Royal Familiares in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100-1187

"Royal Familiares in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100-1187." This article identifies and describes royal familiares in the twelfth-century Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Constitutional history in the Latin Kingdom was dominated by the Haute Cour. The court met to advise the king on important matters, including legislation, administration and justice. Magnates and royal familiares who attended the court were more influential than holders of the smaller fiefs. C. Warren Hollister pioneered the use of royal acta as an investigative tool when he identified Anglo-Norman familiares for the period 1066-1135. Far fewer royal charters survive from the Latin Kingdom than from Anglo-Norman England. Therefore, royal acta are supported here with evidence from twelfth-century chronicles of the kingdom. Charts showing attestation rates, combined with descriptions of the curiales and their holdings, illuminate the history of the monarchy in Outremer. The charts show a gradual shift from a preponderance of minor nobles, clerics and demense tenants as favorites, to a dominating group of tenants-in-chief. The process by which the native nobility undermined an originally strong monarchy is clarified.