the harbour of Attalia on the Mediterranean coast in 1207 and his son Kaykaus captured Sinop and made the Empire of Trebizond his vassal in 1214
34.
Nizari Ismaili state
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The Ismaili state, also called the Alamut state, was a Shia Nizari Ismaili state founded by Hasan-i Sabbah after he took control of the Alamut Castle in 1090 AD. The state consisted of a nexus of strategic fortresses throughout Persia and Syria. The state collapsed when Rukn-ud-Din Khurshah surrendered Alamut Castle to the invading Mongols, within two generations, the Fatimid Empire would suffer several more splits and eventually implode. The Seljuq amirs usually held full jurisdiction and control over the districts they administered, meanwhile, Persian artisans, craftsmen and lower classes grew increasingly dissatisfied with the Seljuq policies and heavy taxes. Hasan too, was appalled by the political and economic oppression imposed by the Sunni Seljuq ruling class on Shiite Muslims living across Iran. It was in context that he embarked on a resistance movement against the Seljuqs. The castle had never before been captured by means and thus Hasan planned meticulously. Meanwhile, he dispatched his reliable supporters to the Alamut valley to begin settlements around the castle, in the summer of 1090 AD, Hasan set out from Qazvin towards Alamut on a mountainous route through Andej. Still in disguise, Hasan made his way into the fortress, earning the trust, careful not to attract the attention of the castle’s Zaydi lord, Mahdi, Hasan began to attract prominent figures at Alamut to his mission. It has even suggested that Mahdi’s own deputy was a secret supporter of Hasan. The Alamut fortress was captured from Mahdi in 1090 AD and therefore from Seljuq control by Hasan. Mahdis life was spared, and he later received 3,000 gold Dinars in compensation, capturing of the Alamut Castle marks the founding of the Nizari Ismaili state. These periods of internal turmoil allowed the Ismaili state respite from attack, the state had around 200 fortresses overall. The most important one was Alamut Castle, the residence of the Lord, the largest castle was Lambasar Castle, featuring a complex and highly efficient water storage system. The most important fortress in Syria was Masyaf Castle, though the castle of Kahf was probably the residence of the Syrian Ismaili leader Rashid al-Din Sinan. The natural geographical features of the valley surrounding Alamut largely secured the castle’s defence, positioned atop a narrow rock base approximately 180 meters above ground level, the fortress could not be taken by direct military force. To the east, the Alamut valley is bordered by a range called Alamkuh between which the Alamut River flows. The valleys western entrance is a one, shielded by cliffs over 350m high
35.
Byzantine Empire under the Angelos dynasty
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During this time, many different imperial dynasties ruled over the empire, in the context of Byzantine history, the period c.1185 – c.1204 AD was under the Angeloi dynasty. The Angeloi rose to the following the deposition of Andronikos I Komnenos. The Angeloi were female-line descendants of the previous dynasty, the Fourth Crusade is seen by historians today as the death knell of the Byzantine Empire. It is therefore no exaggeration to suggest that the Angeloi led Byzantium to her ultimate demise, every emperor of the Angeloi dynasty was either deposed or killed, with the exception of Isaac Angelus who was restored for a brief time after his desposement. When Manuel I Komnenos died on 24 September 1180, his son and he passed his entire life at play or the chase, and contracted several habits of pronounced viciousness. Consequently, this child, unfit to rule both physically and mentally ruled with a led by his mother, Maria of Antioch. Her Frankish connections guaranteed her the hatred of the Byzantine Empire, Maria then decided to appoint an unpopular pro-western Byzantine also named Alexios Komnenos, a nephew of Manuel Komnenos, to be her chief advisor in the regency. It is said that he was accustomed to spend the greater part of the day in bed. | The incompetence of Alexios regency led to much corruption throughout the Empire. It is little wonder therefore that Andronikos Komnenos, a grandson of Alexios I, Andronikos was over 6 feet tall, his flattering charms stole the hearts of many noble women and with it earned the anger of their menfolk. Exiled by Manuel Komnenos, he returned in 1180 following his death, despite his senior age of 64 years in 1182, Andronikos retained