Officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

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There were six major officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: constable, marshal, seneschal, chamberlain, butler, and chancellor. The first four of these made up the Grand Offices. At certain times there were also bailiffs, viscounts, and castellans. Essentially these offices developed from the typical officials that existed in northern France in the 11th century, the homeland of the first kings of Jerusalem. The offices continued to develop in France and England, but in Jerusalem they tended to develop more slowly or not at all, taking on different roles than their European counterparts.

The lists given below are incomplete, as the specific names and dates of the officers are sometimes unknown. After the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the offices were sometimes awarded as honors by the Kings of Cyprus and Jerusalem.

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The constable commanded the army, paid mercenaries and judged legal cases pertaining to the military. He was the most important officer in the kingdom, due to the almost constant state of warfare that existed between the Christian and Muslim states.

The marshal was second-in-command (and, apparently, a literal vassal) to the constable. He led the mercenaries and was in charge of the army's horses, and distributed the spoils of a victorious battle. The office had little importance.

The office of seneschal was less important in Jerusalem than it was in Europe. The seneschal administered the coronation ceremony, and oversaw the Haute Cour in the king's absence. He was in charge of royal castles, and managed the royal finances (the secrète). He also collected royal revenue. The office was similar to, but not as developed as, the English office of the exchequer.

The chamberlain administered the royal household and its servants, and had other honorary duties such as administering oaths. He had his own fief from which he drew his salary.

The butler had unknown duties, and may not have even survived the move from Jerusalem to Acre.

The chancellery is an interesting example of the fossilization of 11th century offices. It consisted of only a few secretaries and scribes, and never became the large administrative bureaucracy that had developed elsewhere in Europe. Chancellors tended to be clergymen who often became bishops or archbishops, sometimes while still holding the chancellery. The relative unimportance of the chancellor reflects the relative decentralization of royal authority as compared to states like France or England that were at the same time becoming more centralized.

The bailiff (or bailli) administered the kingdom in the absence or minority of the king, in the capacity of a regent; for example, during the captivity of Baldwin II, and the youth and illness of Baldwin IV. In the 13th century the bailiff ruled essentially as a king himself, and was the most powerful man in the kingdom, as the kings were usually foreign monarchs who did not live permanently in the kingdom.

These two offices were sometimes held by one person and sometimes held by two separate people; sometimes one or the other was not held at all. They were named by the king and occupied the Tower of David, but their specific duties are mostly unknown and were probably not particularly important; one of the duties of the viscount was apprehending criminals and administering justice in the lower-class burgess court. Like the office of butler, these offices may not have survived the move to Acre.

  • Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, Les Familles d'Outremer, ed. M.E-G. Rey, Paris, 1869.
  • John L. La Monte, Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100-1291. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932.
  • Hans E. Mayer, The Crusades. Oxford University Press, 1965 (trans. 1972).
  • Joshua Prawer, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Winfield and Nicholson, 1972.
  • Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Feudal Nobility in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1174-1277, Archon Books, London,1973.
  • Steven Tibble, Monarchy and Lordship in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099-1291, Clarendon Press, 1989.
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