Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Crusader state established after the capture of Jerusalem on 15 July 1099 during the First Crusade, ruled first from Jerusalem itself from 1099 to 1187 and, after a second period beginning in 1192, from Acre until 1291. Godfrey of Bouillon became its first ruler in 1099, and the kingdom was governed as a feudal monarchy through the Haute Cour, or High Court, of its nobility. At its height in the mid-twelfth century the kingdom's territory roughly corresponded to modern-day Israel, Palestine and the southern half of Lebanon including Beirut, extending east into parts of modern Jordan and Syria and south toward Egypt and the Sinai. The kingdom was almost entirely overrun in 1187 by the Ayyubid Sultanate under Saladin following the siege of Jerusalem, and although a smaller kingdom was restored around Acre in 1192 under successive rulers down to Henry II of Cyprus, it was finally extinguished with the fall and destruction of Acre on 18 May 1291.