Conclusion

Abstract

At one point in the research for this book I thought I was going to be able to rehabilitate the Palestinian feudatories and rescue them from the traditional view that they were quarrelsome and short-sighted. Now I am not so sure. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was able to hold out against the might of the Mamluks and the Mongols until 1291, longer than did most of the smaller Asiatic states, although there were reasons for this modest achievement that were beyond the control of the Latin settlers, above all the fact that the Mamluks and Mongols themselves were constantly at war with one another. But one cannot help feeling that the settlement could have been more permanent if it had been given strong government and if the Frankish lords had not themselves been so unmanageable. The donnish pedantry of their leaders, their refusal to compromise on some issues and their mantling of political actions in self-justificatory and sometimes spurious legal terminology must have infuriated those outside their circle who had to deal with them. It would be different if one could portray them as romantic idealists to whom principles were more important even than survival. But if they thought it necessary they seem to have been quite prepared to exploit their own laws or overturn them for political ends.