Outremer, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 (outre-mer) for "overseas", was a general name given to the Crusader states

Crusader states

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 , and during the Northern Crusades in the eastern Baltic area...

 established after the First Crusade

First Crusade

The First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...

: the County of Edessa

County of Edessa

The County of Edessa was one of the Crusader states in the 12th century, based around Edessa, a city with an ancient history and an early tradition of Christianity....

, the Principality of Antioch

Principality of Antioch

The Principality of Antioch, including parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria, was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade.-Foundation:...

, the County of Tripoli

County of Tripoli

The County of Tripoli was the last Crusader state founded in the Levant, located in what today are parts of western Syria and northern Lebanon, where exists the modern city of Tripoli. The Crusader state was captured and created by Christian forces in 1109, originally held by Bertrand of Toulouse...

 and especially the Kingdom of Jerusalem

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....

. The name was often equated to the Levant

Levant

The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

 of Renaissance.

The term was, in general, used to refer to any land "overseas"; for example, Louis IV of France

Louis IV of France

Louis IV , called d'Outremer or Transmarinus , reigned as King of Western Francia from 936 to 954...

 was called "Louis d'Outremer" as he was raised in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Present-day use

The modern term outre-mer, spelled with a hyphen and equally meaning "overseas", is notably used for the overseas departments and territories of France

Overseas departments and territories of France

The French Overseas Departments and Territories consist broadly of French-administered territories outside of the European continent. These territories have varying legal status and different levels of autonomy, although all have representation in the Parliament of France , and consequently the...

 (In French: Départements d'outre-mer – Territoires d'outre-mer or DOM – TOM, collectively Pays et territoires d'outre-mer (PTOM)).

Cultural impact

The author Chaz Brenchley

Chaz Brenchley

Chaz Brenchley is a British writer of novels and short stories, associated with the genres of horror, crime and fantasy....

 set his series The Books of Outremer in an alternate universe

Parallel universe (fiction)

A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

 version of this region.

A kingdom of French refugees bears the name of France-Outre-Mer in S. M. Stirling

S. M. Stirling

Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.-Personal:Stirling was born on...

's book The Peshawar Lancers

The Peshawar Lancers

The Peshawar Lancers is an alternate history, steampunk, post-apocalyptic fiction adventure novel by S. M. Stirling, with its point of divergence occurring in 1878 when the Earth is struck by a devastating meteor shower...

.

Judith Tarr

Judith Tarr

Judith Tarr is an American author, best known for her fantasy books. She received her B.A. in Latin and English from Mount Holyoke College in 1976, and has an M.A. in Classics from Cambridge University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University...

's Alamut series of books

Alamut series

The Alamut series consists of the two fantasy books Alamut and The Dagger and the Cross by Judith Tarr...

 are set in Outremer, mostly in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the city of Acre

Acre, Israel

Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....

.

Literature

• David Nicolle
  David Nicolle
  David C. Nicolle is a British historian specialising in the military history of the Middle Ages, with a particular in the Middle East....
  
  : Knight of Outremer 1187-1344 AD, Warrior No. 18. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2003. ISBN 1-85532-555-1.