Crusaders and Settlers in the Latin East (Variorum Collected Studies) [1 ed.] 9780754659679, 0754659674

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Also in the Variorum Collected Studies Series:

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Mediterranean Encounters, Economic, Religious, Political, 1100-1550

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VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES SERIES

Crusaders and Settlers in the Latin East

Jonathan Riley-Smith

Jonathan Riley-Smith

Crusaders and Settlers in the Latin East

O Routledge S ^ ^ Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2008 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition © 2008 by Jonathan Riley-Smith Jonathan Riley-Smith has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Riley-Smith, Jonathan Simon Christopher, 1938Crusaders and settlers in the Latin East. (Variorum collected studies series ; no. 912) 1. Crusades 2. Christians - Latin Orient 3. Jerusalem - History - Latin Kingdom, 1099-1244 4. Europe - Relations - Latin Orient 5. Latin Orient - Relations Europe I. Title 909'.07 ISBN 9780754659679 (hbk) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Riley-Smith, Jonathan Simon Christopher, 1938Crusaders and settlers in the Latin East / by Jonathan Riley-Smith. p. cm. - (Variorum collected studies series) Includes index. ISBN 978-0-7546-5967-9 (alk. paper) 1. Crusades. 2. Jerusalem - History - Latin Kingdom, 1099-1244. 3. Christians - Latin Orient. 4. Europe - Relations - Latin Orient. 5. Latin Orient - RelationsEurope. I. Title. D160.R55 2008 909.07-dc22 2008037947 ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-5967-9 (hbk) VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES SERIES CS912

CONTENTS Preface

ix-xi

Acknowledgements I

Present and past

The Past and the Present, Problems of Understanding, ed. A. Hegarty. Oxford: Grandpont House, 1993

xii 75-92

CRUSADING

II

III

Casualties and the number of knights on the First Crusade Crusades Vol. 1, eds B.Z. Kedar andJ.S.C. Riley-Smith with H.J. Nicholson. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002 Early crusaders to the East and the costs of crusading

1095-1130

237-257

Family traditions and participation in the Second Crusade The Second Crusade and the Cistercians, ed. M. Gervers. New York: St Martin s Press, 1992.

101-108

Cross Cultural Convergences in the Crusader Period, eds M. Goodich, S. Menache and S. Schein. New York: Peter Lang, 1995 IV

V

VI

13-28

Toward an understanding of the Fourth Crusade as an institution Urbs Capta: the Fourth Crusade and its Consequences, ed. A. Laiou. (Realites Byzantines 10.) Paris: Lethielleux, 2005 Crusading as an act of love History 65. Oxford, 1980

71-87

177-192

CONTENTS

vi

VII

VIII

Christian violence and the crusades

3-20

The politics of war: France and the Holy Land

1-17

Religious Violence between Christians and Jews: Medieval Roots, Modern Perspectives, ed. A. Sapir Abulafia. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002

The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library s Medieval Picture Bible, ed. W Noel andD. Weiss. London: The Walters Art Museum and Third Millenium Publishing, 2002, pp. 71-81

THE LATIN EAST

IX

Families, crusades and settlement in the Latin East, 1102-1131

Die Kreuzfahrerstaaten als multikulturelle Gesellschaft: Einwanderer und Minderheiten im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert, ed. HE. Mayer (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, Kolloquien 37). Munich: Oldenbourg, 1997 X

Some lesser officials in Latin Syria English Historical Review 87 (342). Oxford, 1972

XI

Government in Latin Syria and the commercial privileges of foreign merchants Relations between East and West in the Middle Ages, ed. D. Baker. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973

XII

King Fulk of Jerusalem and 'the Sultan of Babylon' Montjoie: Studies in Crusade History in Honour of Hans Eberhard Mayer, eds B.Z. Kedar, J. Riley-Smith and R. Hiestand. Aldershot: Ashgate/Variorum, 1997

XIII

Government and the indigenous in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem

Medieval Frontiers: Concepts and Practices, eds D. Abulafia andN. Berend. Aldershot: Ashgate/Variorum, 2002

XIV

The Crown of France and Acre, 1254-1291

France and the Holy Land: Frankish Culture at the End of the Crusades, eds D.H. Weiss andL. Mahoney. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004

1-12

1-26

109-132

55-66

121-131

45-62

CONTENTS

vii

THE MILITARY ORDERS IN THE CENTRAL MIDDLE AGES

XV

XVI

The origins of the commandery in the Temple and the Hospital La Commanderie: Institution des Ordres Militaires dans VOccident Medieval, ed. A. Luttrell andL. Pressouyre. Paris: CTHS, 2002, pp. 9-18. Guy of Lusignan, the Hospitallers and the gates of Acre Dei Gesta per Francos: Etudes sur les Croisades dediees a Jean Richard, eds M. Balard, B.Z. Kedar andJ. Riley-Smith. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001

1-11

111-115

XVII Further thoughts on the layout of the Hospital in Acre Chemins d'Outre-mer. Etudes d'Histoire sur la Mediterranee Medievale offertes a Michel Balard, eds D. Coulon, C. OttenFroux, P. Pages andD. Valerien, 2 vols. Paris: Sorbonne, 2004, 2

753-764

XVIII Were the Templars guilty? The Medieval Crusade, ed. S.J. Ridyard. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2004

107-124

XIX

The structures of the Orders of the Temple and the Hospital inc. 1291 The Medieval Crusade, ed. S.J. Ridyard. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2004

125-143

THE SHADOW OF CRUSADING

XX

The Order of St John in England, 1827-1858 The Military Orders: Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick, ed. M. Barber. Aldershot: Ashgate/Variorum, 1994

XXI

Islam and the crusades in history and imagination, 8 November 1898-11 September 2001 Crusades Vol. 2, eds B.Z. Kedar andJ.S.C Riley-Smith with H.J. Nicholson. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003

Index

121-138

151-167

1-18

This volume contains xii + 364 pages

PUBLISHER'S NOTE The articles in this volume, as in all others in the Variorum Collected Studies Series, have not been given a new, continuous pagination. In order to avoid confusion, and to facilitate their use where these same studies have been referred to elsewhere, the original pagination has been maintained wherever possible. Each article has been given a Roman number in order of appearance, as listed in the Contents. This number is repeated on each page and is quoted in the index entries.

PREFACE The history of the crusades ranges in time from the late eleventh century to the twenty-first, and in space from Asia to the Atlantic (and perhaps even beyond), and from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. It encompasses the crusades themselves, the military orders, the settlements established by the crusaders in the eastern Mediterranean region and elsewhere, and the peoples whom the crusaders fought, or ruled or persecuted. Twenty of the articles in this collection touch on aspects of these fields of study, but they also reflect interests which transcend them: family and feudal relationships (III, IV, V, IX), the power of ideas and emotions (VI, VII, VIII, XIV, XVIII), the working of institutions (II, V, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XIX) and the consequences of crusading on nineteenth- and twentieth-century thought and action (XX and XXI). A few details would now have to be modified in the light of more recent research, but I stand by the arguments I put forward in them. The first article, which was originally a memorial lecture, expresses more general ideas about the practice of history. By 1972, when the earliest of these articles was written, I had published my first book, on the Knights Hospitaller in the Latin East, and was working on the political and institutional history of thirteenth-century Latin Palestine. By the early 1980s I had moved by way of crusade ideas to the First Crusade, which kept me occupied for about fifteen years, but I never abandoned my earlier concerns, not least because my research students, who were writing dissertations on topics which related to all of them, kept me up to scratch. If I have any method it is to work alone. I try to look carefully at all the evidence available, or as much of it as can be humanly absorbed, and to learn as much as I can about the ideas and emotional reactions of the men and women with whom I am concerned, the meanings they attached to words and the institutional and social background to their lives. I usually put off until the last moment anything written by my contemporaries, unless they have edited texts or are engaged in research which helps me to understand how society or government worked. I know this is a dangerous habit, since it could result in me finding late in the process that my research is duplicated elsewhere, but it seems to have worked for me. The field of crusade history looked very different when I became a research student forty-eight years ago. For one thing, it was practically empty and the

x

PREFACE

few historians who were admired - Jean Richard, Joshua Prawer and Hans Mayer - were publishing not on the crusades themselves but on the Latin East. For another, it was still dominated by ideas which had their roots in the early nineteenth century and were tinged either by imperialism or by reactions to it (which meant much the same thing). The consensus was that crusading was defined in terms of the goal of Jerusalem and warfare against the Muslims. Most historians seem to have assumed that the crusades were generated as much by economic as by ideological forces and that the best explanation for the recruitment of crusaders was that they had been motivated by a desire for profit. They tended to be of the opinion that the military orders were most usefully to be considered not as religious orders, but as political and economic corporations, and that the settlements in the Levant were proto-colonialist experiments, although there was no agreement about the colonial model that it was best to adopt. I discovered that these views were not mine. I came to believe that authentic crusades were fought in many different theatres and against many different opponents; that they were primarily religious wars and that, in so far as one could generalize, the best explanation for the recruitment of crusaders was that they were inspired by an intermixture of ideas and feelings; that the military orders could only be understood as orders of the Church; and that existing models of colonialism were not relevant to the Latin East, which should be treated in its own terms and in relation to other contemporary societies. I was lucky in my early patrons. My research supervisor at Cambridge, Dr R.C. Smail, who was known to everyone, including his wife, as Otto, presented me with the ideal topic for a PhD dissertation. The only serious book on the order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in the east had appeared sixty years before and was unsatisfactory in many ways, while much of the material I would need had already been published in a massive Cartulaire general. Meanwhile, Professor Lionel Butler of St Andrews, who was planning a four-volume history of the Knights Hospitaller, arranged that I should be commissioned to write the first volume long before I had completed my dissertation. Butler was, with Sir Steven Runciman, my PhD examiner. He gave me my first job as an assistant lecturer in his department and was later influential in my appointment to my first professorship. I owe Smail and Butler a great deal, but I hope that were they still alive they would forgive me if I said that I owe even more to my research students, who have kept me on my toes for over four decades. These students came to me because I was located where the resources were; I have been very fortunate to have been employed by three universities - St Andrews, and especially London and Cambridge - which have the facilities for research on a subject which demands a greater range of material than most university libraries can cover.

PREFACE

xi

Since I owe so much to those who completed their PhDs under my supervision I would like to name them. They are Thomas Asbridge, Bruce Beebe, Judith Bronstein, Marcus Bull, Cassandra Chideock, Nicholas Coureas, Claire Dutton, Peter Edbury (whose official supervisor was Butler), Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt, Norman Housley, Michael Lower, Joyce McLellan, Christoph Maier, Christopher Marshall, Marwan Nader, Gregory O'Malley, Aphrodite Papayianni, Peter Pattinson, Nicholas Paul, Jonathan Phillips, William Purkis, Rebecca Rist, Jochen Schenk, Elizabeth Siberry, Caroline Smith, Julie Taylor, Susanna Throop and Steven Tibbie. I should add to the list some American students to whom I acted as adviser - Deborah Gerish, Christopher Libertini, Jennifer Price and Myra Struckmeyer - and a few outstanding masters students who went on to work in related fields, such as Axel Ehlers, Sarah Lambert, Tom Licence and Gerard Sheehan. I cannot end without expressing my gratitude to John Smedley - also a student of mine, although as an undergraduate - who has patiently put up with my reluctance to issue a collection of this sort and has helped me through it. JONATHAN RILEY-SMITH Emmanuel College, Cambridge September 2008

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following institutions and publishers for their kind permission to reproduce the articles included in this volume: Grandpont House, Oxford (for Chapter I); Peter Lang Ltd., Oxford and New York (III); Michael Gervers and St Martin's Press, New York (IV); Editions Lethielleux, Paris (V); Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford (VI); Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (VII); the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, and Third Millenium Publishing, London (VIII); Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich (IX); Oxford University Press, Oxford (X); Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh (XI); The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London (XIV); Publications de la Sorbonne, Paris (XVII); and Boydell and Brewer Ltd., Woodbridge (XVIII, XIX). Acknowledgement is also made to CTHS (Comite des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques), Paris for Chapter XV

I

PRESENT AND PAST1

The practice of history today forces one to confront a fissure in our culture which may prove to be more serious than any since the sixteenth century, because the terms of reference and modes of reasoning of the two sides appear to be irreconcileable. The first cracks began to open a century ago and the gap is now widening so rapidly that even those of us not directly involved can feel the ground shaking. The fissure is between the heirs of nineteenthcentury liberalism, who assume there to be a united framework of thought and for whom enquiry has to be a search for truth, and those, sometimes called genealogists after their founding document, Nietzche's On the Genealogy of Morals, for whom truth-as-such, or, to put it crudely, objective truth, is an illusion: in place of a unified framework of thought they see a multiplicity of competing perspectives, in each of which may be found merely truthfrom-a-point-of-view, or, to put it even more crudely, relative truth. By considering one cluster of perspectives, provided by the present, I will try to explain why in terms of history I find myself closer to the genealogists than to the academic liberals, but I will then add why I still believe history to be a serious and important activity. One of the most enjoyable pieces in the last twenty 1

This article was originally delivered as a memorial lecture for John Dinwiddy. This version was given as a paper at a conference, 'Pre-Modern Europe and the Modern Student: Problems of Understanding', organised by Grandpont House, Oxford, in 1989. It was published by Grandpont House, in The Past and the Present: Problems of Understanding (Oxford, 1993).

I 76

years of the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society is Sir Geoffrey Elton's presidential address 'The Historian's Social Function'. In a pyrotechnical display of the charm, ebullience and inveterate optimism which has always made him so attractive a speaker, Elton, an archetype of the academic liberal, set out to provide historians with 'a covering garment ... to be worn not so much with pride as with arrogance'. For him, history is by its inmost nature a free study ... in which no man can claim rule, or credence for his mere ipse dixit, and in which the only sin is to deny a hearing to views with which one happens to disagree. The historian, he maintained, is a free spirit. His freedom from authority is ... the very inward essence of his craft and distinguishes him singularly from practitioners in adjacent intellectual enterprises... There are not many such free men around; and among those left free only the historian ... can successfully stand up to the claims and pressures of developed science The survival of liberty in thought, in speech, in speculation, in every aspect of life, comes to depend on the continued existence of historians, questioning all authoritative statements and alleged laws of existence by asking their simple question: what actually happened. Historians, Sir Geoffrey continued, should act as mankind's intellectual conscience, helping ... to sort the true from the untrue The balance between order and freedom ... depends ... on the continued practice of conventional, empirical historical study. Nothing I could say could convey the force and joie

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77

de vivre of Elton's argument. But it presents me with a picture of historians which I do not recognize. In place of Elton's free spirits I see men and women in chains, chains provided by their environments. Standing in the present, it is their vocation to peer back through gathering mists into distant ages which they can never experience. It is obvious, but nevertheless worth stating and restating that they - we - are prisoners of the present. Elton admitted that: The extant evidence is always incomplete and usually highly ambiguous, and in trying to understand and explain that evidence (the historian) inescapably introduces the (possibly distorting) subjectivity of his own mind. But for him the solution lay in a method of research which, if not perfect, was, he believed, empirical or thesisfree, had no preconceptions and involved interpretation that proceeded from effect to cause (rather than from cause to effect) and manifested itself in a multiplication and accumulation of causes. This method had been deliberately devised ... so that (all historians) can minimise the effects of incompleteness, ambiguity and subjectivity in the treatment of extant evidence. Evidence! Our knowledge of the past depends utterly and completely on it, for without evidence past events are non-events. But what a will-o'-the-wisp it is! It can be distorted at font, miscopied, misread, mistranslated, lost, suppressed, destroyed by nature or by accident, or out of love, like the Burton papers, or out of spite, like the Angevin archive in Naples. It can be innocently manufactured, as by MM. Courtois and Le Tellier, who, exploiting the romantic fever in France that followed King LouisPhilippe's decision to open Salles des Croisades at Versailles in which families with ancestors who had been crusaders could display their coats of arms, manufactured

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over 500 charters which contained references to supposed crusading ancestors of the French nobility. The forgeries seeped into calendars and registers, and they permeated the subject so thoroughly that even today most histories of the crusades are flecked with tiny pieces of artificial evidence. I have to admit that on at least two occasions I have referred in print to evidence which is in fact nineteenth-century invention. Evidence can be carelessly mislaid. For almost a century a lost' chapter in one of the greatest medieval chronicles achieved almost the status of the Holy Grail and it was typical that it was searched for everywhere but in the most obvious place, the main manuscript the editor of the standard edition had used; he must have turned over two folios at once and so missed it. Evidence can be hidden under a blanket laid down by decay. For over forty years, from the late 1930s to the early 1980s, dark-age historians wrestled with the effects on western Europe of a collapse of Mediterranean trade in the seventh century. Reams of papers and oceans of ink were used in argument, reputations were made and lost; and all the time - indeed for the last millenium - an answer lay under the fields and beaches in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Russia, the debris of a great network of emporia which served as staging posts on a trade route from Asia, which crossed the Baltic rather than the Mediterranean. And, most importantly from the point of view I am expressing today, evidence can also be concealed from us by our own tunnel vision. It becomes invisible. It is there - and it is obviously there - but because we are not looking for it we do not see it. The material which demonstrated that French society in the eighteenth century was fluid and modernizing, with an open nobility, must always have been easy to find. But the portrayal of the ancien regime as archaic and static was so deeply etched into our culture that it was not seen.

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Until quite recently most historians were convinced that most crusaders embarked on crusades for material gain. The idea of holy war for the faith was alien and repugnant to sensitive men and, since they found it hard to believe that crusaders had been moved altruistically, it was more charitable and comprehensible to explain their motives in other ways: in terms of a desire for land, spoil or profit; or - and this was very popular with French historians - as proto-imperialism and the settlements established by the crusaders on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean as colonial experiments. (A third type of response, the master of which was Sir Steven Runciman, was to view the crusaders as swashbuckling and simpleminded men, so backward and stupid that they could not be expected to comprehend the enormity of their actions.) In fact it would have been easy at any time in the last hundred years to demonstrate that crusading was an expensive and materially unrewarding exercise, particularly as the rising costs of war were well known. In the cartularies of medieval religious communities there are hundreds of charters recording the sales or mortgages of property to raise money for departing crusaders. These cartularies were being published in great numbers from the middle of the nineteenth century. The evidence was there, but was totally ignored because historians, convinced that crusading must have been profitable, saw no point in looking for it. Elton's precept for the discovery of evidence involves an open mind and an insistence on seeing all the available and potentially relevant sources; or, if that is not possible because so much survives, choosing material according to objective criterion like the existence of an archive which can be studied in its entirety without formulating any questions of it at that early stage of research. But the point I have just made, it seems to me, demonstrates how Utopian that precept is. The present, with its unconscious preconceptions, so closes our minds that often we cannot even

I 80

recognise evidence for what it is. The historian, in fact can only choose material within a framework which is provided by his circumstances here and now, so the present imposes itself inescapably on the availability of evidence. Clearly, we should try to avoid the prejudgement of Archbishop Parker, who collected medieval manuscripts to prove that the Church in England had always been a national church; he was exceptional in the strength of his convictions and the impetus these gave to the pursuit of sources. But in fact we all unconsciously search for what suits, and ignore what does not suit, the age in which we live. The second rule of Elton's historical method is that the material must be evaluated in its own terms and in relation to what surrounds it, that is with reference to the meaning it had at the time it was deposited in the record and not with reference to the historian's own present. This is an impossible injunction. While it is of course true that a distinction must be made between the text as an authority - Rousseau's Social Contract for instance - and the text as evidence, it is incontrovertible that every text, whether a treatise on political thought or a charter, gains a certain independence from its author or originator, detaching itself the moment it is written. And it is equally incontrovertible that every text enters into a relationship with its reader; it is therefore dependent on a present which anyway imposes itself pressingly for other reasons. The present deprives us of relevant knowledge known to ancestors, like that of horse-management - few historians nowadays realise just how useless an animal the horse is and in return it provides us with new insights, like those of modern combat psychiatry: even allowing for the changes over time in psychiatric responses, it is hard to ignore combat psychiatry's findings on the incredibly low proportion of men prepared to kill in battle, the reduction of

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aggression at close quarters, the reluctance of so many modern soldiers to use bayonets - which makes one wonder about the attitude of troops who had to use spears, pikes and swords - and the effects of stress, particularly prolonged stress, on groups of men. But beyond that, can we anyway understand anything save in our own terms? Is there any evidence that can be ever read, seen, heard or touched by us neutrally? The fact is that even the recent past is an alien world, and it gets stranger the further back one goes in time. It is easy for us to deceive ourselves into thinking that we comprehend the world out of which our material comes; in fact we have to reconcile it with the present before we can comprehend it at all. A major task now facing scholars of French medieval society is to redescribe it because until quite recently its study had been dominated by prestigious historians whose anticlerical cast of mind meant that they almost entirely wrote out religion and substituted economics. They reconciled the past with their present, and they did this so subtly and cleverly that the magnitude of the scale of revision needed in a historical world in which religion is everywhere being put back into the picture is only gradually coming to be recognised. Elton was conscious of the problem. I do not (he wrote) wish to ignore the past's relationship with the present, perhaps with eternity. We must fulfil that duty so that the past which we relate to the present shall be, as far as possible, the real past. But in fact the past is only 'reap to us when it accords with our present conceptions of reality: most of the actuality of the past will always elude us because, bred on different circumstances, it is totally outside of our experience. Parts of that reality, poor shadows though they be, will only come into focus if our conditions in the present predispose us to see them and they strike some chord in us. This is

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illustrated by the historiography of ideological violence. I have already referred to the fact that until recently historians could not come to terms with medieval Christian violence. Since Western liberal culture decisively rejected the idea that force could be positively justifiable, there was little in their experience - even the war-fever of 1914 that could prepare them for it. In the last forty years, however, ideological violence has returned to the scene in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In South America, Africa and Asia there have arisen violent movements of Christian Liberation, justified in terms of Christian charity and believed to be authorised by the presence of Christ himself. Participation in them is said by their protagonists to be mandatory for Christians. The fighters are believed to be expressing fraternal love. The dead are occasionally referred to as martyrs. The language that surrounds and justifies this contemporary violence is entirely familiar to anyone working on the Middle Ages, as are the fundamental notions of a 'political' Christ, which only fifty years ago Jacques Maritain dismissed as conceptual impossibility, and a morally neutral violence, which gains moral colouring from the intentions of the perpetrators. The fact that intelligent, altruistic contemporaries of ours hold these views has led the present generation of historians to look at holy wars and ideological persecution in a new light. Because contemporary perceptions have changed, historians' view of the past has changed too, and in tandem with the past. The way in which the past is brought into line with the realities of the present is also illustrated in the rise of gender studies. A society such as ours in which women play similar roles to men could never be satisfied with a history in which women make relatively few appearances. Our society, like any other, requires its history to be refocused to bring it into conformity with its own patterns of thought and behaviour, just as the old history had itself been formed to suit an earlier social model which is now

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alien. Elton's third rule - of interpretation from effect to cause, or rather to many causes - does not address the problem that our causes, and even some of our explanations of effects, are rooted-in present-day perceptions. This is demonstrated by the way history is constantly having to be rewritten irrespective of the discovery of new material. The economic decline of the Byzantine empire was explained in liberal terms in the late nineteenth century as a result of stiflement caused by rigid state controls, and in socialist terms in the mid-twentieth century as a result of the relaxation of those controls. Sir Geoffrey will not thank me for saying this, but I wonder whether his Tudor Revolution, with its proclamation of faith in a strong centralized administration, could have been written in any environment other than the post-war one, conditioned by democratic socialism. That era has given way to one with other political convictions, and there have been clear signs in the last twenty-five years that historians are seeing values in decentralization. We used to consider that strong government meant much the same thing as good government. We are now beginning to see worth in local communities, in fragmented feudal administrations and in the political structure of Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Movements in historical writing peasant studies thirty years ago, for instance - are obviously generated by contemporary concerns and interests. Whig history, Stubbsian constitutional history, Marxist history, the Annales school; all these made sense because they reflected the perceptions of the ages in and for which they were written. The Oxford reaction to the Stubbs school, on the other hand, with the emphasis on the nuts and bolts and details, would have had little impact in the nineteenth century because Victorians did not think like that and did not want that sort of history. The most striking example of this, striking because it has involved the examination of the same evidence for the

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same ends at intervals of several hundred years, is the history of the various Christian 'Reformations'. In every case the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles and a fairly static body of the early Church material is interpreted with the aim of presenting a picture of the Church in its pristine, uncorrupted condition as a model for the present. But the conclusions of the eleventh-century reformers, who were monks and saw monasticism in the early Church, the sixteenth-century reformers, who were scholars and saw first-century Judaism and Roman virtues, and the twentieth-century reformers, who are sociologists and see 'community', are utterly different. That both Catholics and Protestants are beginning to treat great issues of sixteenth-century doctrine like Justification by Faith Alone as non-issues, merely a matter of words the meaning of which has now changed, shows how far priorities, conditioned by perceptions of reality, have shifted. In practice, our interpretation of the evidence invariably begins by asking questions of it, questions that are formed by our subjective experience and by the use of imaginations coloured by personal predilections and flecked through with modern resonances. Interpretation therefore involves, whether we like it or not, a reconciliation of the past with the present. Indeed, if a truly objective method of research is no more than a pious wish, incapable ever of fulfilment, should we not value every fantasy and paradigm, provided it moves an individual to creative thought, instead of preaching the empty doctrine of 'objectivity'? Is it not a fact that in all fields of learning and art genius expresses itself in the strangest of ways and discovery is motivated by extraordinary and often irrelevant aims? Kepler, for instance, was inspired by the vision of an invisible, divinely ordered geometrical frame into which his five planets fitted. Discussing the architects of the Scientific Revolution, Koestler quoted Seneca: 'There is not great ingenuity without an admixture of dementedness'. And what is true of science is also true of

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history. What forces, for instance, moved David Knowles or Lewis Namier? The results of research have to be communicated. And in even the driest and most scholarly monograph the information has to be transmitted to readers who, like us, will make no sense of it unless it strikes chords in them. Historical interpretations are well-received only because the readers, rooted in the present, perceive them to be valuable and enlightening. The successful transmission of ideas of the past is an adaptation, in which the past is dressed up for the present. If for practical purposes there is nothing in the past that can be known to us without the evidence the present provides us with, and that evidence is unavoidably collected, understood, interpreted and transmitted in the context of the present, it follows - indeed it is a fact of life that the past is linked to the present as closely as a Siamese twin. And while we may regret that our vision of the past may always be a conditioned one, a vision that did not relate to the present would be incomprehensible and futile. Underlying much of what I have said, of course, is a recognition that the present is in perpetual motion and that, while at any given time there is a consensus on what is perceived to be real, at least in western society, that perception of reality is constantly changing, as shifts in taste and fashion indicate. It is true that history is a progressive discipline in which old approaches are rarely totally abandoned but are built on, forming layer upon layer of method, so that there is a communion not merely between past and present, but with previous generations of historians as well. We modify and qualify but we never entirely discard dialectic or an insistence on the importance of economics or the conviction of the centrality of political ideas or the perception of the importance of space. But this does not alter the fact that even the best historical work is ephemeral: it becomes 'dated' quite quickly,

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because what was 'real' to the historian and his audience at the time of publication is not 'real' to the next generation. An example of the changes in perception is provided by the history of the medieval French nobility. Sometime around the year 950 the vision that noble kindreds, many of them long-established, even ancient, had of their families began to change from the horizontal, when what mattered was the existence to an individual's right and left of the clan, to the vertical, in which he began to take more interest in his paternal ancestry. The reason may well have been that there was a growing concern with legitimate possession of land, which was proved, of course, by inheritance. But by then, like many of us today, the earliest names these nobles knew were those of their grandfathers. Since these, faute de mieux, were the only progenitors of whom they had any knowledge, they became the founders of the lines. So ignorance led to what evidence there was being misinterpreted; and to a society which was unique in that it had shortened its family trees. By the twelfth century, when genealogies became popular and were being commissioned by the French nobility, the 'grandfathers' of around 900 had become young adventurers on the make. Here, of course, in the dawn of the cult of chivalry, the young knight errant was an attractive figure, so 'evidence' created in the absence of anything better had been elaborated to fit in with the fancies of the age. On the basis of these genealogies historians of medieval France supposed until recently that there had been a wholesale eclipse of the French ruling class around 900 and its replacement by 'new men'. This chimed in well, of course, with late Romantic notions of medieval knighthood, as well as with a fashion for 'new men' which, as, perhaps, an echo of Fascism, manifested itself in many branches of history in the 1930s and 1940s. But contrary evidence was all the time lurking in the source material, including those cartularies which, as I have already said,

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were in print but were not being read. From the 1940s onwards the sources were being mined, and what is more, were being used by groups of scholars interested in a form of study which from Namier in the 1930s to computer historians today reflects the flight from the great overarching theories of the Victorians: - prosopography. It has now been shown that there were no general break with the past around 900: many of the French noble houses after that date were descended from those already in power. Characteristically, this revision has been accompanied by exaggerated claims that there had been no 'new' nobility at all, which is patently untrue. But anyway a lack of knowledge, misinterpretation and romance had contributed over time to a false picture of society and social developments. In their own ways - much more sophisticated than mine; I have not had the time to unfold the disintegrate, multiple schizophrenia produced by dwelling on the tensions arising from conflicting perspectives - Nietzsche and his disciples have undermined the claims to objectivity of academic liberal historians. But the downside of their position is that having raised a serious issue a century ago they have not approached a satisfactory solution. Nietzsche's positive conspiracy theory - that behind the metaphors and masks lie primordial drives, repressed, suppressed and distorted - is no more credible than the critical nihilism and Chestertonian paradoxes of followers like Michel Foucault, which tended to get them nowhere, except back into the arms of the academia they reviled: Foucault ended up, deified, a Buddha in a chunky sweater, in the College de France. The moral philosopher Alasdair Maclntyre, who considers the split in our culture into two systems of thought to be as serious as the division between Platonic Augustinianism and Aristotelianism in the central Middle Ages, suggests that we turn to the methods of St Thomas Aquinas, which were successful in the thirteenth century. His arguments are forceful, although I cannot

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help wondering whether behind them lies the simple hope that a methodology which worked once might work again. The situation is less serious for the historian, who does not have to grapple with the dilemmas the genealogists have thrown up in ethics. And the reason it is less serious is that in the end it does not matter very much whether the 'truth7 we seek is 'objective', according to academic liberals, or 'relative', according to genealogists. Evidence that it does not matter is provided by any comparison of work actually produced by historians of the two schools of thought. It has been pointed out, for instance, that Foucault's later academic work, like his History of Sexuality, is not distinctive in its approach to source material or its reasoning. It follows that what matters is not any perception of the objectivity or relativity of truth, but whether the truth, whatever it is, seems to be 'real', which is another way of saying it 'satisfies' the historian and his or her audience. And, using Elton's phrase, that leads me on to the social function of historians. The historian's role, it seems to me, is prophetic, by which I do not mean that the historian is a foreteller of the future but that he or she is a spokesman for some aspect of society's consciousness. My starting point is this: that every self-conscious human being is a historian. Every one of us spends a significant amount of time recalling our past as individuals, re-interpreting events from it and making decisions in the light of our personal histories, which we call experience. It is a relatively short step from the self-history in which we all engage to the study of the past of families and of society at large. In fact, professional historians, who are the custodians and interpreters of collective experience, do for society what the individual does for himself. The study of history, therefore, is an examination on behalf of society of its experience. It does not present society with models of behaviour any more than experiences prepare me in any but the most general terms for

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what will happen tomorrow. But nevertheless collective experience is important to us. We recognize when it is lacking: it is, after all, commonly maintained that the appalling severity of the system of slavery introduced by English settlers into the West Indies in the seventeenth century stemmed partly from the fact that nothing in the English experience had prepared them for it. Collective experience has a psychological importance: for otherwise why should psychologists maintain that children are older than their parents? And it certainly has an emotional significance. The hunger for history demonstrated in all human communities from the most primitive to the most advanced is a collective expression of our individual concerns. Our own careers justify and place us as human beings and in the same way the past as it is perceived is necessary to a society's understanding of itself and its culture. If the history presented to society must satisfy it in a flux in which there is perpetual motion, it must be constantly rewritten to accord with present reality. Foucault would call this parody; so would I if I were feeling liverish. In fact there is something very positive, it seems to me, in the obligation of all historians, from antiquarians through academics to popularizers, to re-present society with an image of its past. This may be hard to accept, since it may involve challenging some of the myths which lie like patina on the surface of every society's history. But the readjustment, however difficult, can be primevally comforting, for sense is again being made of the past; and historians often have quite acute antennae, picking up, perhaps unconsciously, movements in general understanding before they have come to the surface. With the benefit of hindsight we can now see that they were beginning to propose that value in decentralized government, to which I have already referred, ten years before the politicians started to preach it. Does the interest in religion found throughout modern historical writings also presage some social revision? In fact historians, purveyers not so much of truth as of

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subjective reality and, almost uniquely, capable of making history through writing it, feed the hunger for knowledge of the past and supervise the process by which the past is adapted to the present and is made satisfactory. The function of historians as satisfiers enjoins on them the same obligations as if they were scientists; they have to be true to their evidence and to search for reality as they see it. But one ought to add that, given the power of the present, they are exposed to the danger that scientists do not generally have to face, the danger of the present taking over the past, enslaving it and using, and abusing it, for political and ideological ends. The fact is that history is much more than Historia, a search for knowledge; it also has a more ancient guise, in which it is not so much a science as a continuing and all embracing world-process, an active force in which we participate and to which we relate, a stream of life in which we float between the past and the future, living a historical existence which we assimilate even before we come to reflect consciously upon it. This idea, to which is often attached the German word Geschichte, is the history of philosophers, theologians and churchmen. A very recent expression of it is the reference to God as 'the Lord of history' in the latest papal encyclical, Centesimus Annus. A crazy example is the ultra-conservative Catholic Archbishop Lefebvre's famous dictum, reminiscent of the wild statements made by some nationalist generals in the Spanish Civil War: 'Our future is the past'. Many historians tend to ignore Geschichte. They compartmentalize the past, divorcing it in their minds from that historical actuality which is the totality of human existence, past, present and future. To them, the past seems almost to be sovereign, a field of study which in their minds is capable of treatment with the same degree of 'distance' Jhat a chemist puts between himself and the structure of a crystal he is examining. But ignoring something will not make it go away. And Geschichte is always

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there somewhere in the back of our minds. A feature of Geschichte is that it can and often does lead to moralizing. Marxists are particularly prone to this, but in Muslim cities. The court had jurisdiction both over Muslims and over those who under the Fa timids would have attended the courts of their own religions; but it cannot have exercised authority over all the natives in the town in which it stood, because it is clear that a comparatively large number of them converted to Latin Christianity and as people of the 'Law of Rome' were answerable to the Cours des Bourgeois. Unlike other Frankish courts it cannot have had financial powers, because the market and customs taxes were imposed by the Cours des Bourgeois, Cours de la Fonde and Cours de la Chained And although it presumably had the power to take fines and confiscations, the cases coming before a Cour des Syriens must have been limited to everyday disputes over personal rights, for any litigation which concerned burgess tenure4 or the judgment of which involved the forfeit of life or member was automatically transferred to the neighbouring Cour des Bourgeois?

