Today we're going to cover the intriguing history of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. The history of the kingdom of Jerusalem is a central part of crusades history as well as medieval history. In this video will start by exploring the origins of the kingdom of Jerusalem and the incredible history of how a few outnumbered latin lords managed to pull themselves out of the chaos that followed the success of the first crusade to create a strong and stable medieval kingdom in the Levant that would survive against the onslaught from its Islamic neighbours for decades.
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Photo credits. - Fondazione Cariplo
Music credits. Magic Forest, Five armies and Lost Frontier by Kevin Macleod.
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in this video we're going to cover the
intriguing history of the medieval
kingdom of Jerusalem the scholarly
literature used can be found in the
description below I'm following history
and today we're going to start with
exploring the birth and organization of
the Kingdom of Jerusalem stay tuned in
1095 pope urban ii called for the first
crusade to support the Byzantine
Christians in the east as well as to
reclaim the Holy Land in the Levant for
Christendom when the Latin Crusaders set
out on their journey they had little
thought about what would happen once he
had taken Jerusalem some people
including the Pope thought that the
conquered lands would come under the
control of the Byzantine Emperor
Alexia's komnenos however due to
differences in strategic priorities and
political disputes regarding ownership
of the cities in the Levant the
relationship between the Latin Crusaders
and the centium deteriorated to the
point that it was clear that the
conquered lands would not be given to
the Eastern Emperor due to this state of
affairs the lands conquered by the Latin
Crusaders were divided into several
territories these territories were the
county or DISA the Principality of
Antioch the county of Tripoli and the
Kingdom of Jerusalem Jerusalem was
initially controlled by Godfrey of
bouillon who ruled the city and its
surroundings
Godfrey refused to accept the title of
King and instead choose to rule the
kingdom as a protector of the holy
sepulcher Godfrey however did not stay
in power for long just a year after the
Crusaders had captured Jerusalem he
passed away and the kingdom was handed
over to the count of Edessa called
Baldwin of William who became King
Baldwin the first of Jerusalem King
Baldwin quickly found himself as the
first true king of a Jong a vulnerable
and volatile Kingdom however through a
bit of luck and the strategic brilliance
of King Baldwin and his heirs
the remaining letting Crusaders managed
to not only keep the kingdom intact but
also
strengthen it against this Islamic
neighbors for several generations the
Kingdom of Jerusalem was situated in
what for centuries had been a frontier
region fought over between different
kingdoms and empires much of the area
was not fertile enough to be used for
farming and the centers of power within
the region lay far away from each other
on top of that that the kingdom early on
suffer from a severe manpower shortage
when Jerusalem had been captured in 1099
many of the Crusaders who had
participated considered themselves to
have completed a mission they set out to
accomplish and started to return back
home to Europe with only ones remaining
being a few Lords and her households on
Knights and servants the manpower
shortage was in fact so bad that the
chronicler folker of shorts claims that
the kingdom during its first years only
possessed a meager 300 knights and an
equal number of footmen while being
surrounded on all sides by hostile
powers and in order to avoid being
immediately destroyed the kingdom was in
need of more manpower and an abundance
of resources being a medieval lord King
Baldwin's first order of business was
dividing his new kingdom in accordance
with the feudal traditions back in
Europe with vassal lords running pots of
the kingdom under him who in turn had
her own vessel serving under dem any
feudal system the central resource is
farmland however due to many parts of
the kingdom being unfit for agricultural
production the feudal system that
existed back in Europe never fully
developed the same way in the king no
Jerusalem many of the land owning Nobles
who normally would have lived in manor
houses on the countryside instead chose
to live in the cities with most of their
nights and foot soldiers being paid
salary warriors give them favourable
geography in the region for agriculture
the kingdom early on had to rely on
other sources of revenue which at the
beginning mainly consisted of wealth
produced from King Baldwin's own estates
back in Europe the kingdom also had to
utilize the greedy ins trade routes and
when it came to establishing trade King
Baldwin quickly got help from merit
powers back in Europe who were eager to
utilize the situation in 1101 a Genoese
fleet a ride in Java and with its health
Baldwin quickly managed to capture the
major port cities of our tzuf Caesarea
and Audrey and thereby securing the
coastal line between the cities of Haifa
and Jaffa in exchange for their support
the King granted the Genoese control
over a further the city's they helped in
conquering as well as other benefits and
privileges outside revenue from trade
with Genoa and the other European city
states in the Mediterranean both pilgrim
and accession of Muslim caravans also
helped to raise funds for the kingdom in
order to effectively being able to tax
the caravan routes as opposed to
properly defend the kingdom and make up
for the constant lack of manpower the
Latin Crusader is constructed many
castles in the region two of the most
famous ones were the castles of Carrick
and Montreal which were constructed in
the first half of the 12th century and
were some of the most impressive
defensive structures of their day since
the Kingdom of Jerusalem throughout its
history was surrounded by enemies booty
also played a significant part in the
kingdom's economy although many attempts
were made to attract new settlers from
Europe few came from which it followed
that Western Europeans were always a
minority within the Kingdom of Jerusalem
with a substantial number of people
instead being Eastern Christians and
Jews Muslims also meet up a substantial
part of the population living within the
kingdom and were allowed to keep
practicing the religion as well as
keeping drew communities provided that
they paid required taxes in arrangement
similar to those granted to Christian
populations living under Islamic rulers
the Kingdom of Jerusalem would continue
to be governed by King Baldwin the first
until his death during a campaign in
Egypt in 1118 after having ruled
Jerusalem for 18 years Baldwin had
transformed a tenuous arrangement into a
solid feudal state with a stable
monarchy conquered the Palestinian
coasts and built a strong frontier
against the kingdom's Islamic
neighbors around the time of Baldwin's
death the Latin crusaders who had chosen
to stay and their offsprings had
gradually stopped thinking about
themselves as Europeans and instead
adopted a new Eastern identity they no
longer thought of themselves as Franks
and Germans but as galilaeans
and Palestinians living as subjects of
the Latin Kings of the Holy Land today I
hope you learned something new about the
Kingdom of Jerusalem in the next video
we will cover what happened to the
Kingdom of Jerusalem under King Baldwin
successors
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