The city of Jerusalem fell to the Muslim general Saladin in 1187, but the Kingdom of Jerusalem retained its name and identity until the crusader state’s final destruction over a hundred years later. It existed from 1099 when Godfrey of Bouillon led the siege that wrested control of Jerusalem from the Fatimids until 1291 when Mamluk forces drove the crusaders out of their last remaining foothold in Acre. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem stood at the heart of all of these.
As the Christian armies of the Crusades conquered land in the eastern Mediterranean, they created states, semi-independent principalities, in order to protect and administer the territory they gained in war. On its face, The Assizes of Jerusalem is a collection of the laws that were established in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, that is, the Christian kingdom that the crusaders founded after they succeeded in capturing the Holy City. Godfrey of Bouillon holding a pollaxe, Manta Castle, Cuneo Itlay
