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King of Jerusalem

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This is a list of Kings of Jerusalem, from 1099 to 1291, as well as claimants to the title up to the present day.

Kings of Jerusalem, 1099-1291

The Kingdom of Jerusalem had its origins in the First Crusade, when Godfrey of Bouillon took the title Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri in 1099 and was crowned in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The following year, his brother Baldwin I of Jerusalem was the first to use the title "king" and the first to be crowned in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem itself.

The kingship of Jerusalem was partially elected and partially hereditary. During the height of the kingdom in the mid-12th century there was a royal family and a relatively clear line of succession. Nevertheless the king was elected, or at least recognized, by the Haute Cour. In the Haute Cour the king was considered primus inter pares, and in his absence his duties were performed by his seneschal.

The royal palace was centred on the Citadel, centred on the Tower of David. The Kingdom of Jerusalem introduced French feudal structures to the Levant: the king personally held several fiefs incorporated into the royal domain (these varied from king to king). He was also responsible for leading the kingdom into battle, although this duty could be passed to the constable. While several contemporary European states were moving towards centralized monarchies, the king of Jerusalem was continually losing power to the strongest of his barons. This was partially due to the young age of many of the kings, and the frequency of regents from the ranks of the nobles.

After the fall of Jerusalem in 1187, the capital of the Kingdom was moved to Acre, where it remained until 1291, although coronations took place in Tyre. Even in this period the kingship was often simply a nominal position, held by a European ruler who never lived in Acre. For some of the last hundred years of the kingdom (since 1268), the kingship was held by the Lusignan family, simultaneously kings of Cyprus. However, as Charles I of Sicily had purchased the rights of one of the heirs of the kingdom in 1277, he captured Acre and only in 1285 his representative was ousted from there by forces of Hugh IV of Cyprus.

King/QueenReignedRegent
Godfrey of Bouillon (Protector of the Holy Sepulchre) 1099 - 1100
Baldwin I1100 - 1118
Baldwin II 1118 - 1131
Melisende and Fulk 1131 - 1153 Fulk lost influence after 1136, and died 1143. Melisende countinued to reign by right of law
Baldwin III1153 - 1162, was crowned as co-ruler and heir of Melisende 1143 Melisende (Regent and advisor, 1154-1161)
Amalric I 1162 - 1174
Baldwin IV 1174 - 1185 Raymond III of Tripoli (Regent, 1174-1177)
Baldwin V 1185 - 1186 Raymond III of Tripoli (Regent, 1185-1186)
Sibylla and Guy of Lusignan1186 - 1187
Jerusalem lost in 1187 - remaining kings ruled over a narrow coastal strip
Isabella1192 - 1205
With Conrad of Montferrat 1192
With Henry II of Champagne 1192 - 1197
With Amalric II 1198 - 1205)
Maria of Montferrat1205 - 1212 John of Ibelin (Regent, 1205 - 1210)
John of Brienne1210 - 1212
Yolande 1212 - 1228 John of Brienne (Regent 1212-1225)
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor 1225 - 1228
Conrad of Hohenstaufen 1228 - 1254 Frederick II (Regent, 1228 - 1243)
Queen Alice of Cyprus (Regent, 1243 - 1246)
King Henry I of Cyprus (Regent, 1246 - 1253)
Queen Plaisance of Cyprus (Regent, 1253 - 1254)
Conradin 1254 - 1268 Queen Plaisance of Cyprus (Regent, 1254 - 1261
Princess Isabella of Antioch (Regent, 1261 - 1264)
King Hugh III of Cyprus (Regent, 1264 - 1268)
Hugh I 1268 - 1284 (firstly challenged by claims of Hugh of Brienne and Mary of Antioch, then opposed by Charles of Anjou)
Charles of Anjou 1277 - 1285 (Opposed by Hugh I and John II)
John II 1284 - 1285 (Opposed by Charles of Anjou)
Henry II 1285 - 1291
Acre captured in 1291; kingdom ends.

