In short, upward mobility was very much possible in the crusade states. Intriguingly, we also know of isolated instances of native Christians rising to the knightly class through service to the Frankish elite.
Likewise, charters indicate that families that in one generation were designated as "sergeants" often produce knights in the next generation. In short, this was a feudal society based on rural land-holdings just as inĪnd where did these knights come from? We don't know very much beyond the fact that the names associated with the rural holdings reflect immigration from Western Europe especially France and Italy. Irrigation systems and roads - and that these rural holdings "owed" knights to the feudal lord. Jerusalem have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Franks hadĮxtensive rural settlements, constructed manor houses, villages, mills, ArchaeologicalĮvidence turned up by surveys conducted by the Hebrew University of That Prawer's assumptions were utterly incorrect. Recent research, notably that of Ronnie Ellenblum, has since proved Lords in the twelfth century, little more than salaried knights, In 1187-1188), “simple knights, already very much dependent on their Of Jerusalem (after the loss of the interior of the Kingdom to Saladin He concludes that in the “second” Kingdom The Italian and even native merchant-class, and were highly dependent on He also claims that they often intermarried with Were urban rather than rural ― and hardly distinguishable from theįrankish bourgeoisie. This premise, Prawer evolves the theory that the knights of Outremer
Wealthy fiefs, which they held directly from the crown. Men of sufficient worth, gained important and Yet when these men won theįavor of the king they were named to important offices (e.g. But the situation wasĬompounded in the Holy Land by the fact that so many of the early settlers cameįrom non-noble background and were at best knights. This is partly due to the period, family names were only just emerging andĬoming into use in the 12 th century. Names are very vague indeed ― such as “l’Aleman” to mean simply “the German.” To make things even more difficult, many place If they are referred to by first nameĪnd a place, it is as common for this to be the place of current residence
InĬharters and deeds, donors, recipients and witnesses are often listed by first namesĪnd descriptors (such as “the old”) only. Most prominent noble families, such as the Ibelins, are rarely fruitful. 129)Īttempts to trace the origins of even some of the
But in the early years of the crusader kingdoms, there was no land to share out and Joshua Prawer points out: “.the mass of milites was no more than a salaried army, composed of knights receiving salaries or assigned fixed revenues.” (p. For a baron, it might be enough land to support scores of knights. For a knight that had to be enough income to support himself, his squire, four horses and armor and weapons for all. In Western Europe, barons and knights held land, and drew from the land the income to support their military apparatus. Tenants of the barons) and “simple” knights as well. It depended on a class of barons (tenants-in-chief), and lesser vassals (the But feudalism, inĬontrast to the absolutism of the renaissance, depended on a much broader base Summit of the feudal pyramid as kings, counts and princes. Noblemen, and a handful of these leaders remained behind, forming the very To be sure, the leaders of the First Crusade had been French Yet there was a problem: feudalism depends on nobility and a knightly class - both of which were lacking in the newly conquered territories.
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