Amalric, formerly known in historiography as Amalric I, was the king of Jerusalem from 1163 until his death. He was, in the opinion of his Muslim adversaries, the bravest and cleverest of the crusader kings.
Isabella I reigned as Queen of Jerusalem from 1190 to her death in 1205. She was the daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his second wife Maria Comnena, a Byzantine princess. Her half-brother, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, engaged her to Humphrey IV of Toron. Her mother's second husband, Balian of Ibelin, and his stepfather, Raynald of Châtillon, were influential members of the two baronial parties. The marriage of Isabella and Humphrey was celebrated in Kerak Castle in autumn 1183. Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, laid siege to the fortress during the wedding, but Baldwin IV forced him to lift the siege.
Joscelin III was the titular count of Edessa, who during his lifetime managed to amass enough land to establish a lordship in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Humphrey IV of Toron was a leading baron in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He inherited the Lordship of Toron from his grandfather, Humphrey II, in 1179. He was also heir to the Lordship of Oultrejourdan through his mother, Stephanie of Milly. In 1180, he renounced Toron on his engagement to Isabella, the half-sister of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. The king, who had suffered from leprosy, allegedly wanted to prevent Humphrey from uniting two large fiefs. Humphrey married Isabella in Kerak Castle in autumn 1183. Saladin, the Ayyubbid sultan of Egypt and Syria, laid siege to Kerak during the wedding, but Baldwin IV and Raymond III of Tripoli relieved the fortress.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, one of the Crusader states that was created in 1099, was divided into a number of smaller seigneuries. According to the 13th-century jurist John of Ibelin, the four highest crown vassals in the kingdom proper were the count of Jaffa and Ascalon, the prince of Galilee, the lord of Sidon, and the lord of Oultrejordain.
Humphrey II of Toron was lord of Toron and constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was the son of Humphrey I of Toron.
The Lordship of Transjordan was one of the principal lordships of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It encompassed an extensive and partly undefined region to the east of the Jordan River, and was centered on the castles of Montreal and Kerak.
Philip of Milly, also known as Philip of Nablus, was a baron in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the seventh Grand Master of the Knights Templar. He briefly employed the troubadour Peire Bremon lo Tort in the Holy Land.
Toron, now Tibnin or Tebnine in southern Lebanon, was a major Crusader castle, built in the Lebanon mountains on the road from Tyre to Damascus. The castle was the centre of the Lordship of Toron, a seigneury within the Kingdom of Jerusalem, actually a rear-vassalage of the Principality of Galilee.
The House of Ibelin was a noble family in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. They rose from relatively humble beginnings to become one of the most important families in the kingdom, holding various high offices and with extensive holdings in the Holy Land and Cyprus. The family disappeared after the fall of the Kingdom of Cyprus in the 15th century.
Miles of Plancy was a French-born nobleman who rose to high offices in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He arrived in the kingdom during the reign of his kinsman King Amalric, who appointed him seneschal in 1168. Miles accompanied the king on two campaigns in Egypt. In early 1174 the king arranged for Miles to marry a great heiress, Stephanie of Milly, which made Miles lord of Oultrejordain, one of the largest fiefs in the kingdom. Amalric died on 11 July 1174 and was succeeded by his minor son, Baldwin IV. A regent was not immediately appointed to rule in the boy king's name, and so Miles duly assumed the government in his capacity as seneschal. He was of a too imperious temperament to cooperate with other noblemen, however, and soon caused resentment that led to his murder.
Theodora Komnene was a member of the Byzantine imperial Komnenos family who became queen consort of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
William V of Montferrat also known regnally as William III of Montferrat while also referred to as William the Old or William the Elder, in order to distinguish him from his eldest son, William Longsword, was seventh Marquis of Montferrat from 1135 to his death in 1191. William was the only son of Marquis Renier I and his wife Gisela, a daughter of Count William I of Burgundy and widow of Count Humbert II of Savoy. It seems likely, given that he was still fit enough to participate in battle in 1187, that William was one of his parents' youngest children.
Maria Komnene, Latinized Comnena, was the queen of Jerusalem from 1167 until 1174 as the second wife of King Amalric. She occupied a central position in the Kingdom of Jerusalem for twenty years, earning a reputation for intrigue and ruthlessness.
The Lordship of Beirut was a feudal seigneury in the Kingdom of Jerusalem centered on the city of Beirut. The lord of Beirut was one of the most powerful vassals of the king of Jerusalem. In the 12th century the lordship was ruled by the Brisebarre family. At some point between 1165 and 1174, Beirut was taken back into the royal domain. Count Raymond III of Tripoli held it in 1185-86, and in 1187 it was conquered by the Ayyubids. It was recovered in 1197, and in the 13th century the lordship was held by the Ibelin family.
The Battle of Belvoir Castle, also called the Battle of Le Forbelet, was a part of Saladin’s campaign in May — August 1182 against the Crusaders. Crusader forces led by King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem battled with Ayyubid forces from Egypt commanded by Saladin. Saladin took action in Damascus on June 11, 1182, together with his regent Farrukh Shah. Entering Palestine from the south of Tiberias, Saladin encountered the Crusader army coming from Transoxiana near Belvoir Castle.
Humphrey III of Toron was a Frankish nobleman in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The Ayyubid watchtower is a stone tower dating back to the Ayyubid period, more specifically in the year 1220, on the southern wall of the Amman Citadel in the center of the Jordanian capital, Amman. It is located in an area adjacent to the much older Temple of Hercules. It also contains traces of other civilizations that have succeeded in the city for thousands of years.
Walter III Brisebarre was a 12th-century Frankish nobleman who ruled successively as the lord of Beirut, lord of Transjordan, and lord of Blanchegarde in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Walter inherited Beirut from his father, Guy Brisebarre, in 1157 and Transjordan from his father-in-law, Philip of Milly, in 1166. King Amalric forced Walter to cede Beirut to the crown to prevent a merger of two great fiefs. After the deaths of his wife Helena and their daughter, Beatrice, between 1167 and 1174, Transjordan passed to Helena's sister, Stephanie, and Stephanie's husband Miles of Plancy. Miles ruled the kingdom in 1174 in the name of the minor King Baldwin IV. He was murdered in October 1174 by assassins whom a later source names as the "lords of Beirut". Walter ended his career as the lord of Blanchegarde, a minor fief, but retained some influence at court until he died, probably in the early 1180s.
Beatrice Brisebarre was the lady of Transjordan in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 1160s. She was the only child of Walter III Brisebarre and Helena of Milly. Her parents inherited the lordship of Transjordan in 1166 from her maternal grandfather, Philip of Milly, after her father renounced his lordship of Beirut. Beatrice's mother had died by 18 November 1167, when Walter issued a grant to the Order of Saint Lazarus for the repose of her sole. This grant, which mentions Beatrice's consent, is the only appearance of Beatrice in historical record. Transjordan passed to Beatrice upon Helena's death. Walter continued to rule the lordship but only as bailli in Beatrice's name. The historian Bernard Hamilton presumes that such an arrangement would have lasted until Beatrice married.
