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New Configurations (1050-1150) - Rulers with Clout - The Crusader States

6 important questions on New Configurations (1050-1150) - Rulers with Clout - The Crusader States

What four tiny states were set up in the Holy Land? How long did they last?

In the Holy Land, the leaders of the crusade set up four tiny states, European colonies in the Levant. Two (Tripoli and Edessa) were counties, Antioch was a principality, Jerusalem a kingdom.
These (except for Edessa) lasted - tenuously - until the late thirteenth century (the last holdout fell in 1291).

What was the ethnicity of the region?

The whole region was multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and habituated to rule by a military elite, and the Crusader States (apart from the religion of its elite) were no exception.
Yet, however much they engaged with their neighbors, the Europeans in the Levant saw themselves as a world apart, holding on to their Western identity through their political institutions and the old vocabulary of homage, fealty, and Christianity.

What did Enlightened lordship dictate?

Enlightened lordship dictated that the mixed population of the states - Muslims, to be sure, but also Jews, Greek Orthodox Christians, Monophysite Christians, and others - be tolerated for the sake of production and trade.

What were the main concerns of the Crusader States' rulers?

The main concerns of the Crusader States' rulers were military.
Knights had to be recruited from Europe from time to time, and two new and militant forms of monasticism developed in the Levant: the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers.

What did the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers vow to?

Both were vowed to poverty and chastity, yet devoted themselves to war at the same time. They defended the town garrisons of the Crusader States and ferried money from Europe to the Holy Land.

How did the Second Crusade end?

The Second Crusade (1147-1149), called in the wake of Zangi's victory, came to a disastrous end. After only four days of besieging the walls of Damascus, the crusaders, whose leaders could not keep the peace among themselves, gave up and went home.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

A Short History of the Middle Ages, Sixth Edition | 9781487541019 | Barbara H Rosenwein

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