James of Ibelin

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James of Ibelin (French : Jacques d'Ibelin; died in 1276) was count of Jaffa and, titularly, of Ascalon too as well as a noted jurist in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

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James was the son of Count John of Jaffa and Ascalon, himself a noted jurist in the crusader kingdom. John had urged King Henry I of Cyprus to send his army to defend the Kingdom of Jerusalem, where John and many Cypriot knights held land, from the Mamluks. [1] The fortress of Ascalon was lost to the Muslim Mamluk Sultanate in 1247. [2] John, who also held valuable estates in the Kingdom of Cyprus, died in 1266. [3] Jaffa was conquered by the Mamluks in 1268. [1]

In 1271, James advocated for the knights of Cyprus in their dispute with King Hugh III, [1] who had ascended the thrones of Cyprus and Jerusalem in 1267 and 1268 respectively. [4] In their deposition to the English prince Edward Longshanks, who acted as arbiter, [1] the knights insisted that they did not owe military service to the king on the mainland. [5] Unlike John decades earlier, James and the knights had no vested interest in fighting on the mainland because most of their possessions there had been lost. [1] James's effort failed, but he demonstrated his family's pride in his speech, saying: "The men of the kingdom of Cyprus have more often served the house of Ibelin outside the kingdom than they have the king or his ancestors." [1] James thus became the first member of the Ibelin family to challenge the power of the Lusignan kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus. [5]

James dictated a law treatise on his deathbed in 1276. [6]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Edbury 1991, p. 93.
  2. Edbury 1991, p. 84.
  3. Edbury 1991, p. 79.
  4. Edbury 1991, p. 90.
  5. 1 2 Edbury 1991, p. 72.
  6. Edbury 2003, p. 15.

Sources