Some of the most extraordinary cultural monuments of the Frankish Levant are the massive legal texts composed by the aristocracy of the thirteenth-century Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, most of them living in Cyprus. These works and their authors provide an unparalleled resource for aspects of political and legal life. But, as Rachel Podd explains, the political context of Cyprus is also critically important in evaluating these works.
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In 1187 the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and indeed the entire Frankish project in the Holy Land suffered a series of major disasters, including the defeat of the massed armies of the kingdom on July 4 and culminating in the conquest of Jerusalem on October 2. As Katrine Funding Højgaard explains, news of the disasters quickly spread to the West in letters desperately seeking help and western intervention. Commemoration of the events in writing did not end there, however, and a variety of chroniclers offered their own accounts of the great defeat. Among the many narratives is the somewhat mysterious, but greatly detailed chronicle known as the Lyon Eracles, whose account of the battle of Hattin and its consequences differs markedly from the one found in letters and other western accounts.
For much of the reign of King Amalric I (1163-1174) the kingdom of Jerusalem seemed not only secure, but in a position of unparalleled strength in the region. By the early years of the reign of his son Baldwin IV, however, the situation looked very different. Increasingly, the kingdom became the concern of western European powers, particularly the Angevin Empire of King Henry II and the rising power of Capetian France under King Louis VII. In this week's podcast, Robert Effinger considers the "International Status" of the kingdom in this period, looking closely at the question of Henry II's intentions. Did the English king really intend to come to the help of the Franks in the Levant? What were the implications of his failure to act?
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