the good looks of his forties. In August of that year Andronikos sparked a rebellion by marching on to the Capital, the army and the navy did not hesitate to join him and soon rebellion broke out in Constantinople in the name of Andronikos. A massacre of Latins then proceeded, with the women, children and even the sick in the hospitals of the Capital shown no mercy, the trading rights of the Venetians, granted by Alexios almost a century earlier, were also revoked. These actons made the powerful enemies in western Europe. The Emperor and his mother, Maria of Antioch, were sent to an Imperial Villa, Maria Komnene, daughter of Manuel Komnenos by his first wife Bertha of Sulzbach, was poisoned along with her husband Renier of Montferrat. Next Alexios mother, Maria of Antioch, was strangled in her cell, when Andronikos was finally crowned co-emperor in September 1183, he waited two months before disposing of Alexios II Komnenos. Afterwards, he took his 12-year-old wife Agnes of France for himself, early on, Andronikos ruled wisely – he began by attacking the corruption within the taxation and administration of the empire. However, these calamities were nothing in comparison to the storm that had lain dormant, between late 1184 and early 1185, William II of Sicily assembled a host of 80,000 soldiers and sailors and some 200–300 ships to conquer the empire. Andronikos, despite his military reputation was paralysed by indecision
36.
Philip II of France
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Philip II, known as Philip Augustus, was King of France from 1180 to 1223, a member of the House of Capet. Philips predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French monarch to style himself king of France. The son of King Louis VII and his wife, Adèle of Champagne, he was originally nicknamed Dieudonné God-given because he was the first son of Louis VII. Philip was given the nickname Augustus by the chronicler Rigord for having extended the Crown lands of France so remarkably, the military actions surrounding the Albigensian Crusade helped prepare the expansion of France southward. Philip did not participate directly in these actions, but he allowed his vassals, Philip transformed France from a small feudal state into the most prosperous and powerful country in Europe. He checked the power of the nobles and helped the towns to free themselves from seigniorial authority and he built a great wall around Paris, re-organized the French government and brought financial stability to his country. Philip was born in Gonesse on 21 August 1165 and he spent much of the following night attempting to find his way out, but to no avail. Exhausted by cold, hunger and fatigue, he was discovered by a peasant carrying a charcoal burner. His father went on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Thomas Becket to pray for Philips recovery and was told that his son had indeed recovered, however, on his way back to Paris, he suffered a stroke. In declining health, Louis VII had his 14-year-old son crowned and anointed as king at Rheims on 1 November 1179 by the Archbishop Guillaume aux Blanches Mains. He was married on 28 April 1180 to Isabelle of Hainaut, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut, and Margaret I, Countess of Flanders, who brought the County of Artois as her dowry. From the time of his coronation, all power was transferred to Philip. Eventually, Louis died on 18 September 1180, while the royal demesne had increased under Philip I and Louis VI, it had diminished slightly under Louis VII. In April 1182, partially to enrich the French crown, Philip expelled all Jews from the demesne, Philips eldest son Louis was born on 5 September 1187 and inherited the County of Artois in 1190, when his mother Isabelle died. The main source of funding for Philips army was from the royal demesne, in times of conflict, he could immediately call up 250 knights,250 horse sergeants,100 mounted crossbowmen,133 crossbowmen on foot,2,000 foot sergeants, and 300 mercenaries. Towards the end of his reign, the king could muster some 3,000 knights,9,000 sergeants,6,000 urban militiamen, using his increased revenues, Philip was the first Capetian king to build a French navy actively. By 1215, his fleet could carry a total of 7,000 men, within two years, his fleet included 10 large ships and many smaller ones. In 1181, Philip began a war with Philip, Count of Flanders, over the Vermandois, which King Philip claimed as his wifes dowry, finally the Count of Flanders invaded France, ravaging the whole district between the Somme and the Oise before penetrating as far as Dammartin
37.
Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy
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Hugh III of Burgundy was duke of Burgundy between 1162 and 1192. Hugh was the eldest son of duke Odo II and Marie of Champagne, daughter of Theobald, the rule of Hugh III marked the ending of a period of relative peace in the duchy of Burgundy. Hugh was a belligerent man and soon was involved in conflicts against king Louis VII of France over their borders, when King Philip Augustus succeeded Louis in 1180, Hugh seized the opportunity and forced several men to change their allegiance to Burgundy. Philip II was not happy with the loss of his vassals and invaded the duchy, the town fell and with it, its garrison, commanded by Eudes, Hughs heir. A peace was negotiated and Hugh had to pay a ransom for his son. In 1187, Hugh transferred the capital of Burgundy to Dijon, Hugh then turned his energies to the Holy Land, embarking in the Third Crusade in the retinue of Philip II. When Philip returned to France, he left Hugh in charge of the French troops, Hugh played a major role in the victory of the battle of Arsuf and at the siege of Acre, where he died August 1192. He was married twice, Firstly, in 1165, to Alice of Lorraine, daughter of Matthias I, Duke of Lorraine, he repudiated her in 1183
38.
Henry II, Count of Champagne
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Henry II of Champagne was count of Champagne from 1181 to 1197, and ruler of Jerusalem from 1192 to 1197, although he never used the title of king. Henry was the eldest son of Count Henry I of Champagne and Marie of France and his aunt Adèle of Champagne was Queen of France. In 1171, Henry was betrothed to Isabella of Hainault, when she married Philip II of France instead, his father, aunt and other members of his family were angered. It temporarily made Queen Mother Adèles faction hostile to Isabellas family, Henrys father died in 1181, and his mother ruled as regent until 1187. In 1190 Henry left for the East, after having his barons swear to recognize his younger brother Theobald as his successor should he fail to return and he joined the Third Crusade, arriving ahead of his uncles, King Philip II of France and King Richard I of England. Initially, he was one of the leaders of the French contingent at the siege of Acre before Philips arrival, Henry was related to Conrad through both his maternal grandparents. According to Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, he was wounded at Acre on 15 November, later on in the campaign, Henry shifted his allegiances to Richard. In April 1192, King Richard sent Henry as his representative from Acre to Tyre, a few days later, Conrad was assassinated by two Hashshashin. Henry came back to Tyre two days later, ostensibly to help organise Conrads coronation, but found that a funeral was being prepared instead and he was immediately betrothed to the newly widowed—and pregnant—Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem. They were married just eight days after Conrads death, the marriage was glossed romantically by some of the chroniclers, that Isabella was so taken with Henrys physical attractions that she asked him to marry her. Since she was known to be pregnant with Conrads child, the marriage was considered scandalous by some. However, some consultation with the Haute Cour might have been expected, the couple went on to have two daughters, Alice and Philippa. Henry asked for permission from his uncle Richard, who gave it promptly, however, since Richard was suspected of Conrads murder, this raises further questions about the whole episode. Indeed, Henry, who was known to the Arabs as al-kond Herri, later sought an alliance with the Hashshashin, to demonstrate his authority, the grand master of the Hashshashin beckoned to two adherents, who immediately flung themselves from the ramparts to their deaths. The Hashshashin then offered to commit a murder for Henry, as an honour to their guest, Henry demurred, concluded the treaty, and departed. Patrick A. Williams has suggested Henry himself as a suspect in Conrads murder, Henry died in 1197, falling from a first-floor window at his palace in Acre. There are varying accounts in different manuscripts of the Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, the majority suggest that a window-lattice or balcony gave way as he leaned against it. A servant, possibly a dwarf named Scarlet, also fell, after trying to save him by catching hold of his hanging sleeve, Another version suggests that Henry had been watching a parade from the window, when a party of Pisan envoys entered the room
39.