Claimants to the throne of Jerusalem

After the end of the kingdom, Henry II continued to use the title "King of Jerusalem." After his death the title was claimed by both his direct heirs, the Kings of Cyprus, and in rivalry also by the Angevin Kings of Naples, whose founder, Charles of Anjou, had bought the rights to the throne from a childless supposed heiress, Maria of Antioch. The Angevin claim passed down through their heirs, the Dukes of Lorraine, into the modern day House of Habsburg wherefore the Emperors of Austria used the title.

The title was also claimed by the Aragonese Kings who conquered Naples itself in the 15th century. Currently, the title of King of Jerusalem is claimed by King Juan Carlos I of Spain as the successor to the royal family of Aragon.

The House of Savoy, as heirs of the royal family of Cyprus, have also made claims on the title at times.

None of these, however, have actually claimed a physical kingdom.

Cypriot claimants

Claims pass to the Royal House of Savoy, who all descend from Anne of Lusignan, daughter of king Janus and aunt of Charlotte


de jure this claim evolved through generations as follows:

      • ...

Queen Charlotte and her husband Louis the younger of Savoy, king-consort, were the recognized royal couple of Cyprus 1459-60 and were ousted 1460, but continued to claim the throne and acted as Pretenders. They were the recognized Royal couple of Jerusalem.

  • Charlotte of Cyprus (1442-1487) succeeded 1458 her father King John II of Cyprus as was Queen Regnant of Cyprus. 1459 she was married to her first cousin:
  • Louis of Savoy. They remained childless. When she died 16.7.1487, her heir general was Louis's eldest surviving nephew and Charlotte's first cousin's eldest surviving son, Duke Charles of Savoy. At that point, the claim joined the Duchy of Savoy, but they operated under two different rules of succession, and therefore their union should not have been perpetual.

All the members of House of Savoy mentioned here all descend from Anne of Lusignan (who had died 1462), daughter of king Janus of Cyprus and the aunt of queen-regnant Charlotte.

  • Charles of Savoy (1468-1490), was the second surviving son of Amadeo IX of Savoy and Yolande of France. He succeeded his elder brother as Duke of Savoy 1482 and reigned until his death in 1490. His nickname was "The Warrior". He used the title of King of Cyprus and Jerusalem. His wife was Blanche of Montferrat.
  • Charles of Savoy (1490-1496), Carlo Gian Amedeo di Savoia, succeeded his father in the ame year as he was born and died six years old. He was Duke of Savoy and titulary King of Cyprus and Jerusalem. His heir male and heir-general were not the same persons.
  • Yolande of Savoy (1487-1499), Princess Violante Ludovica di Savoia, did not succeed in Savoy because of her gender, but she was the heir-general of his brother and as such she is regarded to have succeeded him in claims to Cyprus and Jerusalem 1496-1499. In 1496 she, nine years old, was married to her father's first cousin, the sixteen-year-old Philibert of Savoy (1480-1504), whose elderly father Philip had succeeded her young brother as Duke of Savoy. The next year, Duke Philip died and her husband succeeded as Duke Philibert II of Savoy, at which time the young couple took officially the titles Queen and King of Cyprus and Jerusalem. She died 12 years old and without children. Although her husband continued to use the royal titles of Cyprus and Jerusalem, her heir however was her first cousin Charlotte, Princess of Naples, who was the only surviving child of the marriage of her aunt Anna of Savoy (1455-1480) with the then Federigo di Aragona, Prince of Naples, who had meanwhile became King Frederick IV of Naples (reigned 1496-1501).
  • Charlotte II, Charlotte of Naples, Carlota di Aragona (born 1479 or 1480, died 1506). At the death of her cousin, she was unmarried eldest daughter of the then King of Naples, who used also the title king of Jerusalem, and he had several other children including sons from his second marriage. They all were under attack of the French and the Spaniards, and her father was deposed two years later. However, meanwhile, Charlotte had married c 1500 Claude Guy, Count of Laval (who died 1531 and who married later second time, too). She had several children in her marriage. When she died, she probably had at least two daughters surviving. The youngest of these was Anne of Laval.
  • Anne of Laval (born 1506), married Lord de La Tremoille Prince of Talmond. They were accorded the title Prince of Tarent in right of her mother's family, and in France they were treated as Princes Etrangeres. They were French candidates for furthering claims to Naples.