One redaction of the book of John of Ibelin added that Cours des Syriens were established in all the lordships of the kingdom.6 Although it will be seen that at least one important city may never have had such a court, there is evidence for others in several towns and the list may be by no means comprehensive. Inside the kingdom proper 1. John of Ibelin, ubi supra. For the powers of the viscount, see J. L. La Monte, Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge, Mass., 1932), p. 106. 2. See Tyan, Hist, org.judic. i. 313 flf. 3. The lord of a city had from taxation three sources of revenue: shipping and customs dues collected at the port by the Cour de la Chaine; sales and purchase taxes collected in certain markets by the Cour de la Fonde and in others by the viscount and the Cour des Bourgeois; and taxes on goods brought in and out by the land gates which also seem to have been levied by the Cour de la Fonde. 4. John of Ibelin used the term 'carelle de borgesie'. 5. John of Ibelin ubi supra. 6. John of Ibelin, p. 26 n. 28.

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can be found the following rayses: George of Jerusalem in the eleven-twenties,1 Guy of Nablus between 1174 and 11862 and Sade (Sa'di?) of Tyre in 1181.3 Three are more doubtful. 'Morage' Raiz, who in the mid-twelfth century had to sell part of his house to the canons of the Holy Sepulchre because of the king's debts, may have been rays of Jerusalem.4 Rays 'Melenganus' or 'Mozzageth' may have held office in Bethlehem in 115 o: he certainly owned land nearby.5 John Semes was rays of Safuriya in 1255.6 Bethlehem and Safuriya were quite considerable townships.7 John, moreover, appears as witness to a charter of the archbishop of Nazareth and it seems that only rayses of the towns were used as witnesses by their lords. Outside the kingdom, the city of Tripoli provides an almost continuous succession of rayses in the mid-twelfth century: A. in 1145,8 Escandar (Iskandar) in 1163,9 George, 'Mafa' and Simon in 117410 and perhaps John whose son Bolos (Paul) bought land from the Hospitallers in 1192.11 In the city of Antioch the influence of the Rays Theodore son of Sophianos was great, according to his friend Usamah ibn-Munqidh12; and one is tempted to find a connection between him and the notarius ducis Theodore, who is to be found in the middle years of the twelfth century sharing a gastina with his brother George Rais. This man may also have been rays of Antioch.13 The rayses of al-Marqab were presumably also presidents of a Cour des Syriens.1* Their office seems to have been hereditary, being held by a Christian Arab family of which two members are known: Abdelmessie ('Abd-al-Masih) and his son George, who, like John Semes of Safuriya, was among the witnesses to a charter of his lord in 1174.15 These rayses were quite often men of some wealth. George of Jerusalem and 'Morage' were householders.16 George of Antioch 1. 'Chartes de l'abbaye de Notre-Dame de la vallee de Josaphat en Terre Sainte', ed. C. Kohler, Revue de I*Orient /atin, vii (1899), no. 10; Cart. St.-Sepulcre, no. 103. 2. Cart. gen. Hosp., nos. 530-2; Chartes de Josaphat (Delaborde), no. 43; 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), nos. 39, 46, 48; John of Ibelin, p. 424. 3. 'rays des Sarrazins de Tyr\ 'Inventaire de pieces de Terre Sainte de Pordre de FHdpitaF, ed. J. Delaville Le Roulx, Revue de /'Orient latin, iii (1895), no. 140. 4. Cart. St.-Sepulcre, no. 116. 5. 'Fragment d'un cartulaire de l'ordre de Saint-Lazare, en Terre Sainte' ed. A. de Marsy, Archives de /'Orient /atin, ii (1884), nos. 7-8. 6. Called 'bais' in the document. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2748. 7. G. Le Strange, Pa/estine under the Moslems (London, 1890), pp. 298—300, 525. 8. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 160. 9. Cart. gen. Hosp., (ii), App. no. XIII. He was clearly rays of Tripoli, although he witnessed a document issued in Acre. He may also be the same man as A: Iskandar is Arabic for Alexander. 10. Cart. gen. Hosp. no. 467. All three witnessed a document in company with other leading figures in the County. Presumably they shared the raisage of Tripoli. 11. Cart. gen. Hosp. no. 932. 12. tddrus ibn-al-saffi. Usamah ibn-Munqidh, Kitab al-Ftibdr, tr. P. K. Hitti (New York, 1929), p. 169. 13. Cart. St.-Sepulcre, nos. 88-90; Cart. gen. Hosp., nos. 367, 522. 14. The rayses may have had powers over the nearby town of Bulunyas. For this town, see Le Strange, Pa/estine under the Moslems, pp. 504-5; also Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 819. 15. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 457. 16. Cart. St.-Sepulcre, nos. 103, 116.

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held part of a gastina} Guy of Nablus had been given by King Amalric half the gastina of Maithalun which he was able to sell for 4,050 besants, and his son later provided one knight to the service of those of Nablus.2 In 1150 'Melenganus' or 'Mozzageth' sold to the Order of St. Lazarus 13 carrucates of vineyards for 1,050 besants and a horse.3 Abdelmessie ('Abd-al-MasIh) owned the casal of Musharif4 until he gave three-quarters of it to the Order of St. John, leaving, it seems, the fourth part to his son George.5 One rays is to be found acting as an arbitrator on his lord's behalf in a land dispute in the lordship he inhabited.6 Several appear as witnesses to documents and the town rayses must therefore have been Latin Christians, although ten of the sixteen listed here were certainly indigenous, one was called a Syrian, and only one, Guy of Nablus, seems to have been indubitably a Frank: his brother may have been a man called Amicus and his son was called Henry.7 It was, however, not uncommon for Arabs to take Latin names. All but one of the known rayses of the towns lived in the twelfth century; and it is generally accepted that by the thirteenth century the Cours des Sjriens had been absorbed by the local Cours de la Fonde, the courts responsible for the collection of market taxes and the judgment of commercial cases8 in spite of a final statement of John of Ibelin's concerning the Cour des Sjriens: 'And from that day to this it is customary to judge the Syrians of the said kingdom as is aforesaid.'9 The argument for the disappearance of the Cours des Sjriens has been based on passages in the book of John of Ibelin and in the 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois'; but it is hard to understand why the words of John of Ibelin should be considered as evidence to support it. He wrote: And in one place10 in the kingdom there are jurats of the Cour des Sjriens and no rays; but the bailli of the Fonde of that place is like a rays. And the pleas 1. Cart. gen. Hosp., nos. 367, 522. 2. 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), nos. 39, 48; Chartes de Josaphat (Delaborde), no. 43; John of Ibelin, p. 424. Guy himself may have provided the service of another knight. 3. 'Frag. cart. St.-Lazare', nos. 7-8. 4. This is a tentative identification. See C. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord a Vepoque des croisades et laprincipaute franque d'Antioche (Paris, 1940), p . 176, n. 39. 5. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 457. 6. 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), no. 46. This seems to have been the inquisitio of a seigneurial court. 7. For Guy of Nablus, Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 532; John of Ibelin, p. 424. Sade (Sa'di?) of Tyre was described as 'rays des Sarrazins'; but his brother was called William - a good Latin Christian name. 'Invent. HopitaP, no. 140. Evidence for the inadmissibility in law of the testimony of non-Latins is to be found throughout the thirteenth-century law-books. 8. For instance, La Monte, Feudal Monarchy, p. 108. There seems to be a Cour de la Fonde as well as a Cour des Syriens at Nablus in the middle of the twelfth century. A Gislebertus de Funda appears in Chartes de Josaphat (Delaborde), nos. 34, 39. 9. John of Ibelin, p. 26. 10. 'Et en aucun leuc'. It is clear from the rest of the passage that this is atrue singular. For comparable uses of 'aucun', see John of Ibelin, pp. 180-1, 263, 386.

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of the Syrians concerning the aforesaid quarrels come before the bailli and are determined by the jurats of this court just as they are before the rays.1 It should be noted that John seems to be referring to a single town in which cases between Syrians were presided over by the bailli of the

Fonde.2

There remains, however, the evidence of the 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois', written between 1240 and 1244^ Here it was specifically stated that Muslims, Jews and Christians of sects other than the Latin were answerable to the bailli, four Syrian and two Frankish jurats of the Cour de la Fonde, not only in cases of debt, guarantees, the leasing of houses, sales and markets, which would naturally have gone before it, but also in anything which a Syrian or Jew or Saracen or Samaritan or Nestorian or Greek or Jacobite or Armenian has done. Know well that right judges and commands us to judge that none of those aforesaid peoples ought to plead in any court concerning any claim they make among themselves save in the Cour de la Fonde.

Cases of murder, treason and larceny, indeed all 'of blood', were to be heard before the Cour des Bourgeois. Detailed rules laid down how witnesses were to be treated and cases between natives conducted. They were followed by a long list of the charges to be made on sales in the Fonde* The chapters in the 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois' concerning the Cour de la Fonde seem to be referring only to the court of the royal Fonde in Acre.5 The evidence of a source that is concerned only with Acre cannot be taken as indicative of conditions in the kingdom as a whole, while Acre may have been the place referred to by John of Ibelin where there was no rays: there is in fact no evidence for one even in the twelfth century. It is possible, therefore, that only in Acre had the Cour de la Fonde absorbed the Cour des Syriens. Elsewhere there may have been two separate jurisdictions under the bailli of the Fonde and the rays: this system seems to have survived at Famagusta in Cyprus as late as 135 5.6 The only rays of a thirteenth-century Cour des Syriens whose name 1. John of Ibelin ubi supra. 2. And it is by no means clear that the Cour de la Fonde was itself concerned. John of Ibelin seems to be saying that there would still be jurats of the Cour des Syriens, but that the bailli of the Fonde would preside over both courts. 3. See J. Prawer, 'L'etablissement des coutumes du marche a St.-Jean d'Acre et la date du composition du Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', Repue historique de droit frangais et Stranger, ser. 4, xxix (1951), 346-8. 4. 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois', pp. 171-81. 5. See Prawer, op. cit., pp. 329-46; J. Richard, 'Colonies marchandes privilegiees et marche seigneurial. La Fonde d'Acre et ses "droitures" ', Le mqyen age, lix (1953), 329-39; C. Cahen, 'A propos des coutumes du marche d'Acre', Revue historique de droit franfais et Stranger, ser. 4, xli (1963), 287-90. 6. 'Bans et ordonnances des rois de Chypre*, ed. Comte Beugnot in Recueil des historiens des croisades. Lois, ii. 377.

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has survived is, we have seen, of doubtful attribution. But of the towns known to have had rayses in the twelfth century, only Tripoli, Antioch and Tyre remained in Christian hands for any length of time in the thirteenth. The evidence of the law-books of Jerusalem cannot be applied to the principality and county of Antioch-Tripoli, so Tyre remains to be considered. There can be no doubt that there was in it a large Syrian population. The report of the Venetian Marsiglio Giorgio in 1243 makes this clear, as it does the struggle between the crown and the Venetians for the control of those living in the Venetian third of the city.1 Marsiglio's report is filled with complaints about the kings' attempts to prevent the Venetians administering justice to the Syrians, attempts similar to the royal statute which compelled the natives of Acre to live and trade in a part of the city far from the quarters of the Italian communes.2 In Tyre, Syrians and Jews who lived in the Venetian third were prevented from attending a Venetian court. Syrians were accorded royal exemptions from the taxes of the Cour de la Chaine and were thus encouraged to live in the royal parts of the city. The natives, moreover, had been paying purchase and other taxes only to the royal courts. By 1243 Venetian resistance to the central government had been successful and the commune was exercising jurisdiction over and imposing taxes on the Syrians in its third of the city.3 But Marsiglio's account reveals more than the querulous complaints of the Venetians, who had been pressed hard by the crown between the middle years of the twelfth century and 1225. It described the taxes that had been levied by the kings on the inhabitants of the Venetian third, referring to impositions laid on Syrian dyers4 for their vats,5 on the sellers, whose nationality was not specified, of wine, oil, candles, meat and spices,6 and on pork-butchers, who paid a tax called tua^o: a tax on the sellers of unclean meat that looks like a survival from Fatimid times.7 These are all taxes that one might expect to be collected by the muhtasib established in Tyre by King John of Brienne8; or if not by him, then by the Cour de la Fonde or by agents of the Cour des Bourgeois. And in his report Marsiglio seems to have differentiated the taxes from the exercise of jurisdiction over 1. The Venetians had gained one-third of the royal city and lordship of Tyre in return for helping to capture it in 1124. 2. 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois', pp. 178-9. See Prawer, op. cit.y pp. 329-44; Richard, op. cit., pp. 333-40; Cahen, ubi supra. 3. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (pp. 358-60, 384-5). The most determined of the kings of Jerusalem seems to have been John of Brienne (1210-25). 4. 'texarini'. 5. 'pro unaquaque fovea'. 6. Spices, together with 'alia mercimonia' were sold by 'ypotecarii'. 7. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (pp. 358-9; see p. 385). The word tuat^o seems to be connected with a form of the verb wasu*a. Tawassu* means the ablutions performed before prayer. 8. See supra, p. 3, n. 2.

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the Syrians and Jews and the capitation tax paid by the latter to Venice. The evidence is very slight, but it implies that in Tyre there was still a separation of those functions recognizably belonging to the Cour de la Fonde and the Cour des Syrtens; and this perhaps suggests that both courts were still in existence. And so, although in Acre the duties of the rays and the Cour des Sjriens seem to have been taken over by the bailli and the Cour de la Fonde, there is no real evidence that this practice was universal and it is possible that Corns des Sjriens were still exercising jurisdiction in Safuriya and Tyre in the middle of the thirteenth century.

The Village Kays The rayses in the countryside were heirs to a tradition of village headmen that dated from before the arrival of the Franks. In n o o the army of the crusaders was approached by ru'asd' from the hilly region around Nablus, bearing gifts of bread, wine, dried figs and grapes: signs of the submission of their villages to the Christians, although they were suspected of spying.1 But although there is a description of a rays in Ibn-Jubair's account of his journey through the kingdom of Jerusalem in 1181, there is very little documentary evidence for these men until the middle of the thirteenth century. Indeed village rayses are mentioned with any certainty in only Rve. documents and although the names of fifteen are known, these all come from three charters. The fragmentary nature of the evidence demonstrates their insignificance as far as the Franks were concerned. The derisory number of surviving examples of what must have been a numerous and widely-scattered group of officials leads one to wonder whether every village in the East was administered by a rays. It has been suggested that in some villages the duties of the rayses were performed by dragomans and that both officers generally exercised authority over several villages.2 The first of these points will be considered and dismissed below. There are examples of rayses with authority over several villages, but not enough to make one believe that it was a usual state of affairs. In the county of Tripoli in 1144 there was an office known as the craisagium of the mountain': presumably the government of several villages. It was held by the count until he gave it to William of Crac des Chevaliers in recompense for the latter's surrender of his castle to the Hospitallers; and it may be that a number of raisages had been collected together and turned into afiefin the same way as the dragomanate and scribanage became 1. William of Tyre, 'Historia remm in partibus transmarinis gestarum', in Recueil des historiens des croisades. Historiens Occidentaux, i. 395. 2. Cahen, 'Le regime rural', p . 307.

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feudalized. This is anyway the only example of this kind of raisage1; but in Galilee in the thirteenth century the villages of Kh. Qasta, Kafr Sabt, Kh. Umm Jubail and Kh. Saruna were administered together by two rayses and one rays seems to have governed Kh. Irbid and Kh. al-Qadis.2 On the other hand, eight villages seem to have been individually governed by single rayses: Bait Hula, Tura, al-Humaira, Mahruna and 'Soafin' in the lordship of Tyre; Kh. adDamiya, Kafr Kanna and Lublya in Galilee. Two brothers can be found governing Baturatish near Tripoli, and in two villages the raisage was shared by three men: 'Theiretenne' in the lordship of Tyre and ash-Shajara in Galilee.3 The evidence seems to suggest that one can make no generalizations, for in some cases one rays was governing a single village, in others he would be responsible for several and in others still his authority would be shared with a colleague. It would be interesting to know whether the number of rayses in a village was dependent on its size. The problem here is that it is very difficult to arrive at a measurement, even comparative, of a casal and its dependent gastinae. Although the villages varied greatly in size - from perhaps one family in Nabi 'Amran and in al-HalussIya to c. 18 families in Mahruna, all three casalia being in the same lordship in 1243 - there seems to have been little relationship between the number of rayses and the size of a village. In nine of the sixteen villages where we know the names at least of the heads of the families there can be found no rays, but it is possible that our evidence is to blame for this. In the lists of villagers, the rays's title may have been omitted when reference was made to him. The existence of free carrucates, one of his perquisites,4 at Hanawiya is a sign that there could have been a rays there and, since these carrucates were in the Venetian third of the village, his name should have been listed among the Venetian 'liegemen'. Two peasants are named, but there is no indication that either held the office.5 So far it has been possible only to show that there is no necessary correlation between the existence of the rays and the size of a village. The evidence is little more satisfactory when one turns to consider a rays's duties and rights. It has been argued that he differed from his fellow peasants, who were tied to the land, in that he was a free man, possessing his own property and having the right to sit in the 1. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 144. For the position of the raisagium of the mountain, see the map at the end of J. Richard, Le comte de Tripoli sous la dynastie toulousaine (1102-87), (Paris, 1945). 2. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2747. I am doubtful about the second group of Galilean villages, because Kh. Irbid and Kh. al-Qadis are a long way from each other. 3. Cart. gen. Hosp., nos. 2693, 2747> 29X5J Urktmden Venedig, no. 299. Maljruna and 'Theiretenne' may have had more rayses: we have the names only of those peasants who owed allegiance to the Venetians in these casalia. 4. See infra, p. 14. 5. Urktmden Venedig, n o . 299.

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1

seigneurial courts. This assertion seems to result from a confusion of the positions of the town and village rayses. The Latin church had little hold on the countryside outside the scattered settlements of European colonists2; and the village rays would usually be a Muslim or non-Latin Christian and therefore a man who had no right to sit in courts other than the Cour des Sjriens or Cour de la Fonde. In fact he seems to have been no more free than other villagers, although there is one document which does suggest that he had a different status. In 1259 Hugh of Gibelet (Jubail) sold the Hospitallers fifteen pieces of land, a meadow, and the village of Baturatish near Tripoli3 with all rights and the men inhabiting the land; but he excepted one carrucate 'with its villeins' belonging to the Templars and three of his 'men': Thomas, Rays Bolos (Paul) and his brother Rays William. The differentiation made here between the villeins and the homes, the rayses, is noteworthy and it is perhaps significant that from their names it can be deduced that these rayses were Latin Christians.4 But the use of the word home for a villager was not unusual: in the lordship of Tyre the Venetians called their villagers homoliges.5 The specific exception of them in this case might be evidence that this exclusion was not usual, and it may be that Hugh of Gibelet, while granting away the village, wished to keep its administration in his hands. One may suggest, therefore, that this charter does not represent the normal state of affairs and that the rays was generally no more free than his fellow-villagers. There were, however, differences between him and the other peasants and these may be summarized as follows. A village was administered by a council of elders made up of the heads of families.6 One of these, the rays, had been chosen by the lord to run the village on his behalf. In return he was given certain privileges that raised him above his fellows. Ibn-Jubair is witness to the fact that the rays was chosen by his lord.7 And in a document of 1255 whereby the Hospitallers took possession of several casalia in Galilee, they gave each village to a rays or rayses to 'hold, work and guard' on their behalf. The offices were to be held at the pleasure of the Order of St. John. 8 It is clear, therefore, that there was nothing feudal in the relationship between the rays and his lord. At Kafr Kanna in 1254 the rays and the other villagers made 'homage and fealty' to the master of the Hospitallers 1. See Cahen, op. cit., pp. 306-7; Richard, Le rqyaume latin, pp. 128-9. 2. For the colonial settlements, see J. Prawer, 'Colonisation Activities in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem', Revue beige de philologie et d'histoire, xxix (1951), 1063-1118. 3. This identification is doubtful because the casal is described as being 'en la core de Triple* - between the present city and al-Mina' - whereas Baturatish lies to the south. 4. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2915. Cahen (pp. cit., p. 307) may have had this document in mind when he stated that rayses were exempted from the sale of villages. 5. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (passim}. 6. See Elisseeff, Nur ad-Din, iii. 881. 7. Ibn-Jubair, Travels, tr. R. J. C. Broadhurst (London, 1952), p. 317. 8. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2747.

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and swore an oath to him on a drawn sword 'according to their custom'.1 But the reference in this document to homage and fealty seems to be cloaking some traditional oath to the lord in feudal terms rather than portraying a real feudal relationship, just as did Marsiglio Giorgio when he described villagers in the lordship of Tyre as 'liegemen' of the Venetians.2 Holding office at the pleasure of his lord, the rays could theoretically be dismissed at will. In the cases, however, where rayses can be seen faced with new lords, one seems to have been confirmed in his position and the others almost certainly were.3 Local custom, the organization of the village and the interests of both lord and villagers would have made the office one held for life and perhaps hereditary: at Baturatish two rayses were brothers.4 A hereditary raisage would be almost a certainty if we had real evidence for the division of village lands according to mushd\ In this system, still to be found in Palestine, the lands were periodically redistributed among the peasants according to proportions traditionally allotted to each family. It is not clear whether mushd' was in operation at the time of the Frankish occupation and strong arguments have been raised against it.5 The question, however, remains unresolved and if in certain areas there was mushd1 it would have been extremely difficult to remove a rays, because he seems to have had a larger share of the village lands than others and this share would have belonged traditionally to his family. Once appointed or confirmed in his office, the rays represented the lord in the village and his villagers in the presence of the lord, supervised agriculture and administered justice. In the villages there was very little demesne land and correspondingly few corvees were performed by the villagers. Most of the land was in the hands of the peasants themselves, who paid a proportion of their crops to the lord, together with other taxes.6 In these circumstances there was little reason for the lord to visit the villages, except when the harvests were gathered. The villagers' only contact with him would have been an indirect one through their rays. In this role the rays presumably supervised whatever minimal corvees were required of the peasants, although there is no specific evidence that he did so. In general villagers in Latin Syria seem to have paid four dues to their lords: a proportional tax in kind taken from the corn grown on the arable land, amounting to one-third or one-quarter of the harvest and called terrage or carragium - the ancient Muslim khardj; a 1. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2693. 2. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299. Cf. Cahen, ubi supra. The one exception seems to have been the raisage of the mountain in the county of Tripoli already described. 3. Cart. gen. Hosp., nos. 2693, 2747. 4. Cart. gen. Hosp.y no. 2915. 5. See the discussion in J. Prawer, 'fitude de quelques problemes agraires et sociaux d'une seigneurie croisee au Xllle siecle (suite)*, By^antion, xxiii (1953), 152-9. 6. See Cahen, op. cit.s passim; Prawer, 'fitude . . . d'une seigneurie croisee', passim.

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similar tax on vineyards, olive and fruit trees, varying between onequarter and one half of the produce; three times a year a forced gift to the lord of cheese, eggs, chickens and sometimes a sum of money; and a capitation tax.1 These may have been levied by the rays and the village elders in collaboration, as we shall see, with the scribanus: at a village in the lordship of Tyre the rays is to be found playing a part in negotiations with the lord on how much of one of these taxes was to be paid in any year.2 In many villages the lord would also have had the normal rights of monopoly, and revenues from the village mill3 or oven may have been collected by the rays.4 The rayses were not only the representatives of the lords in the casalia; they were also the representatives of their villagers in their relations with the lords. This can be seen clearly in the documents in which they come before the lords on behalf of their villages, bearing fruits of the land and the trees, and even money, as symbols of their produce.5 As representatives of the lords and as leaders of the villagers they would have had an important say in the agricultural decisions taken by the village as a whole, presumably in conjunction with the lord. We have seen that in 1255 certain rayses in Galilee were charged to 'hold, work and guard' their villages, a command that gave them the task of supervising the farming,6 and Ibn-Jubair's account is further evidence of the rays's responsibilities in this respect.7 The lands of Levantine villages at the time can be divided roughly into three classes. Around the inhabited nucleus there were gardens and, scattered throughout the village lands and those of their dependent khirbats - the gas'tinae of the documents - there were vineyards and olive groves. These were in the individual possession of the villagers, not, it seems, periodically redistributed according to mushd\* and the rays would normally have had little control over the methods of agriculture employed in them, although of course they were subject to a tax in kind. Secondly, there must have been grazing lands for village cattle, presumably used by all the peasants.9 Thirdly, 1. See Cahen, op. cit.y pp. 299-302. Ibn-Jubair (p. 316) reported that in the villages he saw, khardj amounted to half the crop. 2. XJrkunden Venedig., no. 299 (p. 371). 3. One mill may have ground the corn for several villages: the surviving mill at Kh. Kurdani seems to be far too large for a single village. 4. In certain villages can be found fortified towers and large warehouses which suggest that they acted as central depots for a complex of casalia. The rayses of these depot villages may have had further responsibilities. J. S. C. Riley-Smith, The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus (London, 1967), pp. 427-8. 5. Cart. gen. Hosp., nos. 2693, 2747 • 6. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2747. 7. Ibn-Jubair, p. 317. 8. It is clear from Marsiglio Giorgio's account that at Tura these small pieces of land were held in permanent possession. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (pp. 379-83). Prawer ('fitude . . . d'une seigneurie croisee' (suite), p. 156) believes that Tura was anyway without mushd\ but I do not find his argument convincing. 9. Although see Prawer, 'fitude . . . d'une seigneurie croisee' (suite), p. 150.

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there were the arable lands, which seem to have been farmed in common by the villagers: certainly the harvest was collected in one place and then divided between the lord and the villagers according to the agreed proportions. 1 There is strong evidence for a two-year crop rotation.2 Decisions concerning this arable land must have been made at a meeting of the village council, in which the rays would have had a leading say: whether new seed was to be acquired,3 when to sow, which lands were to lie fallow and which were to be sown with vegetables, when to harvest and how the produce was to be apportioned. Besides acting as an intermediary between lord and villagers, collecting taxes and overseeing agriculture, the rays was almost certainly responsible for justice in the village community. If so he must have had the right to take fines and confiscations: at 'Theiretenne' in the lordship of Tyre the profits of justice were divided between the king and the Venetians.4 As in his other duties, so in his judgments the rays was presumably aided by the council of elders and it is these who may appear at his side in one of the documents.5 In return for the trust of his lord, the rays had certain privileges: in particular he possessed more land than the other villagers, some of which was freed from obligations to the lord, and he lived in a larger house. At Tura, a village in the lordship of Tyre shared by the archbishop of Tyre and the Venetians, the rays, known here as the prepositus? owned several olive groves and held a vineyard of the archbishop. He also possessed one-tenth of the arable land: at least twice as much as any other villager.7 Half of his arable land he held free: clearly not in free tenure but free from the payment of terrage and other returns which were estimated according to the number of carrucates held by a peasant.8 There are other examples of free carrucates in the lordship of Tyre and, although they are not specifically assigned to rayses, it is to be supposed that it was they who would have held them. At Bait Hula there was a prepositus and 2 out of 20 carrucates were free. There were at least three rayses at 'Theiretenne', where 3 J carrucates were free out of 30. The name of no rays survives at Hanawiya,9 but \ or z\ carrucates were free out of 15.10 1. See for instance Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (p. 373). 2. Prawer, 'fitude . . . d'une seigneurie croiseV, pp. 43-49. 3. See Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (pp. 374-5). 4. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (p. 373). 5. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2693. 6. The word prepositus was equated by Marsiglio Giorgio with gastald, a title that merely denotes the administrator of an estate. There is no reason to suppose that the prepositus was not a rays. In two other casalia in the region the rays was called prepositus or prevost: Bait Hula and Mahruna. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299. 7. He possessed 2 carrucates out of the 15 in the hands of the archbishop; but the Venetians owned another 5. The other villagers seem to have held one each. 8. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (pp. 379-84). 9. Although he must have been a 'liegeman' of Venice, because the free carrucates were in the Venetian part of the casal- and the names of the Venetian villagers are known. 10. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (pp. 371, 372, 373).

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The prepositus of Tura also owned a house, although its size is not known.1 In 1181, however, a rays gave Ibn-Jubair and his companions a party in 'a large room in his house'.2 In 1254 the master of the Hospital went into the largest house at Kafr Kanna as part of the ceremony of entering into corporal possession of the village, and in the following year the Hospitaller castellan of Mt. Thabor did the same at a group of other villages in Galilee. Presumably these were the houses of the rayses, although in only one village was this specifically mentioned.3 The village rays was only one of the unfree peasants in a casal, different from his fellows in that as the lord's representative he was head of the village community, with a larger house and more land than the rest, some of it freed from charges on its crops. From place to place the burden of his responsibilities might vary, but in general terms he represented the villagers in their relations with their lord, supervised the farming of their lands, helped to collect the dues they owed and administered justice to them. The village rays seems normally to have corresponded with his lord through two intermediaries, the dragoman and the scribe, both of whom were probably the descendants of officers of the time before the arrival of crusaders. The Dragoman

This title is a corruption of the Arabic tarjumdn - or interpreter4 - , a word used indiscriminately both of the officers of the lords with specific duties, the men with whom we are here concerned, and of those who simply acted as interpreters in the broadest sense. From the first, the Frankish lords would have needed interpreters to transmit their commands to their Arab villagers; and there already existed an established officer, the mutarjim, an assistant of the qddi in his dealings with the many peoples under Muslim rule.5 It is probable that his office was taken over by the Christians and used by their lords, who were themselves heirs to the qddis9 jurisdictions. Curiously, there is more evidence for these men than for the much larger numbers of village-rayses, perhaps because as Franks or at least as Latin Christians they often witnessed documents. And more are to be found than has been realized, because a number of them 1. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (p. 383). 2. Ibn-Jubair, p. 317. 3. Cart.gen. Hosp.,nos. 2693, 2747. 4. See the drugomanus of the Venetian curia in Ayas, Armenia, who was translating for the court in 1304. L. de Mas Latrie, Histoire de Vile de Chypre (Paris, 1855), iii. 677. 5. Tyan, Hist, org.judic. i. 38T,

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were known not by the Arabic title of dragoman but by the Latin interpres.1 It has been suggested that dragomans are to be found only on lay estates. This is not the case. A man called Martin seems to have been interpres in Nazareth for the bishop between 1109 and 1121, although it is possible that he was a servant of the prince of Galilee.2 The canons of the Holy Sepulchre may have employed the interpres John and the dragomans William and 'Brain', the last two being householders in Jerusalem in 1135-44 and 1165 respectively and tenants of the Holy Sepulchre, one of whose documents was witnessed by William.3 It cannot be said with absolute certainty that these dragomans were answerable to ecclesiastics and religious Orders; but in one case there can be little doubt. William, the dragoman of the monastery of St. Mary of the Valley of Josaphat, witnessed in c. 1124 an agreement between the villagers of Burqa and the monks who were permitting the peasants to till some of their land.4 The members of this group appear to have been lay burgesses: two owned houses in Jerusalem and four witnessed documents. Unlike the dragomans of lay lords they do not seem to have held their offices in fief and we must assume that, apart from Martin of Nazareth, they were responsible for the administration of monastic estates scattered throughout the Latin East. They all date from the twelfth century, but some of their successors may have had other titles that concealed their functions. In the thirteenth century certain brothers of the Templars and Hospitallers were known as casaliers. A Hospitaller casalier is to be found witnessing a document concerning houses in Acre,5 but the statutes of the Templars make it clear that this officer's powers extended over the Order's villages6 and there was a Templar casalier at Safad who was certainly responsible for relations with the villagers in the territory of the fortress.7 The dragoman in a lay lordship seems to have been the intermediary between the lord and the rays, or rather rayses, because he had responsibilities over a large area. We know that he rode through the villages under his control, presumably inspecting them,8 and we find him acting as an interpreter when the villagers of Kafr Kanna 1. See Cart. gen. Hosp., nos. 28, 2693; Chartes de Josaphat (Delaborde), no. 9; 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), nos. 3, 5; Cart. St.-Sepulcre. no. 129; Codice diplomatic del sacro mHitare ordine gerosolimitano oggi di Malta, ed. S. Pauli (Lucca, 1733-7), i. 40. 2. 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), no. 3 ; Chartes de Josaphat (Delaborde), no. 9. 3. Cart. St.-Sepulcre, nos. 80, 82, 102, 129, 185. 4. 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), no. 10. The dragoman Radulph, whose nephew witnessed a Hospitaller document in 1173, may have been another of this type. Cart, gen. Hosp., no. 450. 5. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 3514. 6. La Regie du Temple, ed. H. de Curzon (Paris, 1886), paras. 135, 181. 7. 'Frere Lion Cazelier des cazaus de Safet'. He knew Arabic. Les Gestes des Chiprois, ed. G. Raynaud (Geneva, 1887), p. 180. 8. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 480, See Regie du Temple, para. 181.

