County of Jaffa and Ascalon

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.

County of Jaffa and Ascalon

Vassal of Kingdom of Jerusalem

Jaffa

Latin, Old French, Italian (also Arabic and Greek)

Roman Catholicism, Eastern Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy, Syriac Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism

1100

1268

History[edit]

Jaffa was fortified by Godfrey of Bouillon after the First Crusade in 1100, and was unsuccessfully claimed by Daimbert of Pisa, the first Latin patriarch. It remained part of the royal domain until it was given to Hugh of Le Puiset in 1110. When Hugh II rebelled against King Fulk in 1134 the county was divided into a number of smaller holdings, and Jaffa itself became a royal domain. In 1151 it was designated as the apanage of King Baldwin III's younger brother, Amalric. After the siege of Ascalon in 1153, King Baldwin III conquered Ascalon, which was added to Amalric's territory.^[1]

Jaffa and Ascalon were then granted to close relatives of the monarch and passed in and out of direct royal control as its holders ascended the throne. Around 1250 it was given to a branch of the Ibelin family. With the capture of Jaffa by Baibars in 1268, the county became titular. It was bestowed anew upon John Perez Fabrice by James II of Cyprus and Jerusalem.

Lordship of Ramla

Lordship of Ibelin

(technically separate from the above, but held by the Ibelins)

Lordship of Mirabel

The County of Jaffa and Ascalon had a number of vassals of its own:

Hugh I

Albert of Namur

(1122–1134)

Hugh II

(1153–1163)

Amalric

Vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

John L. La Monte, Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100-1291. The Medieval Academy of America, 1932.

The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1174-1277. The Macmillan Press, 1973.

Jonathan Riley-Smith

A History of the Crusades, Vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187. Cambridge University Press, 1952.

Steven Runciman

Steven Tibble, Monarchy and Lordships in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099-1291. Clarendon Press, 1989.

County of Jaffa and Ascalon