War of the Lombards

The War of the Lombards (1228–1243) was a civil war in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus between the "Lombards" (also called the imperialists), the representatives of the Emperor Frederick II, largely from Lombardy, and the Eastern aristocracy led first by the Ibelins and then by the Montforts. The war was provoked by Frederick's attempt to control the regency for his young son, Conrad II of Jerusalem. Frederick and Conrad represented the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

Origins
Frederick had been King of Jerusalem&mdash;and as such claimed suzerainty over Cyprus&mdash;in right of his wife Isabella II until her death in 1228. That year he arrived first in Cyprus, where he antagonised the nobles, and then in Jerusalem, where he stayed until 1229, leaving in humiliating circumstances after having produced an anti-imperial reaction in the people. In 1231 he sent Riccardo Filangieri as his marshal. His attempt to assert his authority was opposed by John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut, who had been regent until Frederick's arrival. On John's death in 1236 the war was taken up by his son Balian. In 1239 Philip of Montfort assumed the leadership of the opposition.

Though the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Knights Templar supported the nobility, the Teutonic Knights and Knights Hospitaller supported Filangieri. In general his rights as regent were recognised but his practical power was denied on the basis of the Assizes and the High Court. His headquarters were in Tyre and he had the allegiance of Bohemond V, who was the prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli. He also held the Holy City of Jerusalem itself, which had been negotiated away from the Saracens by Frederick. So long as the Ibelins controlled the opposition, Filangieri could count on the support of their enemies as well. The Italian cities were also divided between the two factions: Pisa supported Filangieri and Genoa the Ibelins. The Ibelins controlled Beirut, Arsuf, and Caesarea as well as the old capital of Acre. In 1231 the citizens of Acre formed a commune with their headquarters at the church of Saint Andrew's in order to unify their opposition to Filangieri. In 1232 John of Ibelin was elected its mayor.

Course
The first major battle of the war took place at Casal Imbert in May 1232. Filangieri defeated the Ibelins. In June, however, he was so soundly defeated by an inferior force at the Battle of Agridi in Cyprus that his support on the island dwindled to zero within a year.

In 1241 the barons offered the bailliage of Acre to Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, a cousin of Philip of Montfort, and a relative through marriage to both the Hohenstaufen and the Plantagenets. He never assumed it. In 1242 or 1243 Conrad declared his own majority and on 5 June the absentee monarch's regency was granted by the High Court to Alice, widow of Hugh I of Cyprus and daughter of Isabella I of Jerusalem. Alice promptly began ruling as if queen, ignoring Conrad, who was in Italy, and ordering Filangieri arrested. After a long siege, Tyre fell on 12 June. The Ibelins seized its citadel on 7 or 10 July, with the help of Alice, whose forces arrived on 15 June. Only the Ibelins could claim to be the winners of the war.