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took oaths of fealty to the master of the Hospitallers in 1254. There is only one mention of the office outside the kingdom of Jerusalem, but this may be because the evidence has not survived: we have the names only of ten. It is not clear what were the responsibilities of John and Samuel, interpretes of the king in the early years of the twelfth century, or of the interpres Bernard who witnessed an agreement between the bishop of Valenia (Bulunyas) and the Templars in 1163,2 but of the others, three seem to have exercised authority over the whole of large fiefs: John was dragoman at Hunln in 1183s; another John was dragoman of the neighbouring fief of Tibnin in 11514; and Guy of Arsuf was dragoman of Arsuf in 1261.5 One dragoman, Peter, seems to have had authority over an important subdivision of the lordship of Caesarea in 113 5, being dragoman of Qaqun where there was a castle and a Cour des Bourgeois? The final three, however, are the most interesting. They all came from the area around Acre which was royal domain. In the course of the twelfth century, much of this territory was subdivided into minorfiefs,whose possessors held their land directly of the crown. Some of these vassals also seem to have acquired the right to have their estates supervised by individual dragomans; and this presumably meant a corresponding diminution in the powers of the royal dragoman of Acre - if such an officer existed. In 1160 King Baldwin III made an Arab knight called John of Haifa7 castellan of Mi'iliya. The castellany was given in fief and naturally entailed control of the surrounding countryside in which were nine villages. John was given the custody of the castle, provisions for himself and for his horse when on campaign and the dragomanate and scribanage of the dependent villages. It is not clear whether he was to enjoy the profits of these offices himself or was to grant them out to rear-vassals. At any rate an individual dragomanate was in existence or had been created for the lands of this castellany.8 Immediately to the east lay part of the fief of Geoffrey Le Tor,9 comprising fourteen villages. By 1183 it had been bought by Count Joscelin of Edessa; but its dragomanate had been held by a sergeant of Geoffrey's called William. The king now ruled that William should be given another fief by Geoffrey Le Tor to compensate him for the loss of his office.10 Some way to the south, 1. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2693. 2. Cart.gen. Hosp., no. 28; 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), no. 5; Cod. dipl.geros, i. 40. 3. Tabulae ordinis Theutonici, ed. E. Strehlke (Berlin, 1869), no. 17. 4. 'Frag. Cart. St. Lazare', no. 9. Perhaps he was the same man as John of Hunln. 5. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2985. 6. Cart. gen. Hosp.,, nos. 115, 168. 7. The son of a man called 'Gambre'. He may have owned lands in Haifa. See Cart. St.-Sepulcre, nos. 125, 127. 8. Tab. ord. Theut., no. 2. 9. Geoffrey also owned lands further to the west, on the other side of the castellany of Mi'illya. See Cart. gen. Hosp. (ii), App., no. xiv. 10. Tab. ord. Theut., no. 16. The removal of the dragoman and scribe from their offices seems to have given Joscelin full control over the territory: he now owed full service for it.

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the neighbouring casalia of Kabul, Tall Kaisan1 and Kaukab made up a smallfief,owned in the middle of the twelfth century by a Lady Joiette. Here in 1175 the king confirmed the dragoman Barutus in his position in return for a payment of 225 besants to Barutus's immediate lord.2 Certain tentative conclusions can be drawn from this evidence. In the royal domain around Acre the twelfth-century kings perhaps allowed the dragomanate to be split up among the small fiefs held in-chief from them. At Mi'iliya the office seems to have been attached to the castellany; but in the fief of Geoffrey Le Tor, the king ruled on the compensation for the dragoman when the property changed hands and, presiding over the curia regis in Acre, he confirmed the dragoman of the fief of the Lady Joiette in his office. This suggests that in the royal domain, even when they had granted landholders the right to have their own dragomans, the kings retained powers over the officers.3 The majority of the dragomans known to us were Latins, but by no means all: John of Haifa, the castellan of Mi'illya, and 'Brain', probably dragoman of the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, were Arabs. Their status varied. John of Haifa and Peter of Qaqun were knights,4 the dragomans of the religious houses seem to have been lay burgesses, William in the fief of Geoffrey Le Tor, Barutus in the fief of the Lady Joiette and Guy at Arsuf were sergeants.5 On lay estates the office usually seems to have been held in fief: at Hunin, Mi'illya, Arsuf and the fiefs of Geoffrey Le Tor and the Lady Joiette. At the last of these, it was hereditary. On two fiefs, those of Geoffrey Le Tor and Arsuf, and perhaps also on that of the Lady Joiette, it was a sergeantry. It seems to have been fairly profitable to its holder: for every carrucate in the fief of the Lady Joiette, the dragoman received from the villein owning it a measure of corn and a measure of barley, and two manipuli of corn and barley from the harvest piled up on the threshing floors before its division between the lord and the villagers. For every one hundred measures of the harvest divided in this way, he could take a further six measures, although of the poorer quality of grain. He could requisition supplies for himself and his horse when travelling around the villages. If his lord wished him to accompany him outside the fief, he would be provided for, and if he lost his horse in service, he would be paid 15 besants as restor for its replacement.6 On the other hand the sergeant who had the drago1. This is a tentative identification. 2. Cart. gen. Hosp.t no. 480. Barutus was to make homage to his lord. 3. At Hunin in 1183 the dragoman John was given to Joscelin of Edessa by the king - he presumably became Joscelin's vassal. But at this time Hunin was in royal hands so this is not evidence of an extension of royal powers elsewhere than in the royal domain. Tab. ord. Theut., no. 17. 4. Peter is to be found in a list of witnesses with precedence over the viscount of Qaqun. Cart.gen. Hosp., no. 115. 5. The payment of 225 besants made by Barutus to his lord looks like the payment of relief for a sergeantry. 6. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 480.

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manate at Arsuf in 1261 had in addition a rent of 25 besants a year and the half-tithes of seven casalia1; but Arsuf was a poor and by this time exposed fief. The dragomans, descended perhaps from the interpreters of the qddhy were intermediaries between the lords and groups of their villages. We will see that the scribani and scribae gathered the lords' revenues from the villages and we must therefore assume that the dragomans concerned themselves with the other basis upon which the lords' power rested: the administration of justice. They can certainly be found riding round the villages of a fief and acting as interpreters. The dragoman of a religious house was perhaps in charge of villages scattered over a wide area, but the officer of a lay lord seems to have been responsible for a whole fief or an important subdivision of it. In the royal domain round Acre, however, the dragomanate seems to have been split up among the smaller fiefs held from the crown, although here the kings may have retained powers over the appointment of dragomans. In a lay fief, the office seems to have been feudalized by the middle of the twelfth century, when it was usually held by a sergeant. The Scribe

The existence of a class of officers called scribani or scribae raises the question of the survival of cadastral departments in Frankish Syria. Recently it has been suggested that the boundaries of the greater lordships followed the territorial divisions of the AraboByzantine administrative districts.2 The survival in these districts of cadastral offices would be further evidence for continuity in administration. The most important cadastral office in the kingdom was the Grant Secrete* taking its name from the byzantine sekreta. There is no evidence for its existence before the reign of Aimery (11981205),4 although it was perhaps mentioned in 1160 as a department in the chancery.5 It is likely, however, that it dated at least from the early years of the kingdom. At any rate it had become a separate office by the middle of the thirteenth century, when it was supervised by the seneschal and its scribes were differentiated from those 'in the royal household', presumably the camera,6 In the Secrete were registered the boundaries of fiefs and presumably the service owed for them, although possession of a territorial fief naturally could 1. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2985. 2. M. Benvenisti, The Crusaders in the Holy Land (Jerusalem, 1970), p. 14. 3. For its name, see John of Ibelin, p. 412. 4. It is first mentioned in the *Le Livre au roi', ed. Comte Beugnot in Recueil des historiens des croisades. Lois, i. 613-14, 642-3. 5. 'Stephanus regie cancellarie secretarius'. Cart. St.-Sepu/cre, no. 55. See also no. 86 for the use of this title for officers of the Secrete of Antioch. A document of 1195 contains a reference to the Secrete \ but this was written in the margin at an indeterminate date. Tab. ard. Theuf., no. 31. 6. John of Ibelin, pp. 407-9.

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only be proved in the High Court.1 Money fiefs were listed in the office and claims for payment could be proved by consulting its registers. It was responsible for paying restor, the replacement of horses lost or injured in the performance of military service, although these payments were overseen by the marshal.2 To it were made accounts of the rents, revenues and taxes collected by the kings' agents, the viscounts and baillis.z Loans made to the king were registered in and guaranteed by the department.4 It contained a record of the standard measurement of the carrucate5 and perhaps of the royal modius* for reference. It was therefore a financial office and department of registration like the Greek sekreta or the Arab diwdny although the duties of collecting at least the urban revenues of a lord were assumed under the Christians by the courts. It seems to have combined the functions of several Fatimid offices: in particular the department of the diwdn al-insha* which dealt with registers; that in the dlwdn al-jaysh we?I rawdtib which concerned itself with iqtdcs\ the dlwdn al-thughur, dealing with import taxes in ports, the diwdn al~ jawalt wcfl mawdrith al-hashriyja, dealing with the poll tax and estate duty, and the diwdn al-khardjji we?I hildli dealing with taxes, these last three being departments of the dlwdn al-amwdl? Its personnel is now hard to establish. A grant bailli of the Secrete held office in Cyprus in the thirteenth century8 and there had been a magister secretae in the principality of Antioch as early as 1140.9 We have no knowledge of the officer in the kingdom of Jerusalem to whom the seneschal must have delegated his responsibilities, but we know that the Secrete was staffed by scribes and the names of five men who possibly worked in it have survived: Michael the scribe, who witnessed the gift of Mi'iliya to John of Haifa in 1160,10 Homo Dei, a landowner in Tyre before 1243 and almost certainly an Arab,11 William, who witnessed 1. John of Ibelin, p. 227. Assignments on fiefs would therefore be registered. 'Livre au roi', pp. 642-3. For territorial fiefs, see 'Clef des Assises', p. 595. The list of services and rights of justice in John of Ibelin (pp. 419-27) is assumed to have come from the Secrete registers. 2. 'Livre au Roi', pp. 613, 614; John of Ibelin, p. 412; 'Clef des Assises', p. 595; Philip of Novara, 'Le Livre de forme de plait', ed. Comte Beugnot in Recueildes historiens des croisades. Lois, i. 511, 550. The marshal had his own scribe in the Secrete. 3. John of Ibelin (p. 407) only mentioned the baillis, but it is clear that the viscounts were also involved. For Cypriot evidence, see 'Abrege des Assises', pp. 241, 243; 'Bans et ordonnances', p. 372. 4. John of Ibelin, p. 409. See 'Bans et ordonnances', p. 369. 5. Tab. ord. Theut., no. 31. 6. For the royal modius, see Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (p. 369); Francesco Balducci Pegelotti, L.a Pratica della Mercatura, ed. A. Evans (Cambridge, Mass., 1936), p. 64. 7. See H. L. Gottschalk, 'Diwan. ii. Egypt', in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed. (Leyden, 1965), ii. 327-31. 8. Philip of Novara, p. 211. See 'Bans et ordonnances', p. 365. 9. Cart. St.-Sepu/cre, nos. 88-89. 10. Tab. ord. Theut., no. 2. 11. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (p. 370). It seems likely that this curious name was a Latin version of the Arab 'Abd-Allah. For another example, see Regesta regni Hierosolymitani 1097-1291, comp. R. Rohricht (Innsbruck, 1893-1904), no. 500. Against this should be placed the Venetian Johannes Homodei of Reg. Hier. (Addit), no. 1293b.

X SOME LESSER OFFICIALS IN LATIN SYRIA

21

the gifts of Kafr Kanna and some houses in Acre to the Hospitallers in 1254 and 1260 respectively,1 and perhaps Nasser (Nasr) and Poul (Paul) de la Blanchegarde, both csaracen scribes', who witnessed a document in Acre in 1266.2 The Grant Secrete was not the only office of its type in the kingdom. In 1243 the monasteries of Our Lady of Mt. Sion and Our Lady of the Valley of Josaphat came to an agreement over the boundaries of certain lands in the lordship of Tyre. They chose arbitrators who would consult their charters. But if the dispute could not be resolved by these means, the arbitrators ought to have recourse to the Secrete of Tyre and, if they cannot be certain after consulting the Secrete of Tyre, they ought to proceed and arbitrate according to the usages and customs of the city of Tyre. And if by chance the matter concerning the said boundaries cannot be settled by ancient custom, the aforesaid arbitrators ought to have recourse to the Secrete of Acre and according to what they find there are held to divide and measure the boundaries.3 The document is further evidence for the use of the Secretes as places where were kept registers of land possession and the records of official land measurements, the basis of taxation. But it also reveals the existence of a second Secrete besides the Grant Secrete, now in Acre. At this time the kingdom was divided into two separate areas of administration with the government of the imperial bailli over Tyre, Jerusalem and Ascalon unrecognized elsewhere. The wording of the agreement, however, suggests that the Secrete of Tyre had records stretching back further than the twelve years of imperial administration. Tyre was royal domain, but there is evidence of Secretes in other lordships. Lists of inhabitants survive which would suggest that censuses were made, although these lists are compiled in so unmethodical a way that one wonders how any local office could be so inefficient.4 Several lords had their own seneschals,5 although there is no evidence that the powers of this officer were everywhere the same. William of Tyre's description of the imposition of a general tax on the kingdom in 1183 seems to suggest that local lords knew or had the means of finding out - the numbers of peasants in their villages, for the system of taxing the peasants to be used was based 1. Cart. gen. Hosp., nos. 2693, 2949. The first gift was made in the presence of the High Court, the second in the presence of the Cour des Bourgeois of Acre. 2. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 3213. 3. 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), no. 71. 4. See Cart. St.-Sepulcre, nos. 48, 55; Urkunden Venedig, n o . 299; Tab. ord. Theut., n o . 7; 'Chartes de l'abbaye cistercienne de St.-Serge de Giblet en Syrie', ed. E. Petit, Memoires de la Societe nationale des A.ntiquaires de France, ser. 5, viii (1887), 26-29. Most of the villages involved, however, were in the royal domain, although not in the hands of the crown. It should be noticed that the secretarius witnessed a document concerning a list of villagers. Cart. St.-SSpulcre, no. 55. 5. See Richard, op. cit.t p. 90.

X 22

SOME LESSER OFFICIALS IN LATIN SYRIA

on the carrucatage and population of a village and could not have been put into effect otherwise.1 Finally there are many references in the charters to the scribes of the lords.2 From these it is apparent that a lord made use of two kinds of scribes. First he employed a heterogeneous collection of clerks, local writers and, increasingly in the thirteenth century, Italian notaries public to produce his charters, although he might also have had a chancellor of his own.3 But secondly he had servants who confusingly also called themselves scribae or scribani, although their titles had a more technical meaning. It is possible to say something of the duties of these men. In the 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois' it was stated: If it happens that there is a Saracen or Frankish scribe in the lord's4 service in the Fonde or the Chaine or over any casalia, and that scribe robs the lord of his rights or conspires with merchants or villeins to rob the lord and divide the proceeds with them, or keeps for himself the dues paid in the Fonde or the Chaine; and he does this by false accounting or bookkeeping . . . if that scribe can be proved guilty, either by the evidence of his books or by that of the merchants who had paid dues for their merchandise, of allowing export without the payment of dues5 or of diminishing the half of the dues that ought to be given to the lord in favour of the other half or in favour of the third which is paid in cash, without the knowledge of his bailli* or the lord; or if he is found guilty in any other way or there is a situation in which the lord cannot find the rents he ought to get, he should be hanged and all his goods ought to go to the king.7 This law was as much concerned with the scribes in the markets and customs houses as with those in the countryside, although its wording shows how all these men were regarded as belonging to the same class of officials. John of Ibelin, however, provided more evidence about the scribe with responsibilities over the villages. Writing about a solemn inquisitio on the demarcation offiefs,he stated that a scribe and sergeants should be provided by the lord to accompany those drawing the boundaries cto assemble the people of the country.'8 In 1258 the oath of a scribe was regarded in the law of the kingdom as proof of the fact that the villein of one landowner had fled to the territory of another.9 It may therefore be deduced that the scribes described in these sources, among whom were Arabs, were responsible for the collection of their lords' revenues. It is not clear whether scribes in the 1. William of Tyre, p. m i . 2. I do not consider here the many scribes employed by the Military Orders. 3. To these scribes the words of the 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois' (p. 219) on the writing of false charters presumably applied. 4. As so often with these treatises, it is hard to know whether by 'lord' the writer is referring only to the king or to all lords. 5. 'qu'il li avoit laisse traire sans dreit doner*. 6. Presumably any superior. 7. 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois', p. 220. 8. John of Ibelin, p. 394. 9. Tab. ord. Theut., no. 116. See also Cart. gen. Hosp.t no. 2902.

X SOME LESSER OFFICIALS IN LATIN SYRIA

23

countryside as well as those in the towns paid their lords only half or one third of the revenues they collected; indeed if the reference to these in the 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois' applied to the country scribes then it may be referring to the part of the harvest that ought to go to the owner of a village, rather than to some kind of tax-farm. But it is certain that the scribes in the lordships assembled the people of a neighbourhood when a division of lands was to be made and probable that they drew up registers of the inhabitants. In short they seem to have been financial officers and collectors of taxes - perhaps combining the duties of the hushshdr or tax-collector and the mdsih or surveyor for the Fatimid diwdn alkhardjji1 - and as such they were clearly linked to cadastral offices. A list of these men can be compiled from the documents. They seem to have been concerned particularly with changes in the ownership of casalia; and this one would expect from the agents of local Secretes. A very high proportion of them were Arabs: thirteen, perhaps fifteen, out of twenty-four. Some, especially the Latins among them, seem to have been quite considerable persons, the holders of sergeantries and members of local Cours des Bourgeois. One of the Arabs was the son of a town-rays.2 Among them are to be found a group differentiated from the rest by their title of scribanus as opposed to scriba or escrivain, although it is not at all clear that a precise differentiation between these titles was necessarily made by the writers of the charters. It is, however, possible to say that the scribanus differed from the scriba in that he held his office infief,perhaps as a result of the feudalization of part of the Secrete, although here too the Muslim institution of daman or tax-farm could merely have been taken over and converted into a western fief.3 In one case a scribanage may have been a knightly holding,4 but most seem to have been sergeantries: those of Arsuf, Caesarea, the fief of Geoffrey Le Tor and probably Ramie. They were quite profitable. The scribanage was included in a list of what seems to have been agreeable perquisites held by the Teutonic Knights in villages near Acre in 125 j . 5 The scribanus of Caesarea, 1. ElisseefF, Nur ad-Din, iii. 806; Gottschalk, 'Diwan', p. 329. 2. They can be found serving in the following fiefs: Arsuf, Ascalon/Jaffa, Beirut, Caesarea, Galilee/Tiberias, 'Geoffrey Le Tor', Haifa, Hunin, Iskandaruna, Jubail, alMarqab, Mi'iliya, Nablus, Nazareth, Ramie, Tyre. Cart.gen. Hosp.y nos. 398, 495,516-18, 941, 1146, 2747-8, 2925, 2985; J. Delaville Le Roulx, Les Archives, la Bibliotheque et le tresor de I'ordre de Saint-Jean de Jerusalem a Malte (Paris, 1883), pp. 127-8, 153-4; 'Deux chartes des croises dans les archives arabes', ed. C. Clermont-Ganneau, Recueil d'archeologie orientale, vi (1903/5), 10-11; Cod. dipl.geros., i. 288-9; Tab. ord. Theut., nos. 2, 16-17, 112; 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), no. 39; 'Elf Deutschordensurkunden aus Venedig und Malta', ed. H. Prutz, Altpreussische Monatsschrift, xx (1883), nos. 8, 10; 'Liber iurium reipublicae Genuensis', in Historiae patriae monumenta, vii, no. 256; John of Ibelin, p . 424; E . G. Rey, Recherches geographiques et historiques sur la domination des Latins en Orient (Paris, 1877), pp. 37-38. 3. See ElisseefF, Nur ad-Din, iii. 807. 4. That of George in Nablus. John of Ibelin, p. 424. 5. Tab. ord. Theut.^ n o . 112,

X 24

SOME LESSER OFFICIALS IN LATIN SYRIA

who performed his service personally, possessed a house, a threshing floor, presumably that of the village, and a carrucate of land at Kafr Lam. At this village and at fifteen others he enjoyed revenues from the produce. These varied, but in general he would take a given amount of the cuttings and gleanings left on the fields after the harvest and from every camel carrying the crops to the common threshing floors. At two villages he took a proportion of the crop itself and at one he was paid a rent of 20 measures of wheat. Whether travelling inside or outside the lordship of Caesarea, he was provided with victuals - the same as would be given to a sergeant - and he was issued with barley, iron and nails for his horse, which would be replaced by his lord by restor if he lost it.1 The scribanage of the lands of Geoffrey Le Tor was exchanged for a fief in the important village of Kh. al-Manawat and this fief was sold for 1,600 saracen besants by the grandson of the scribanus in 1231.2 But in Arsuf in 1261 the scribanage was worth less than a sergeantry and to it were added certain moneys and rights, although its holder had to provide the service of a scribe, further evidence that this office had a practical importance for the lord.3 Six examples of scribanage survive, four and perhaps as many as five of the holders of which were Arabs. It has been suggested that the responsibilities of the dragoman and the scribanus became confused and that the offices were often held by the same man. The evidence does not support this assertion. There is only one case of the two offices being combined, that at Mi'illya of John of Haifa who, as has been shown above, was given a hereditary castellany to which were linked the offices of dragoman and scribanus. But the charter clearly separates them; and John could doubtless have granted them out to rear-vassals. The mention of them in this document seems to have been rather an affirmation of the semiindependence of this castellany in relation to the local seigneurial and cadastral offices in Acre.4 Elsewhere the scribanage was held separately from the dragomanate, as in the fief of Geoffrey Le Tor, where the scribanus in 1183 was a sergeant called Seit (Sa'Id).5 These two cases suggest that in the royal domain around Acre the powers of the Secrete as well as the dragomanate had been granted out to some of the small fiefs held from the king. In what had been another part of the royal domain, Nablus had its own scribanage, perhaps 1. Cod. dip/, geros. i, 288-9. I*1 o n e village, the scribanus had authority only in that part owned by the Lord of Caesarea: evidence that he acted only for his lord. 2. Tab. ord. Tbeut., no. 16; Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 1996 - Nicholas, grandson of Said (Sa'Id) the scribe. The use here of the word scriba for scribanus underlines my point about the inexact terminology of the documents and the danger of taking them too literally. 3. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2985. 4. Tab. ord. Theut., no. 2. There seems to have been a scribanus of the monastery of Mt. Sion in 1263. 'Chartes de Josaphat' (Kohler), no. 80. 5. Tab. ord. Theut., no. 16. For the dragoman, supra, p. 17. The king ruled on the exchange of both the fiefs.

X SOME LESSER OFFICIALS IN LATIN SYRIA

25

1

held in c. 1180 by a knight called George. Outside the royal lands, there are to be found officers of this kind at Arsuf and Caesarea. In 1261 the scribanus at Arsuf was a man called Adam.2 In Caesarea around 1200 the scribanage was held first by an uncle and then by his nephew, both Arabs; and a precious document concerning them survives which illuminates the complications that could arise in an hereditary office. The scribanus John had died, and his son was in the hands of the Muslims. The scribanage was given to his nephew, Soquerius (Sughir ?) and the legitimate heirs of his body after a dispute for the office with a relative called George. But it was given on condition that if John's son was freed or a closer heir appeared Soquerius would renounce it. It is fascinating to find being applied to the scribanage the doctrine of dreit heir apparant, so important as far as the history of the crown and regency of the kingdom of Jerusalem is concerned.3 So far we have seen scribanages closely linked to the great territorial fiefs or subdivided among the smaller estates of the vassals in the royal domain. There is one apparent exception. In 1176 a certain George of 'Betheri' held the scribanage of the village of Bait Daras, near Ascalon but, it seems, in the lordship of Ramie. In the same year the casal was sold by an Arab knight called John Arrabi to Constance, countess of S. Gilles, in a series of transactions which preluded its gift to the Order of St. John. John had held the village from Balian, brother and vassal for it of Baldwin, lord of Ramie, who in his confirmation specifically excluded from the sale the service owed by George of 'Betheri'. In 1177 the king, the countess of Jaffa and Ascalon and the lord of Ramie confirmed the sale of the scribanage itself by George to the countess of S. Gilles for 250 besants.4 Constance was now free to give the village with all its rights to the Hospitallers.5 It should be noted that the sum of 250 besants was almost the same as that paid in 1175 for the confirmation of Barutus's dragomanate of Kabul, Tall Kaisan and Kaukab and this may have been what a sergeantry was worth in money-fief terms in the third quarter of the twelfth century. But the sale of the scribanage of Bait Daras for this sum is no evidence that George was scribanus only over that village. It seems more likely that as in the small fiefs held from the king near Acre, the rights of the scribanage even over the single village of Bait Daras were not the rear-vassal's, in this case John Arrabi, to give or take away. They were rights accruing to the possessor of the scribanage throughout the territory - either the lord 1. George TEscrivain'. John of Ibelin, p. 424. 2. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2985. 3. Cod. dip/, geros. i, 288-9, n o - 9- If he would have to surrender the scribanage, Soquerius would be recompensed with 40 besants. 4. Cart. gen. Hosp., nos. 495, 516-8. See Delaville Le Roulx, Les Archives, pp. 127-8. 5. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 551. Before doing so, she issued privileges for the Christian inhabitants of the village. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 491.

X 26

SOME LESSER OFFICIALS IN LATIN SYRIA

of Ramie or the countess of Ascalon/Jaffa. George may well have been scribanus for the whole lordship or county, but, wishing to sell his powers over one village in it, he would require the consent of his lord and a separate charter. The sale of the scribanage at Bait Daras also seems to have needed the confirmation of the king, although this was not royal domain.1 It is possible, therefore, that the Crown retained residual rights over all the cadastral officers in the kingdom, whether in or outside the royal domain. It may be that when taking over the centralized Fatimid system, the crown was loth to surrender all powers once enjoyed by the Egyptian government over it.2 The Latins thus found in Palestine two separate branches of administration: justice and finance. The administration of justice, by the qddiSy sahibs al-shurta, muhtasibs'and the courts of the non-Muslims, were taken over by the High Court, the seigneurial courts, the Cours des Bourgeois, the Cours de la Fonde and de la Chaine and the Cours des

Sjriens under the rayses of the towns. At the lowest level it was left to the rayses in the villages, perhaps supervised in every lordship by the dragomans, attached to the lords as they had been to the qddls. Most of the functions of the diwdns were taken over by the Grant Secrete and the local cadastral offices in the lordships, although some of their powers of taxation were also assumed by the Cours des Bourgeois, de la Fonde and de la Chaine. In some cases the local cadastral offices were feudalized, although already under the Muslims they may have been farmed. At any rate certain offices became held in fief. But there may have remained an echo of the times before the arrival of the Franks, for the crown may have retained residual powers over appointments even outside the royal domain.

1. Cart. gen. Hosp.y nos. 516, 517 - granted in the king's court. 2. The reference in John of Ibelin (p. 408) to the seneschal having powers over 'escrivainnages' seems to refer to the offices of scribes only in the Grant Secrete.

