Crusader states

The Near East in 1135, with the Crusader states in green hues.

Asia Minor and the Crusader states, c. 1140

The Crusader states were a number of mostly 12th- and 13th-century feudal states created by Western European crusaders in Asia Minor, Greece and the Holy Land (ancient and modern Israel and the Palestinian region). The Middle Eastern Islamic powers eventually conquered them. The name also refers to other territorial gains (often small and short-lived) made by medieval Christendom against Muslim and pagan adversaries.

Mediterranean

While the Reconquista, the centuries-long fight to reconquer the Iberian peninsula from the Arabo-Barbaresque Moors (who called it al-Andalus), fills all the criteria for crusades, it is not customary to call the resulting Catholic principalities there Crusader states, except for the Kingdom of Valencia.^[1]

In the Levant

The first four Crusader states were created in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade:

• The first Crusader state, the County of Edessa, was founded in 1098 and lasted until 1144.
• The Principality of Antioch, founded in 1098, lasted until 1268.
• The County of Tripoli, founded in 1104, with Tripoli itself conquered in 1109, lasted until 1289.
• The Kingdom of Jerusalem, founded in 1099, lasted until 1291, when the city of Acre fell. There were also many vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the four major lordships (seigneuries) being:
  • The Principality of Galilee
  • The County of Jaffa and Ascalon
  • The Lordship of Oultrejordain
  • The Lordship of Sidon

The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia had its origins before the Crusades, but was granted the status of a kingdom by Pope Innocent III, and later became semi-westernized by the (French) Lusignan dynasty.

Cyprus

During the Third Crusade, Crusaders founded the Kingdom of Cyprus. Richard I of England conquered Cyprus on the way to Holy Land. The island was made into a kingdom and given to the displaced King of Jerusalem Guy of Lusignan in 1192. It lasted until 1489, when its last queen sold it to Venice. It was later awarded to the Knights Hospitaliers, but was never really taken seriously as an outpost and fell into decline before being lost in a revolt. It continued to be a base for Christian forces until 1571, when it was captured by the Ottoman Empire.

In the Balkans

The Latin Empire, its vassals and the Greek successor states, ca. 1204

After the Fourth Crusade, the territories of the Byzantine Empire were divided into several states, beginning the so-called "Francocracy" (Greek: Φραγκοκρατία) period:

• The Latin Empire in Constantinople (1204-1261)
• The Kingdom of Thessalonica (1205-1224)
• The Principality of Achaea (1205-1432)
  • The Lordship of Argos and Nauplia (1205-1388)
• The Duchy of Athens (1205–1458)
  • The Margraviate of Bodonitsa (1204-1414)
• The Duchy of Naxos (1207–1579)
• The Duchy of Philippopolis

Several islands, most notably Crete (1204-1669), Euboea (Negroponte, until 1470), and the Ionian Islands (until 1797) came under the rule of Venice.

These states faced the attacks of the Byzantine Greek successor states of Nicaea and Epirus, as well as Bulgaria. Thessalonica and the Latin Empire were reconquered by the Byzantine Greeks by 1261. Descendants of the Crusaders continued to rule in Athens and the Peloponnesus (Morea) until the 15th century when the area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

• The military order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John established itself on Rhodes (and several other Aegean islands; see below) in 1310, with regular influx of new blood, until the Ottomans finally drove them out (to Malta) in 1522.
  • the island of Kastellorizo (like Rhodes a part of the Aegean Dodecanese island group) was taken by the Knights of St. John Hospitaller of Jerusalem in 1309; the Egyptians occupied it from 1440 until 1450; then the Kingdom of Naples ruled; Venetian rule began in 1635 (as Castellorosso); all these states, excluding the Egyptians, were Catholic; Ottoman rule was established in 1686, although Greeks controlled the island during the Greek War of Independence from 1821-1833.
  • other neighbouring territories temporarily under the order were: the cities of Smyrna (now Izmir; 1344-1402), Attaleia (now Antalya; 1361-1373 and Halicarnassos (now Bodrum;1412-14..), all three in Anatolia; the Greek Isthmus city of Corinth (1397-1404)), the city of Salona (ancient Amphissa; 1407-1410) and the islands of Ikaria (1424-1521) and Kos (1215-1522), all now in Greece

Northern Crusades

The Northern Crusader states c. 1410

In the Baltic region, the indigenous tribes in the Middle Ages at first staunchly refused Christianity. In 1193, Pope Celestine III urged two religious orders of Knights, the Livonian Order and the Teutonic Order, to invade and subjugate the heathens which included the Old Prussians, the Lithuanians and other tribes inhabiting Estonia, Latvia and East Prussia. This period of warfare is called the Northern Crusades.

In the aftermath of Northern Crusades William of Modena as Papal legate solved the disputes between the crusaders in Livonia and Prussia. By dividing the lands between the crusading order Livonian Brothers of the Sword and the Church 5 principalities were created: one ruled by the order and other by Prince-Bishoprics: Archbishopric of Riga, Bishopric of Courland, Bishopric of Dorpat and Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek. The lands controlled by Danish crusaders were annexed with Denmark as Duchy of Estonia^[2] until it was ceded to the Teutonic Order state in 1346.

In the Prussian region William of Modena divided the lands between Teutonic knights and the Church by creating 4 Prince-Bishoprics: Bishopric of Culm, Bishopric of Pomesania, Bishopric of Ermland and Bishopric of Samland under the Archbishopric of Riga.

References

See also

• List of Crusader castles
• Map of the Crusader states from Muir's Historical Atlas (1911)

Sources and references

• Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German)