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.
The family took their name from the castle of Ibelin, which was built in 1141 by King Fulk I and entrusted to Barisan, the founder of the family. Ibelin was the crusader's name for the Arab city of Yibna, where the castle was situated. The castle fell to the Saracens at the end of the 12th century, but by then the family had holdings at Beirut and in Cyprus.
The Ibelin family rose from relatively humble origins to become one of the most important noble families in the Crusader states of Jerusalem and Cyprus. The origins of the family remain uncertain. The Ibelins claimed to be descended from the Le Puiset viscounts of Chartres in France, [1] though Peter W. Edbury suggests this could have been a fabrication and that the family may have originated from Pisa in Italy. [2] According to Jonathan Riley-Smith, however, they may have indeed been connected to Chartres, with the first known member and founder of the house, Barisan of Ibelin, having possibly been a younger brother of Hugh of Le Puiset, who was made Count of Jaffa in 1110; he would then have also been a cousin to the Montlhéry family of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. [3] Barisan was a knight in service of the Count of Jaffa and in 1115 became Constable of Jaffa. As a reward for his loyalty, around 1122, he married Helvis, heiress of the nearby lordship of Ramla. [4]
Barisan was given the castle of Ibelin in 1141 by King Fulk as a reward for his loyalty during the revolt of his then master Hugh II of Le Puiset, Count of Jaffa, in 1134. Ibelin was part of the County of Jaffa, which was annexed to the royal domain after Hugh's unsuccessful revolt. Barisan's marriage with Helvis produced Hugh, Baldwin, Barisan, Ermengarde, and Stephanie. The younger Barisan came to be known as Balian. Along with Ibelin, the family then held Ramla (inherited from Helvis), and the youngest son Balian received the lordship of Nablus when he married Maria Comnena, the Dowager Queen. Balian was the last to hold these territories as they all fell to Saladin in 1187.
The family underwent a remarkable rise in status in only two generations. In the circumstances of the crusader kingdom, this rapid rise, noblesse nouvelle, was not as difficult as it would have been in Europe. In crusader Palestine, individuals and whole families tended to die much sooner and replacements, sang nouveau, were needed.
Balian's descendants were among the most powerful nobles in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus. Balian's first son John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut, was the leader of the opposition to Emperor Frederick II when the latter tried to impose imperial authority over the crusader states. The family briefly regained control of the castle of Ibelin in 1241 in the aftermath of Frederick's Sixth Crusade, when certain territories were returned to the Christians by treaty. John had numerous children with Melisende of Arsuf, including Balian, lord of Beirut; Baldwin, seneschal of Cyprus; another John, lord of Arsuf and constable of Jerusalem; and Guy, constable of Cyprus. This Balian was married to Eschiva of Montbéliard and was the father of John II of Beirut, who married the daughter of Duke Guy I of Athens. John of Arsuf was the father of Balian of Arsuf, who married Plaisance of Antioch. Guy the constable was the father of Isabella, who married Hugh III of Cyprus.
Balian of Ibelin's second son Philip was regent of Cyprus while his niece, the widowed Queen Alice, needed help to govern. With Alice of Montbéliard, Philip was the father of John of Ibelin, count of Jaffa and Ascalon, regent of Jerusalem, and author of the Assizes of the High Court of Jerusalem, the most important legal document from the crusader kingdom. John married Maria, sister of Hethum I of Armenia, and was the father of James, count of Jaffa and Ascalon and also a noted jurist; and of Guy, count of Jaffa and Ascalon and husband of his cousin Maria, Hethum's daughter.
Several members of the family went to the new kingdom of Cyprus at the beginning of the 13th century. Most of the rest moved there as the mainland kingdom was lost piece by piece. No members of the Ibelin family seem to have gone to any other country during this period. At this time, some of the Embriaco lords of Gibelet, relatives of the Ibelins, also took the name of "Ibelin" because of their common maternal descent.
Despite the family's modest origins on the paternal side, the Ibelins during the 13th–15th centuries were among the highest nobility in the Kingdom of Cyprus, producing brides for younger sons, grandsons and brothers of kings (though the kings and eldest sons tended to find more royal wives). Ibelins lived among the highest circles of Cyprus, and married into the royal family, the Lusignans, and among such families as Montfort, Dampierre, ducal Brunswick, Montbeliard, and Gibelet(-Ibelins). They married also into other branches of Ibelins. They also had loftier ancestors: Maria Comnena was from the Byzantine imperial Comnenus dynasty, and was descended from the kings of Georgia, Bulgaria, ancient Armenia, Parthia, Persia and Syria.
When the Kingdom of Cyprus was destroyed in the 15th century, the Ibelins apparently also lost their lands and positions, and the family possibly became extinct — the sources, at least, no longer mention them.
See Lordship of Ibelin.
The Ibelin shield shown here was used in the film, "Kingdom of Heaven", but has nothing to do with the real Ibelin family. While researching shields and coats of arms for the film (which used real and fabricated shields), members of the production team discovered this shield - a red cross on a gold field - in a museum in Paris, with "Balian 1180" written under it. They were delighted, even though it wasn't "their" Balian, and used it as the Ibelin shield, despite it having no historic connection to that family. This information can be found in the "Kingdom of Heaven" companion book.
Jean de Joinville in his account of the Sixth Crusade mentions the coat of arms of the Count of Jaffa, who at this time was John of Ibelin. Jeanville describes the coat of arms as "or with a cross of gules patée", which roughly translates to "red cross patty on golden ground". [5] That would mean the shield shown here is not that far off from the description given by Jean de Joinville. It remains unclear within the source, if it was the coat of arms of the count of Jaffa, regardless of who was holding that county, or the coat of arms of the house of Ibelin. For Jean de Joinville mentions other Ibelin in his account, but fails to connect them to said coat of arms.