XI Government in Latin Syria and the Commercial Privileges of foreign ^Merchants

Historians of the crusades have described, with varying degrees of emphasis, the communities of European merchants in the Latin East as over-endowed bodies, benefiting from the short-sighted policies of successive rulers, who granted massive privileges to them at the expense of their own long-term interests.1 Historians of Mediterranean trade have been more circumspect,2 but nevertheless the weight of academic opinion sees the merchants exercising their great jurisdictional and commercial rights to the detriment of Latin Syria in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The privileges granted to them can be summarised as being territorial, or the gifts of quarters in the cities, including churches, ovens and baths; jurisdictional, or the rights of judging not only their own nationals, but also in some cases those living in their quarters; and commercial, or the rights of entering, remaining in and leaving specified ports, the reduction or removal of entry, exit and sales dues payable to the lords and sometimes the possession of their own markets. It is the commercial exemptions with which this paper will be concerned, and it will be argued that in the context of local conditions and administrative practice they are not so outrageous as they appear to be at first sight. In the first place the frailty of the Latin colonies has been exaggerated. There is some evidence, especially for the first half of the thirteenth century, before the arrival of the Mongols and the consequent disruption of the trade routes to the East, that the cities on the Levantine sea-board were rich.3 On them the Muslim hinterland depended for its prosperity, a fact that discouraged Arab rulers from attacking them; 4 and their wealth may have contributed to what must otherwise appear to be the absurdly romantic interest in them of the emperor Frederick n , Charles i of Naples and the kings of Cyprus. In the early 1240s Richard of Cornwall was told by the Military Orders that Acre alone was worth 50,000 pounds of silver each year to its lord; 5 and it is possible that revenues from trade went some way to compensate for the territorial losses suffered by the kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187, because the surviving grants of money-fiefs from the returns of Acre, Tyre and the smaller towns6 lead one to suppose that

XI no

The Commercial"Privilegesof Foreign Merchants

the impressive feudal host put into the field by the kingdom at the battle of Gaza in 1244 was financed largely out of the profits of the ports. 7 The possessors of the coastal towns, moreover, seem to have enjoyed a large proportion of their revenues in spite of the partial or complete exemptions from tolls and dues gained by many merchant communities. This may partly explain the paradox that while there was a continuing aggressiveness on the part of the government of Latin Jerusalem towards the merchants' jurisdictional and territorial rights,8 there is little evidence for a similar concern about their commercial exemptions, save in a few fields that will be discussed below.9 And kings and lords continued well into the thirteenth century to make grants to European merchants or to reduce the dues they had to pay. In 1202 Plebanus of Botrun gave privileges to PisaI0and in 1203 Bohemond iv of Tripoli made a grant to Genoa.11 In 1217 Guy of Jubail gave rights to the Venetians;I2 and in the early 1220s John of Ibelin issued an important series of charters to the Genoese, Venetians and Marseillais in a clear attempt to encourage commerce in his town of Beirut.13 Charters were also granted by Frederick 11 of Jerusalem and Bohemond v of Tripoli for Montpellier in 1229 and 1243 respectively ;J4 by Rohard of Haifa for Genoa in i234,isby the High Court of Jerusalem for Ancona in 12 5 7 l6 and by Bohemond vi 1 of Tripolifor Venice in 1277.I7Onealsofindstolls being progressively reduced: for the Pisans in Jaffa18 and for the Venetians, Pisans and Amalfitans in Antioch.19 The care, however, with which grants were usually made is shown by the way certain commodities were specifically excluded from them. In 1183 the Venetians in Antioch had to pay dues on the merchandise they bought in the markets ; 20 in 1190 the Marseillais in Palestine were exempted only from port taxes and not from sales dues ; 21 in 1202 the Pisans in Botrun were to pay a tax on every ship of theirs bringing in corn for sale;22 when in 12 2 3 John of Beirut confirmed a charter of 12 21 exempting the Genoese from port entry, and part of the exit dues, he specified that pottery, wine, oil and corn were taxable;23and the charter granted to the Venetians by Bohemond v n of Tripoli in 1277 was hedged about by limitations.24There seem always to have been certain commodities on which rulers were reluctant to lose customs duties. In 1190 Guy of Lusignan envisaged bans on the export of corn from Palestine.2* In 1244 the Venetian bailli, Marsiglio Giorgio complained that his compatriots had been forced to pay a tax on horses and slaves that they imported to sell in Acre and this is paralleled by what seems to have been an unsuccessful attempt by Frederick n's officers to impose a tax on horses brought in by the Pisans before i^29.26In Acre and elsewhere duty was taken on the

XI III

export of coins and precious metal for use in minting, although the Genoese in Tripoli were exempted in i2O3.27A tax on merchants engaged in the pilgrim traffic always seems to have been imposed28 and most rulers were keen to take dues from Italian merchants who tried to deal directly with the Muslim hinterland. It will be suggested that this was because the goods involved would normally have passed through their own markets and that they would have lost revenues if the merchandise had been taken by the Italians straight to their privileged quarters.29 While there is, therefore, nothing to suggest that rulers carelessly or unconsciously lost control over trade, the continuing granting of privileges to European merchants suggests that they knew that it was in their interest that these merchants be encouraged to visit their ports. In 1243 Bohemond v of Tripoli made a grant to Montpellier, 'regarding the good renown of the commune and the profit that can come to me and my lordship through their visits to the land'. The rights contained in the charter were to be enjoyed for ten years, during which time the men of Montpellier would guarantee to send each year at least one ship of a specified size to Tripoli. If in any year the ship should not arrive, Bohemond was thenceforward to be released from his obligations.30 In 1257 the baillioi Jerusalem and the High Court made a grant, admittedly political in that they needed support in the War of St Sabas, to the merchants of Ancona, having regard for 'the greater utility and manifest profit for the kingdom'.31 In 1261 the Master of the Temple was complaining of the shortage of exchange and therefore of ready cash that resulted from the absence of the Genoese and their allies from Acre in the wake of the War of St Sabas.32In 1277 Bohemond v n of Tripoli granted rights to the Venetians that were to last only as long as he and his heirs pleased. The privileges could be revoked at will.33 The reasoning of the leaders of Latin Syria seems to have been realistic. The geographical advantages of the Levantine ports as the termini of the Asiatic trade routes would mean nothing if they were not visited by those capable of carrying to Europe the goods that had reached them. The wealth of the Latins in the East depended on a throughtraffic of commodities that could not flow without the regular arrival of fleets to take the goods away. This is obvious, as are the benefits accruing to the European merchants. What have in the past been ignored are the benefits for the rulers themselves. In every port there were several administrative or judicial offices involved in the organisation and the levying of dues on commerce. Two of these, the secrete, which may have had some sort of overall control, and the Cour des Bourgeois, which seems to have laid taxes on the retail shopkeepers, need not concern us directly, but the

XI ii2

The Commercial"Privilegesof Foreign Merchants

others must be considered. They were the chaine^ the city gates, the fonde and the markets of the European merchants. The chaine or cathena was a chain stretched across the harbour entrance that could be raised in time of danger. But its name was also given to the port, or one of the ports,34 to the area of the town bordering on this port,35 and to an office, in Acre in a khan-like building,36 which combined several functions, being at least from the reign of Amalric a maritime court,37but also the body responsible for the running and upkeep of the port,38 a department accounting revenues and paying out a proportion of them in rents and money-fiefs,39 and a customs house. It is the last of these that is relevant to this study. We know very little about how it was run. In the thirteenth century it was supervised by baillis*0 who were perhaps the same officers as the custodes of the port mentioned in an early document,41 and it also employed scribes.42It is possible that its administration had been inherited from the Muslims and it might be best to compare its practices with what we know of the system in Egyptian ports at about the same time.43 In Egypt the cargo of a merchant ship entering a port was involved in four processes : disembarkation, registration, storage and sale. On arrival the vessel was usually moored in the centre of the harbour, not at the quayside, and lighters ferried its cargo to the quays, while the captain paid a tax for the right to remain at anchor. The same sort of procedure seems to have been followed in the major Latin Syrian ports. The arrival of ships outside Acre was signalled by the tolling of a bell and each was met by a small boat,44 doubtless a pilot boat, that may have directed it either to a berthinthecentreof the harbour - it seems that boats did not tie up alongside the Port de la Chainedand one must assume that barges carried cargo from them to the shore - or to the second port of Acre, the Mer de la Riviere, which seems to have had facilities for the mooring of ligna along its wharves.46 As in Egypt, a port tax was levied on each ship, known as anchoragia, but unlike Egypt it does not seem to have varied according to the size of vessel involved.47 In Egypt the goods, once disembarked, were inspected and registered for taxation on an ad valorem basis, that is a tax that varied according to the estimated value of the commodity, usually expressed in a percentage, although no tax was levied untilafter the sale in the market. Between registration and sale the cargo might be stored in warehouses at the port side. Registration of goods seems also to have taken place in the Latin Syrian ports. In the late 1120S King Baldwin n of Jerusalem freed pilgrims from dues on their personal- belongings. In future they would pay no tax on

XI I I3

luggage or other things valued at less than 40 besants and none on any excess if they could persuade the custodes of the port that they were not going to sell it. Otherwise they would pay 'what is customary and just in the port'. 48 This is evidence that officers on the quayside checked the goods of, and took declarations from, arrivals to find out if they were bringing in anything dutiable. Unlike Egypt and the Byzantine Empire,49 it may be that an ad valorem tax was taken on entry and before sale by the customs officers themselves, although it must be admitted that the evidence is slightly ambiguous and that probably payment on goods to be sold was postponed, being taken in the market together with the sales tax.50The duty itself seems to have varied : in 1231 it was 10 per cent, but a decade later it appears to have been reduced to 8 per cent and later still, it stood at 5 Jper cent.51 It is possible that some goods were sold on the quayside under the supervision of officials of the cbaine,52but most must have passed out of their jurisdiction on leaving the port area for the markets.53 In Egypt an important differentiation was made between imports and exports. Goods on their way out were inspected, taxed and ferried to the ship, which was also taxed; and the captain had to pay for an official authorisation to depart. The export dues were taken on the quayside and unlike the entry taxes were estimated according to quantity, not ad valorem, although the billfinallypresented might be in a form indistinguishable from the ad valorem account, expressed in terms of a percentage of the value, while there were always commodities such as wine, oil and grain that were always regarded as measurable, whichever way they were going.54In the Latin East the export tax was certainly taken by the chained which levied the dues even on re-exports that had not found buyers in the markets.56 The chaine had its own series of weights and measures for estimating the quantity of goods passing through it,5? but it is not clear that there was a consistent approach to the means of arriving at the dues to be paid : a surviving list of charges made in the chaine, at the gates and in the markets of Acre and drawn up possibly in the mid-thirteenth century58 contains commodities charged by quantity instead of ad valorem among both imports and exports, while some exports are taxed on an ad valorem basis.59An additional harbour tax, known as terciaria, was also levied, imposed it seems on the passengers and sailors in a ship.60 The privileges to foreign merchants in connection with the chaine fall into three groups : general exemptions from all dues owing to the port officials, often including freedom from levies on the re-export of unsold goods, but generally insisting that the privileges be enjoyed only by bonafidemerchants from the

XI ii4

The Commercial Privileges ofForeign Merchants

European city involved and excluding taxes on pilgrim traffic;61 partial exemptions;62 and finally a right which seems to have been extended only to the Pisans, who in 1187 were allowed to have their own agents to deal with their nationals in the chaines and markets and at the gates of Tyre, Acre and Jaffa.63 Although the great privileges gained by the Pisans at this time were soon to be annulled64 and in 1226-8 the baillis of the chaine in Acre were certainly trying to enforce authority over them,6* as late as 1286 the Pisan consul in Acre was believed to be still exercising these powers.66 The other means of entering or leaving a city was of course through the land gates and revenues from these were important to the lords. When Bohemond iv gave the Hospitallers a gate in the walls of Tripoli in 1196, he stated that they were not to allow the passage of anything taxable through it.67Usually the gates were administered separately from the markets : from the surviving grants of rents and money-fiefs it is apparent that the gates of Jerusalem, Tyre, Beirut, Tripoli and Ascalon were run by their own offices, in much the same way as the ports and markets.68 The absence of any reference in the documents to the revenues of the gates of Acre is striking and it may be that there the market officials also levied the entry tax imposed on goods that came in by land. 69 It is possible, however, that a famous passage in Ibn Jubair's description of his journey through Palestine in 1184 provides a solution to the problem. Ibn Jubair travelled to Acre from Damascus in company with some merchants. On arrival he and his companions were taken to a khan at the gate of which there were Christian scribes who made out their accounts in Arabic. These examined the baggage of those who were not merchants to see whether it contained anything taxable, a procedure that parallels the inspection in the ports of the luggage of arrivals. Ibn Jubair noted that the diwdn to which they belonged was held in farm by a man honoured by the title of sahib. All that was taken by the scribes belonged to him and he in turn paid a large sum to the government.70Ibn Jubair was certainly not describing the chaine', for he had just come into the city by land, while grants made on the revenues of the markets by the king, one of them in the following year,71 and references in the thirteenth century to the bailli of the fonde, a royal official,72 suggest that the markets were not farmed either. It seems to be most likely that Ibn Jubair was describing the officials at the gates of Acre and that the absence of references to grants made on their revenues by the king can be explained by the fact that they were held in farm.73 The gate officials seem to have laid a tax on all imports as well as

XI H5 74

exports; and it appears that at Acre they would demand from a man who was not exempt an oath that he was bringing in a commodity for his own use. If so he merely paid a passage tax.75 If the goods imported were to be sold in the town the duty payable at the gates was probably taken at the same time as the sales tax in the markets : this seems to be implied in the wording of some of the grants of exemption and in the clauses of the surviving list of charges on commercial transactions in Acre.76 Exports were taxed in much the same way as were those passing through the chaine, some tolls being estimated according to the quantity of the commodity involved77 and for some goods an ad valorem duty being imposed.78 In this respect the privileges granted to European merchants meant the same as those accorded to them in the chaine, although the loss in revenue by the government may have been less. There were, it is true, strong attempts to force the merchants to make some payment for those goods they had brought in from or were exporting to Islamic countries.79 The number of Europeans, however, actually engaged in the traffic of merchandise along this section of the trans-Asiatic trade route and organising caravans from Damascus and other Muslim centres to the Levantine sea-board must have been negligible. Upon entering a town either through the port or by the land gates a merchant and his merchandise would make for the markets. In Acre and some other ports many of these markets seem to have been under the jurisdiction of the officials o£ thefonde orfunda. The wordfonde and the Mnk&dfontkumjfondkumwttc corruptions of the Ambic funduq, itself a transliteration of the Greek pandokeia*0 It is to be found in many of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, but in Latin Syria it had at least four different meanings. It could refer to a building, a khan, built round a large open courtyard in which goods were stored and in the upper stories of which there were lodging rooms for visiting merchants. The funduqs of the Italians in Alexandria and other Arab centres were of this type.81 It could also refer to a market in a khan-shaptd building that at least by the 1140s ought technically to be called a qaysdriya*2 although markets were often merely held in a square or open space in the town.83 Market funduqs could belong to an individual owner - an Italian commune in Acre for instance84 - or could be devoted to the sale of a particular commodity,85 although in Egypt and doubtless also in Latin Syria this rule was by no means strictly kept. The word fonde, moreover, seems to have been applied often not to one but to a group of markets, combined under a single administration. This can be the only explanation of the con-

XI 116

The Commercial Privileges of Foreign Merchants

glomerate nature of the goods listed in the mid-thirteenth century as being sold in the fonde of Acre,86 and incidentally it may help to make clear a reference in a statute, clumsily inserted into the list, to two fondes, en amont and en aval.*7 The second of these terms may refer to the 'low' part of Acre that lay by the Port de la Chained where, we will see, were collected the Italian markets; and the fonde en aval may be a collective reference to these. The fonde en amont, which was clearly the royal fonde,Sg must have been a group of squares and markets in the vicinity of the Funda Regis mentioned in a document of 1188 and situated in the south-east part of the town, not far from the eastern line of the walls.90 Finallyfonde could refer not to the markets themselves but to their administration : the bailli and jurats of the Cour de la Fonde, perhaps dating from the reign of Amalric,91 concerned with minor mercantile matters and, in Acre, with jurisdiction over indigenous residents,92and linked to them the office, staffed by sergeants,93 measurers,94 scribes95 and auctioneers,96 that levied taxes, accounted revenues and granted out money-fiefs and rents. 97 In Acre the Funda Regis of 118 8, which from the one reference to it was clearly a single building, could simply have been a house situated in the centre of the markets, in which sat the Cour de la Fonde and from which they were administered. There are further complications. It has been suggested that the surviving list of charges made in the fonde of Acre is incomplete, because it covers by no means all the goods that are known to have been sold in the city.98But it is clear that throughout Latin Syria there were always markets administered separately from thefondes: in Antioch the tannery and the wine and fish markets; 99 in Laodicea the tannery and the markets for dyestufTs, oleumfossimani and fruit; I00 in Jabala the cloth market; I0 * at Margat the market for dyes tuffs;102 in Tripoli the meat market, soapworks, tannery, and the markets for dyestuffs and fish;I03 and in Acre certainly the meat market I04 and probably also the tannery.105It is also possible that, whereas in many towns most markets were gathered under one administration, at least in Tyre all the various markets were semiindependent,106 and the control of commerce may have resembled that of Damascus, with each market under an equivalent of the e arif although probably under the general supervision of a muhtasib. It is noteworthy that the only mention of this Arab official in the documents of Latin Syria is to be found with reference to Tyre between 121 o and 1243, and he is here to be found functioning in much the same way as did the muhtasibs in Damascus - as a commercial judge and a supervisor of the markets.107 John of Joinville, describing the capture of Damietta by the crusaders in 1249, wrote that the Christians set fire to 'the fonde

XI "7

where were all the merchandise and all the goods that are sold by weight*.108 In any market many of the commodities involved in commercial transactions were weighed on scales provided by the lord 109 by mensuratores appointed by him.110 In thtfonde of Acre, and clearly also elsewhere, taxes were levied after the transaction, the tax being estimated ad valorem on a percentage basis. Although it can be supplemented by some references to dues by the Venetian bailli'm 1244,111 the surviving list of charges made in the market of Acre is a very complicated document, in which the duty payable on goods varies, depending on the commodity, from 4§ per cent112 to 25 per cent. Of the charges, the most important seem to have been 4^ per cent, almost certainly a transit tax, n 3 8f- per cent, 10 per cent, 11-^ per cent, probably the standard tax, since it is called dreiture enterine^zxA 25 per cent, this last laid mainly on local vegetables and fruit.115 These taxes seem to have been generally lower than the Egyptian khums of 20 per cent116 and often higher than the Byzantine kommerkion of 1 o per cent.l l ? In Egypt there were two ways of levying the dues in the markets, depending on the kind of business dealings used by the merchants. In the cases of man-to-man bargains struck by the traders together, the Master of the Markets wouldfixofficial prices in consultation with the chief merchants. Official price lists, often changed, were not directives - bargains would be struck as usual but they established the theoretical price of a commodity that was the basis for the ad valorem tax on it.118 The second method was that of the public auction, the halqa, which was not popular among the merchants but had by 1200 become the most usual way of transacting business.119 All the lots of a given commodity would be auctioned together in the market by an official auctioneer. Levying the duty was simple, for the tax was merely taken off the top of the total proceeds of the auction before they were divided among the merchants involved. Both methods seem to have been used in Acre, and there is evidence for the employment of vendours de la vile, clearly public auctioneers.120But whatever method was used, it seems that, as in Egypt and Constantinople,121 in most cases the burden of the tax was shared, being divided between the seller and the buyer who each paid haE I 2 2 Privileges in the fonde to European merchants took much the same forms as those they enjoyed in the chaine and at the gates, although complete freedom from the market charges was less often granted - there is no evidence, for instance, that the Venetians were ever fully exempted.I23 There was also a general freedom from which certain commodities were excepted;I u a general reduction of charges, or the reduction of dues on certain goods; 12S and a privilege which applied only to one side of a business transaction:

XI 118

The Commercial Privileges of Foreign Merchants

freedom from the charges on sales or on purchases, but not on both.126 It must, however, be emphasised that whatever form the privilege took it applied to only half the tax levied by the government. If a privileged merchant and a non-privileged had a business dealing - and the majority of the transactions in the markets must have been of this kind - the share of the duty owed by the nonprivileged merchant would still have to be paid. Even if total exemption from sales-taxes had been granted to one group of merchants, therefore, they had only to involve themselves in twice as many transactions for the financial break-even point for the government to be reached. The lords of the Syrian ports clearly hoped - and that hope was surely realised - that the presence of European merchants would lead to an increase in business that would more than compensate for any revenue initially lost by encouraging them to come. In one respect, however, some of the communities of European merchants enjoyed what was a very important privilege. They were allowed to possess their own markets, run by their officials and using their weights and measures.127In Acre the Venetian, Genoese and Pisan quarters lay in a semi-circle around the Portde la Chaine, although not actually touching the harbour,128 and goods brought in their ships could be taken straight up to the warehouses of a privileged community I2$for eventual sale. The first of these privileges appears in a grant of 112 3 to the Venetians in Acre: You may use scales of weight and measures of quantity in the following way. For whenever Venetians have business deals with each other concerning their own goods they ought to use Venetian measures. When indeed Venetians sell their goods to other people they ought to sell them according to their own Venetian measures. But whenever Venetians purchase from foreign peoples other than Venetians, having paid the market tax, they may buy according to royal measures.130 It will be noticed that this charter gave the Venetians in Acre the right to use their own weights and measures in business deals among themselves and with others, provided that they were selling their goods. If, however, a Venetian wished to buy something from a non-Venetian he had to pay tax and use royal measures, in other words visit the royal markets. Although this clause was not repeated in the king's confirmation of the charter in ii25, I 3iit seems to have set a standard followed in others, for instance in privileges to the Pisans in Tyre, Jaffa and Acre and to merchants from Provence in Tyre granted by Raymond of Tripoli, Conrad of Monteferrat and Guy of Lusignan. The Pisans were allowed to use weights and measures 'so that they can freely weigh and measure among them-

XI II9

selves and for strangers buying from them\ the Provencals only for measuring amongst themselves.132 It is possible that the same sort of limited right was enjoyed in Tripoli by the Venetians who in 1277 were allowed to establish a market under stringent conditions, among them the obligation for a Venetian to go with a man who had bought from him in his market to register every sale with the count's fonde officials.133 It was also held in Tyre by the Genoese, who were permitted to use their own measures by Conrad of Montferrat in nc)o,I34and by the Venetians, who as owners of a third of the city certainly had their own market.I3* On the other hand, the Genoese seem never to have gained this privilege in Acre. No charter granting them such a right survives and, although Francesco Balducci Pegolotti made reference in his Pratica to the measures used in Acre by the Pisans and Venetians, he made no mention of the Genoese.136 It is interesting to note that not only is there no reference in the source material to &funduq in the Genoese quarter, but no foundations of such a building have been discovered. And the Genoese seem to have lost their rights in Tyre by 1264, when they agreed to use the weights and measures of the lord, Philip of Montfort, and to pay him mensuragium, a payment on every deal estimated according to the quantity of merchandise involved.137 The recipients of the privilege of using their own weights and measures could sell the goods they themselves had imported in their own markets outside royal control, but to load their ships with cargoes for the return to the West, they had to buy the goods coming to the Levant over the Asiatic trade routes in the royal markets where, even if they were freed from the sales tax, the other parties to the deal were probably not. I38 A loophole for them would have been to have gone themselves to the great Muslim centres, conducting caravans from and to the coast, exercising their privilege of free entry and bringing the uncharged goods into a port either for sale in their own markets free of dues or for shipping directly to the West. Alternatively their ships might stop off at a non-Christian port on the way to the Levant and there pick up a cargo which they could dispose of in their own markets, using the Syrian town as a free commercial centre. To combat these it seems that a series of restrictions were imposed on them. Direct trading with the Muslim hinterland was discouraged or at least subjected to tax. In 1192 Henry of Champagne, confirming Genoese rights in Tyre, added that if 'they come by land to Tyre from any Muslim country and sell their merchandise in Tyre they will render the customary taxes. If indeed they do not sell they are held to pay no custom.' I39 In 1244 Marsiglio Giorgio, the Venetian bailli, complained: I f any of the merchants of Venice wishes to go

XI 120

The Commercial'PrivilegesofForeign Merchants

overland to Damascus or to any Muslim city and wishes to take any merchandise with him out of Acre he is forced to pay one carat [4^ per cent] for each besant of its estimated worth' and that: 'If anyone from Venice wishes to go to Damascus or to any Muslim country and buys merchandise and he wishes to bring it to Acre by land, he must pay 9 ^ % if he wants to sell it in Acre', unless he had come to an agreement beforehand with the royal officers.I40 In 1264 the Genoese agreed to pay Philip of Montfort IY2 per cent of all goods exported or imported through the land gates of Tyre. If, however, they took out goods that they could not sell, they were allowed to bring them back into the city without the payment of additional tax. I41 The complaints of Marsiglio Giorgio also contained a reference to the government's attempts to prevent the Venetians from taking advantage of their privileges by shipping merchandise they themselves had acquired in a Muslim centre directly to Europe. If a Venetian bought goods in Islamic lands and brought them to Acre 'and if he wishes to carry them to Venice, he pays 4^% unless he has previously come to an agreement with the royal officer'.142Already in 1243, in a charter from Bohemond v which otherwise reduced the dues payable by merchants from Montpellier, there was to be no reduction for those goods brought into Tripoli by land and then exported.143 Linked to these restrictions seems to have been one by which the rulers discouraged the merchants from landing merchandise at one Christian port and bringing it overland to another. In 1244 Marsiglio Giorgio grumbled that: 'If any ship comes from Venice and applies at Tyre or any other city and the merchants wish to bring some of their merchandise overland to Acre they are charged 9f%.'144 In 1264 Philip of Montfort allowed the Genoese to pay nothing if they had to bring their goods overland to Tyre because their ships had been wrecked or attacked by pirates off his lordship or that of Sidon, provided that they let him or his lieutenant know : a clause that suggests that, as in Acre, a tax would otherwise have been paid.145 These may have been attempts to prevent the Italians using the ports as free markets : certainly this is what Henry of Champagne seems to have been doing in 1192 when he bound the Genoese in Tyre to pay dues on any goods sold in the markets of Tyre that had been brought in by sea, if the ship in which they were imported had come from Barbary, Egypt or Constantinople by way of some other Islamic country.146In 1257 merchants from Ancona had to pay full dues of entry to the baillis of the chaine in Acre if they imported for sale in the city taxable goods they had bought in Islamic lands. If these were not sold but re-exported, they would, moreover, have to pay the full export

XI 121

tax.^And in 1277 the Venetians were allowed to establish a market in Tripoli on condition that this right was limited only to Venetians and not to representatives appointed by them and that if a Venetian sold to one of his compatriots or established a retail shop or bought corn, vegetables and probably oil in order to resell them he would pay the full market dues.I48 Finally, the rulers of Latin Syria seem to have tried to discourage their own subjects from buying goods in the exempt markets. They appear to have had no objection to foreign merchants from Damascus and elsewhere, once they had sold their merchandise in the royal markets, going down to the European//*//*//^ to acquire commodities to load their camels for their return home - the gate officials would of course tax what they took out of the city.149 But in Tripoli in 1277 the Venetians were allowed to establish a market provided that if they sold to 'humble people' anything that owed 'two rights' to the officials of the fonde or the fishmarket they would register the sale in the Cour de la Fonde and pay the tax owed by the buyer.150 If the fonde en amont and the fonde en aval in Acre referred to above were the royal and Italian markets respectively, then the significance of the statute inserted into the list of dues to be taken in the city becomes clear. This commanded that all the indigenous inhabitants of Acre, those who were answerable to the Cour de la Fonde, should live around the fonde en amontand not near the fonde en aval, 'because otherwise the lord could not enjoy those rights it is established he should take from them'. The rights mentioned were the levying of dues, ranging from 4^ per cent to iz\ per cent, de passage au canton de la fonde en amont on those pur-

chases made in thefonde en avalby the natives, whether shopkeepers or others, and by all villagers in the royal domain around Acre. Clearly if locals went to buy in the Italian markets, government officers would take a tax on their purchases on their way back to that part of the city where lay the royal markets.151 The date of this statute has been much debated,152 but there is evidence for similar royal activity elsewhere. Between 1210 and 1225 King John of Brienne exempted native Syrians in Tyre from royal chaine dues, thus encouraging them to live in the royal rather than in the Venetian part of the city where they were not exempt. 1 " The situation in Tyre was not like that in Acre, because the Venetians held one third of the town in lordship, but the king's motives may have been the same as those behind the statute concerning Acre : to discourage the indigenous population from using the Italian markets. The rights of and limitations upon European merchants and the corresponding advantages for the rulers should now be clear. On

XI 122

The Commercial Privileges ofForeign Merchants

arrival with a loaded ship in a Latin Syrian port, a privileged trader passed, with his merchandise untaxed, to the market of his own nationals where he sold it without paying dues on the sale to the town's lord. Merchants from the Muslim interior would come down to buy in the Europeans' markets, but they would be taxed on what they had bought as they left by the gates of the city. Local people in Acre who did the same would be taxed on their purchases as they returned to the part of the town where they lived. A western merchant, however, could not buy goods to fill his ship for the return home in his national market, but would have to go up to the royal or lord's fonde, to which were also directed those coming into the city from the hinterland with spices and other commodities. In the town markets a European merchant might well be absolved from the payment of his contribution to the duty on a purchase, but the man from whom he bought would not and the government would generally get at least half the theoretical sales tax. Should the westerners try to get round the obligation to buy in the town markets by involving themselves in the trade between the Muslim cities and the coast, they would find that their privileges of exemption were of no avail and that they were subject to tolls. Having bought in the royal or lord's markets an exempt trader could of course export his purchases to the West without the payment of customs dues. There is no doubt that the privileges he enjoyed were of real benefit to him, but his presence in the Latin East and the increased commercial business that resulted seem to have more than compensated, as far as the rulers were concerned, for the exemptions granted to him.

NOTES

For example, see S.Runciman, A. History of the Crusades (Cambridge 1951-5)111, pp.354-61; J,L.La Monte,Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100-1291

(Cam-

bridge, Mass., 1932) pp. 226-42; [J.] Richard, Le Royaume latin [de Jerusalem] (Paris 1953) pp. 217-27; J.Prawer, Histoire du royaume latin de Jerusalem (Paris i969tT) 1, p p . 502-3.

For example, see W. Heyd and F. Raynaud, Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen age (Leipzig 1885-6)1, pp. 131-90, 310-59; [ C ] Cahen, ['Notes sur l'histoire des croisades et de TOrient latin. 3. Orient latin et commerce du Levant'], Bulletin de la Faculte des Lettres de PUniversite de Strasbourg,

x x i x (Strasbourg 1950-1) pp. 328-46. For most of the twelfth century, as Cahen, pp. 331-3 pointed out, Acre did not rival Constantinople and Alexandria. The real expansion of Levantine trade seems to have begun in the 1180s and continued to the late 1250s. Thereafter there was a steady decline.

XI I2 3 4

5

6

7

8 9

10 11 12

13

See the attitude of Sultan Baybars, Ayyubids, Mamlukes and Crusaders. [ Selections from the Tdrikh al-Duwal' wd7' Muluk of ibn al-Furdt], ed. and tr., U. and M.C.Lyons with Hist. Intr. and Notes by J.S.C.Riley-Smith (Cambridge 1971), 11, pp. 43-4. For the Aiyubids, see H.A.R.Gibb, 'The Aiyubids', A History of the Crusades, ed.-in-chief K.M. Setton (Philadephia 195 5ff) 11, p. 694. Matthew Paris, *Itineraire de Londres [ a Jerusalem ( 2nd redaction)]', ed. H.Michelant and G.Raynaud, Itineraires a Jerusalem et descriptions de la Terre Sainte rediges enfrancais aux XI6, XIIe 537; I I ] [ >PP- 1 2 2 ~3,125; Cartf ulaire] gen[ e'ral de l'ordre des] Hosp[italiers de St.-Jean de Jerusalem (1100-1310)] ed. J.Delaville Le Roulx (Paris 1894-1906) nos 1031-2, 2280. I have not included here the large number of rents given to ecclesiastical institutions. See Ayyubids, Mamlukes and Crusaders, 11, p. xvi. One might here take note of the care taken by King Aimery in 1197-98 over the distribution of money-fiefs in Acre. 'L'Estoire d'Eracles [empereur et la conqueste de la Terre d'Outremer]', RHC, Historiens occidentaux, 11, p. 224; Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Tresorier, ed. L. de Mas Latrie (Paris i 8 7 i ) p . 3 i i . For an attempt by the crown in the twelfth century to reserve the exploitation of the transit trade to itself, see 'Livre au roi', RHC, Lois, 1, p.617. See Richard, Le Royaume latin, pp. 22ofF. See below, pp. 118-21. The only other case seems to have been a strong attempt to make the Genoese pay customs duties in the port of Acre in 1231. Annales Januenses, MGH, SS, xvni, pp. 176-7. Documenti [sulle rela^ioni] delle citta toscane [ coWOriente cristiano e coi Turchifino alPanno ijji], ed. G.Miiller (Florence 1879) no. 5 3. [R.] Rohricht, *Amalrich 1. [Konig von Jerusalem'], Mitteilungen des osterreichischen Instituts fiir Geschichtsforschung, XII (Vienna 1891) p.489. Urkunden [ %ur dlteren Handels- und Staatsgeschichte der Republik ] Venedig [mit besonderer Be^iehung aufBy^an^ und die Levante, ed. G.L.F.Tafeland G.M.Thomas] (Vienna 1856-7) no. 250. 'Liber iurium [rei publicae Ianuensis'], Historiae patriae monumenta (Turin 1836^") V I I / I X , nos 569, 585; Urkunden Venedig, nos 261-2; Histoire [analytique et chronologique] des actes[ et des deliberations du corps et du conseil de la municipality'] de Marseille [depuis le Xe sieclejusqu'a nosjours], ed. L. E. Mery and F.Guindon (Marseilles 1841-3) 1, pp.287-8.

XI 124 14

15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 0o 31 32 33 34

35

36

The Commercial Privileges of Foreign Merchants Ada imperil inedita [saeculi XIII], ed. E. Winkelmann (Innsbruck 1880-5) 1, n o - 3 0 2 »[A.] Germain, Histoire de [la commune] de Montpellier [ depuis ses originesjusqu'ason incorporation definitive a la monarchie francaise] (Montpellier 1851)11, pp.513-15. 'Liber iurium', no. 718. Cod I ice] dipl[ omatico del sacro militare ordine] geros[ olimitano oggidi Malta], ed. S.Pauli (Lucca 1733-7) 1, pp. 157-61. See an earlier grant made by pope Innocent iv. Epistolae Saeculi XIII[e regestis pontificum Romanorum selectae], MGH (Berlin 1893-4) 11, no. 125. [ E. G.] Rey, Recherches [geographiques et historiques sur la domination des Latins en Orient] (Paris 1877) pp. 47-50. Document! delle citta toscane, no. 6. See also the reduction of dues for the Siennese in Acre, granted by Conradin. Documenti delle citta toscane', n o . 70. Urkunden Venedig, nos 46, 5 5 , 6 1 , 6 8 ; Document? del la citta toscane, nos 4, 13, 50, 58; Memorie [ storico-diplomatiche delVantica citta e ducato] di Amalfi, ed. M. Camera (Naples 1 8 7 6 1881) 1, p. 202. Urkunden Venedig, n o . 68. Histoire des actes de Marseille, 1, p . 19 5. Documenti delle citta toscane, n o . 53. 'Liber iurium', n o . 584. See n o . 569. Rey, Recherches, p p . 47-5 o. Histoire des actes de Marseille, 1, p . 195. Urkunden Venedig, no. 300 (p. 398); Documenti delle citta toscane, no. 66. Urkunden Venedig, nos 94, 307, 361; Rohricht, 'Amalrich 1.', p. 489. 'Liber iurium', no. 11; Urkunden Venedig, nos 40-1, 300 (p. 397); Documenti delle citta toscane, no. 5. See below, pp. 113-14. See below pp. 119-21. Germain, Histoire de Montpellier, 11, pp. 513-15. Cod. dipl. geros., 1, p . 15 7. Annales monasterii Burtonensis, ed. H . R. Luard, Annales monastici, RS, x x x v i (1864) 1, p. 494. Rey, Recherches, pp. 49-5 o. At Acre, for instance, it is clear that there was another main landing place, known as the Mer de la Riviere. 'Livre des Assises [de la Cour] des Bourgeois', RHC, Lois, 11, p. 174, § 12; Histoire des actes de Marseille, 1, p . 195 ; Memorie di Amalfi, I, p. 201; Documenti delle citta toscane, n o . 70. See also Cod. dipl. geros., 1, p. 159. For various reasons I am inclined to think that this second port lay to the east of the Port de la Chaine in the outer harbour and was 'devant la boucherie'. See '[Les] Gestes des Chiprois', RHC, Documents armeniens, II, pp.683-4, 813. The street and square of the Chaine are mentioned in several documents and appear on the map of Matthew Paris ('Itineraire de Londres', p. 136), although some way to the west of its actual position. The present Khan al-Oumdan in Acre, almost certainly on the site of the Cour de la Chaine, is built on the Frankish foundations of a similar building.