In 1522, with the death of Anne of Beaujeu, Duchess of Bourbon, she succeeded her as heir-general to the line of Philip VI of France, i.e the Valois line of Capetians. (As such, it entails successions of Marie of Anjou, of Isabeau of Bavaria, of Jutta Bonne of Bohemia, of Joan the Lame of Burgundy, and of Marguerite of Naples-Hungary as well as of Beatrix of Provence.)

The succession went through generations of Lords La Tremoille.

In mid-1600's, the heir was:

  • Henry de La Tremoille, Prince of Talmond and Tarent, 2nd Duke of La Tremoille. He happened to succeed in Neapolitan-Brienne claims of his distant cousin John Casimir of Poland at the latter's death 1672. At that point, the succession of Brienne and of Cyprus ton the de jure crown of Jerusalem united.

The succession went through generations of La Tremoille. They went extinct in 1930's in male line, and the eldest sister of the last Duke of La Tremoille, married with Prince de Ligne, succeeded. Her children began to use the additional name La Tremoille.

Neapolitan claimants

Mary of Antioch was a Pretender to the throne of Jerusalem in 1269-77. She died in Castello de Canosa, Apulia after 10.12.1307. She was the daughter of Prince Bohemond IV of Antioch and Tripoli (d 1233) and his second wife Melisend of Cyprus (who died after 1249). Melisend was the youngest daughter of King Amaury I of Cyprus and his third wife Queen Isabella of Jerusalem. Since Mary was, at the time of the death of Conradin, the only living grandchild of Queen Isabella, she claimed the throne on basis of proximity in blood to the Kings of Jerusalem. In feudal successions, proximity (a form of seniority) was a strong claim: for example Philip V of France later became king by its force, John II of France inherited Duchy of Burgundy on that basis, and Robert Bruce of Annandale claimed the crown of Scotland using that argument (and his grandson and namesake managed to wrest Scotland to himself, later). She sold her rights, by papal blessing and confirmation, to Angevins, whose succession:

Austrian Habsburg claim

Spanish Bourbon claim


Brienne claim

  • Hugh Count of Brienne claimed the regency of Jerusalem (and, indirectly, a place in the succession) in 1264 as senior heir of Hugh I of Cyprus and Alice of Jerusalem, being the son of their eldest daughter, but was passed over by the Haute Cour in favor of his cousin Hugh III of Cyprus. This claim fell to his son Walter V of Brienne and his descendants. They are the heirs-general of Queen Isabella of Jerusalem, and thus of the line founded by King Baldwin II.
  • Hugh of Brienne (born c 1240 d 1296), Count of Lecce etc, was an ally of Charles I of Anjou in Sicily and Naples and in the pursuits of Constantinople and Holy Land. His first wife was Isabella of La Roche, heiress of Thebes, and his second Helena Komnena Dukaina of Epirus-Neopatras, heiress of Lamia and Larisa. He acted as Captain-General of Brindisi, Otranto and Apulia.
  • Gauthier of Brienne (killed in war near Thebes 1311), Duke of Athens, Count of Lecce etc. His life was largely spent in Greece, where he tried to win back his mother's inheritance, the Duchy of Athens. His wife was Joan of Chatillon (died 1354), daughter of count of Porcien.
  • Gauthier of Brienne (II) (killed in the battle of Poitiers 1356), sometime Lord of Florence, Marshal of France. Count of Lecce, Conversano etc. He was ally of Anjous of Naples, and participated their policies in Italy. He had only children who died young, both with his first wife Margherita of Anjou-Tarent and the second, his distant kinswoman Jeanne de Brienne. Although he tried to have own issue, it was rather evident that his sister's issue will succeed in family possessions and claims.
  • Isabella of Brienne, who survived his brother, died 1360. Her husband Gauthier d'Enghien had died already in 1345. For a few years, she became Countess of Lecce and Brienne etc, as well as titular Duchess of Athens and of other clamed titles. Since her eldest son Gauthier had died before the uncle, her heir was her second son Sohier of Enghien. She allowed her lands to be divided between her numerous children already during her own lifetime.
  • Sohier of Enghien, Duke of Athens etc
  • Gauthier of Enghien, Duke of Athens etc, died childless, and his heir was his hirst cousin Peter, the only son of his grandmother's third son John of Enghien Lord of Castro who had died 1380.
  • Peter of Enghien, Count of Lecce etc. Died childless, leaving his sister and her husband Raymond Orsini to succeed.
  • Mary of Enghien, Countess of Lecce. Married firstly Raimondello Orsini di Nola, who became Prince of Tarent in her hereditary rights. Secondly, she was forced to marry King Ladislas of Naples 1406, who had 1399 driven his rival Louis II of Anjou from Naples. He used the titles King of Sicily and Jerusalem.
  • John Anthony of Tarent (Gianantonio Orsini), son of the first marriage of Queen Maria di Enghieno. Died childless.
  • Catherine of Tarent, sister and heir.
  • Tristan of Clermont, Prince of Tarent, Count of Capertino, of the family of de Clermont-Lodeve. In Italian: Tristano di Chiaramonte.
  • Isabella of Tarent (died 1465), daughter of Tristan and (grand)daughter of Catherine. She was the heiress of a remarkable feudal possession in Southern Italy, and was married 1444 to Ferrante de Aragona, bastard son of King Alfonso V of Aragon, who had conquered Southern Italy from its Anjou kings in 1430's and 1440's. Her husband became, by the testament of king Alfonso, King in his conquered territories (and Isabella became queen consort) 1458, and as such used the title King of Naples and Jerusalem (Ferdinand I of Naples). Isabella's widower King Ferrante (born 1423, died 25.1.1494) married 1476 secondly Infanta Juana of Aragon, his own first cousin.
  • Alfonso II of Naples (1448-1495), eldest son of Isabella and Ferrante. Used the title King of Naples and Jerusalem when reigned 1494-95. His wife was Hippolyte Mary Sforza of Milan.
  • Ferrante II of Naples (1469-1496), King of Naples and Jerusalem when reigned 1495-96. He was childless. His wife was his own aunt Joanna of Naples (1478-1518), the only child of the second marriage of his grandfather. When Ferrante died, in midst of French invasion, his successor in the Kingdom of Naples was his uncle (his grandfather's and Isabella di Chiaramonte's second son) don Federigo de Aragona who became king Frederick IV of Naples and was soon dethroned and imprisoned, but his heir-general was his sister Isabella, Dowager Duchess of Milan.
