The Latin Settlement in the East, 1187–1310

Abstract

In the summer of 1187 the struggle for power within Jerusalem had brought the kingdom almost to civil war. It was the wrong time to indulge in disputes about the crown, for Saladin’s conquest of Aleppo in 1183 had completed the encirclement of the Latin states by territories subject to his control. He had strengthened and reorganised his empire. He had tried to draw off potential allies of the Franks by entering into trading agreements with the Italian merchants in Egypt and by encouraging the Byzantine Empire to seek a treaty with him. By the end of 1186 he was ready to destroy the Latins; but he was still bound by the terms of a truce made with them in 1185, which had allowed him to impose his suzerainty over Mosul undisturbed.