John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut

John of Ibelin called the Old Lord of Beirut
Vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Crusader state of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, created in 1099, was divided into a number of smaller seigneuries.-Introduction:According to the 13th century jurist John of Ibelin the four highest barons in the kingdom proper were:* the Count of Jaffa and Ascalon...

, was a powerful crusader noble in the 13th century, one of the best known representatives of the influential Ibelin

Ibelin

Ibelin was a castle in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century , which gave its name to an important family of nobles.-The castle:...

family. The son of Balian of Ibelin

Balian of Ibelin

Balian of Ibelin was an important noble in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century.-Early life:Balian was the youngest son of Barisan of Ibelin, and brother of Hugh and Baldwin. His father, a knight in the County of Jaffa, had been rewarded with the lordship of Ibelin after the...

and Maria Comnena, Queen consort of Jerusalem, he had close ties with the nobility of both Cyprus

Kingdom of Cyprus

The Kingdom of Cyprus was a Crusader kingdom on the island of Cyprus in the high and late Middle Ages, between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan.-History:...

and Jerusalem, since he was the half-brother of Queen Isabella of Jerusalem

Isabella of Jerusalem

Isabella I was Queen regnant of Jerusalem from 1190/1192 until her death. By her four marriages, she was successively Lady of Toron, Marchioness of Montferrat, Countess of Champagne and Queen of Cyprus....

. Before he was 20, he was appointed constable of Jerusalem

Officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

There were six major officers of the kingdom of Jerusalem: the constable, the marshal, the seneschal, the chamberlain , the butler and the chancellor...

, and a few years later became lord of Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, where he rebuilt the city after Saladin's conquest, and established the grand Ibelin family palace. He served as regent for two of his young relatives, Queen Isabella's daughter Maria of Montferrat

Maria of Montferrat

Maria of Montferrat was Queen of Jerusalem, the daughter of Conrad of Montferrat and Isabella, Queen of Jerusalem...

from 1205 to 1210, and then Henry I of Cyprus

Henry I of Cyprus

Henry I of Cyprus, nicknamed the Fat, aka Henry of Lusignan or Henri I le Gros de Lusignan was King of Cyprus from 1218 to 1253. He was the son of Hugh I of Cyprus and Alice of Champagne of Jerusalem. When his father Hugh I died on January 10, 1218, the 8-month-old Henry became king...

from 1228 until Henry came of age in 1232. John was known as a principled man, and was seen as the natural leader of the Christian barons in the Holy Land. He resisted the power-seeking of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...

in Cyprus, and opposed the imperial forces until Henry came of age.

Early years

He was the son of Balian

Balian of Ibelin

, Lord of Nablus

Nablus

Nablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...

and Ibelin

Ibelin

Ibelin was a castle in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century , which gave its name to an important family of nobles.-The castle:...

, and Maria Comnena, widow of Amalric I of Jerusalem

Amalric I of Jerusalem

Amalric I of Jerusalem was King of Jerusalem 1163–1174, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. Amalric was the second son of Melisende of Jerusalem and Fulk of Jerusalem...

. By 1198 he had become constable of Jerusalem

Officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

There were six major officers of the kingdom of Jerusalem: the constable, the marshal, the seneschal, the chamberlain , the butler and the chancellor...

; the fact that he was the half-brother of Isabella, Queen of Jerusalem

Isabella of Jerusalem

gave him considerable influence. At the time he was a vassal of Ralph of Tiberias

Ralph of Tiberias

Ralph of Tiberias was briefly Prince of Galilee and twice Seneschal of Jerusalem in the Crusader states in Palestine.He was exiled after an assassination attempt on Amalric II of Jerusalem...

, who was exiled from the kingdom after being accused of attempting to assassinate king Amalric II

Amalric II of Jerusalem

Amalric II of Jerusalem or Amalric I of Cyprus, born Amalric of Lusignan , King of Jerusalem 1197–1205, was an older brother of Guy of Lusignan....

. John attempted to mediate but Amalric would not back down.

Lord of Beirut

Sometime before 1205 John relinquished the office of constable in exchange for the lordship of Beirut

Beirut

, which became the home of the Ibelin family for the rest of the century. He rebuilt the city, which had been completely destroyed during Saladin

Saladin

Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...

's conquest of the Jerusalem kingdom

Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....

. He also constructed an opulent palace with art from both Muslim and Byzantine influences. A German ambassador in 1212, Wilbrand of Oldenburg, wrote an impressive account of the castle, describing fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

paintings, mosaics on the floors, and a marble fountain in the courtyard. Historian Peter Edbury described the ambassador's account as "A feature of the public rooms were the Trompe-l'oeil effects achieved with marble inlays, with a floor resembling the sea and a ceiling 'painted with such life-like colours that clouds pass across, the west wind blows, and there the sun seems to mark out the year and the months, the days and the weeks, the hours and the moments by its movement in the zodiac'. A marble fountain with a dragon as the centre-piece stood in the central hall, its jets cooling the air and the murmur of the water giving an altogether soothing effect." The castle was so well fortified, that in 1231–1232, it withstood a siege lasting several months.