XI 125 37 R. B. Patterson ('The Early Existence of the Funda and Catena in the Twelfth-Century Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem', Speculum, x x x i x (1964) pp. 474-7) has argued that the Cours de la Chaine and de la Fonde existed before the reign of Amalric. But maritime jurisdiction was only one - and in a sense the least important - of the functions of the chaine. It is clear that some office existed from the first and was probably inherited from the Arabs. By creating a court, the Latins were merely turning a financial office into a tribunal. They always tended to do this, for in the West taxation and jurisdiction were linked in a way that they were not in the East. 38 See 'Quatre titres [des proprietes] des Genois [a Acre et a Tyr]', ed. C. C.Desimoni, Archives de TOrient latin, 11 (1884) no. 4 (p. 226); also 'Liber iurium', nos 374, 405. In this connection there survives an interesting grant of an indulgence in 1253 to those in Syria who would help repair the port of Jaffa. Le Registre d*Innocent IV, ed. E.Berger (Paris 18841921) no. 6463. 39 Tab. ord. Theut.y nos 5, 17, 63-4; 'Fragment d'un cart[ulaire de l'ordre de] St. Lazare [en Terre Sainte]', ed. A.de Marsy, Archives de I9Orient latin, 11 (1884) no. 28; Documenti delle citta toscane, no. 27; 'Quatre pieces rel. teutonique', no. 3; Cart, gen, Hosp., nos 1031-2, 2280; Hist. dipl. Fred., 11, pp. 533-5, 537; i n , pp. 117-18, 122-3, 125, 130; John of Ibelin, ['Livre'], RHC, Lois, 1, p. 274. 40 Documenti delle citta toscane, no. 65; Cod. dipl. geros., 1, p. 15 8; 'L'Estoire d'Eracles', 11, p. 475. 41 Cart I ulaire de Veglise du] St.-Sepulcre [ de Jerusalem], ed. E. de Roziere (Paris 1849) no. 46. The following seem to have been officers of the Chaine : Menardus in the twelfth century, and Bernard, Thomas and Simon, the last two father and son, in the thirteenth. Cart, gen, Hosp., nos 180, 1276, 2166, 2483. 42 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 220. 43 I have relied on [ C ] Cahen, 'Douanes et commerce [dans les ports mediterraneans de l'figypte medieVale d'apres le Minhadj d'al-Makhzumi]', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, v n (1964) pp. 218-314, and [S.D.] Goitein, [A] Mediterranean Society (Berkeley 1967) 1,passim. 44 See 'L'Estoire d'Eracles', 11, pp.75, 76. 45 See the description of the port and also that of Tyre by Theoderic, Libellus de locissanctis, ed. T.Tobler (St. Gallen 1865) pp.90-1, i n : also 'L'Estoire d'Eracles', 11, p.395. 46 See Histoire des actes de Marseille, 1, p. 195; Memorie di Amalfi, 1, p. 201. While it is clear that at this time lignum was a term used to describe 3 particular kind of ship, not merely boats in general, I have been unable to establish exactly what type it was. 47 Documenti delle citta toscane, nos 50, 58; 'Liber iurium', nos 569, 585; Urkunden Venedig, nos 261-2; Histoire des actes de Marseille, 1, p. 195; Memorie di Amalfi, 1, p. 201 (note difference between anchoragia and ancorandum)', Rey, Recherches, p. 47. See also Documenti delle citta toscane, nos 1 B, 5; Chartes [de la Terre Sainte provenant de Pabbaye de Notre-Dame] de Josaphat, ed. H.F.Delaborde (Paris 1880) nos 18, 28-9, 49; Analecta

XI 126

48 49 50

51

52 53 54 55

56

57

58

The Commercial Privileges ofForeign Merchants novissima, ed. J.B.Pitra (Paris 1885-8) 1, p.556. See Regesta regni Hierosolymitani, comp. R.Rohricht (Innsbruck 1893-1904) no. 606, in which the charge was 1 silver mark. See also Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 372. The list of duties in Hist, dip/. Fred., 11, p. 535 is to be found in a charter issued in Sicily and so may not accurately reflect conditions in the port of Acre. Cart. St.-Sepu/cre, no. 46. See [ H.] Antoniadis-Bibicou, Recherches sur les douanes [ a By^ance] (Paris 1963) pp. 107-22. The clearest evidence is to be found in Cod, dip/, geros., 1, p. 15 8; and support is to be found in Documenti delle citta toscane, no. 70; A.cta imperii inedita, 1, no. 302; Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 1372; 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 174 (§ 15). See 'Annales Januenses', pp. 176-7. On the other hand, for slight evidence that the combined entry and sales taxes were taken together in the markets, see 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 173 (rubric), 174 (§12); Cart. St.-Sepu/cre, no. 46. 'Annales Januenses', pp. 176-7; 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 174 (§ 12); Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, [La pratica de/la mercatura], ed. A.Evans (Cambridge, Mass., 1936) p.69. See 'Liber iurium', nos 401, 410; Rey, Recherches, p. 47. Carried presumably by porters, but also by camels. 'L'Estoire d'Eracles', 11, pp. 151-2; 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', P-73For Latin Jerusalem, see 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 48-9. 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 220; Cart. St.-Sepu/cre, no. 155; Cod. dip/, geros., 1, p. 15 8; Episto/ae saecu/i XIII, 11, no. 125. In Egypt the difference between the value of a merchant's imports and exports was also taxed where the export was greater than the import. This may be what is referred to in the charter of 1257 from the High Court of the kingdom of Jerusalem to Ancona. 'et tout le seurplus que il solent paier a la chaene seit quite et absolu perpetuelment'. Cod. dip/, geros., loc. cit. 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 174 (§ 12); 'Quatre titres des Genois', no. 4 (p. 226). See 'Liber iurium', no. 569; Urkunden Venedig, no. 262; Germain, Histoire de Montpe/lier, 11, p. 513. But see the charter of Guy of Lusignan in which he promised that the Marseillais would not be forced against their will to sell what they had brought in, Histoire des actes de Marsei/k, 1, p. 195. See Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, pp. 63-4; Documents inedits sur le commerce de Marsei/le au mqyen age, ed. L. Blancard (Marseilles 1884-85) passim \ Cart. gen. Hosp., nos 77, 2298; 'Sankt Samuel auf dem Freudenberge [und sein Besitz nach einem unbekannten Diplom Konig Balduins V ] , ed. H. E. Mayer, Quel/en und Forschungen aus Ita/ienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, XLIV (Tubingen 1964) p. 68. See [ C ] Cahen, 'A propos des coutumes [du marche d'Acre'], Revue historique de droitfrancais et etranger, ser. 4, XLI (Paris 1963) pp. 287-90; [J.] Prawer, 'L'fitablissement des cou-

XI 127

59

60

61

62

63 64

65 66 67 68

69

tumes [du marche a St.-Jean d'Acre et la date de la composition du Livre des Assises des Bourgeois]', Revue historique de droit francais et e'tranger, ser. 4, x x i x (1951) pp. 329-51; [ J.] Richard, * Colonies marchandes [privilegiees et marche seigneurial. La Fonde d'Acre et ses "droitures"]', JLe moyen age, LIX (Paris 1953) pp. 325-40. 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 173-81. Exit dues are listed for the following commodities : hazel nuts, carobs, salted fish, onions, onion bulbs, leather tack and saddles, merchandise, chickens, glass, wine. There is one transit charge mentioned - on flax passing through Acre on its way from Egypt to Damascus. One reference in the 'Assises des Bourgeois' (p. 220) suggests that some dues were paid in kind; and at Port St.-Simeon one fief in kind was paid out by the cbaine; Tab, ord. Theut., no. 9. For pilgrims and passengers : Urkunden Venedig, nos 40-1, 300 (p. 397). For sailors : Rey, Recherches, p.47. See 'Liber iurium', nos 569, 585; Urkunden Venedig, nos 261-2; Germain, Histoire de Montpellier, 11, p. 513. See also Document} delle citta toscane, nos 23-5, 31-2, 50, 58 (no. 39 is not a reference for this tax); Histoire des actes de Marseille, 1, p. 190; Memorie di Amalfi, 1, p. 201. 'Liber iurium', nos 8, 11, 20, 256, 276, 363, 374—5, 379, 392, 401, 410, 477, 569, 585, 718; Documenti delle citta toscane, nos 1, 5, 22-5, 31-2, 37; Urkunden Venedig, nos 40-1, 68, 261-2, 369; Histoire des actes de Marseille, 1, pp. 190-1, 195, 287-8; Memorie di Amalfi, 1, p.201; Rey, Recherches, p. 47; 'Quatre titres des Genois', no. 4 (pp. 225-6); 'Chartae', Historiae patriae monumenta, 1, cols 857-8. Urkunden Venedig, nos 46, 61; 'Liber iurium', nos 405, 516, although the second of these may contain a reference to the gates; Documenti delle citta toscane, nos 4, 6, 13, 50, 53, 58, 66, 70; Memorie di Amalfi, 1, p. 202; Ada imperii inedita, 1, no. 302; Cod. dipl. geros. 1, p. 15 8; Germain, Histoire de Montpellier, 11, p. 513; Epistolae saeculi XIII, n , no. 125; Rohricht, 'Amalrich 1.', p. 489. Documenti delle citta toscane, nos 23-5, 31-2. Following his dispute with the Pisans, Henry of Champagne issued a charter for them in 1193 which merely confirmed the rights they had held in 1185. Documenti delle citta toscane, no. 37. Documenti delle citta toscane, no. 65, See also no. 66. Breve of 1286 from the Statutipisani, printed in Documenti delle citta toscane, pp. 380-1. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 990. Tab. ord. Theut., no. 8; Urkunden Venedig, nos 63, 299 (p. 385); Cart. gen. Hosp., nos 79, 82; Cod. dipl. geros., 1, p.63; 'Fragment d'un Cart. St.-Lazare', nos 27, 33; 'Un diplome inedit d'Amaury 1, roi de Jerusalem, en faveur de l'abbaye du Temple-Notre-Seigneur (1166)', ed. F. Chalandon, Revue de rOrient latin, V I I I (Paris 1900-1) p. 312; [J.] Delaville Le Roulx, ['L'Ordre de] Montjoye', Revue de I'Orient latin 1 (1893) p.52. Exit taxes are included in the list of market charges of the mid thirteenth century, but chains dues are to be found in it

XI 128

The Commercial Privileges ofForeign Merchants too. 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 173-81. Note that in 1191, before Acre was retaken, the Hospitallers and the Templars had promised to take into custody, redditus fort, et rerum venalium, et redditus portus Acrae. There was here no mention of the gates. Gesta regis Henrici secundi, ed. W. Stubbs,

RS, XLIX (1867) 11, p. 170.

70 Ibn Jubair, [Travels], extr. ed. and tr. RHC. Historiens orientaux, i n , p.449. 71 Tab. ord. Theut., no. 19. See op. cit., nos 5, 7, 13-14; Documenti delle citta toscane, no, 27; 'Quatre pieces rel. teutonique', no. 3; 'Fragment d'un cart. St.-Lazare', no. 29. 72 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 171-3; 'L'Estoire d'Eracles', 11, p. 475. 73 See also the farming of the Chaine of Limassol in Cyprus by King Aimery in 1199 for two years for 28,500 white besants. *Inventaire des pieces de Terre Sainte de l'ordre de l'Hopital', ed. J.Delaville Le Roulx, Revue deV Orient latin, i n (1895), no. 187. On the other hand Marsiglio Giorgio's description of the tolls imposed on the Venetians in 1244 {Urkunden Venedig, no. 300, p. 398) suggests that perhaps the gates of Acre were not being farmed then. 74 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 175 (§ 23 - see note 9), 179 (§12) and perhaps also pp. 177 (§§56, 60), 179 (§15); Cart. St.-Sepulcre, nos 45, 184; Urkunden Venedig, no. 63; 'Quatre titres des Genois', no. 4 (pp. 225-6). 75 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 179 (§ 12). 76 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 177 (§50), 179 (§6), 180 (§22); Urkunden Venedig, no. 300 (p. 398); Tab. ord. Theut., nos 18, 22. 77 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 179 (§§5,13), 180 (§30). 78 Urkunden Venedig, no. 300 (p.398); 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp.176 (§46), 177 (§§49, 5 1 ), J 79 (§ I 4), 180 (§§25> 2 6). See also p.177 (§53). 79 See below, pp. 119-21. 80 See Cahen, 'Douanes et commerce', p. 238. 81 See S. Y. Labib, Handelsgeschichte Agyptens im Spdtmittelalter (11JI-IJ17) (Wiesbaden 1965) pp. 21 iff. 82 See N. Elisseeff, Nur ad-Din (Damascus 1967) 111, pp. 85 8-9. 83 See the use of the terms ius plateatici and plateaticum in Cart, gen. Hosp., no. 1372; Hist. dipl. Fred.% n , p. 535. Also Document! delle citta toscane, no. 6 : 'Dono . . . Pisanis plateam unam in Ioppe, ut in ea componant sibi domos et faciant ibidem forum sibi'. 84 See below, pp.i 18-19. A market could be endowed with rights itself. See the exchange of one at Tyre cum libertatibusportuum etportarum. Le Registre d'Urban IV, ed. J. Guiraud et al. (Paris 1901-58) nos 1019-20. 85 For instance in Acre aplatea in which onions were sold, interesting because onions are included in the surviving list of charges. Cart, gen. Hosp., no. 2919; in Antioch zfunde del pin. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2001; in Laodicea 2ifondumfructus. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 437; in Jabala aplatea telarum. Les Archives, [ la bibliotheque et le tresor de l'ordre de St.-Jean de Jerusalem a Malte], ed. J.Delaville Le Roulx (Paris 1883) no. 52; Cart. gen. Hosp., nos 1684, 2143; in the lordship of Margat a

XI 12 9

86 87

88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97

98 99 100 101 102 103

104 105 106

107

platea tincturia. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 941; in Tyre, 'item ex alio fontico . . . cum tubis et zallamellis vocinis et tanburis et aliis instrumentis ad ludendum . . . cum uno fontico . . . in quo vendentur mercimonia'. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (p. 385). 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 173-81. See also Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, pp. 63-9. 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 178-9. See Prawer, 'L'Etablissement des coutumes', pp. 3 31-44. Richard, 'Colonies marchandes', pp. 335-40, and Cahen, 'A propos des coutumes', pp. 288-9, argue that the phrases should mean 'above' and 'below' the fonde. But this is based upon the assumption that there was only one. fonde in Acre - and one has only to point to references to the Venetian fonde to show that this was not the case. See Tab. ord. Theut., nos 73-4; 'Continuation de Guillaume de Tyr de 1229 a 1261, dite du manuscrit de Rothelin', RHC. Historiens occidentaux, 11, p. 635. See 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 178. Document} delle citta toscane, no. 27. See also the reference by Frederick 11 to the platea publica civitatis in the same area. Hist. dipl. Fred., 111, p. 128. See above, p. 125, n.37. I have considered this in another article on the lesser officers in the Latin Kingdom which is to be published in the English Historical Review, 87 (1972) pp.6-9. 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 172. The mensurator of Beirut was mentioned in a charter of 1223. 'Liber iurium', no. 585. 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 220. See below, p. 117. Tab. ord. Theut., nos 5-6, 14, 19, 63-4; Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (p. 367); Cart.gen. Hosp., nos 1215, 2001-2, 2280; Hist, dipl. Fred., i n , pp. 117-18, 122-3, 125, 130; 'Fragment d'un cart. St.-Lazare', nos 29-30; 'Sankt Samuel auf dem Freudenberge', pp. 69-70; Delaville Le Roulx, 'Montjoye', p. 52. See Richard, 'Colonies marchandes', p. 330. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 2001. Cart. gen. Hosp., nos 311, 437. Les Archives, no. 52; Cart.gen. Hosp., nos 1684, 2143. Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 941. Cart.gen. Hosp., nos 620, 2002, 2280; Rey, Recherches, pp.4748, 51. There were also two sources of revenue in Tripoli called drina and paudico which may in fact have been the duana and the fundico, i.e. the chaine and the. fonde. Tab. ord. Theut., nos 4-5. See 'Gestes des Chiprois', pp. 68 3-4, 684, 813. Cart. gen. Hosp., nos 3514-15. See John of Ibelin, p. 274. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (p. 385). See also no. 63; Chartes de Josaphat, no. 46; 'Quatre titres des Genois', no. 4 (p. 228). But see the reference to the fonde of Tyre in Cart. gen. Hosp., nos 3346, 3408; Tab. ord. Theut., no. 14. Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (pp. 359-60). For Damascus, see N. A.Ziadeh, Damascus under the Mamluks (Norman 1964) pp. 88-91.

XI 130

The Commercial Privileges of Foreign Merchants

108 John of Joinville, Histoire de saint Louis, ed. N. de Wailly (Paris 1874) p.90. 109 For Acre, see Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, p. 64. For Tyre, Urkunden Venedig, no. 299 (p. 385): 'cum uno fontico . . .; et est in (ibi) statera'. For Beirut, 'Liber iurium', no. 585. See also Rey, Recherches, p. 48; 'Sankt Samuel auf dem Freudenberge', p. 68. n o 'Liber iurium', no. 585. i n 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 173-81; Urkunden Venedig, no. 300. That the same system was used in other markets is clear from the privileges to the merchants listed below, pp. 123-6. 112 An obviously corrupt variant gives the charge on wax (11 -£$ per cent) at z-^ per cent. 113 Of the various commodities taxed at this rate, cinnamon is listed twice, once obviously as a transit good, while Marsiglio Giorgio, the Venetian bailli, reveals that 4J per cent was charged on Venetian goods passing through Acre from Islamic countries to the West. It was an easy tax to take, being one carouble in the besant. See also Ibn Jubair, p. 447. 114 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 176 (§§39-41, 47), 177 (§57), 178 (§70115 Apples, asparagus, capers, olives, pears, quinces, straw, terebinth. Also salt fish from Egypt. 116 Cahen, 'Douanes et commerce', pp. i^S. 117 Antoniadis-Bibicou, Recherches sur les douanes, passim. 118 Cahen, 'Douanes et commerce', pp. 240-1, 251-2; Goitein, Mediterranean Society, pp. 192-3, 218-19. 119 Cahen, 'Douanes et commerce', pp. 240-3, 254; Goitein, Mediterranean Society, p. 193. 120 See 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 34-5, 191-2. 121 Cahen, 'Douanes et commerce', p. 254; Antoniadis-Bibicou, Recherches sur les douanes, p. 112. 122 'nichil plus accipiemus ab illis gentibus, que vobiscum negociantur, nisi quantum soliti sunt dare, et quanta accipimus ab illis, qui cum aliis negociantur gentibus'. Urkunden Venedig, no. 40. (This does not appear in the confirmation, no. 41.) It was to the payment by both parties that Bohemond v n of Tripoli seems to have been referring in 1277 when his charter mentioned goods owing 'II. dreitures'. Rey, Recherches, pp. 47-8. See also Germain, Histoire de Montpellier, n,p.5i3. 123 The only general exemptions were for the Genoese in Antioch, Laodicea, Jabala, Tripoli, Jubail, Tyre, Acre, Haifa, Jerusalem, Jaffa and Ascalon: 'Liber iurium', nos 256, 374, 379, 4oi, 4io, 477, 5*6, 718; 'Quatre titres des Genois', no. 4 (p.225); 'Chartae', 1, cols. 857-8; and for the Amalfitans in Acre : Memorie di Amalfi, 1, p. 201. It is of interest that a contemporary charter to the Marseillais did not give them this right. Histoire des actes de Marseille, p. 195. 124 'Liber iurium', nos 405, 585; Rey, Recherches, pp.47-8. See Urkunden Venedig, no. 300 ( pp. 3 97-8). 125 Documenti delle citta toscane, nos 4, 6, 13, 50; Urkunden Venedig, nos 61, 250; Memorie di Amalfi, 1, p. 202; Germain, Histoire de Montpellier, 11, p. 513; Rohricht, 'Amalrich 1.', p. 489.

XI i3i

126 Freedom from all tax only on selling: Histoire des actes de Marseille, 1, pp. 287-8. Freedom from tax only on buying: 'Liber hirium', no. 569; Urkunden Venedig, nos 68, 261. 127 See Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, p. 64 and below. Also Cart. gen. Hosp., no. 77; 'Sankt Samuel auf dem Freudenberge', p.68; J.Richard, 'La Fondation d'une eglise latine en Orient par S. Louis : Damiette', Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des Chartes, c x x (Paris 1962) p. 54. 128 M. Benvenisti, The Crusaders in the Holy Land (Jerusalem 1970) pp. 98-104.

129 130 131 132

133 134 135 136 137

138

See Cod. dipl. geros.91, p . 15 9. Urkunden Venedig, n o . 40. Urkunden Venedig, n o . 4 1 . Documenti delle citta toscane, nos 23-5, 31-2; Histoire des actes de

Marseille, 1, p. 191. The privilege to the Provencals was extended to cover all cities in future taken by the Christians. Rey, Recherches, pp. 47-5 o. See below, p. 121. 'Liber iurium', no. 374. Confirmed by Henry of Champagne: no. 405. Urkunden Venedig, no. 63, although the profits from mensuragium were being withheld from them in 1243, see no. 299 (p. 385). Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, p. 64. 'Quatre titres des Genois', no. 4 (pp. 227-8). The Genoese had to pay for measurement - though without holding the mensuragium in farm - in Beirut and Cyprus, but they were absolved from it in Haifa, 'Liber iurium', nos 585, 693, 718. The Venetians had to pay for measurement in Tripoli. Rey, Recherches, p. 48. See the emphasis on the payment of tolls by visiting Muslim merchants in 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 174 (§i2)-

139 'Liber iurium', no. 405. 140 Urkunden Venedig, no. 300 (pp. 397-8). The Latin here is very corrupt. 141 'Quatre titres des Genois', no. 4 (p. 226). 142 Urkunden Venedig, no. 300 (p. 398). 143 Germain, Histoire de Montpellier, 11, pp. 513-15. See also the terms of a charter for Provencals from Henry of Cyprus in 1236. Histoire des actes de Marseille, 1, pp. 419-20. 144. Urkunden Venedig, loc. cit. 145 'Quatre titres des Genois', no.4(p.225). 146 'Liber iurium', no. 405. If there was no sale, the Genoese need pay no customs. In 1243, however, Bohemond v of Tripoli reduced by two-thirds the 'passage use' paid by those Provencals who brought goods from Paynim into Tripoli by sea and loaded their boats with them. Germain, Histoire de Montpellier, 11, p. 513. 147 Cod. dipl. geros., 1, p. 15 8, although it seems that the cost of entry would be subtracted from it. 148 Rey, Recherches, pp. 47-8. 149 See 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', p. 174 (§ 12). 150 Rey, Recherches, pp. 47-8. 151 'Livre des Assises des Bourgeois', pp. 178-9. Native estasoniers probably sold spices, see p. 175 (§22); Urkunden Venedig,

XI 132

The Commercial Privileges ofForeign Merchants

no. 299 (p. 359). See also Richard, 'Colonies marchandes', pp, 337-40 152 Prawer, 'L'Etablissement des coutumes', pp. 338-41; Richard, 'Colonies marchandes', p. 333, note 15; Cahen, 'A propos des coutumes', p. 289. 153 Urkunden Venedigy no. 299 (pp. 384-5).

XII King Fulk of Jerusalem and 'the Sultan of Babylon'

The college of St Laud in Angers was founded by Count Geoffrey Martel of Anjou some time before 1060 and was favoured by his successors. It was situated close to the palatium of the counts, who used the title of abbot and had the provision of one of its eleven canonries. Its cartulary, put together in the first half of the thirteenth century, was rediscovered in the nineteenth. One of the pieces in it is a memorandum written by the dean, Guy of Athee, concerning some of the rights enjoyed by the counts. Among them is the following: When a count who has been newly created comes to the church he should be received solemnly in procession by the chapter and clerks of St Laud and furthermore whenever the count — ...or the countess or their children — returns from a long pilgrimage or period away they should be received by the dean or by him who will be superior of the church with gospel book and thurible and holy water, and ... the dean should solemnly hand the count the ivory tau which Fulk, king of Jerusalem and count of the Angevins, gave this church. Fulk had it [the tau] from the sultan of Babylon when Christ raised him to be king of Jerusalem. I Guy of Athee, with the whole chapter of the church and the clerks, have received the count of the Angevins often in this way. And King Fulk gave the tau to our church for this reason — that we should receive the counts in this way — and he ordered and wished that this should signify that the counts of the Angevins are lords and abbots of the church of St Laud before all other churches.2 In the spring of 1128 emissaries from Jerusalem had reached Angers to offer Count Fulk V of Anjou the hand of King Baldwin IPs eldest daughter Melisende. Protracted negotiations followed. The offer was made at the time a crusade was being preached in the West and Fulk took the cross at the end of May. He left with the crusade early in 1129 and married Melisende in Acre in the summer. 3 Baldwin died on 21 August 1131 and Fulk and Melisende were crowned in Jerusalem on the following 14 September. Guy of Athee had been replaced as dean of St Laud by the year 1140.4 So, assuming the tau with Fulk's instructions 1

I am grateful to Dr Michael Brett of the School of Oriental and African Studies for his assistance with the Arabic source material, for details of the reign of Kutayfat and for his advice on the political situation in Egypt. 2 Cartulaire du chapitre de Saint-Laud d'Angers, ed. A. Planchenault, Documents historiques sur l'Anjou 4 (Angers, 1903) (hereafter cited as St Laud d'Angers), pp. 4-5; and see also pp. vi-xiv. 3 H.E. Mayer, 'The Succession to Baldwin II of Jerusalem: English Impact on the East,' DOP 39 (1985), 139-147 = idem, Kings and Lords, no. 2. 4 St Laud d'Angers, p. xxiv.

XII 56

had reached Angers at the earliest six months after his coronation, we must assign a date between 1132 and 1140 to the St Laud memorandum; it was probably written in the later 1130s, because Guy of Athee had already received the count * often in this way.' The memorandum was calendared by Reinhold Rohricht in his Regesta,5 but I can think of no historian who has discussed it, in spite of its importance as very rare evidence for the visit to Jerusalem of an Egyptian embassy and its significance in the context of Egyptian history. It was not mentioned in an account of Fulk's coronation included in the Vita of Guy of Ploermel, the bishop of Le Mans,6 nor was it referred to in the Chronicle of the Kingdom of Jerusalem written several decades later by William of Tyre.7 Of course, the embassy could have arrived some time after the coronation itself; indeed so quickly were Fulk and Melisende crowned — three weeks after Baldwin's death — that if the embassy had been present at the time of their coronation it must have been intended originally to address Baldwin rather than Fulk. Contemporary descriptions of Egyptian embassies often refer to the gifts they brought with them. For instance, in the autumn of 1126 an ambassador brought to Damascus 'magnificent robes of honour and costly Egyptian presents' and another in September 1147 brought 'a gift of horses and money.'8 The ivory tau must have been only one of a number of presents. Some historians have confused it with the famous relic of the True Cross which Fulk also sent to St Laud, but it is clear that the tau was a staff and that Fulk intended it to be used in much the same way as a baculum, which denoted lordship when presented to a property owner. Ivory tau staffs were quite commonly carved in the medieval East and a number of examples of them survive.9 When he sent the tau to St Laud, the rights he had enjoyed in the West were obviously still on Fulk's mind. A concern for home and for maintaining close links with it and with members of one's kindred was a feature of the early period of settlement in Palestine and Syria. The strength of the emotional bonds which tied people even when 2,000 miles away is illustrated in an account of the sending of a relic of St Stephen to the abbey of Cluny in Burgundy. Gilduin of Le Puiset was a Cluniac monk and prior of Lurcy-le-Bourg before travelling in c.l 119 to the East, where his first cousin was King Baldwin II. He and Baldwin were members of a clan spanning several families and sharing descent from Guy I of Montlhery and Hodierna of Gometz, and particularly from their four daughters who were at the centre of a kindred which generated a large number 5

RRHAddno. 139a. Actus pontificum Cenomannis in urbe degentium, ed. G. Busson and A. Ledru (Archives historiques du Maine 2 [1901]), pp. 431-432. 7 WT 14.2, p. 634. 8 Ibn al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades, trans. H.A.R. Gibb (London, 1932), pp. 179, 280. 9 A. Maskell, Ivories (London, 1905), p. 193. For the relic, see A. Frolow, La relique de la Vraie Croix (Paris, 1961), p. 322. 6

XII KING FULK OF JERUSALEM AND 'THE SULTAN OF BABYLON'

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of early crusaders and settlers in the East10 Indeed by the time Gilduin reached Palestine Montlhery descendants were coming to dominate the Latin settlements in the Levant. Gilduin was almost immediately elected abbot of St Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the monastery which enclosed the supposed last resting place of the Blessed Virgin Mary and therefore the site of her Assumption. In 1120 he left Jerusalem with Baldwin for the county of Edessa in the north, which was ruled by another Montlhery cousin, Joscelin of Courtenay; on their way they were joined by Gilduin's brother Waleran of Le Puiset, who was an important magnate in the county. At Edessa the party met the archbishop, who over a decade earlier — certainly before 1109 — had stopped at Cluny on the way from Flanders to the East and had been made a confrater of the community by Abbot Hugh. The archbishop asked Gilduin for the latest news of the Cluniac congregation in Europe. The meeting and the conversation about Cluny and her daughter houses seem to have had a profound emotional effect on him, for they gave rise to a number of vivid dreams — he believed they were visions — in which he was instructed to give the relic to Gilduin for transmission to Cluny.n In fact the settlers, like the early crusaders, showered their home churches and friends in the West with relics. After Raymond IV of St Gilles's death in Syria in 1105 Bishop Herbert of Tripoli, who had been his chaplain, sent the relics Raymond had carried with him to his own home priory of Chaise-Dieu, to embellish the tomb of St Robert there.12 In 1108 King Baldwin I of Jerusalem sent a piece of the True Cross and a stone from the Holy Sepulchre to the abbey of Corbie13 and Anseau, the cantor of the Holy Sepulchre, sent similar relics to the cathedral of Paris.14 In 1116a second canon of the Holy Sepulchre, Adam, sent his home cathedral of Le Mans a cross containing two pieces of the True Cross and stones from the Holy Sepulchre, Calvary, the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane and Gabatha.15 In 1123 another settler sent relics of SS. Jude and Agarus from the treasury of the church of Edessa to Rheims,16 and in 1128 William of Bures, the lord of Galilee and probably another Montlhery descendant, on the mission that offered Fulk the hand of Melisende, gave the abbey of St Julien of Tours relics of the cross, together with precious cloth and a standard called the Transartat, which must have been well-known at the time, attached to a spear which was inlaid with silver.17 When king of Jerusalem, Fulk of Anjou himself sent a relic of 10 See J.S.C. Riley-Smith, 'Family Traditions and Participation in the Second Crusade,' in The Second Crusade and the Cistercians, ed. M. Gervers (New York, 1992), pp. 101-108. 11 Tractatus de reliquiis S. Stephani Cluniacum delatis, in RHC Occ 3:173-320. 12 Acta Sanctorum, April 3:330. 13 Annales Corbeienses, MGH SS 3:7. 14 Cartulaire general de Paris, vol. 1: 528-1180, ed. R. de Lasteyrie, Histoire generate de Paris (Paris, 1887) pp. 171-174; G. Bautier, 'L'envoi de la relique de la Vraie Croix a Notre Dame de Paris en 1120,' Bibliotheque de VEcole des Chartes 129 (1971), 387-397. 15 Actus pontificum Cenomannis, p. 407. 16 G. Marlot, Histoire de la ville, cite et universite de Reims, 4 vols. (Reims, 1843-46), 3:699. 17 Actus pontificum Cenomannis, p. 430.

