Haute Cour of Jerusalem

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The Haute Cour (German High Court , High Court ; English High Court ) was the feudal council of the Kingdom of Jerusalem ; it was sometimes also called curia generalis , curia regis and, more rarely, parliament .

Composition of the Council

The Haute Cour developed gradually in the 12th century, after the First Crusade , like the kingdom itself. All vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem had the right to participate and vote, but in fact only the wealthier nobles used it. Some attended regularly, seeking to serve as presiding judges if necessary. This led to a gradation in higher (the direct vassals of the king) and lower nobility (the indirect vassals of the king) with different privileges depending on the status. Anyone who had perjured or broken an oath forfeited their right to speak and vote. Four votes, the king and three vassals, were sufficient for a quorum.

The Haute Cour could meet anywhere, as needed, not just in Jerusalem . After about 1120 it also included bishops and newly arrived crusaders were accepted, the first time on June 24, 1148 during the Second Crusade , when the fatal decision was made to attack Damascus . Later the masters of the knightly orders were also accepted. There was also a smaller group of royal advisers during the 12th century, but their participation went out of use towards the end of the century.

Haute Cour obligations

The council levied taxes on the residents of the kingdom and voted on military expeditions. A formal vote for war would have mobilized all of the kingdom's vassals. The Haute Cour was the only court of justice for the nobility of the empire and was appealed to in cases of murder , robbery , assault, guardianship , debts , slave issues , buying and selling of fiefs and horses, failure to serve, inheritances and treason . The punitive measures included loss of property and banishment , and in extreme cases death . It was possible to escape punishment by challenging all judges to a duel and beating - which was impractical and never happened. The council also had the right to mint .

The most important task, however, was the choice of the king or his regent, as well as finding a decision in the case of several pretenders. Each new government began with a council to formally recognize the new king and take the oath of allegiance . The Haute Cour advised the king and developed its own proposals, and could in practice be in disagreement with the king and overrule his wishes. In essence, the king was only a primus inter pares (first among equals) on the council, although he was recognized as its head (in his absence the seneschal presided over).

Factions

In general there were two factions in the council, a so-called court party , which consisted of the royal family, the Latin Patriarch and their supporters, and the noble party , consisting of the higher nobility and the knightly orders. Clashes between the two factions were frequent. At the time of Melisende's reign there was a major dispute for her son Baldwin III. when Melisende refused to give up the reign after her son had grown up: Baldwin received the support of the nobility and was recognized as king. A second dispute arose during the reign of Raymond III. of Tripoli for Baldwin V , when the newcomer Guido von Lusignan was preferred by the court party to more experienced nobles - a decision that intensified the conflict with the Muslims and led to the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 .

The Assise sur la ligece

Probably the most important law passed by the Haute Cour was Amalrich's I "Law on Fief Loyalty" - Assise sur la ligece . The law forbade the illegal seizure of fiefs and required all of the king's vassals to unite against anyone who did - the perpetrator was expropriated or exiled. The law also made all nobles direct vassals of the king and eliminated the previous distinction between higher and lower nobility. This distinction still existed in reality, and although the lower nobility now had equal voting rights in the council, the high nobility refused to be judged by those who did not correspond to their rank. Conversely, the high nobility was still able to judge the less powerful lords themselves. After the Assise , there were around 600 men who were eligible to vote in the Haute Cour .

The Haute Cour in the 13th century

There was also a Cour des Bourgeois in the kingdom, but in the 12th century the two councils did not appear to have met together. This changed in the 13th century when the capital of the kingdom was moved to Akko and the leaders of the trading colonies in the coastal cities were also included, albeit without voting rights. At this time the central power was so weakened that the more powerful nobles often had their own councils.

Emperor Friedrich II resisted the authority of the council when he was in Akko during the Fifth Crusade : the council was temporarily dissolved from 1232 to 1244 . In his place came the Akko Commune , which suggests that the Assise was against him, even though his army was far stronger than the remnants that the kingdom could muster. The commune, unlike the council, also included the citizens. In the meantime, the Haute Cour of the Kingdom of Cyprus had essentially adopted the same structures.

meaning

Most of our knowledge of the Council is from Johann von Ibelin's description, which he wrote in the 1260s . His description is an idealized explanation of the laws and procedures, based on the idea that Godfrey of Bouillon created him personally and that he has remained unchanged since then (in the 13th century, Gottfried was already a legendary figure). However, this was not the case, although the Council developed much more slowly than comparable councils in Europe. Unlike in France or England , the kingdom did not form a centralized government - in fact, it developed in the opposite direction, the king losing more and more power to the barons. The council preserved the feudalism of the north of France in 1100 and - since the country was constantly at war, was not big enough, so few Europeans lived in it, and the survival of rule in Jerusalem did not last a hundred years - had no way of becoming one develop parliamentary system.

Johann von Ibelin's description is useful, but it was taken too literally by later historians. In the 19th century , the Haute Cour was thought to be the purest representation of feudalism throughout the Middle Ages , which is now believed to be too simple a view. The Haute Cour was in some ways a typical feudal council, but it was adapted to the specific circumstances of the Crusades and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

literature

  • Peter W. Edbury: John of Ibelin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Boydell press, Rochester NY 1997, ISBN 0-85115-703-3 .
  • Johann L. La Monte: Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 1100 to 1291 (= The Mediaeval Academy of America. Publication. 11, ISSN  0076-583X = Monographs of the Mediaeval Academy of America. 4). The Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge MA 1932.
  • Joshua Prawer: The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. European Colonialism in the Middle Ages. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1972, ISBN 0-297-99397-6 .