Beirut was effectively an independent state under John's rule; in 1207 John added Arsuf

Arsuf

Arsuf also known as Arsur or Apollonia, was an ancient city and fortress located in Israel, about 15 kilometres north of modern Tel Aviv, on a cliff above the Mediterranean Sea. The city site, Tel Arsuf, was intensively excavated from 1994...

to his territory through his marriage to Melisende of Arsuf

Melisende of Arsuf

Melisende of Arsuf, Sovereign Dame of Arsuf, Lady of Beirut , was an heiress, and the second wife of the powerful Crusader noble John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut who led the opposition to Emperor Frederick II when he tried to impose Imperial authority in the kingdom of Jerusalem and the...

, making him one of the wealthiest nobles in the kingdom.

Regent

From 1205 to 1210 John served as regent

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

in Acre, the new capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, for Maria of Montferrat

Maria of Montferrat

Maria of Montferrat was Queen of Jerusalem, the daughter of Conrad of Montferrat and Isabella, Queen of Jerusalem...

, Queen Isabella's daughter. As regent, John helped arrange the marriage of Amalric II’s son Hugh I of Cyprus

Hugh I of Cyprus

Hugh I of Cyprus succeeded to the throne of Cyprus on April 1, 1205 underage upon the death of his elderly father Amalric of Lusignan, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem...

to Alice of Champagne, daughter of Amalric’s predecessor as King of Jerusalem, Henry II of Champagne

Henry II of Champagne

Henry II of Champagne was count of Champagne from 1181 to 1197, and King of Jerusalem from 1192 to 1197, although he never used the title of king.- Early Life and Family :...

. In 1210 he also helped arrange Maria of Montferrat’s marriage to John of Brienne

John of Brienne

John of Brienne was a French nobleman who became King of Jerusalem by marriage, and ruled the Latin Empire of Constantinople as regent.-Life:...

, who was suggested by king Philip II of France

Philip II of France

Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...

.

By 1217 John and his brother Philip of Ibelin had become involved in the politics of the Kingdom of Cyprus

Kingdom of Cyprus

The Kingdom of Cyprus was a Crusader kingdom on the island of Cyprus in the high and late Middle Ages, between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan.-History:...

as well. They had apparently alienated themselves from John of Brienne, but the two represented Cyprus at a council in Acre, which met to plan for the arrival of the Fifth Crusade

Fifth Crusade

The Fifth Crusade was an attempt to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt....

. When Hugh I died in 1218, Philip became regent for Hugh's son Henry I of Cyprus

Henry I of Cyprus

, Philip's nephew. When Philip died in 1228, John took over the same office. Although both Philip and John were closely related to Henry I, as his uncles, they were still opposed on Cyprus by supporters of the Lusignan

Lusignan

The Lusignan family originated in Poitou near Lusignan in western France in the early 10th century. By the end of the 11th century, they had risen to become the most prominent petty lords in the region from their castle at Lusignan...

family, of which Henry was also a member; another of his uncles, Guy of Lusignan

Guy of Lusignan

Guy of Lusignan was a Poitevin knight, son of Hugh VIII of the prominent Lusignan dynasty. He was king of the crusader state of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla of Jerusalem, and of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194...

, and father Amalric, were the first two kings of Cyprus.

Battle for Cyprus

In 1228, the power struggle was amplified when Holy Roman Emperor

Holy Roman Emperor

The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...

Frederick II

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

arrived in Cyprus on the Sixth Crusade

Sixth Crusade

The Sixth Crusade started in 1228 as an attempt to regain Jerusalem. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade. It involved very little actual fighting...

. Frederick was connected to the Jerusalem nobles by being married to Isabella II

Yolande of Jerusalem

Isabella II also known as Yolande of Brienne, was a princess of French origin who became monarch of Jerusalem.-Infant Queen:...

, John of Brienne’s daughter, and Frederick attempted to use this to take power. He claimed the kingship of Jerusalem and the overlordship of Cyprus, as well as John of Ibelin’s lordship of Beirut, which John naturally refused. When lured to a banquet and then confronted with Frederick's armed guards, John was forced to hand over the regency, and Cyprus, to Emperor Frederick's control. However, this was temporary, as John later resisted with military force. After Frederick departed from the island in April, John's forces defeated the remaining imperial bailiffs in a battle outside Nicosia

Nicosia

Nicosia from , known locally as Lefkosia , is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, as well as its main business center. Nicosia is the only divided capital in the world, with the southern and the northern portions divided by a Green Line...

on July 14, 1229, thus beginning the War of the Lombards

War of the Lombards

The War of the Lombards was a civil war in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus between the "Lombards" , the representatives of the Emperor Frederick II, largely from Lombardy, and the native aristocracy, led first by the Ibelins and then by the Montforts...