XII 58

the True Cross to St Laud, as we have seen,18 and Patriarch William of Jerusalem sent another splinter to St Bernard at Clairvaux in 1135.19 The reaction of Fulk on receiving the tau — to think of a use that might be made of it at home — was predictable and understandable. By 1131 Fatimid Egypt was visibly weakening. The last major Egyptian expedition by land had approached the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1118, shortly after Baldwin IFs accession. A large army, supplied from the sea, had mustered on the southern border, where it was joined by a force from Damascus. The Christians took up position opposite and the two sides faced it out for three months before the Egyptians withdrew.20 An even greater humiliation had to be endured by Egypt six years later. The city of Tyre, the last major port in Muslim hands on the Palestinian coast, acknowledged Fatimid suzerainty, although in 1112 a governor from Damascus had been installed at the citizens' request. Ten years later the Fatimid caliph al-Amir regained direct control by kidnapping the governor, but in 1123 the most effective force still at Egypt's disposal, its galley fleet, was so badly damaged by Venetian ships which had arrived on crusade that when in 1124 the crusaders and the army of the kingdom of Jerusalem laid siege to Tyre, al-Amir had to admit to Damascus that he did not have the means to defend it. Damascus did what it could. During the siege the citizens and Damascus waited in vain for some effective supporting action from Egypt. None came and Tyre fell on 7 July.21 The Egyptian government had shown itself to be powerless — perhaps this contributed to the arrest and execution of the wazir in the following year22 — and the loss of Tyre severely reduced the range of operations of its galley fleet, because the ships were now deprived of any place north of Ascalon where they could take on water.23 In the summer of 1126, now refurbished and its sortie well publicized in advance, the fleet cruised north again, nosing from port to port as far as Beirut, looking without success for weaknesses it could exploit in its search for water. King Baldwin, in an apparently rash move, ignored the news that the Egyptians were about to sail and marched north with part of his army to meet a Muslim threat to the borders of Antioch. The writers of the main narrative sources for the history of the Latin East, Fulcher of Chartres, who was a contemporary, and William of Tyre, felt the need to explain this as the confrontation of the greater of two threats, but it may be that Baldwin did not take the war plans of the Egyptians very seriously, although he must have known that their recapture of one of the 18

Frolow, Relique, p. 332. Frolow, Relique, p. 323. FC 3.2.1-3, pp. 617-619; WT 12.6, pp. 552-553. 21 Ibn al-Qalanisi, Damascus Chronicle, pp. 128-130,142, 165-166, 170-172; Ibn al-Athir, RHC Or 1:356-359. For the fall of Tyre, see Runciman, Crusades 2:168-171. 22 Ibn al-Athir, RHC Or 1:363-364. 23 J. Pryor, Geography, Technology and War: Studies in the Maritime History of the Mediterranean, 649-1571 (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 115-116. 19

20

XII KING FULK OF JERUSALEM AND 'THE SULTAN OF BABYLON'

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ports in Christian hands would have threatened his lines of communication to the West by sea since, as has recently been shown, a more northern watering place would have increased the galleys' range sufficiently for them to have caused havoc in the crowded sea lanes near Cyprus.24 Perhaps the cruise of the fleet was made more for public consumption than anything else. Nevertheless, Egyptian troops held on to a beachhead at Ascalon, to which, according to William of Tyre, the Fatimid government sent reinforcements four times a year,25 and from which raids could be launched to ravage Christian territory and threaten traffic on the roads almost as far as Jerusalem: two took place in 1124.26 But no record has survived of any action, or threat of action, by raiders from Ascalon between 1126 and 1132. Our knowledge is sketchy, but the course of events seems to have been as follows. The fall of Tyre in 1124 was followed in the autumn of 1125 by a well-planned descent by Baldwin, using troops he had already assembled to raid the territory of Damascus, on Ascalon, the garrison of which had just been reinforced. During this razzia the Egyptian troops were severely mauled.27 This was a preemptive strike, giving Baldwin the freedom to turn again on Damascus in January 1126 without apparently worrying about his southern frontier. All fief-holders and others throughout the kingdom were summoned to the Christian army by an arriere ban, and troops from Jaffa, Ramie and Lydda, who might in other circumstances have been expected to hold the line against Ascalon, were specifically mentioned marching north to the muster.28 The king seems to have adopted a similar high risk strategy two years later. Early in April 1128 his army was ravaging the countryside around Ascalon; the crops would have been quite mature by this time and their destruction, and the consequent food shortages, would probably have meant that the garrison at Ascalon had to be temporarily reduced in size.29 This chevauchee was followed by another attack on Damascus in 1129 in conjunction with the crusade which had now reached Palestine.30 More light is thrown on the Christian strategy by three charters granted to two religious institutions which seem to have been especially favoured by the Montlhery descendants in Palestine. One of them was the abbey of St Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat where, as we have seen, a member of the clan, Gilduin of Le Puiset, was abbot. The other was the Hospital of St John, which from before 1126 had embryonic commanderies in Jaffa and Tiberias, the chief towns in lordships ruled by members of the Montlhery kindred, Hugh II of Jaffa (or of 24

FC 3.55-56, pp. 800-805; WT 13.20, p. 612. See Pryor, Geography, pp. 116-122. W T 13.17, p. 607. 26 FC 3.28.2-4, 3.33.1-3, pp. 697-698, 731-732; WT 13.8, 12, pp. 595, 599-600. 27 FC 3.46.3-7, pp. 773-774; W T 13.17, pp. 607-608. 28 FC 3.50.1-2, pp. 784^-785; WT 13.18, p. 608. 29 CartHospVJZ. 30 WT 13.22, pp. 620-622; Ibn al-Qalanisi, Damascus Chronicle, pp. 195-200; Ibn al-Athir, RHC Or 1:385-386; Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, ed. T. Arnold, RS 74 (London, 1879), p. 251. 25

XII 60

Le Puiset), who was Gilduin's nephew, and William of Bures.31 Within a decade, after the Hospitallers had taken the first steps towards the creation of a military wing, they would begin to recruit well-known nobles, but at this time they were not yet attracting individuals of status into their ranks, although their work in their hospital in Jerusalem may well have appealed to Montlhery descendants, who had shown themselves predisposed to the ethos of crusading from the start. The Le Puisets, moreover, had a hospital attached to the priory they had founded at their castle in the Ile-de-France.32 The charters were associated with or were issued in the name of Hugh of Jaffa. The first recorded a gift made on 17 January 1126 by Barisan the Old, Hugh's constable, in the presence of witnesses who included Gilduin of Le Puiset, William of Bures and six brothers of the Hospital of St John, among them a brother priest, the brethren resident in Jaffa and Tiberias, and a brother officer with the military title of constable. Since the little ceremony of endowment must have involved men serving in the royal army as it advanced into the territory controlled by Damascus,33 this may provide the first evidence that the Hospital was beginning to diversify into military activities; two years later its master, Raymond of Le Puy, is to be found in the royal army devastating the territory of Ascalon.34 Barisan gave the Hospital a village in what he termed 'the territory or lordship' of Ascalon, with Hugh's agreement. The village, al-Jiya, was close to Ascalon itself, south-west of the town and far from any territory under Christian control.35 Barisan was the progenitor of the Ibelins, a family which became the most prominent noble house in Palestine in the thirteenth century. The Ibelins later believed that they were related to the Le Puisets and their pedigree opened with the following statement. Balian [Barisan] le Francois fu frere au conte Guilin de Chartres, et vint deca mer soi dizieme de chevaliers.36 This has always been rejected as myth and Barisan's origins have been thought to have been obscure, the most popular suggestion being that he was an Italian knight from Pisa or Sardinia.37 But is his kinship with the Le Puisets and therefore with his lord Hugh of Jaffa so intrinsically unlikely? For a rear-vassal and official of a tenant-in-chief he seems to have moved in exalted circles: he was, for 31 Cart Hosp 1:71, 73. For William of Bures's relationships, see M. Rheinheimer, Das Kreuzfahrerfiirstentum Galilaa (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1990), pp. 46-^7. 32 A. de Dion, 'Le Puiset aux Xle et Xlle siecles,' Memoires de la societe d'archeologie

d'Eure-et-Loir9(m6),&3. 33

The main engagement of this campaign was fought on 25 January. Ibn al-Qalanisi, Damascus Chronicle, p. 175. 34 Cart Hosp 1:78. 35 Cart Hosp 1:71 (RRH no. 112). 36 Les Lignages d'Outremer, RHC Lois 2:448. 37 P.W. Edbury, The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades 1191-1374 (Cambridge, 1991), p. 39.

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instance, referred to by name among those present at the Council of Nablus in 1120, although he may have been there as regent for his very young lord.38 This would not have been surprising if, as a Le Puiset and a Montlhery descendant, he was the king's cousin. Two of his charters were witnessed by Montlherys, one of them by two Montlhery visitors from western Europe, Guy of Le Puiset and Guy I of Dampierre-sur-rAube.39 The name Guilin in the pedigree is perhaps an echo of that of Abbot Gilduin, not himself a viscount of Chartres but the son and brother of viscounts. Barisan could have been Gilduin's illegitimate brother; or he could have been a brother-in-law, perhaps the brother of Mabel of Roucy who married Hugh II of Le Puiset and was Hugh of Jaffa's mother: her mother had been a daughter of Robert Guiscard of Apulia (and therefore Bohemond I of Antioch's sister) and the Roucys, who commemorated this through the use of the names Guiscard and Robert Guiscard in subsequent generations,40 could also have adopted another name, like Barisan, with South Italian connotations. It is most likely, however, that Barisan was indeed Gilduin's brother, and therefore Hugh of Jaffa's uncle. He could not have come to the East with Gilduin because he was already in Palestine in 1115.41 It is probable that he travelled with another brother, Hugh II of Le Puiset, viscount of Chartres and later lord of Jaffa, who in 1107 had joined the crusade of his wife's uncle, Bohemond of Antioch, and had settled in Palestine in 1108.42 The second charter was drawn up on behalf of Hugh of Jaffa himself in a house in Jerusalem on 27 June 1126. It recorded Hugh's confirmation of Barisan's gift and added that at the same time and before the same witnesses Hugh had augmented it with one of the three best villages which would come into his demesne in the territory and lordship of Ascalon. He had done this 'pro statu christianitatis' and for the redemption of the souls of his parents and all his relations, and 'ut Deus civitatem rebellem Ascalonem tradit in manus Christianorum.'43 The third charter, also issued on Hugh's behalf, is dated to 1123. This has worried Mayer,44 and rightly so, since it is to be found in a particularly corrupt and ill-written manuscript. In it Hugh gave St Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat a village in the territory of Ascalon, which he referred to as the third best, after two others he had already donated. He also gave St Mary the greater mosque

38

Man&i, Concilia 21:263. Chartes Josaphat, pp. 41-42; Cart Hosp 1:71. 40 W.K. zu Isenburg, F. Freytag von Loringhoven et al., Europdische Stammtafeln, 2nd ed., 15 vols. so far (Marburg, 1956-), 3: table 677. 41 Chartes Josaphat, p. 29. 42 H.E. Mayer, T h e Origins of the County of Jaffa,' Israel Exploration Journal 35 (1985), 43-45 = idem, Kings and Lords, no. 10. 43 Cart Hosp 1:72-73 (RRH no. 113). 44 H.E. Mayer, Bistumer, Kloster und Stifte im Konigreich Jerusalem, Schriften der MGH 26 (Stuttgart, 1977), pp. 151-152. 39

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inside Ascalon itself and one of the better gardens outside the town.45 The charter must postdate the gift of another of the villages to the Hospital of St John in 1126 and it is obviously associated with an endowment from Barisan to St Mary, which was made in 1127.46 It should probably be dated to that year. These endowments for the Hospital and St Mary clearly had the blessing of King Baldwin, who confirmed the gift to St Mary in 1130.47 It had previously been assumed that Ascalon would be part of the royal domain once it had been conquered,48 but it looks as though in the autumn of 1125, at the time of his first raid into the region or at any rate just before his expedition to Damascus in January 1126, the king had given Hugh of Jaffa lordship over Ascalon in advance of its conquest, possibly in return for him at least keeping up the pressure on it, or perhaps even organizing its occupation by force. Such an arrangement on the Christian marches was not unusual. In 1144 the Hospitallers were granted territories to conquer outside Christian control when they were endowed with Crac des Chevaliers and a section of the frontier of the county of Tripoli; and other grants of this sort were made to them on the borders of Tripoli and Antioch in 1168, 1184 and 1186.49 It seems, therefore, that the Christians had adopted an aggressive and risky strategy in the seven years before Baldwin's death in 1131. Tyre had been occupied. The two chief Muslim enemies, Cairo in Egypt and Damascus in Syria, had been taken on at once. Major attacks on Damascus or its territory had been launched in 1126 and 1129, while two raids into the countryside around Egyptian Ascalon had been accompanied by the granting of it to the closest Christian marcher lord, Hugh of Jaffa, who was the king's cousin, as, incidentally, was William of Bures, the lord of Galilee, who controlled the other active frontier, that with the lands of Damascus; it is surely no coincidence that in the 1120s Galilee appears to have been the only lordship in the kingdom other than Jaffa to have had a constable among its lord's officials.50 But within a year of Baldwin's death and the Egyptian embassy, the picture had changed. The first sign of a renewed Christian concern with the garrison at Ascalon is to be found in 1132, probably early in the year when King Fulk was absent in the north. The patriarch and citizens of Jerusalem built Chastel Hernaut in the foothills of the Judaean hills to protect the road to their city from Egyptian raiders.51 By 1136 the threat from Ascalon to the kingdom had become so great 45 'Chartes de Fabbaye de Notre-Dame de la Vallee de Josaphat en Terre Sainte (1108-1291),' ed. C. Kohler, ROL 1 (1899), 119-120 (RRH no. 102a). 46 Chartes Josaphat, pp. 4 1 ^ 2 (RRH no. 120). 47 Chartes Josaphat, p. 47. 48 TTh 1:88, 92-93 (RRH nos. 102, 105). 49 J.S.C. Riley-Smith, The Knights of St John in Jerusalem and Cyprus c. 1050-1310 (London, 1967), pp. 55-57, 66-^68. 50 J.S.C. Riley-Smith, The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1174-1277 (London, 1973), p. 19. 51 WT 14.8, p. 640.

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that Fulk had begun to construct a ring of castles round it to contain its garrison; they included one granted to the Hospitallers.52 The situation in Egypt at the time of Baldwin's death and Fulk's coronation in 1131 was particularly unstable. The caliph al-Amir was assassinated in 1130. His son, only a few months old, was proclaimed his heir, but was soon murdered and a death from natural causes was probably announced by al-Amir's cousin and future successor, the regent al-Hafiz. But al-Hafiz was himself imprisoned by the new wazir, Abu Ali Ahmad ibn al-Afdal, known as Kutayfat, the son of the great wazir al-Afdal. Kutayfat had retained the loyalty of his father's regiment and so was able to seize power, but he was not a caliph and the Friday sermons in the mosques did not name one. Rather, since the direct line of the Fatimid dynasty had been extinguished the empire was placed under the sovereignty of the Hidden Imam. It is noteworthy that the Imam regarded as being in occultation was the Twelfth, the mahdi of the Imamis, and it has been pointed out that this effectively abolished Isma'ilism as Egypt's state religion. The katibs had to declaim a grandiloquent list of titles accorded by Kutayfat to himself as protector of the rights of the Hidden Imam. It was Kutayfat who sent the embassy to Jerusalem and the St Laud memorandum was nearly correct in its description of him as sultan; he actually referred to himself as malik or prince. His position must have been precarious, and he was in fact murdered by guards loyal to the Fatimids in December 1131.53 In his short period of government he took the unprecedented step of appointing or replacing the four chief qadis in Cairo: of the Shafi'is, Malikis, Ismai'ilis and Imamis. 'The like of this had never been heard of before in the faith of Islam.' He also allowed a new Coptic patriarch to be consecrated after a six-year vacancy in the patriarchate.54 Although the details of his rule seem to have been expunged from the Fatimid records, it may be that he had instituted a policy of religious toleration to gain support, although it was said later that he had proclaimed the religion of anti-shi'ism and had persecuted the Isma'ilis.55 One's first reaction to the appearance in Jerusalem in September 1131 of an embassy from Kutayfat is that, having already shown some favour to the Christian community in Egypt, he must have been looking for a Christian ally. It would not have been surprising, given how isolated he must have felt, if he had offered the Kingdom of Jerusalem a truce. And I wonder whether he was not also prepared to surrender Ascalon, although any offer his embassy made must have been refused, because within a few months the garrison at Ascalon was again perceived by the Christians to be a threat. I speculate in this way because of events that occurred shortly afterwards involving Hugh of Jaffa, who was 52

WT 14.22, pp. 659-661; Cart Hosp 1:97-98. Ibn al-Athir, RHC Or 1:390-391, 393-395; S.M. Stern, T h e Succession to the Fatimid Imam al-Amir, the Claims of the Later Fatimids to the Imamate, and the Rise of Tayyibi Ismailism,' Oriens 4 (1951), 193-255. 54 I am grateful to Dr Brett for providing me with this information. 55 Stern, 'The Succession,' pp. 199-200. 53

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accused of treason by King Fulk. Joined by Roman of Le Puy, the dispossessed lord of Transjordan, Hugh refused to appear for a judicial duel and, faced by the confiscation of his fief, sailed down the coast to Ascalon, where he made a treaty himself with the Egyptian garrison there. The Egyptians raided Christian territory as far as Arsuf. When Fulk responded by besieging Jaffa, Hugh's leading vassals, including Barisan, deserted him. After mediation by the patriarch, Hugh accepted the judgement that he and his supporters should be exiled for three years, during which time the crown would enjoy the revenues from his fiefs. But after three years Jaffa would be restored to him, and it is clear that Hugh enjoyed much public support, particularly after a Breton knight had tried to assassinate him, while the king had little.56 Both William of Tyre and Ibn al-Qalanisi seem to assign Hugh's revolt to December 1132.57 Professor Hans Mayer has dated it, however, to the second half of 1134,58 although I do not think that in terms of my argument here the exact date matters much. William of Tyre suggested that it was rumours that Hugh was having an affair with Queen Melisende that led to bad blood between him and the king, but Mayer has argued that the real reason for Hugh's rebellion may have been Fulk's determination to bring in new men of his own to replace the old household officials,59 and I have suggested elsewhere that in this Hugh may have been representing the interests of the Montlherys who were disappointed by the new king.60 Nevertheless, questions remain unanswered. Hugh's sentence was an extraordinarily light one, given the fact that an etablissement on the confiscation of fiefs, which dated from Baldwin IPs reign, had decreed permanent disinheritance for anyone who entered into possession of a fief 'par force des Sarasins contre la volente de son seignor et sans esgart de cort,'61 which is precisely what Hugh had envisaged doing. Why was his lordship only confiscated for three years? And why did he attract such sympathy? William of Tyre inveighed against the enormity of Hugh's crime, but William had been a child in the 1130s and was writing many years later. The questions are easier to answer if the events of 1132 (or 1134) followed relatively shortly after a refusal by Fulk of an Egyptian offer of a truce which involved the surrender of Ascalon. Since Hugh's rights to Ascalon had already been recognized by Fulk's predecessor, he would have been

56

W T 14.15-18, pp. 651-656. 14 i5 ? p . 651; Ibn al-Qalanisi, Damascus Chronicle, p. 215. 58 H.E.Mayer, 'Studies in the History of Queen Melisende of Jerusalem,' DOP 26 (1972), 102-105 = idem, Probleme, no. 3. 59 H.E. Mayer, 'Angevins versus Normans: The New Men of King Fulk of Jerusalem,' Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 133 (1989), 1-25 = idem, Kings and Lords, no. 4. 60 J.S.C. Riley-Smith, 'Families, Crusades and Settlement in the Latin East, 1102-1131,' to be published. 61 Le Livre au roi, ed. M. Greilsammer (Paris, 1995), p. 182. For the date, see J.S.C. Riley-Smith, 'Further Thoughts on Baldwin II's etablissement on the Confiscation of Fiefs,' Crusade and Settlement, ed. P.W. Edbury (Cardiff, 1985), pp. 176-180. 57

WT

XII KING FULK OF JERUSALEM AND 'THE SULTAN OF BABYLON'

65

bitterly disappointed at the failure to clinch a deal. This would go a long way towards explaining his subsequent discontent. At any rate the speed with which the activities of the garrison at Ascalon again became an object of concern after September 1131 suggests either that the Egyptians had somehow gained the upper hand in the south-western frontier region — the new caliph, al-Hafiz, was going to show himself to be much more active in this respect — or that negotiations with the Egyptian embassy had come to nothing. It is clear from other evidence that Fulk was determined to change the direction in which the kingdom had been moving and to reverse the Montlhery policies of the 1120s. He signalled this from the start, because he chose to be crowned not in Bethlehem, as Baldwin I and Baldwin II had been, but in the Holy Sepulchre compound in Jerusalem. This may have been because the date chosen for his coronation was 14 September, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, commemorating the discovery of the True Cross; 62 or it may have reflected Fulk's personal devotion to the cross. But whatever it meant, the coronation marked a clean break with the predilections of his predecessors. And that such a break occurred is confirmed in the accounts of at least two contemporaries, of different religious persuasions and two thousand miles apart. Much attention has been given recently to a passage in Orderic Vitalis's Historia, written in Normandy, in which Orderic reported that Fulk looked less wisely to the future than he should and changed governors and other officials too quickly and unreasonably. As a new ruler he banished from his household the lords who from the first had fought strenuously against the Turks...and replaced them with Angevin strangers and other newly-arrived unsophisticates...So there arose great rancour.63 In Damascus Ibn al-Qalanisi made almost the same charge. [Fulk] was not sound in his judgement nor was he successful in his administration, so that by the loss of Baldwin [II] they [the settlers] were thrown into confusion and discordance.64 I am, therefore, drawn to the following conclusions. In the autumn of 1131 an embassy from a wazir of Egypt who had usurped power there and had embarked on a revolutionary policy that involved the dismantling of Fatimid and Isma'ili rule, arrived in Jerusalem. The embassy had been perhaps originally destined to address King Baldwin II and its aim may have been to ask for a truce involving the surrender of Ascalon by the Egyptians. This would have justified the very aggressive, indeed rash, policy pursued since 1125 by the king of Jerusalem with 62 H.E. Mayer, 'Das Pontifikale von Tyrus und die Kronung der lateinischen Konige von Jerusalem,' DOP 21 (1967), 154 = idem, Probleme, no. 1. 63 Orderic Vitalis, Historia aecclesiastica, ed. and trans. M. Chibnall, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1969-79) 6:390-392. 64 Ibn al-Qalanisi, Damascus Chronicle, p. 208.

XII 66

the support of his Montlhery cousins in Jaffa and Galilee. Fulk, who had now succeeded to the throne, refused the truce, or made such additional demands that the Egyptians found them insupportable, although he accepted the gifts the embassy brought and sent one of them — the ivory tau staff — to St Laud in Angers for ceremonial use in the reception of his heirs. In 1132 the Christian settlers threw up a castle to protect the road through the Judaean hills from a resumption of attacks from Ascalon, which now proved to be such a threat that Fulk had to construct a ring of other castles to contain the Muslim garrison. And Hugh of Jaffa, who had had expectations of the lordship of Ascalon, rose in revolt.

XIII

Government and the Indigenous in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

A recurring theme in frontier history is that of acculturation. The extent to which the dominant minority in a border settlement adapted its culture to that of the subordinated majority depended, of course, on factors which varied a good deal from place to place. Every frontier society was different in makeup and few were culturally homogeneous. Pluriformity was a feature of Palestine in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Leaving aside an unknown number of converts to Catholicism1 (including from the 1180s onwards whole uniate communities, the Maronite and a section of the Armenian), the indigenous peoples in the kingdom of Jerusalem consisted of various Christian groups (Orthodox Greeks who were generally Arabic-speaking, Nestorians and Monophysites of different kinds, particularly Jacobites, Armenians and Copts); Muslims (Sunni and Shi'i of various types, including Druses); Jews of several schools and Samaritans; and a few Zoroastrians. Religion is not everything, but it was very important to the indigenous peoples themselves and led to differences in social behaviour. It is not surprising that the search for a satisfactory method of governing the subject peoples in a settlement established by force, and exposed to the threat of reconquest, involved a process which was by its nature experimental and stressful for all sides. The nature of colonial society in the Latin East and the extent to which there was assimilation is once again under discussion.2 The view, held for almost a century, that there had developed in Palestine and Syria a 'Franco-Syrian society', in which semiOrientalized Westerners mingled with the indigenous peoples to produce something culturally unique, was ferociously attacked in the 1950s and 1960s by Otto Smail and Joshua Prawer. Smail came down on the side of the view that the Franks 'remained a ruling class, separated from their Syrian subjects by language and religion, with force 1 2

J.S.C. Riley-Smith, The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1174-1277 (London, 1973), 10. For the debate, see R. Ellenblum, Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge, 1998), 3-5.

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as the ultimate sanction of their domination'.3 Prawer went further, using the word 'apartheid' to describe the way the Franks, gathered for the most part in urban communities, were segregated from the population in the countryside.4 In an exciting new book, however, Ronnie Ellenblum argues that we have made too much of the picture of Western settlers as town-dwellers, that Islamisation proceeded far more slowly in Palestine than anyone has supposed, that whereas regions close to Acre and around Nablus were largely Muslim, those around Jerusalem and Sebaste and in south-eastern Transjordan and western and lower Galilee had remained predominantly Christian, that the colonists tended to settle in districts already populated by a native Christian majority, and that there developed in these enclaves a mixed Franco-Eastern Christian society. Providing evidence for churches shared with indigenous Christians and for Frankish buildings in local Christian villages, he calls it 'a frontier society which could be labeled "Christian under Frankish hegemony" '.5 His belief that there was cultural assimilation only with the Christians provides him with an explanation of a peculiarity referred to by other historians. Although contemporary writers were very conscious of external threats, they seem hardly to have noticed the presence within their borders of a significant Muslim population.6 In this paper I intend to question Ellenblum's thesis which, I must stress, is only one of many in an important book, on the grounds that there is evidence for some assimilation on the part of the Franks with groups other than the Christians, and I will try to provide a reason for the 'silence' of the indigenous peoples. The evidence Ellenblum provides for the assimilation of Latins with Eastern Christians in the countryside is mostly archaeological, although he draws attention to a well-known description of a church near Tiberias shared by Latin and Syrian Christians.7 If, however, one turns to the accounts of Muslim and Jewish travellers in the period, one finds much more material, although this time for the association of Latins with non-Christians in the veneration of local shrines. Muslim visitors were struck by the way these still flourished. Writing about the Nablus region 'Imad ad-Din commented that the Franks 'changed not a single law or cult practice' of the Muslim inhabitants,8 a phrase echoed by the geographer Yaqut, who wrote with reference to a 3 4 5 6

7 8

R.C. Smail, Crusading Warfare 1097-1193 (Cambridge, 1956), 40-63. J. Prawer, The Latin Kingdom ofJerusalem: European Colonialism in the Middle Ages (London, 1972), 524, and see 60, 504-33. R. Ellenblum, Frankish Rural Settlement, 119-44, 285, and passim. H.E. Mayer, * Latins, Muslims and Greeks in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem', History, 63 (1978), 175-92, at 175-81; B.Z. Kedar, The Subjected Muslims of the Frankish Levant', in Muslims under Latin Rule, 1100-1300, ed. J.M. Powell (Princeton, NJ, 1990), 135-74, at 135-9. Ellenblum, Frankish Rural Settlement, 119-20. D.S. Richards, 'A text of 'Imad al-Din on 12th-century Frankish-Muslim relations', Arabica, 25 (1978), 202-4, at 203.

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mosque in Bethlehem that 'the Franks changed nothing when they took the country',9 and by the traveller Ibn Jubair when describing a shrine a t ' Ain al-Baqar in Acre: 'in the hands of the Christians its venerable nature is maintained and God has preserved it as a place of prayer for the Muslims'.10 Non-Christians were technically forbidden to live in the city of Jerusalem,11 but they certainly visited it as pilgrims and an extraordinary text, describing the Christian hospital for pilgrims of the Order of St John in the 1180s, must refer to them: Further, men of the pagan faith [Muslims]findmercy in this holy house [of the Hospital]. So do Jews if they hasten to it. It knows that the Lord, who calls all to salvation, does not want anyone to perish, because the Lord prayed for those afflicting him, saying: 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do'. In this blessed house is powerfully fulfilled the heavenly doctrine: 'Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you'; and elsewhere: 'Friends should be loved in God and enemies on account of God'.12

In the Temple Compound Muslims went to the Dome of the Rock, now an Augustinian church, and the al-Aqsa mosque, now the headquarters of the Templars. *3 The news of the discovery at Hebron in 1119 by the recently established Augustinian canons of what were supposed to be the tombs of the patriarchs, under the Herodian enclosure, was a sensation, and Jews and Muslims could gain entry to the tombs after the Christian pilgrims had left on payment of a douceur to the custodian.14 The same sort of arrangement was to be found at Sebaste, where the clergy benefited from gifts made by Muslims wanting to pray in the crypt of St John the Baptist there.15 In Acre the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, which was built on the site of a mosque, had an area inside it set aside for Muslim prayer,16 and just within the walls of the city at 'Ain al-Baqar (the Ox spring) there was a mosque-church with a Frankish eastern apse, 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16

G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems (London, 1890), 300. Ibn Jubair, The Travels, trans. R. J.C. Broadhurst (London, 1952), 318. According to Jewish travellers, a tiny group of Jews were resident, running a dyeing house. See Benjamin of Tudela, The Itinerary, ed. and trans. M.N. Adler (London, 1907), 22 and n. 2, which corrects the figure of 200 to 4. B.Z. Kedar, 'A Twelfth-Century Description of the Jerusalem Hospital', in The Military Orders, vol. 2, Welfare and Warfare, ed. H. Nicholson (Aldershot, 1998), 3-26, at 18. 'Ali al-Harawi, Guide des lieux de pelerinage, trans. J. Sourdel-Thomine (Damascus, 1957), 62-4; Le Strange, Palestine, 101-2, 108-9, 131-3, 194, 208. Benjamin of Tudela, 25; Rabbi Petachia of Ratisbon, 'Travels', trans. E.N. Adler, Jewish Travellers (London, 1930), 89-90; 'AH al-Harawi, 72-4. For the Hebrew itineraries, see J. Prawer, The History of the Jews in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford, 1988), 169-250. Kedar, 'The Subjected Muslims', 162. See James of Vitry, Lettres, ed. R.B.C. Huygens (Leiden, 1960), 94, where the sacredness of the cathedral at Tartus to both Christians and Muslims is described. Ibn Jubair, 318.

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incorporating the mashhad (oratory) of'AH ibn Abi Talib (the prophet's son-in-law), used by Muslims, Jews and Christians, who believed that this was the spot where God had created cattle for Adam's use: 'Muslim and infidel assemble there, the one turning to his place of worship, the other to his'. 17 The traveller 'Ali al-Harawi put this down to a ghostly appearance by 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, which had terrified the Franks. 18 A shared edifice of this sort was not unique in the Near East, because a feature of the period following the Muslims' conquest had been their partial occupation of some major churches, which left the Christians with the remainder. At Horns in the eleventh century the largest church was still divided between Christians and Muslims. One consequence of the crusades was that Christians were driven out of these shared places of worship.19 In Jerusalem the Templars allowed Muslims to pray in one of their churches close to the al-Aqsa mosque. The account by Usamah ibn-Munqidh of his experience there is very well known: Whenever I visited Jerusalem I always entered the Aqsa mosque, beside which stood a small mosque which the Franks had converted into a church... The Templars, who were my friends, would evacuate the little adjoining mosque so that I might pray in it. One day I entered this mosque ... and stood up in the act of praying, upon which one of the Franks rushed on me, got hold of me and turned my face eastward saying, 'This is the way thou shouldst pray'. A group of Templars hastened to him, seized him and repelled him from me. I resumed my prayer [whereupon the Frank rushed in at him again] ... The Templars ... expelled him. They apologized to me, saying, This is a stranger who has only recently arrived from the land of the Franks and he has never before seen anyone praying except eastward'.20 Less well known is a similar incident, described by the Jewish traveller Jacob ben Nathaniel, at Rav Kahana's tomb near Tiberias, a healing shrine which attracted Christian as well as Jewish pilgrims: When a knight from Provence came and saw that the uncircumcised (the Christians) lit many lights upon the grave he asked 'Who is this one?' and they answered, 'It is a righteous Jew, who heals the sick and helps the barren'. He said to them, 'Why do you behave like this in honour of a Jew?' and took a stone and threw it on the ground and raised his hand to throw

17 18 19 20

Ibn Jubair, 318-19. 'Ali al-Harawi, 57. See also Le Strange, Palestine, 330-31, For the mosque-church's situation, see B.Z. Kedar, 'The outer walls of Frankish Acre', 'Atiqot, 31 (1997), 157-80, at 173-4. A. Fattal, Le statut legal des non-Musulmans en pays d Islam (Beirut, 1958), 179-80, 184. Usamah ibn Munqidh, Memoirs of an Arab-Syrian Gentleman at the time of the Crusades, trans. P.K. Hitti (New York, 1927), 163-4.