Philip I, Count of Flanders
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Philip of Alsace was count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191. He succeeded his father Thierry of Alsace and his reign began in 1157, while he acted as regent and co-count for his father, Thierry, who was frequently away on crusade. He defeated Floris III, Count of Holland and stopped the piracy, Floris was captured in Bruges and remained in prison until 1167, at which point he was being ransomed in exchange for recognition of Flemish suzerainty over Zeeland. By inheritance, Philip also recovered for Flanders the territories of Waasland, in 1159 Philip married Elisabeth of Vermandois, also known as Isabelle, elder daughter of count Raoul I of Vermandois and Petronilla of Aquitaine. When his brother-in-law died, his wife inherited the county of Vermandois and this pushed Flemish authority further south, to its greatest extent thus far, and threatened to completely alter the balance of power in northern France. Philip governed wisely with the aid of Robert dAire, whose role was almost that of a prime minister and they established an effective administrative system and Philips foreign relations were excellent. He mediated in disputes between Louis VII of France and Henry II of England, between Henry II and Thomas Becket, and arranged the marriage of his sister Margaret with Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut. In 1175, Philip discovered that Elisabeth was committing adultery and had her lover, Walter de Fontaines, Philip then obtained complete control of her lands in Vermandois from King Louis VII of France. Philips brothers Matthew and Peter of Alsace also died without surviving children, so in 1177, before going on crusade, he designated Margaret and Baldwin as his heirs. In the Holy Land, Philip hoped to take part in an invasion of Egypt. A Byzantine fleet of 150 galleys was waiting at Acre when Philip arrived on 2 August and he and King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem were first cousins, sharing a grandfather, King Fulk, whose daughter from his first marriage, Sibylla of Anjou, was Philips mother. Baldwin IV was a leper and childless, and offered Philip the regency of the Kingdom of Jerusalem as his closest male relative currently present there, Philip refused both this and the command of the army of the kingdom, saying he was there only as a pilgrim. Instead Baldwin appointed Raynald of Châtillon, to whom Philip would act as an assistant, as William of Tyre says, this being the situation, the count at last revealed the secret thought of his mind and did not try to conceal to what end all his plans were. He had come to have his own vassals married to his cousins, Baldwins sister Sibylla, Baldwin of Ibelin insulted the count in public. Philip left Jerusalem in October to campaign in the north for the Principality of Antioch, meanwhile, the Byzantine alliance against Egypt was abandoned. In November Baldwin IV and Raynald defeated Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard, Philip returned from Palestine in 1179, at which point Louis VII, now sick, named him guardian of his young son Philip II. One year later, Philip of Alsace had his protégé married to his niece, Isabelle of Hainaut, offering the County of Artois and other Flemish territories as dowry, when Louis VII died, Philip II began to assert his independence. King Philip refused to open battle and gained the upper hand
40.
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
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Frederick I, also known as Frederick Barbarossa, was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and he became King of Italy in 1155 and was crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV on 18 June 1155. Two years later, the term sacrum first appeared in a document in connection with his Empire and he was later formally crowned King of Burgundy, at Arles on 30 June 1178. He was named Barbarossa by the northern Italian cities which he attempted to rule, Barbarossa means red beard in Italian, in German, he was known as Kaiser Rotbart, before his imperial election, Frederick was by inheritance Duke of Swabia. He was the son of Duke Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and Judith, daughter of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, Frederick therefore descended from the two leading families in Germany, making him an acceptable choice for the Empires prince-electors. Historians consider him among the Holy Roman Empires greatest medieval emperors, in 1147 he became Duke of the southern German region of Swabia, and shortly afterwards made his first trip to the East, accompanied by his uncle, the German king Conrad III, on the Second Crusade. The expedition proved to be a disaster, but Frederick distinguished himself, when Conrad died in February 1152, only Frederick and the prince-bishop of Bamberg were at his deathbed. Frederick energetically pursued the crown and at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 the kingdoms princely electors designated him as the next German king and he was crowned King of the Romans at Aachen several days later, on 9 March 1152. Fredericks father was from the Hohenstaufen family, and his mother was from the Welf family, the Hohenstaufens were often called Ghibellines, which derives from the Italianized name for Waiblingen castle, the family seat in Swabia, the Welfs, in a similar Italianization, were called Guelfs. The reigns of Henry IV and Henry V left the status of the German empire in disarray, for a quarter of a century following the death of Henry V in 1125, the German monarchy was largely a nominal title with no real power. The king was chosen by the princes, was given no resources outside those of his own duchy, the royal title was furthermore passed from one family to another to preclude the development of any dynastic interest in the German crown. When Frederick I of Hohenstaufen was chosen as king in 1152, royal power had been in abeyance for over twenty-five years. The only real claim to lay in the rich cities of northern Italy. The Salian line had died out with the death of Henry V in 1125, one of the Hohenstaufens gained the throne as Conrad III of Germany. When Frederick Barbarossa succeeded his uncle in 1152, there seemed to be excellent prospects for ending the feud, the Welf duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, would not be appeased, however, remaining an implacable enemy of the Hohenstaufen monarchy. Barbarossa had the duchies of Swabia and Franconia, the force of his own personality, the Germany that Frederick tried to unite was a patchwork of more than 1600 individual states, each with its own prince. A few of these, such as Bavaria and Saxony, were large, many were too small to pinpoint on a map. The titles afforded to the German king were Caesar, Augustus, by the time Frederick would assume these, they were little more than propaganda slogans with little other meaning
41.
Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia
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Frederick VI of Hohenstaufen was duke of Swabia from 1170 to his death at the siege of Acre. He was born in Modigliana, the son of Frederick I Barbarossa and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy and brother of Henry VI. Frederick was betrothed to the princess Constance of Hungary, but they never married and he died, aged 24, at Acre
42.
Leopold V, Duke of Austria
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Leopold V, known as the Virtuous, a member of the House of Babenberg, was Duke of Austria from 1177 and Duke of Styria from 1192 until his death. Just before his birth, his father had achieved the elevation of the Austrian margraviate to a duchy according to the 1156 Privilegium Minus, as the eldest son of Henry II, Leopold was already enfeoffed with the Austrian duchy by the emperor in the summer of 1174 at Regensburg. He succeeded his father as Duke of Austria upon his death on 13 January 1177, soon after, Leopold lent his support to Duke Frederick of Bohemia stuck in a conflict with his Přemyslid cousin Soběslav II, who had campaigned in the Austrian duchy. In turn, Leopold reached an agreement with the neighbouring Duchy of Bohemia. Two years later, he attended an Imperial Diet in Erfurt, in 1182 Leopold went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was received with honour at the courts of King Béla III of Hungary and of Emperor Alexios II Komnenos in Constantinople. Back in Germany, he began negotiating the Georgenberg Pact with the last Otakar duke Ottokar IV of Styria, who had received the ducal title from Emperor Frederick in 1180. The agreement was concluded on 17 August 1186, whereafter Styria, the next year Leopold was enfeoffed with Styria by the emperor, this was the first step towards the creation of modern Austria. Leopold is mainly remembered outside Austria for his participation in the Third Crusade, border disputes with King Béla III of Hungary had initially impeded the duke from accompanying Emperor Frederick on his departure in May 1189. When he heard about the death in 1190, he got up and went to Venice. Autumn storms forced him to winter in Zadar on the Adriatic coast, Leopold took over command of what remained of the Imperial forces after the death of the emperors son Duke Frederick of Swabia in January. According to legend, his tunic was blood-soaked after the fights and when he doffed his belt, the new emperor Henry VI granted him the privilege to adopt these colours as his new banner, that later would become the flag of Austria. Acre surrendered on July 12, after the arrival of King Philip II of France, Duke Leopold, as commander of the German contingent, demanded rights equal to those of the two kings but was rejected. The emperor probably agreed with King Philip II of France, already in conflict with the English king, when Richard left the Holy Land in late October 1192, he found the French ports closed and sailed up the Adriatic Sea. He took the road from Aquileia across Austria, to reach the Bavarian estates of his Welf brother-in-law Henry the Lion. Whilst travelling under a disguise, he had to stop at Vienna shortly before Christmas 1192, initially Duke Leopold had the king imprisoned in Dürnstein, and in March 1193 Richard was brought before Emperor Henry VI at Trifels Castle, accused of Conrads murder. A ransome of 35,000 kilogrammes of silver was paid to release King Richard. Leopolds share became the foundation for the mint in Vienna, and was used to new city walls for Vienna, as well as to found the towns of Wiener Neustadt. However, the duke was excommunicated by Pope Celestine III for having taken a fellow crusader prisoner, to achieve absolution, Leopold prepared for another crusade, but his plans failed, in 1194, his foot was crushed when his horse fell on him at a tournament in Graz
43.