Hugh III, also called Hugh of Antioch-Lusignan and the Great, was the king of Cyprus from 1267 and king of Jerusalem from 1268. Born into the family of the princes of Antioch, he effectively ruled as regent for underage kings Hugh II of Cyprus and Conrad III of Jerusalem for several years. Prevailing over the claims of his cousin Hugh of Brienne, he succeeded both young monarchs upon their deaths and appeared poised to be an effective political and military leader.
Hugh I succeeded to the throne of Cyprus on 1 April 1205, underage upon the death of his elderly father Aimery, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem. His mother was Eschiva of Ibelin, heiress of that branch of Ibelins who had held Bethsan and Ramleh.
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.
Hugh IV was King of Cyprus from 31 March 1324 to his abdication, on 24 November 1358 and, nominally, King of Jerusalem, as Hugh II, until his death. The son of Guy, Constable of Cyprus, and Eschiva of Ibelin, Hugh succeeded his father as Constable of Cyprus in 1318, and later succeeded to the throne of Cyprus on the death of his uncle Henry II, since Henry II had no sons. He was a member of the House of Poitiers-Lusignan.
Barisan of Ibelin was the first lord of Ibelin and the founder of the House of Ibelin in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. His name was later written as "Balian" and he is sometimes known as Balian the Elder, Barisan the Old or Balian I. Barisan was also lord of Ramla from 1138 to 1150.
Baldwin of Ibelin, also known as Baldwin II of Ramla, was an important noble of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and was lord of Ramla from 1169-1186. He was the second son of Barisan of Ibelin, and was the younger brother of Hugh of Ibelin and older brother of Balian of Ibelin. He first appears in the historical record as a witness to charters in 1148.
Balian of Ibelin, also known as Barisan the Younger, was a crusader noble of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. He was Lord of Ibelin from 1170 to 1193. As the leader of the defense of the city during the siege of Jerusalem in 1187, he surrendered Jerusalem to Saladin on 2 October 1187.
John of Ibelin, called the Old Lord of Beirut, was a powerful crusader noble in the 13th century, one of the best known representatives of the influential Ibelin family. The son of Balian of Ibelin and the dowager queen Maria Comnena, he had close ties with the nobility of both Cyprus and Jerusalem, since he was the half-brother of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem. Before he was 20, he was appointed constable of Jerusalem, and a few years later became Lord of Beirut. John rebuilt Beirut after Saladin's conquest, and established the grand Ibelin family palace. He served as regent of Jerusalem on behalf of his niece Maria of Montferrat from 1205 to 1210 after her mother, Queen Isabella, died. He was also regent for his great-nephew Henry I of Cyprus from 1228 until Henry came of age in 1232. John was known as a principled man, and was seen as the natural leader of the Christian barons in the Holy Land. He resisted the power-seeking of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in Cyprus, and opposed the imperial forces until King Henry came of age.
John of Ibelin, count of Jaffa and Ascalon, was a noted jurist and the author of the longest legal treatise from the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was the son of Philip of Ibelin, bailli of the Kingdom of Cyprus, and Alice of Montbéliard, and was the nephew of John of Ibelin, the "Old Lord of Beirut". To distinguish him from his uncle and other members of the Ibelin family named John, he is sometimes called John of Jaffa.
The double County of Jaffa and Ascalon was one of the four major seigneuries comprising the major Crusader state of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, according to 13th-century commentator John of Ibelin.
The principality of Galilee was one of the four major seigneuries of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, according to 13th-century commentator John of Ibelin, grandson of Balian. The direct holdings of the principality centred around Tiberias, in Galilee proper, but with all its vassals, the lordship covered all Galilee and southern Phoenicia. The independent Lordship of Sidon was located between Galilee's holdings. The principality also had its own vassals: the Lordships of Beirut, Nazareth, and Haifa.
Philip Ι of Montfort was Lord of La Ferté-Alais and Castres-en-Albigeois 1228–1270, Lord of Tyre 1246–1270, and Lord of Toron aft. 1240–1270. He was the son of Guy of Montfort and Helvis of Ibelin.
The Kingdom of Cyprus, as an offshoot of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, maintained many of the same offices, such as: seneschal, constable, marshal, admiral, Chamberlain, and chancellor.
The Embriaco family were a prominent Genoese family, who played an important role in the history of the Crusader states. It also gave consuls, admirals and ambassadors to the Republic of Genoa.
Balian III of Beirut was the Lord of Beirut, the second of his family, from 1236, and a son of the famous "Old Lord" John of Ibelin, by his second wife Melisende of Arsuf. From his father he assumed the leadership of the nobility in the War of the Lombards, fought against the agents of the Emperor Frederick II.
Isabella of Ibelin (1241–1324) was queen of Cyprus and Jerusalem by marriage to Hugh III of Cyprus.
Melisende was the hereditary Lady of Arsuf from 1177 and the second wife of the powerful nobleman John, Old Lord of Beirut.
Helvis of Ibelin was a daughter of Balian of Ibelin and his wife, Maria Komnene, who was the dowager Queen of Jerusalem. Helvis was a member of the House of Ibelin. She was Lady of Sidon by her first and second marriage.
Alix of Ibelin, was Queen consort of Cyprus and nominal Queen consort of Jerusalem as the second wife of King Hugh IV of Cyprus. She was queen from 31 March 1324 until Hugh's abdication on 24 November 1358. Two of her sons, Peter and James reigned as kings of Cyprus.
| |||||||||||||||||||