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another stone. He was on horseback but fell and died. Immediately the captains and monks [ace. to Prawer's trans., the clergy and bishops] gathered and said that he (the Provencal knight) was not punished because of the Jew, but because he wounded the honour of the teacher of Jesus, and Jesus was wrath with him and killed him; and they said all this before the country folk.21 This is a typical miraculum, of course, but the report of the anxiety of the clergy to head off trouble by giving a Christian twist to the death of the apoplectic knight confirms that this shrine was the centre of a syncretic cult. So shared places of worship and shrines were features of popular religion in Palestine and Syria and were tolerated by the Latin clergy. Some were deep in the countryside, but others were in, or were close to, the towns. Few historians nowadays would distinguish the religion of the masses too sharply from that of the elite - we are all more inclined to imagine a spectrum of beliefs extending without a break from the peasantry to the intellectuals, with many attitudes shared in common - and although the tastes and predilections of the leading settlers remained fundamentally Western in many ways, it is probably the case that some cultural assimilation had taken place before the settlements were swept away in 1291. Jaroslav Folda has argued for a fusion of Latin, Greek and local Syrian styles in art, leading to an eclectic form that he has called 'crusader art'.22 It had a long history, since it outlasted the loss of the mainland and went on developing in Latin Greece, where the 'Greek' Catholic churches in Cyprus and the 'Gothic' Greek Orthodox churches in Famagusta and Rhodes can still be seen. The Westerners may have been 'silent' about the Muslims within their borders, but they cannot have been indifferent to them. The Muslims provided revenue, and anyway the indigenous must have comprised more in the settlers' eyes than those subject to them in Palestine. Along the borders of the kingdom there were condominiums shared with Muslim lords.23 Twice a year, as the fleets arrived from the West on the spring and autumn passages, caravans would enter the kingdom from interior cities like Damascus and make for the ports,24 where the agents of merchant companies in 21 22

23

24

Rabbi Jacob ben R. Nathaniel ha Cohen, * Account', trans. Adler, Jewish Travellers, 96;

Prawer, History of the Jews, 187-8. J. Folda, The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1098-1187 (Cambridge, 1995), passim', J. Folda, 'Crusader art in the kingdom of Cyprus, c. 1275-1291: reflections on the state of the questions', in Cyprus and the Crusades, ed. N. Coureas and J. RileySmith (Nicosia, 1995), 209-37. Ibn Jubair, 315; P.M. Holt, Early MamlukDiplomacy (1260-1290). Treaties ofBaybars and Qalawun with Christian Rulers (Leiden, 1995), 34-8, 40, 49-56, 63-5, 75-6, 81, 111-15. See J. Richard, 'Vassaux, tributaires ou allies? Les chefferies montagnardes et les Ismailiens dans Torbite des Etats des Croises', in Die Kreuzfahrerstaaten als multikulturelle Gesellschaft, ed. H.E. Mayer (Munich, 1997), 141-52. See the account in Ibn Jubair, 313-19.

XIII 126 the Muslim hinterland were resident.25 Nomadic Bedouins, then as now, drifted in and out of the region, providing income for the crown and for the lords.26 Visitors, even poor ones, could have powerful protectors outside. A casus belli for Saladin in 1187 was the Frankish Lord of Oultrejourdain's attack upon a caravan passing through his territory27 and for al-Ashraf Khalil in 1291 the massacre by some disorderly Italian crusaders of Muslim peasants who had brought produce into Acre to sell in its markets.28 It is certainly the case, however, that the material at our disposal is comparatively silent when it comes to all the indigenous peoples - not just the Muslims - who flit in and out of it so fleetingly that it is hard to reach firm conclusions about them. This is partly because the surviving documents come mostly from the archives of ecclesiastical institutions and merchant communities with centres in the West to which they could be sent before the last beachheads in Palestine fell in 1291. The records of the day-to-day business of residents, in the course of which references to the locals might have been found, have been lost. But I also believe that after an early period, marked by a policy of ethnic cleansing, according to which all non-Christians were terrorized into flight from any place of religious or strategic significance to the crusaders,29 the Latin government took relatively effective measures to cope with them, involving an adaptation of the Muslim dhimma, which was of course already in situ.30

25

26

27 28 29 30

documents et memoires servant de preuves a l'histoire de Tile de Chypre sous les Lusignans', ed. L. de Mas Latrie, Histoire de I 'tie de Chypre sous le regne des princes de la maison de Lusignan (Paris, 1852-61), vol. 2, 74-9; 'Actes passes en 1271, 1274, et 1279 a l'Ai'as (Petite Armenie) et a Beyrouth par devant des notaires genois', ed. C. Desimoni, Archives de VOrient latin, 1 (1881), 434-534, at 441-2; D.H. von Soden, 'Bericht tiber die in der Kubbet in Damaskus geftmdenen Handschriftenfragmente', Sitzungsberichte der koniglich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (1903), 825-30, at 827. Cartulaire general de I 'ordre des Hospitaliers de St Jean de Jerusalem, ed. J. Delaville Le Roulx, 4 vols (Paris, 1894-1906), (hereafter Cart. Hosp.) vol. 1,216,362-3,372-3, 378, 395-6 (nos 296, 530, 550, 558, 582); John of Jaffa, 'Livre des Assises de la Haute Cour', Recueil des Historiens des Croisades. Lois. Les Assises de Jerusalem (hereafter RHC Lois), ed. Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 2 vols (Paris, 1841-43), vol. 1,424. 'L'Estoire de Eracles empereur et la conqueste de la Terre d'Outremer', Recueil des Historiens des Croisades. Historiens occidentawc, ed. Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 5 vols (Paris, 1844-95), vol. 2, 34. Cronaca del Templare di Tiro (1243-1314), ed. L. Minervini (Naples, 2000); Les Gestes des Chiprois, 200; al-Maqrizi, Kitab as-suluk li-ma 'rifat duwal al-muluk, extracts, trans. M.E. Quatremere, 4 pts in 2 vols (Paris, 1837^5), vol. 2, 109. J.S.C. Riley-Smith, 'The Latin clergy and the settlement in Palestine and Syria, 1098-1100', Catholic Historical Review, 74 (1988), 539-57, at 546-9. Some confirmation of this is the survival under Latin rule of a local oddity, a tax on pork

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Strictly speaking, the status of a dhimmi was in Muslim law open only to an individual who could be classed among the 'people of scripture', that is to say Jews, Christians and Sabaeans (interpreted to cover Zoroastrians). Each adult, male, free, sane dhimmi had to pay a poll tax, the jizya. His real estate could, but did not necessarily, pass to the whole community of Islam, but he could have the use of it and anyway he had to pay on it and its crops a land tax (the kharaj), while he was liable for other levies for the maintenance of the Muslim armies. He had to distinguish himself from believers in dress. He was not permitted to ride a horse or carry weapons. He suffered legal disabilities with respect to testimony in the law courts, protection under criminal law and marriage. He and his family were not citizens of the Muslim state, but members of a quasi-self-governing community, under its own responsible head, such as a rabbi or bishop, although all serious cases, and those involving the members of different faiths, had to be dealt with by the Muslim courts. On the other hand, dhimmis were guaranteed security and protection in the exercise of their religion, although they should not cause public offence by it: they might repair and even rebuild existing places of worship, but could not erect new ones. 31 In the kingdom of Jerusalem we find that kharaj (Latinised as carragium) was levied on lands, although given its ubiquity in Islam and the fact that the Latins maintained their predecessors' system of revenue collection this may not mean much;32 that Jews and Muslims, but not Christians, paid a poll tax;33 that they were supposed to wear different clothes;34 that they suffered certain legal disabilities, being unable to witness in cases involving Latins, except to prove a Latin's age or descent, or provide evidence on estate boundaries;35 and that they could practice their own

31 32

33 34 35

butchers in Tyre which was called tuazo, a word that looks like a transliteration of an Arabic term forritualablutions. Riley-Smith, Feudal Nobility, 84. Fattal, Statut legal, passim; S.D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, 6 vols (Berkeley, 1967-93), vol. 2, 273-407. Cart. Hosp., 1.107, 596; 2.529 (nos 129, 941, 2199); 'Fragment d'un cartulaire de l'ordre de Saint-Lazare, en Terre Sainte', ed. A. de Marsy, Archives de I 'Orient latin, 2 (1884), 121-57, at 129-30, no. 9; Tabulae ordinis Theutonici, ed. E. Strehlke (Berlin, 1869), 93, no. 112; Ibn Jubair, 316; Marsilio Zorzi, 'De possessionibus Venetorum Tyri', Der Bericht des Marsilio Zorzi, ed. O. Berggotz (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1991), 152-6. See H. Rabie, The Financial System ofEgypt A.H. 564-741/A.D. 1169-1341 (London, 1972), 73-9. Marsilio Zorzi, 140; Ibn Jubair, 316; Gregory IX, Registre, ed. L. Auvray, 3 vols and tables (Paris, 1896-1955), vol. 2, 841, 1149. Canon 16 of the Council of Nablus, now ed. B.Z. Kedar, 'On the origins of the earliest laws of Frankish Jerusalem: the Canons of the Council of Nablus, 1120', Speculum, 74 (1999), 310-35, at 334. John of Jaffa, 1.114; Philip of Novara, 'Livre de forme de plait', RHC Lois, 1.501-2; Geoffrey Le Tor, 'Livre', RHC Lois, 1.443; James of Ibelin, 'Livre', RHC Lois, 1.466. See Riley-Smith, Feudal Nobility, 88.

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religion. Mosques at Tyre were mentioned by the traveller Ibn Jubair.36 Hanbali Muslim peasants had gathered for Friday prayers with the khutba, invoking the name of the 'Abbasid caliph, in the village of Jamma'il near Nablus, before some of them migrated in 1156. They left because of extortionate taxation and because their Friday prayers were under threat; their Latin lord was apparently telling them they should be working. So this is a case of discrimination, but one should note that it stemmed from the behaviour of one landlord - and incidentally the drawing power of a Muslim teacher who was attracting many people from the district - and that up to that time religious practice had been undisturbed.37 A new synagogue was constructed by the Samaritan Jews at Nablus in the 1130s38 and the magnificence of the synagogues at Meiron near Safad was commented on by a Jewish traveller in c. 1240.39 The Western Wall of the Temple and the tombs of the kings on Mt Sion were visited by Jews, although the latter had been sealed,40 and local shrines venerated by both Muslims and Jews included the tombs of Jonah at Kar Kannah41 and of Hanona b. Horkenos in Safad.42 Rabbinical tribunals and Jewish academies flourished in Acre and Tyre,43 and although no record survives of a qadi (a Muslim judge) in post in the kingdom, there was one at Jabala in the principality of Antioch in the 1180s. Benjamin Kedar has pointed out that the absence of any reference to qadis in Palestine should not surprise us, since we would have known nothing about the rabbinical tribunals had they not been so prestigious that their responsa were circulated and preserved.44 On the other hand, the community courts must, like the dhimmi ones in Muslim states, have had a limited competence, because major cases had to be remitted to the Latin burgess courts.45 The settlers clearly maintained the system of dhimma with respect to Jews and imposed it on Muslims. 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

43 44 45

Ibn Jubair, 321. J. Drory, 'Hanbalis of the Nablus region in the eleventh and twelfth centuries', Asian and African Studies, 22 (1988), 93-112. D. Pringle, The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus, 2 vols to date (Cambridge, 1993-), vol. 2, 114. Rabbi Jacob, 'Itinerary', trans. Adler, Jewish Travellers, 122. Benjamin of Tudela, 23-5; Prawer, History of the Jews, 180. Le Strange, Palestine, 469; Prawer, History of the Jews, 211. Prawer, History of the Jews, 220. For other shrines venerated by Muslims see 'AH alHarawi, 48-78; Le Strange, Palestine, passim, esp. 339, 447, 451, 457-8, 465-6, 468, 470,482-3,492-3, 512, 527, 534, 545, 553; and for Jews, Prawer, History of the Jews, 169-250. Prawer, History of the Jews, 97. Kedar, 'The subjected Muslims', 142. Professor Mayer's doubts whether Muslims could practice their religion ('Latins, Muslims and Greeks', 186), have been comprehensively dealt with by Professor Kedar ('The subjected Muslims', 139-43). For the limited competence of the community courts in Egypt, see Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 2, 311.

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They innovated, however, in two ways. The first of their modifications concerned non-Latin Christians, from whom the restraints of dhimma seem to have been only partially lifted. There is no evidence that any Christian was subject to the capitation tax - non-Latins did not even have to pay tithes - but their legal disabilities were not removed entirely; their testimony as witnesses was graded and was never treated as being as authentic as that of Latins.46 They also seem to have had some community status, with their own bishops continuing to enjoy a role as leaders. At different times there are references to Orthodox bishops in residence at Gaza, Acre, Sidon and Lydda, to Jacobite bishops in Jerusalem and Acre, and to Armenian bishops in Jerusalem. These seem to have been treated by the Latin bishops as coadjutors, which meant that they were effectively left in control of their own flocks, but a description by a Latin bishop of Acre, James of Vitry, of what he found on his arrival in 1216 suggests that they also played a more general leadership role. James wrote that he had been able to address the Greeks and Jacobites because their bishops were in residence; indeed the Greeks gathered to hear him 'at the orders of their bishop'. But 'I have not yet been able to assemble the Nestorians, Georgians and Armenians, because they have no bishop or other head [caput] [in the city]'. 47 The Orthodox Suriani seem to have been the most numerous of the indigenous Christians48 and in their treatment of them the Latin settlers went further. Special courts, called cours des Syriens, were established for them throughout the kingdom of Jerusalem. It was believed in the thirteenth century that during the early decades of the settlement: The Syrians came before the king... and begged and required of him that he would see that they were judged according to the customs of the Syrians and that there should be for them a chieftain and jurors of a court and that by this court cases that arose among them should be judged according to their customs. And he authorized the said court. These, like any dhimma courts, had no rights of high justice or jurisdiction over what were known as burgess properties.49 In thirteenth-century Acre, and in some other towns, the cour de la Fonde, a market court to which I will turn later, had absorbed the local cour des Syriens,50 but evidence survives for other cours des Syriens in Jerusalem, Nablus, Tyre and Bethlehem, all of which, except possibly Nablus, had

46 47 48 49 50

John of Jaffa, 1.395; Philip of Novara, 1.533; 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois', RHCLois, vol. 2, 53-6, 171-5. James of Vitry, Lettres, 83-5. See Ellenblum, Frankish Rural Settlement, 26-7. John of Jaffa, 1.26; and possibly Marsilio Zorzi, 139. See Prawer, History of the Jews, 97. John of Jaffa, 1.26.

XIII 130 substantial Orthodox populations.51 It looks as though Orthodox Arab-speaking Christians had been given their own minor courts. Whether or not they had really asked for them, it is noteworthy that these must have dealt with those 'secular' cases which under Muslim rule would have been heard by their bishops. It may be that Western reform ideas on the separation of temporal powers from the spiritual were being imposed by the Latins on an indigenous Christian community. The establishment in many places of cours de la Fonde was the second innovation. The Franks seem to have taken the existing offices responsible for collecting market taxes, and to have added to their functions the judgement of minor commercial cases involving members of all the indigenous communities. In Acre the bailli, two Latin and four indigenous jurors of the cour de la Fonde heard cases concerning debt, pledge or leases, or anything else a Syrian or Jew or Muslim or Samaritan or Nestorian or Greek or Jacobite or Armenian has done. Know well thatrightjudges and commands us to judge that none of the aforesaid peoples ought to plead in any court concerning any [small] claim they make among themselves save in the cour de la Fonde. Jewish claimants could take oaths on the Torah {la Tore de sa lei), Samaritans on their version of 'the five books of Moses (les cinq livres de Moyses que il tient)\ Muslims on the Koran, Jacobites and Greeks on an image of the Cross and gospel books written in their own script. Cases 'of blood', including murder, treason and theft, had to be heard in a higher Latin court.52 The creation of special small-claims courts, existing alongside the higher courts of the kingdom, the rabbinical and episcopal tribunals and the courts of the qadis, was a departure from dhimma legislation, because in a Muslim state all intercommunal cases, and not only the major ones, had to go before a qadi. It has been argued with respect to the Jews that so reluctant would they have been to allow hearings outside their own community that resort to the governmental courts would have occurred only when adherents of different religions were involved,53 but it has also been demonstrated that although the Christian and Jewish community leaders in Egypt profoundly disapproved of cases passing outside their own arbitration, individuals who thought they might gain did appeal to Muslim courts,54 and anyway there is evidence for commercial partnerships in the Latin East involving men of different

51 52 53 54

Riley-Smith, Feudal Nobility, 90. 'Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois', 2.171-2; John of Jaffa 1.26. The false distinction between the Torah and the Pentateuch is odd. It may be that the jurist was keen to stress that the only scripture recognised by the Samaritans was the Pentateuch. Prawer, History of the Jews, 98-100. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 2, 311-12, 398-402.

XIII Government and the Indigenous in Jerusalem

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communities.55 A prime reason for the establishment of the cours de la Fonde must have been to resolve inter-communal disputes. I have yet to find precedents for these adaptations elsewhere. In Spain and Sicily, Latin conquerors were beginning to rule over Muslims and Jews and Muslims and Greeks respectively, and the experimental way they approached the issues that were being raised has often been described. But nowhere in Europe was there the variety of different religious communities to be found in Syria and Palestine, and the only parallel I know, which is to be found in Catalonia, relates to a somewhat different matter, the obligation to free non-Christian slaves when they opted for baptism, an obligation which settlers in the Latin East were often reluctant to observe.56 At any rate we find in Palestine a dhimma system in operation, modified so that it would be imposed on Muslims and partially lifted from Eastern Christians, with special secular lower courts for Orthodox Christians and small-claims courts for intercommunal disputes. The silence of the sources with respect to the indigenous resident in the East under Latin rule could be partly explained by the settlers' adaptation of dhimma in ways which allowed the native communities to carry on their business in a relatively peaceful manner.

55 56

For the Latin East, see Riley-Smith, Feudal Nobility, 78-80. For Egypt, see Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 2, 294-8. B.Z. Kedar, Crusade and Mission: European Approaches Toward the Muslims (Princeton, NJ, 1984), 76-83, 212-15. For Catalonia, see C. Verlinden, L'esclavage dans I'Europe medievale, 2 vols (Bruges and Ghent, 1955-77), vol. 1, 291-2; R.I. Burns, 'Muslims in the thirteenth-century realms of Aragon: interaction and reaction', in Muslims under Latin Rule, ed. Powell, 57-102, at 78-9.

XIV

The Crown of France and Acre, 1254-1291

O F T H E SECULAR POWERS in the West only England and France, and Frances surrogate Sicily, were in the position to offer the Kingdom of Jerusalem and its chief city, Acre, effective assistance during the last four decades of Latin settlement. The significance of the decision of Lord Edward of England to lead his crusading contingent on to the Holy Land after the death of King Louis IX of France before Tunis in 1270 was not lost on contemporaries.1 The courage Edward had shown is thrown into relief by Charles of Anjou's conviction that his brother, Alphonse of Poitiers, who did not join Edward in the Holy Land, was a "martyr by desire" simply because he had had to be dissuaded from proceeding there from North Africa.2 Edward was committed to the interests of the Latin settlement for the rest of his life, although he was never able to organize another crusade.3 The importance attached to his support is demonstrated by the fact that he was one of only two monarchs prayed for by name during Templar general chapters in the early fourteenth century.4 The other was the king of France, whose role was more considerable. In this chapter I will suggest that the history of French political involvement falls into three phases, which originated in the reigns of Louis IX, Philip III, and Philip IV, respectively, and reflects conscious decisions made by them or their counselors. The first involved direct intervention by means of a standing body of French mercenary troops, occasionally supplemented by crusaders. The stipendarii were probably withdrawn—perhaps early in 1270—to be integrated into Louis's crusade to Tunis. They returned to Acre in 1273, but a policy, probably initiated by Pope

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Gregory X, of assuring the security of the Holy Land through its incorporation into an eastern Mediterranean empire ruled from Italy by Charles of Anjou may well have led in the second phase to the French troops being transferred into Charles's service in 1277. The third phase was marked by the abandonment in 1286 of the Angevin cause in Palestine, but not of the Holy Land itself, by Philip IV and by a return to the practice of maintaining a mercenary contingent in Acre led by a representative of the French king. W H E N LOUIS IX SAILED from Acre for Europe in April 1254 he left there two physical memorials. The first comprised new fortifications. The eastern line of the walls of the old town appears to have been completed by the time he left. Although they have never been properly excavated—indeed exactly where they ran was until recently the subject of debate—the identification of a small section of them suggests that they were of the quality of those Louis had already constructed at Caesarea.5 The walls of the suburb of Montmusard to the north were still being rebuilt and Eudes of Chateauroux, the papal legate, told John of Joinville that he intended to stay on in Palestine for another year and spend on these all his money—presumably church money collected for the crusade.6 The work had been completed by 1264, when Pope Urban IV, who had been resident in the city before 1260 as patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote that he had heard how marvelous it was.7 The second memorial was the contingent of knights. The role this force played in the politics and military affairs of the Kingdom of Jerusalem has been described,8 but no one, to my knowledge, has looked at its history from the point of view of the French crown. It originally consisted of 100 knights under the command of one of Louis's closest companions on crusade, Geoffrey of Sergines, who in this chapter will be entitled "the elder" to distinguish him from his son.9 The contingent was presumably responsible for defending a stretch of the new walls, but we do not know where. Nor is it clear where inside or outside the town it was billeted. Some days before Henry of Cyprus arrived to claim the government in June 1286, Eudes Poilechien, who was representing the interests of Charles II of Anjou, brought "la gent dou roy de France" into the citadel, so it is certain that by then the citadel was not their normal barracks.10 The contingent would have needed plenty of space at first, however, because it comprised more knights than those with which the Hospitallers of St. John envisaged garrisoning Crac des Chevaliers (sixty) and Mount Thabor (forty) in 125511 and than those in the Templar garrison of Safad (fifty) in 1260.12 The knights would have constituted, of course, only a fraction of the personnel involved. There were also crossbowmen and sergeants serving with them. 13 Each knight, moreover, would have needed 46

XIV The Crown of France and Acre supporters, such as grooms and squires. When the great French nobleman Eudes of Burgundy, count of Nevers and lord of Bourbon, died in Acre in July 1266 he was employing in his household four knights, three chaplains, seven squires, nine sergeants, thirty-two servants, five crossbowmen, and four turcopoles.14 Ordinary knights would have had to do with much less, of course, but, assuming that each needed at least three supporters and that the contingent required some sort of headquarters staff and its own farriers and armorers, perhaps as many as 1000 persons may have been involved. It occasionally suffered substantial losses—in Galilee in 1266;15 to the northeast of Acre in 1269;16 and in the fall of Tripoli in 128917—and must have needed reinforcing, although it is not clear whether as many as 100 knights were stationed in Acre all the time. Louis was also spending money on crossbowmen and archers from the first.18 Twenty-five knights and 800 crossbowmen arrived in 127319— although this constituted a fresh start—and 100 horsemen (40 knights and 60 mounted sergeants) and 400 crossbowmen in 1275-76.20 One has the impression that the force was still considerable in 1286.21 The "captains," who often, but not invariably, combined their post with the seneschalcy of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, seem to have been volunteers in the tradition, old by now, of milites ad terminum, who performed service in the Holy Land not for pay but as a religious duty.22 Geoffrey of Sergines the elder seems to have held the appointment until his death in 1269, and service for God is a theme in Rutebeuf s La complainte de monseigneur Joffroi de Sergines, written 1255-56.23 In 1263 Pope Urban IV described Geoffrey, who by then had also been regent of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as someone who had devoted himself entirely to the service of Christ and had assumed the burden of supporting the Holy Land on his shoulders.24 Two or three years later Pope Clement IV returned to this theme when he referred to the fact that Geoffrey had made a vow to commit himself totally to the interests of the Holy Land.25 His probable successor Robert of Creseques, who was killed within a year,26 was reported having come to Palestine to "die for God."27 That the French knights were then withdrawn, perhaps in connection with Louis's crusade to Tunis, is implied in a letter written some years later on behalf of Pope John XXI. The letter recounted how John of Grailly took the cross and went to Acre—this must have been after the debacle at Tunis—where he met the future Gregory X, who had just heard he had been elected pope. Gregory persuaded John to remain in the East and promised that he—in other words, the Church—would provide for him. 28 This agreement would have been made early in 1272 and helps to explain why John was appointed seneschal of the kingdom at the time.29 It suggests that the French force had left and that there was a need for alternative provision. 47

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It is not easy to establish the costs envisaged by Louis himself at the outset. Although it is possible that some men in the contingent were, like the captains, volunteers rather than mercenaries proper, a surviving fragment of the king s accounts for the years 1250 to 1253 suggests that knights serving on his crusade without wages cost much the same as did those serving for pay, presumably because of the donations and subsidies they had to be given.30 Each knight had put the king back by 7s and 6d a day (probably in livresparisis) or nearly 137 livres a year.31 So to keep 100 knights at this rate of pay would have cost the French crown 13,687 livres 10s a year (17,109 in livres tournois) or nearly 7 percent of its average annual income (c. 250,000 livres tournois).52 The generous subsidies recorded in Louis's accounts, however, are in keeping with those paid to knights when long-distance travel was involved. A contract between Louis and Edward of England in 1269 as part of the preliminaries to the crusade to Tunis seems to have specified a subsidy of 200 livres tournois per knight, at a time when a journey to and from Palestine was envisaged,33 and in March 1285 Raes of Gavre and Gerard of Luxembourg agreed to serve the duke of Brabant for one year on the Aragonese Crusade, involving a journey from the Low Countries to Spain, each with four knights besides himself, for 3000 and 3500 livres tournois, respectively.34 More modest sums were paid when knights were stationed in a semipermanent location. Eudes of Burgundy was paying his knights in Acre only 40 livres tournois a year (the equivalent of 32 livres parisis) in 126635 and six months after Eudes s death Louis himself, the pope, and the patriarch of Jerusalem were prepared to offer them an annual payment of 60 livres tournois, or under half what the crusading knights had cost the king in the 1250s.36 Comparisons are very hard to make, of course, because there were so many imponderable elements that might or might not have been included in the figures: in 1266 the count of Nevers was providing additional living costs to each knight of between 3 and 13 livres a year (between 10 and 40 besants, which were each rated at one-third of a livre tournois)57 and it may be that the figures from Palestine in the 1260s omit additional expenses—for armor and animals, for example—which were assessed separately.38 However confusing the figures, one cannot get away from the fact that Louis was prepared to dip deeply into his pocket. Professor Joseph Strayer stated, without giving a reference, that the French treasury later believed that between 1254 and 1270 the contingent had cost the king only an average of 4000 livres tournois a year (or 1.6 percent of his annual income).39 Although this seems to be confirmed in the records that survive—4000 livres tournois and part of another 1000 in 1265;40 4400 livres tournois in 126641—Geoffrey of Sergines estimated in 1267 that he needed the enormous sum of 10,000 livres tournois a year to retain his knights42 48

XIV The Crown of France and Acre and in c. 1272, Pope Gregory X, writing about the stipendarii, stated that some 60,000 livres tournois sent by Louis to the Holy Land had been lost through the carelessness—doubtless a euphemism for the corruption—of officials.43 The donation of funds to provide military forces for the defense of the Holy Land was a tradition that stretched back well into the twelfth century, when the value of reinforcing the military establishment in the East was already understood. As early as 1120 Count Fulk V of Anjou had paid for 100 knights to serve in Palestine for one year when he returned home at the end of his first crusade.44 In his last testament of September 1222 Louis's grandfather, Philip II, had left the stupendous sum of 150,500 silver marks to provide for 300 knights for three years45 and Count Raymond VII of Toulouse, who died before leaving on Louis's First Crusade, wanted in his will to provide fifty knights to serve for one year.46 What was unusual about Louis's provision was that it was, as far as we know, open-ended;47 indeed, whether this was intended or not, the knights were to remain in Acre for almost the rest of his life. Payments by the French crown were supplemented, however, by monies provided by the Church, because, faced by the anxiety of Geoffrey of Sergines about cash—by 1267 he was threatening to sell his patrimony in France if he was not helped 48 —the papacy began to divert funds from the proceeds of church taxation. On 1 February 1263, P°P e Urban IV, who was probably responding to an appeal from Louis, proposed that the proceeds of a tax on market transactions, which was put to pious uses, should be collected by suitable persons, with the backing of officials in the royal domain and in Champagne, and given to Geoffrey.49 Meanwhile the pope had ordered the levying of a crusade hundredth for five years on the Church and had appointed Archbishop Giles of Tyre, a Breton whom Louis had nominated to the see of Damietta in Egypt during its brief occupation in 1249, and John of Valenciennes, the lord of Haifa, to be its executors.50 The clergy in most countries never paid up, although the French, after a brief resistance, held an assembly at which they granted the aid, stating, however, that this was of their own volition.51 In July 1264 the pope announced his intention to send cash from the hundredth in the following spring to finance repairs to the walls of Jaffa,52 but by then he was dead and his successor, Clement IV, had decided to divert the money to meet the general needs of Geoffrey of Sergines.53 This does not mean that it was going to be spent entirely on the French soldiers in Acre. Geoffrey was also lieutenant of the kingdom s regent, Hugh of Cyprus, and as the governor of Palestine was being given the freedom to decide what the priorities should be.54 The point is that church money was now supplementing royal funding. And by 1267 it is c l e a r that yet another source was being tapped. Writing to the Templar 49

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commander in Paris and referring to a sum of 3000 livres tournois that he and the masters of the Temple and the Hospital had pledged, the patriarch of Jerusalem asked that this should be raised by the Templars in France, while the treasurer of the Temple in Paris should repay some merchants a further 1800 livres tournois borrowed by the patriarch to help retain forty-eight French knights in Acre.55 So the French contingent was now being funded from three sources: the French crown, the pope (or rather the French Church) and the patriarch, and the military orders. The proceeds of the five-year hundredth were, of course, intended mainly to help finance a new crusade to the East. In July 1264 the pope reported that this was in train and that there had already been a meeting in Paris of volunteers to choose a leader;56 it looked for a time as if this was going to be the king's brother Alphonse of Poitiers.57 There survive the financial accounts of a party of collectors of the hundredth, covering the period from 13 June to 2 October 1265.58 On 21 June they gave 500 livres to a Geoffrey of Sergines "de bonis Terre Sancte."59 This was not the Geoffrey who was struggling to hold things together in the East, but his son, who can be identified on the coming crusade, as we shall see. The accounts of the collectors also recorded the arrival on 11 July of a messenger from Eudes of Burgundy, who was to be one of the leaders of the small crusade that eventually departed.60 The needs of this crusade, however, must have conflicted with those relating to another, to be led by Charles of Anjou into southern Italy, the preaching of which was authorized by Urban in 1263 and was being organized in France by Simon of Brie, the future Pope Martin IV. In the accounts of the collectors 26 July was marked by the arrival of a messenger from Charles, who must have been hoping that money could be diverted to assist him. 61 In fact, yet another income tax, a three-year tenth, was levied on the French clergy for Charles's crusade.62 It might be thought odd that Louis allowed this dissipation of effort, to say nothing of the strain on the Church in his dominions, particularly as the largest part of the crusade destined for the East was going to be led in the end by him. Although he was not in favor of the Sicilian venture at first, his only objections to it, which were overcome, seem to have concerned whether it was legal to deny the Hohenstaufen claims to Sicily.63 The Italian crusade, moreover, was popular in France64 and must have drawn many recruits away from the expedition to Palestine. An early party of French crusaders, however, left for the East on the autumn passage of 1265. It comprised sixty knights "au servise de Dieu," led by Erard of Valery and the counts of Nevers and Nanteuil.65 That these crusaders came to represent not only themselves but also the French royal commitment to the Holy Land in another form was revealed by the patriarch in 1267, when he wrote that 50

XIV The Crown of France and Acre the king of France and the pope had agreed that they could be retained until August 1268 and had established what their stipends were to be, subject to final letters of confirmation from the pope. In other words these crusaders were now to convert themselves into stipendarii in the service of the king, comprising a supplementary force to the French garrison. As crusaders, volunteers who had taken vows of a particular sort and were subject to the canon law that had developed with respect to crusading, they had of course been distinguished from the mercenary knights in the French contingent. They were treated separately by the patriarch of Jerusalem in his letter of 126766 and by Geoffrey of Sergines the elder and Erard of Valery, who in letters to Louis of the same year referred to them as "chevaliers pelerins."67 Their conversion into stipendarii was made relatively easy by the way greater lords were now often subsidizing their followers on crusade through the use of contracts for service.68 The count of Nevers, Eudes of Burgundy, had died in Acre on 6 July 1266. A remarkable document, comprising the accounts of his executors, Hugh of Augeront, one of his household knights, and Erard of Valery, who was represented by Geoffrey of Sergines the younger, lists the stipends of Eudes s knights, esquires, and servants, the cost of their lodgings, and further outgoings to employees; miscellaneous payments made by the executors, including one for Eudes s tomb; cash assets, together with loose change, and what must be debited from them; inventories of goods, including jewelry, plate, precious cloth, armor, furniture in the count's chamber, pantry, kitchen and stables, food and wine, clothes, the furnishings of two chapels, including a reliquary of the True Cross and vestments; books, including a missal, a breviary, two romans (the Roman des Loherains and the Roman de la terre d'Outremer), and a chansoners, which, it has been suggested, would have been a collection of the songs ofThibaut of Champagne; bequests left to persons and churches in Acre; items bought from the count s estate by individuals and institutions in Acre; and those bits and pieces still unsold.69 The material provides a snapshot of a crusading contingent in Palestine in the 1260s. Eudes, who had a reputation for sanctity and whose tomb in Acre was to be the scene of healing miracles after his death,70 was personally leading a force that consisted of his own knights and two smaller groups under knights called Regnaud of Precigne 71 and Robert of Juennesses. Whereas Eudes's household knights received 40 livres tournois a year, these two men were paid 300 and 235, respectively, which must mean that they had contracted with him to bring their own bodies of perhaps four and two knights with them. 72 From our point of view, of course, these crusaders, although technically volunteers, already looked like mercenaries through their subsidies from, and contracts of service with, Eudes, which 51