. Frederick sent an army in 1231, under the marshal of the Empire, which attempted to invade Cyprus. John was able to repel the invasion at the Battle of Agridi

Battle of Agridi

The Battle of Agridi was fought in 15 June 1232 between the forces loyal to Henry I of Cyprus and the imperial army of Frederick II, composed mostly of men from Lombardy...

, but the imperial fleet sailed to John's power center of Beirut, which they besieged and almost captured. The imperial marshal, Richard Filangieri

Richard Filangieri

Richard Filangieri was an Italian nobleman who played an important part in the Sixth Crusade in 1228–9 and in the War of the Lombards from 1229–43, where he was in charge of the forces of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, battling forces on the other side, local barons first led by...

, was able to establish himself in Jerusalem and Tyre, which he had regained by treaty in 1229, but not in Beirut or the capital in Acre.

In Acre, John's supporters formed a commune

Medieval commune

Medieval communes in the European Middle Ages had sworn allegiances of mutual defense among the citizens of a town or city. They took many forms, and varied widely in organization and makeup. Communes are first recorded in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, thereafter becoming a widespread...

, of which John himself was elected mayor when he arrived in 1232. The Commune of Acre was able to relieve the siege of Beirut, but in John’s absence from Cyprus, the supporters of the Lusignans took control. In any case, the boy Henry I of Cyprus

Henry I of Cyprus

came of age in the same year, and John’s regency was no longer necessary. When Henry I succeeded to the throne, both John and Riccardo immediately raced back to Cyprus, where the imperial forces were defeated in battle on June 15. Henry became undisputed king of Cyprus, and since he supported the Ibelins over the Lusignans, John's family remained influential.

Conflict continued, as Filangieri remained in control of Jerusalem and Tyre, and had the support of Bohemund IV of Antioch

Bohemund IV of Antioch

Bohemond IV of Antioch , also known as the One-Eyed , was ruler of the Principality of Antioch between 1201 and 1205, again between 1208 and 1216, and again from 1219 until his death...

, the Teutonic Knights

Teutonic Knights

The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...

, the Knights Hospitaller

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

, and the Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

n merchants. John, for his part, was supported by his nobles on Cyprus, and in his continental holdings in Beirut, Caesarea, and Arsuf

Arsuf

, as well as by the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

and the Genoese

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

merchant community. Neither side could make any headway, and in 1234 Pope Gregory IX

Pope Gregory IX

Pope Gregory IX, born Ugolino di Conti, was pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241.The successor of Pope Honorius III , he fully inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his uncle Pope Innocent III , and zealously continued their policy of Papal supremacy.-Early life:Ugolino was...

excommunicated John and his supporters. This was partly revoked in 1235, but still no peace could be made.

In the last year of his life, John of Ibelin, as did many other elderly barons, joined the order of the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

, so that he could die as a Templar. His family was opposed to this, but John insisted, and was honored with a grand funeral in Acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

in 1236.

Family

John was married twice. His first wife, in 1201/1202, was Helvis of Nephin. Little is known of the marriage except that the couple had five sons, all of whom died before Helvis died as well.

In 1207, John married Melisende, Lady of Arsuf, with whom he had five sons and a daughter:

Balian of Beirut
Balian of Beirut
Balian of Ibelin was the Lord of Beirut, the second of his family, from 1236, and a son of the famous "Old Lord" John of Ibelin, by his second wife Melisende of Arsuf. From his father he assumed the leadership of the nobility in the War of the Lombards, fought against the agents of the Emperor...

(d. 1247), who succeeded him as Lord of Beirut, and fathered John II of Beirut
John II of Beirut
John of Ibelin , often called John II, was the Lord of Beirut from 1254, named after his grandfather John I, the famous "Old Lord of Beirut"...
John of Arsuf
John of Arsuf
John of Ibelin was the Lord of Arsuf from 1236 and Constable of Jerusalem from 1251. He was a younger son of John I of Beirut. His elder brother, Balian, inherited Beirut. He served as regent of Jerusalem on two occasions: 1253-1254 for Conrad II and 1256-1258 for Conrad III...

(c. 1211-1258), lord of Arsuf and constable of Jerusalem, father of Balian of Arsuf
Balian of Arsuf
Balian of Ibelin was the Lord of Arsuf from 1258 until the early 1260s , when he sold it to the Knights Hospitaller. He was the son and successor of John of Arsuf, Constable of Jerusalem...

(1239-1277)
Hugh of Ibelin (died 1238)
Hugh of Ibelin (died 1238)
Hugh of Ibelin , called the Strong , was the third of five sons of John I of Beirut. He and his elder brother Balian were hostages at the court of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1228–1229. He led the first battaile at the Battle of Agridi in 1232 and thus withstood the brunt of the...
Baldwin of Ibelin (died 1266)
Guy of Ibelin, constable of Cyprus
Guy of Ibelin, constable of Cyprus
Guy of Ibelin was marshal and constable of the kingdom of Cyprus. He was the fifth son of John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut, and of Melisende of Arsuf...
Isabella, who became a nun

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