  • Isabella of Naples (1470-1524), Duchess Consort of Milan 1489-94, Duchess of Bari 1499-1524. Her husband John Galeazzo II of Milan (Gian Galeazzo Sforza) had died already 1494. Her son Francis of Milan (Francesco Sforza "il Duchetto", 1491-1512), (titular) Duke of Milan 1494-1512, Count of Pavia 1491-99, Abbot of Marmoutier 1505, died in Angouleme, France 1512, as a French hostage, during the lifetime of his mother, and therefore did not succeed her. However, as the male representative, he can be seen as having been the holder of the titles during his mother's lifetime. When she died, only Bona, her youngest daughter, survived her of all her children.
  • Bona Sforza, Princess Bona of Milan (1495-1558), married 1518 (as his second wife) King Sigismund I of Poland (1467-1548), Sovereign of Poland and Lithuania and all their dominions. When her mother died 1524, she, the Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania, succeeded also as Duchess of Bari and Princess of Rossano. It is not altogether clear whether she used also the title Queen of Jerusalem.
  • Sigismund August of Poland (1520-1572), Elected Successor of Poland 1529-, Grand Prince of Lithuania 1544-, King of Poland 1548-1572. His first wife was Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, his second Princess Barbara Radziwill, and third Archduchess Catherine of Austria. However, he left no legitimate children.
  • Sofia of Poland (1522-1575) was Dowager Duchess of Brunswick when her brother died. Her husband duke Henry II, whose second wife she was, had died 1568. She was childless and succeeded by her sisters and the issue of youngest of them.
  • Anna of Poland (1523-1596), was a spinster when her sister died. 1576 she married Stephen Bathory (1533-1586), then Reigning Prince of Transilvania, who was 1576 elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. She died childless. Her successor was her youngest sister's (Catherine of Poland, Queen of Sweden) only son, Sigismund Vasa.
  • Sigismund III of Poland (1566-1632), was elected King of Poland and reigned 1587-1632. By paternal inheritance, he succeeded 1592 as King of Sweden and was regarded as having abdicated 1599 and finally deposed 1604. It is not altogether whether he, King of Poland, Lithuania and Sweden, also used the title King of Jerusalem. His first wife was Archduchess Anna of Austria and his second Archduchess Constance of Austria.
  • Vladislav IV of Poland (1595-1648), Wladyslaw Zygmunt Vasza-Jagellon, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania 1632-48. His first wife was Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria and second Princess Mary Louise of Mantua (Maria Ludovica Gonzaga). He died without surviving children.
  • John Casimir of Poland (1609-1672), his only surviving brother, was a Cardinal of Roman Church when succeeded. He was elected King of Poland 1648 and abdicated 1668, and in midst of warring and Swedish invasion to Poland took the title King of Sweden 1660 (-1672). After abdication, he lived as Abbot of St.Martin in Nevers, France, where he died. He married his brother's widow Mary Louise of Mantua who died 1667 - losing her support was one of the reasons he abdicated. He did not have surviving children. All his brothers and sisters having died, without surviving issue, before him, he was the last of the line of Bona Sforza. With him, all the legitimate issue of Alfonso II of Naples died out. His heir in Ferrante I of Naples and in Brienne succession was his distant cousin, Henry 2nd Duke of La Tremoille Prince of Talmond and Tarent, the heir-general of Federigo di Aragona (second son of Ferrante I and Isabella of Tarent), who also was the heir-general of Federigo's first wife Anne of Savoy.
  • Henry de La Tremoille, 2nd Duke of La Tremoille, Prince of Talmond and Tarent, the heir-general of Federigo di Aragona (second son of Ferrante I and Isabella of Tarent), who also was the heir-general of Federigo's first wife Anne of Savoy, the de jure heiress of the claim of the Kings Of Cyprus to the Throne of Jerusalem. At that point in 1672, the succession of Brienne and of Cyprus to the crown of Jerusalem united. At this succession, the decision of 1264 by the Haute Cour of Jerusalem to prefer the junior heir, Hugh of Antioch of Cyprus, over the senior heir, Hugh of Brienne, in regard to Regency of Jerusalem, was made insignificant, as these two claims merged in one person and one line.

Of course, at this time, there were several other monarchs using the title King of Jerusalem, such as Charles II of Spain and Louis XIV of France and the Duke of Lorraine and the Duke of Savoy.

The succession went through generations of La Tremoille. They went extinct in 1930's in male line, and the eldest sister of the last Duke of La Tremoille, married with Prince de Ligne, succeeded. Her children began to use the additional name La Tremoille. They are the today heirs-general of the Brienne line and the Cyprus line.

Potential Maltese claim

Other Claims

See also

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