Conrad of Montferrat
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Conrad of Montferrat was a north Italian nobleman, one of the major participants in the Third Crusade. He was the de facto King of Jerusalem by marriage from 24 November 1190 and he was also marquis of Montferrat from 1191. Conrad was the son of Marquis William V of Montferrat, the Elder. He was a first cousin of Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, as well as Louis VII of France, Conrad was born in Montferrat, which is now a region of Piedmont, in northwest Italy. The exact place and year are unknown and he is first mentioned in a charter in 1160, when serving at the court of his maternal uncle, Conrad, Bishop of Passau, later Archbishop of Salzburg. In one thing alone was he regarded as blameworthy, that he had seduced anothers wife away from her husband, and made her separate from him. He was active in diplomacy from his twenties, and became a military commander. He first married an unidentified lady before 1179, but she was dead by the end of 1186, in 1179, following the familys alliance with Manuel I Comnenos, Conrad led an army against Frederick Barbarossas forces, then commanded by the imperial Chancellor, Archbishop Christian of Mainz. He defeated them at Camerino in September, taking the Chancellor hostage and he left the captive in his brother Bonifaces care and went to Constantinople to be rewarded by the Emperor, returning to Italy shortly after Manuels death in 1180. In the winter of 1186–1187, Isaac II Angelus offered his sister Theodora, as a bride to Conrads younger brother Boniface, to renew the Byzantine alliance with Montferrat, but Boniface was married. Conrad, recently widowed, had taken the cross, intending to join his father in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, instead, he accepted Isaacs offer, on his marriage, he was awarded the rank of Caesar. However, almost immediately, he had to help the Emperor defend his throne against a revolt, according to Choniates, Conrad inspired the weak Emperor to take the initiative. He fought heroically, without shield or helmet and wearing a linen cuirass instead of mail and he was slightly wounded in the shoulder, but unhorsed Branas, who was then killed and beheaded by his bodyguards. Roger had initially referred to Conrad having slain a prominent nobleman in a rebellion — meaning Branas, in his Chronica, he condensed this to having committed homicide, Conrad evidently intended to join his father, who held the castle of St Elias. He arrived first off Acre, which had fallen to Saladin, and so sailed north to Tyre. After his victory at the Battle of Hattin over the army of Jerusalem, Saladin was on the north, and had already captured Acre, Sidon. Raymond of Tripoli was in failing health, and died soon after he went home, according to the Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, Reginald of Sidon had taken charge in Tyre and was in the process of negotiating its surrender with Saladin. Conrad allegedly threw Saladins banners into the ditch, and made the Tyrians swear total loyalty to him and his rise to power seems to have been less dramatic in reality
44.
Markward von Annweiler
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Markward von Annweiler was Imperial Seneschal and Regent of the Kingdom of Sicily. During the reign of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Markward became one of the most important figures in the administration, from 1184, Markward served Barbarossas son Henry VI in Italy. Henry appointed him Margrave of Ancona and Count of Abruzzo, placing him in a strategic position in north-central Italy. After the death of Henry, Markward at first supported his widow Constance of Sicily and he had been excommunicated by Popes Celestine III and Innocent III, who were trying to take over lands in central Italy. Markward stayed in Italy, and became a supporter of Philip of Swabia, markwards political and military activities caused great problems for the Popes, whose control of Sicily gradually weakened. Two years after Constances death, Philip gave Markward the lordship of Palermo, where the under-age heir, despite the opposition of Innocent III, Markward became Guardian of Frederick II and Regent of Sicily. However, Markward died within a few years and he was succeeded in Palermo by one William of Capparone
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