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must have made their transformation into stipendarii a simple matter. They would hardly have noticed the difference themselves, although they may not have remained long in service in Palestine: of their leaders, Erard of Valery fought atTagliacozzo on 23 August 1268,73 and Geoffrey of Sergines the younger died before Tunis in 1270 while serving as Charles of Anjou's seneschal.74 A F T E R L O U I S I X ' S DEATH on 25 April 1270, his body was dismembered. His

heart was left with the army in Africa. His entrails were deposited in the cathedral of Monreale in Sicily at the request of Charles of Anjou. His bones were brought back to France by his son Philip III and were interred in the abbey of Saint-Denis on 21 May 1271. Miracles were reported in the year-long course of the cortege home and they multiplied at the tomb, to which the sick pilgrimaged in increasing numbers. 75 It is not surprising that the commitment of the new French king to Acre was renewed against this theatrical background and in 1272 a replacement force was reported to be on its way under the command of Oliver of Termes,76 who had been on Louis's First Crusade77 and had been associated with Geoffrey of Sergines in Acre in the mid-i26os. 78 Oliver was probably serving in the same voluntary manner as had Geoffrey; in July 1274 Pope Gregory X proposed to King Philip III that he should be persuaded to stay in the East, since he had been particularly useful.79 He arrived in 1273, leading twenty-five mounted knights and 100 crossbowmen on foot, "paid for by the king of France,"80 and he was almost immediately joined by 700 more crossbowmen, "paid for by the king of France and the church."81 Two or three years later the 100 cavalry and 400 crossbowmen who reached Acre were "paid for by the church" and led "on behalf of the king of France" by William of Roussillon,82 a replacement for Oliver of Termes, who had died in 1274.83 In c. 1272 Pope Gregory had told Oliver that he could be granted cash to hire mercenaries "de pecunia Tunicii," which must have been the unexpended monies raised for the North African crusade,84 and in 1274 he assured Philip III that he was aware of the sums the king was spending on the Holy Land and guaranteed some relief from the drain on his resources by drawing on a new crusade sexennial tenth, which had been decreed by the Second Council of Lyons and was now being collected in France.85 Philip in fact made it easier still for the pope by renewing his commitment to the crusade vow, which he had not fulfilled after the withdrawal from Africa. Gregory promptly granted him the proceeds of the tenth collected not only throughout his kingdom, but also in some dioceses beyond the French frontiers.86 The relationship between the French crown and Acre was bound to be affected, however, by the assumption of power there by Philips uncle, Charles of Anjou, to 52

XIV The Crown of France and Acre whom the new king appears to have been devoted. 87 The establishment of the Angevin Kingdom of Sicily in the 1260s was to lead, as everyone knows, to a renewal of introspective crusading after the Sicilian Vespers of March 1282, not only in Italy, but also against Aragon. Philip was to accept the crown of Aragon for his second son, Charles of Valois, and was to die during the retreat from Gerona in October 1285. Meanwhile Charles of Anjou was recognized as king of Albania in 1271 and in 1278 took over direct rule of the Principality of Achaea. By then he was also claiming the throne of Jerusalem, which he had purchased in March 1277 from the pretender Maria of Antioch, with the approval of Pope John XXI. Charles sent a vicar-general to Acre, dividing what was left of the Kingdom of Jerusalem until 1286, when it was to be reunited under Henry of Cyprus. 88 Charles's rule of Acre badly needs further study. The present consensus is that his mind was constantly on Greece and the preservation of Achaea from the threat posed by the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologos and that although he took the cross and claimed that the Sicilian Vespers had wrecked his plans for a major crusade to the East, his gaze was in fact focused on Constantinople. 89 But even a cursory glance at the reconstituted Angevin archives reveals that there was more to his government in Palestine than that. His most recent biographer, Jean Dunbabin, portrays a man drawn, almost par hazard, into this adventure. She is particularly critical of the view that the purchase of the crown of Jerusalem was his initiative. It was Pope Gregory X, she maintains, whose idea this was.90 Although the evidence is circumstantial she is probably right. Gregory, who had been living in Acre at the time of his election, as we have seen, may well have come to the conclusion that the only way the Christian beachheads in the Levant could be saved was through their incorporation into a larger unit that could provide the day-to-day investment in men and materiel needed for its defense.91 As far as the French government was concerned the issue may simply have been one of supporting an important figure in the dynasty and a man whom Philip admired. It is indicative that we know of no captain of the French contingent for almost a decade after a successor (named either Miles of Haifa or William of Picquigny) 92 took over briefly after William of Roussillon's death in 1277, the year of Charles s assumption of power in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. There are references in the Angevin archives to a stipendiary force employed in Acre by Charles himself and supplied by him. 93 In 1277 a French knight, Godfrey of Summesot, was made its captain, with the rank of vice-seneschal;94 presumably Charles's vicargeneral, Roger of San Severino, held the seneschalcy. In 1281 a Richard of Noblans was sent by Charles to be constable.95 When in February 1283 Eudes Poilechien, 53

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who had been made vice-marshal in 1277,96 replaced Roger of San Severino as vicar-general,97 he assumed the seneschalcy, with a French knight acting as marshal.98 There are occasional references, therefore, to French knights in the service of Charles of Anjou, but there is, as far as I know, no hint for nine years that there were in Acre troops still employed by the French crown, until 1286, when Eudes Poilechien ordered "la gent du roy de France" into the citadel.99 It may be significant that Samaritanus patris, an important general letter on crusading sent by Pope Nicholas III to France in December 1278 that touched on the raising of funds, contained no reference to French stipendarii.100 They were probably still in Acre, but they must have passed into the employment of the Angevins. And it may be indicative that Marino Sanudo, writing, it is true, over two decades later, referred to Eudes Poilechien in 1286 combining the captaincy of the French mercenaries with his representative role on behalf of the government in Naples.101 It is likely that the French crown had only just resumed paying for them and that Eudes had remained captain pro tern. From 1273 on, however, the Capetians had another representative on the spot. The master of the Temple, William of Beaujeu (1273-91), was from a great Burgundian family with a long crusading tradition. They were related to the Capetians by marriage and William's kinship with them was recognized within his order102 and by Charles of Anjou, to whom he was a "carissimus consanguineus."103 It was probably because of this that he had served as provincial commander in the Kingdom of Sicily104 and that in 1274 the pope sent him on a special mission to Philip III. 105 He is usually portrayed as being especially close to Charles, but it should not be forgotten that the prime loyalties of his family were to the crown of France. Three brothers had been on the Tunis crusade and one, who had held the marshalcy of France, had died there. The eldest, Humbert, had been constable of France and was to die on the Aragonese Crusade of 1285.106 As the master of the Hospital wrote to the count of Flanders, William had been elected "por la reverence dou seignor roy de France et por le vostre."107 William certainly seems to have behaved as a French agent, pursuing a line of action that favored the Angevin claims, until he received instructions to the contrary, as we shall see. As soon as he returned to Acre in September 1275 he began to make life difficult for Hugh of Cyprus, the incumbent king about to be forced out by Charles, in a manner that reminds one of the spoiling tactics of the French contingent that had undermined the authority of Richard I of England in 1191.108 William backed the resistance to Hugh of Isabella of Beirut,109 entered into a fierce dispute with the king over a borgesie his order had bought without royal permis-

54

XIV The Crown of France and Acre sion, and in 1276, when Hugh was threatening to leave the mainland, ostentatiously refrained from requesting him to stay, while a native client-confraternity of the Temple added to the anarchy by rioting in the streets.110 When Charles's vicar-general arrived in 1277, he resided at first in the Templar convent and was helped financially by the order, which lent him money "in order to sustain him and our people," as Charles was to put it two years later.111 After Hugh had tried unsuccessfully to recover Acre in 1279 he blamed the Templars for rallying opposition to him and in retaliation razed their castle at Gastria on Cyprus and vandalized their houses in Limassol and Paphos. 112 Documents from the Angevin archives illustrate how close William was to the vicar-generals and their assistants. As late as February 1283 he was still regarded in Naples as acting almost as co-ruler with Eudes Poilechien.113 The Sicilian Vespers of 1282, the capture of Charles's heir, Charles of Salerno, by the Aragonese in 1284, the deaths of Hugh of Cyprus in 1284 and Charles of Anjou in 1285, and, perhaps most significant of all, the death of Philip III later in the same year must have led the French to rethink their approach. It is clear that as soon as the seventeen- or eighteen-year-old Philip IV came to throne he or his advisers decided that policy toward Acre should change. There is circumstantial evidence that Philip was not very attached to the Angevin cause, not enough, at least, to have approved of the crusade against Aragon.114 At any rate the decision seems to have been made to jettison the Angevins in Palestine and at the same time provide support for Henry of Cyprus, whose rule, the French government seems to have decided, was the only hope for the Latin settlement. There is a myth, which has been passed down from Georges Digard in the 1930s through Sylvia Schein in the 1980s to Norman Housley in the 1990s, that Philip then pulled out of Palestine completely.115 This is based on a group of letters from Pope Nicholas IV, dated between 1 and 12 December 1290, which are preserved in the papal registers, although only calendared in the printed edition of them. The pope had offered Philip the "custodia Terre Sancte." With, he explained, the advice of his council, Philip had refused on the grounds that if the Christians were to be driven out of Palestine he would be implicated in the disaster. The pope's response was to press him to accept the burden until the next major crusade should reach the East and to assign him the crusade tenth promised to his father.116 But this refusal of Philip's could not, and did not, indicate a withdrawal from Palestine. It is clear that by the "custodia Terre Sancte" the pope meant much more than the by now customary stationing of a body of troops in Acre. He was offering Philip the management of the Holy Land in its entirety and in refusing to assume such a burden the young king was only doing

55

XIV

what his great-great-grandfather Philip II and Henry II of England had done in 1185, when they had been offered Jerusalem by a delegation from the East.117 Although Philip, like Frederick II, is a tempting target for oversimplification he venerated the memory of his grandfather Louis IX and was always a devot.118 When on 27 June 1286, a message was delivered on behalf of Henry of Cyprus to the French knights who had been summoned into the citadel of Acre by Eudes Poilechien, they were informed that Henry knew that what they were doing was against the wishes of the king of France. Although Henry added that if it was learned that the king of France wished them to return to the citadel, they could do so, 119 he cannot have been bluffing. First, the Templars, who must have been following orders, had switched their support to Henry. William of Beaujeu joined the masters of the Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights in persuading Eudes Poilechien to surrender the citadel; his name also appears on the safe-conduct offered to the French by Henry.120 It was reported that Robert of Artois, the regent of Naples, was so enraged by the support given to Henry by the Templars and Hospitallers that he confiscated their properties in Apulia.121 Second, a new captain for the French force in Acre, who was sympathetic to Henry, was posted out there. The reference to "la gent du roy de France" under the captaincy of Eudes Poilechien in June 1286 suggests that sometime before— perhaps only shortly before—Philip had resumed paying directly for these soldiers. With him, in fact, there was a return to the approach of Louis IX, even perhaps to the extent of combining the semipermanence of the French garrison with the temporary support provided by a small crusade. Alice of Brittany, the countess of Bio is, came to Acre with a large force in 1287 and before her death there in the following year paid for improvements to the city's fortifications.122 And in 1287 John of Grailly arrived in Acre as the new "capitaneus soldatorum regis Franciae."123 John, who seems to have been another volunteer, had been one of a delegation from Acre to the papal curia, then at Lyons, which in 1274 had tried to block any discussion of Maria of Antiochs claim to the throne, and therefore of Charles of Anjou's purchase of it, arguing that the curia had no jurisdiction, because the only competent court was the high court of Jerusalem.124 John's appointment must, therefore, have been one that was acceptable to Henry of Cyprus. And the French contingent was to fight heroically in the two great sieges that closed the history of the Latin settlements, those of Tripoli and Acre.125

56

XIV The Crown of France and Acre

Notes 1. Simon Lloyd, English Society and the Crusade 1216-1307 (Oxford, 1988), 232. 2. Paul E. D. Riant, "Deposition de Charles d'Anjou pour la canonisation de Saint Louis," Notices et documents publies pour la societe de Thistoire de France a Voccasion du cinquantieme anniversaire de sa fondation (Paris, 1884), 175-76. 3. It is curious that although Edward founded an English military confraternity, dedicated to St. Edward the Confessor, to man an English tower on the city walls he did not much patronize the English military order, St. Thomas of Acre, the headquarters of which was in the suburb of Montmusard. Lloyd, English Society, 240; Jonathan S. C. Riley-Smith, "A Note on Confraternities in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem," Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 44 (1971): 303; Alan J. Forey, "The Military Order of St. Thomas of Acre," English Historical Review 92 (1977): 492-96. 4. Jules Michelet, Leproces des Templiers, 2 vols. (Paris, 1841-51), 1:391. 5. See the excavation of 1976 described by Benjamin Z. Kedar, "The Outer Walls of Frankish Acre," 'Atiqot$i (1997): 175. 6. John of Joinville, Vie de Saint Louis, ed. Jacques Monfrin (Paris, 1998), 304. 7. Urban IV, Registre, ed. Jean Guiraud, 4 vols. (Paris, 1901-58), 1/2:421. 8. Jean Richard, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, trans. Janet Shirley (Amsterdam, 1979), 377-79; idem, "Saint Louis dans l'histoire des croisades," Bulletin de la societe d'emulation du Bourbonnais (1970): 243-44; Christopher J. Marshall, "The French Regiment in the Latin East, 1254-91," journal of Medieval History 15 (1989): 301-7. 9. "L'Estoire de Eracles," Recueil des historiens des croisades: historiens occidentaux 2:441; "Le manuscrit de Rothelin," Recueil des historiens des croisades: historiens occidentaux 2:629. For Geoffrey of Sergines on Louis's crusade, see John of Joinville, 84, 150,152,182,186, 214, 282.

10. The Templar of Tyre, Cronaca del Templare di Tiro (1243-1314), ed. Laura Minervini (Naples, 2000), 170. 11. Joseph Delaville Le Roulx, Cartulaire general de Vordre des Hospitaliers de StJean de Jerusalem (1100-1310), 4 vols. (Paris, 1894-1906), 2:777-78. 12. De construction castri Saphet, ed. Robert B. C. Huygens (Amsterdam, 1981), 41. 13. "Le manuscrit de Rothelin," 629. 14. A.-M. Chazaud, "Inventaire et comptes de la succession d'Eudes, comte de Nevers (Acre 1266)," Mimoires de la societe des antiquaires de France, ser. 4, 2 (1871): 176-80. 15. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 455; The Templar of Tyre, 112. 16. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 458; The Templar of Tyre, 114-16. 17. The Templar of Tyre, 194,198. 18. "Le manuscrit de Rothelin," 629. 19. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 463-64. 20. Ibid., 467; The Templar of Tyre, 142. 21. See Louis de Mas-Latrie, Histoire de Vile de Chypre sous le regne des princes de

57

XIV

la maison deLusignan, 3 vols. (Paris, 1852-61), 3:671-73; "Bans et ordonnances des rois de Chypre," Recueildes historiens des croisades: lois, 2:357. 22. See Giuseppe Ligato, "Fra Ordine Cavallereschi e crociata: 'milites ad terminum' e 'confraternitates' armate," Militia Christi e crociata nei secoli XI-XIII(Milan, 1992), 645-97; Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders (Cambridge, 1997), 158-60. 23. Rutebeuf, "La complainte de monseigneur Joffroi de Sergines," ed. Julia Bastin and Edmond Faral, Onzepoemes de Rutebeuf concernant la croisade (Paris, 1946), 22-27. For Geoffrey's death, see The Templar of Tyre, 126; "L'Estoire de Eracles," 457. 24. Urban IV, Registre, 1/2:73-74. See also 19: a license to have a portable altar. 25. Clement IV, Registre, ed. Edouard Jordan (Paris, 1893-1945), 316-17. 26. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 458; The Templar of Tyre, 114-16. For Robert as seneschal, see Regesta regni Hierosolymitani, comp. Reinhold Rdhricht (Innsbruck, 1893-1904), (henceforward RRH), nos. 1370-71. 27. The Templar of Tyre, 114. 28. John XXI, "Registre," ed. Jean Guiraud and Leon Cadier, Les registres de Gregoire X (i2ji~i2j6) et dejean XXI (i2j6-i2jj): recueil des bulles de ces papes, one vol. and tables (Paris, 1892-1960), 3. 29. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 463; RRH, no. 1393. 30. "Depenses de Saint Louis de MCCL a MCCLIII," Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, 21:513-15. 31. Ibid., 513—15, especially 514. For the relationship between livres parisis and tournois, see Peter Spufford, Handbook of Medieval Exchange (London, 1986), 172. 32. See William C. Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade: A Study in Rulership (Princeton, 1979), 78-79. 33. Lloyd, English Society, 116-17. 34. Serge Boffa, "Les soutiens militaires de Jean Ier, due de Brabant, a Philippe III, roi de France, durant les expeditions iberiques (1276-1285)," Revue du NordyS (1996): 32-33. 35. Chazaud, "Inventaire," 176-77,179-80. 36. Gustave Servois, "Emprunts de Saint Louis en Palestine et en Afrique," Bibliotheque de I'ecole des Chartes, ser. 4, 4 (1858): 292. 37. Chazaud, "Inventaire," 179-80. 38. This is illustrated in a dispute over restor of horses, settled by Louis on his crusade. Auguste Teulet, Jean de Laborde, Elie Berger, and Henri F. Delaborde, Les layettes du Tresor des Chartes, 5 vols. (Paris, 1863-1909), 3:171-72. 39. Joseph R. Strayer, "The Crusades of Louis IX," in A History of the Crusades, ed. Kenneth M. Setton , vol. 2, The Later Crusades, ed. R. L. Wolff and H. W. Hazard (Madison, 1969-89), 508. 40. Servois, "Emprunts," 123-26, 284-85. 41. Ibid., 126-31. 42. Ibid., 292. 43. Gregory X, "Registre," ed. Guiraud and Cadier, Les registres de Gregoire X (1271-12J6) et de Jean XXI (i2j6-i2jj), "Appendice," 336. 58

XIV The Crown of France and Acre 44. William of Tyre, Chronicon, ed. Robert B. C. Huygens (Turnholt, 1986), 633. 45. Teulet et al., Les layettes, 1:549-50. 46. Ibid., 3:79. 47. Another example was Alexius IV s agreement with the Fourth Crusade in 1202 to provide 500 knights in the Holy Land for as long as he lived, but of course that promise was never kept; nor could it have been. 48. Servois, "Emprunts," 292. See also Clement IV, Registre, 317; Servois, "Emprunts," 129-30. 49. Urban IV, Registre, 1/2:73-74. 50. Ibid., 1/2:179-87. For Giles, see Bernard Hamilton, The Latin Church in the Crusader States: The Secular Church (London, 1980), 266. 51. William E. Lunt, Financial Relations of the Papacy with England, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1939-62), 1:290-91. 52. Urban IV, Registre, 1/2:420-21. 53. Clement IV, Registre, 316-17. 54. See Riley-Smith, The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1174-1277 (London, 1973), 320. 55. Servois, "Emprunts," 292. 56. Urban IV, Registre, 1/2:420-21. 57. Teulet et al., Les layettes, 4:73,108. 58. Leon L. Borrelli de Serres, "Compte d'une mission de predication pour secours a la Terre Sainte (1265)," Memoires de la societe de Vhistoire de Paris et de Vlle-deFrance^o (1903): 243-80. 59. Borrelli de Serres, "Compte," 264. On the same day they received a delegation from Marseilles, which may well have been sent to discuss shipping cash or crusaders to the East, or Charles of Anjou's venture; he had left Marseilles for Italy at Easter. 60. Borrelli de Serres, "Compte," 269. On 23 July messengers arrived from the two executors of the hundredth. Ibid., 271. 61. Ibid., 272. 62. See Norman J. Housley, The Italian Crusades (Oxford, 1982), 175; Lunt, Financial Relations, 1:292-310. 63. See Richard, Saint Louis (Paris, 1983), 462-63. 64. Housley, The Italian Crusades, 148-49,151-56. 65. The Templar of Tyre, 104; "L'Estoire de Eracles," 454. 66. Servois, "Emprunts," 292. Pope Clement IV ordered the archbishop of Tyre to consult with Louis on granting these crusaders subsidies from the hundredth. Teulet et al., Les layettes, 4:149; and see 163-64. 6j. Servois, "Emprunts," 129. 68. See Lloyd, English Society, 116-25. 69. Chazaud, "Inventaire," 176-206. The document is often overlooked by crusade historians, because it was one of the few missed by the great scholar Reinhold Rohricht when he calendared the material relating to the Latin East. For a popular view of the bequests at the time, see The Templar of Tyre, 104. 59

XIV

yo. Ibid. See "L'Estoire de Eracles," 455. For the year of his death, see Chazaud, "Inventaire," 169. 71. For Regnaud, see also Teulet et al., Les layettes, 2:629. 72. Chazaud, "Inventaire," 184. 73. William of Nangis, "Gesta Ludovici IX," Monumenta Germaniae historical scriptores 26:661-62. 74. Jean Dunbabin, Charles I of Anjou (London, 1998), 59. 75. L.Carolus-Barre, "Les enquetes pour la canonisation de Saint Louis—de Gregoire X a Boniface VIII—et la bulle Gloria laus, du n Aout 1297," Revue de Vhistoire de Veglise de France 57 (1971): 20.

y6. Gregory X, "Registre—Appendice," 337. See "L'Estoire de Eracles," 463. JJ. John of Joinville, 8, 286, 288, 312. 78. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 449; The Templar of Tyre, 96; Servois, "Emprunts," 123-25. For the loss of two of his brothers, see Servois, "Emprunts," 124-25; "L'Estoire de Eracles," 458; The Templar of Tyre, 116 (called his nephews). 79. Gregory X, "Registre," 209. 80. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 463. 81. Ibid., 464. 82. Ibid., 467; The Templar of Tyre, 142. 83. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 466. 84. Gregory X, "Registre—Appendice," 335, 337. 85. Gregory X, "Registre," 209. See Lunt, Financial Relations, 1.311-46. 86. Gregory X, "Registre," 209-11, 213-15. 87. Dunbabin, Charles I of Anjou, 16. 88. Riley-Smith, The Feudal Nobility, 220-27; ^so Peter W. Edbury, The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191-1374 (Cambridge, 1991), 93~94- As early as 1269 the Muslims appear to have known that Hugh III of Cyprus was anxious about Charles's ambitions. Riley-Smith, The Feudal Nobility, 223. But it is unlikely that the opportunity of purchasing the crown from Maria had yet arisen: Louis IX was still alive and it is unlikely that a king with so rigid an attachment to legality would have approved of the sale of as yet unproved claims, even to his brother. 89. See Dunbabin, Charles I of Anjou, 95-96. 90. Ibid., 96-97. 91. See Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A Short History (London, 1987), 169,178, 205. 92. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 478 (Miles of Haifa); "Annales deTerre Sainte," ed. Reinhold Rohricht and Gaston Raynaud, Archives de TOrient latin 2 (1884): 456-57 (William of Picquigny, who seems to have been a leading vassal in the lordship of Tyre. RRH, nos. 1372,1413). 93. Riccardo Filangieri et al., I registri della cancelleria angioina, 30 vols. (Naples, 1950-71), 18:31-32, 271; 19:23, 51, j6\ 20:156; 22:114; 24:126.

94. Filangieri, I registri, 19:76. 95. Ibid., 24:123. See "L'Estoire de Eracles," 479. 96. Filangieri, / registri, 19:76. 60

XIV The Crown of France and Acre 97. Ibid., 26:96,101, 207. 98. RRH, no. 1450. See The Templar of Tyre, 170. 99. The Templar of Tyre, 170; Marino Sanudo, "Liber secretorum fidelium crucis," ed. Jacques Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, 2 vols. (Hannau, 1611), 2:229. 100. Nicholas III, Registry ed. Jules Gay and Suzanne Vitte (Paris, 1898-1938), 144-46. 101. Marino Sanudo, "Liber secretorum fidelium crucis," 229. 102. The Templar of Tyre, 142. 103. For example, Filangieri, I registri, 26:207. 104. Marie Luise Bulst-Thiele, Sacrae Domus Militiae Templi Hierosolymitani Magistri (Gottingen, 1974), 260. 105. Gregory X, "Registre—Appendice," 339. 106. Bulst-Thiele, Sacrae Domus Militiae Templiy 259-60. 107. Delaville Le Roulx, Cartulaire, 3:290. 108. See Riley-Smith, The Feudal Nobilityy 117-20. 109. Ibn al-Furat, Tdrikh al-Duwal wdl-Muluk, ed. and trans. Ursula and Malcolm C. Lyons, Ayyubids, Mamlukes and Crusaders, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1971), 2:164. n o . "L'Estoire de Eracles," 474-75; The Templar of Tyre, 148; "Annales de Terre Sainte," 456 (according to which Hugh retaliated by wrecking the Templars' house in Limassol). i n . "L'Estoire de Eracles," 478-79; The Templar of Tyre, 150; "Annales de Terre Sainte," 456; Filangieri, I registri, 21:11^. 112. The Templar of Tyre, 150; "Annales de Terre Sainte," 457; Francisco Amadi, Chroniques de Chypre d'Amadi etde Strambaldi, ed. Rene de Mas-Latrie, 2 vols. (Paris, 1891-93), 1:214; Florio Bustron, Chronique de Vile de Chypre, ed. Rene de Mas-Latrie (Paris, 1886), 116. 113. Filangieri, I registri, 26:101, 207. 114. Strayer, The Reign of Philip the Fair (Princeton, 1980), 10-11. 115. Georges Digard, Philippe le Bel et le Saint-Siege, 2 vols. (Paris, 1936), 1:123; Sylvia Schein, "Philip IV and the Crusade: A Reconsideration," in Crusade and Settlement, ed. Peter W. Edbury (Cardiff, 1985), 122; Housley, The Later Crusades (Oxford, 1992), 24. 116. Archivo Vaticano 45: Register of Pope Nicholas IV, fol. i76r and v. See Nicholas IV, Registre, ed. Ernest Langlois, 2 vols. (Paris, 1886-93), 1:642-43. 117. Hans E. Mayer, "Henry II of England and the Holy Land," English Historical Review 97 (1982): 732-33. 118. For his early attitude to crusading, see Jean Favier, Philippe le Bel (Paris, 1978), 8-9. 119. Mas-Latrie, Histoire de Vile de Chypre, 3:672-73. 120. The Templar of Tyre, 170; Francisco Amadi, Chroniques de Chypre, 216-17; Mas-Latrie, Histoire de Vile de Chypre, 3:671-73; "Bans et ordonnances des rois de Chypre," 357. 121. William of Nangis, Chronique, ed. PH.J.F. Geraud, 2 vols. (Paris, 1843), 1:269-70. 61

XIV

122. "Annales de la Terre Sainte," 459-60; Marino Sanudo, "Liber secretorum fidelium crucis," 229. 123. "Annales de Terre Sainte," 460; Marino Sanudo, "Liber secretorum fidelium crucis," 229. 124. "L'Estoire de Eracles," 464. See also the reference to John of Graillys responsibility for security at Lyons in John XXI, "Registre," 3. 125. The Templar of Tyre, 194-98, 218-20.

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The Origins of the Commandery in the Temple and the Hospital In the first half of the twelfth century the Hospital and the Temple were developing into the earliest true religious orders. Each was already under one management, with members who could be directed wherever they were needed. The emergence of local communities was an essential step in this process, but this in itself was not evidence of new thinking, given the proliferation in the late eleventh century of Benedictine priories, many of which were engaged in agriculture and were sending at least part of their revenues to their mother houses.1 What was original was the subjection of the Hospitaller and Templar commanderies to provincial authorities which themselves answered to central governments in Jerusalem. The introduction of intermediate provinces made the military orders unique until similar structures were adopted by the Premonstratensians and Cluniacs later in the century. The early history of commanderies, therefore, cannot be divorced from the course of development of the Hospitaller and Templar provinces. The norm for the brethren of both orders as professed religious2 was a semi-enclosed life in community,3 in which they heard at least a modified form 1 2

J-L. Lemaitre (dir), Prieurs etprieures dans I'Occident medieval, Geneva, Droz, 1987, passim. In 1113 the pope described those Hospitallers who had votes in the election of the master

as fratrespro]cessi (Papsturkunden fur-Templerund Johanniter, Neuefolge, ed. R. Hiestand [Vorarbeiten zum

Oriens Pontificius 2, Gottingen, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1984] [henceforward Papsturkunden 2], p. 196) and the Templar Rule referred to militesprofessi and to profession (Die ursprungliche Tempferregef, ed. G Schniirer, Freiburg, Herder, 1903, pp. 130, 136, 140). For references to the Hospital as a religio from 1149, see Cartulaire general de I'ordre des Hospitaliers de Stjean de Jerusalem, ed. J. Delaville Le

Roulx, 4 vols, Paris, Leroux, 1894-1906 (henceforward CartHosp), t. 1, pp. 145,174, 204. The Rules dated from 1129 in the case of the Templars and from perhaps the late 1140s in the case of the Hospitallers. Die ursprungliche Templerregel, pp. 130—53; CartHosp, t. 1, pp. 62—8. See J.S.C. Riley-Smith, The Knights of Stjohn in Jerusalem and Cyprus, London, Macmillan, 1967, pp. 49—50; R. Hiestand, 'Die Anfange der Johanniter', in J. Fleckenstein and M. Hellmann (dir), Die geistlichen RJtterorden Europas, Sigmaringen, Thorbecke, 1980, pp. 56—64. The writing of the Rule of the Hospital must seem late in the case of a body recognized as a separate entity by the papacy as early as 1113, but we do not know whether there was an earlier one and anyway religious institutions did not strictly speaking need a Rule. The Carthusians never had one; a century later St Francis did not want one. 3

Both Rules contained detailed instructions on how brethren were to behave on their

XV 2

The Origins of the Commandery in the Temple and the Hospital

of the office; there were already references to this with respect to St Gilles from the early 1120s.4 Although the gift of a large estate, church, hospital or even castle was not always followed by the establishment of a convent there, local communities of Hospitallers and Templars were being founded from very early5 The first Hospitaller convents in the West must have been at St Gilles and Messina.6 There was another one at Beziers under a magister as early as 1108-9.7 Four others can be identifed by 1120, and at least a further nine travels, how they were not to journey without companions and with whom they were and were not to deal. Die ursprungliche Templerregel, pp. 143, 150; Cart Hosp, t. 1, pp. 63-4. For the first references to local Templar conventual chapters - from the 1160s - see Records of the Templars in England in the Twelfth Century. The Inquest of 1185, ed. B.A. Lees, London, British Academy, 1935, pp. 165-6, 208—9. For the demands of the religious life, see Riley-Smith, The Knights of St John, pp. 347—8; AJ. Forey, The Templars in the Corona de Aragon, London, Oxford University Press, 1973, pp. 89—103. 4 Cart Hosp, t. 1, pp. 47, 60; Cartulaire de Trinquetaille, ed. P.-A. Amargier, Aix-en-Provence, Centre d'etudes des societes mediterraneennes, 1972, pp. 281—2. 5 A.T. Luttrell ('The Earliest Hospitallers', in B.2. Kedar, J.S.C. Riley-Smith and R. Hiestand [dir], Mont/oie. Studies in Crusade History in Honour of Hans Eberhard Mayer, Aldershot,

Variorum, 1997, pp. 48—9) has suggested that a declared intention to create a monasterium at Puysubran may be evidence of a very early foundation, but it is impossible to discern from the documents what group of religious, Hospitallers or others, were to occupy it. Cart Hosp, 1.1, p. 10. The dates of foundation given by D. Selwood (Knights of the Cloister. Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania c.1100-c1300, Woodbridge, Boydell, 1999, pp. 49-71) cannot always be followed, because the granting of land is sometimes confused with the presence of a community. 6 Dr Luttrell ('The Earliest Hospitallers', pp. 44—5) has argued quite convincingly that of the seven xenodochia in the west listed in the papal privilege Pie postulatio voluntatis of 1113 only two, those of St Gilles and Messina, where a hospital may have been built by 1101, were at that time in Hospitaller hands; the others may have been a wish list. For St Gilles, see Cart Hosp, t. 1, p. 25. The reference to Messina, in fact, may be a forgery. Cart Hosp, t. 1, p. 100. See also Hiestand, 'Die Anfange', pp. 52—3; Luttrell, 'The Earliest Hospitallers', p. 50. It could have been that some obediences did not require the presence of resident^r#/