Life in the Kingdom
The new generation, born and raised in Levante, considered the Holy Land their home country and negatively related to re-visiting Crusaders. Also, they were often similar to the Syrians, and not on the franc. Many knew Greek, Arabic and other oriental languages, married to the Greek or Armenian.
As he wrote Fulhery Shartrsky: "We, Westerners, have been residents of the East, the one who was Roman or franc, has become here in the Galilean or inhabitant of Palestine, those who lived in Rheims or Chartres, he considers himself a citizen or Antioch Tire".
The device is largely based on the feudal orders of the then Western Europe, but with many important differences. Kingdom has a small area of land suitable for agriculture, it was a little bit. Since ancient times the region's economy, all concentrated in cities, in contrast to medieval Europe. Feudal lords, owning land, however, preferred to live in Jerusalem and other cities.
As in Europe, the barons were vassals, while being the vassals of King. Agriculture based on the Muslim version of the feudal system - iqta (system plots), this order was not changed. While the Muslims (and Jews and Eastern Christians) are prosecuted in some cities and did not have the right to live in Jerusalem, in the rural areas they lived as before. "Rais", community leader, was a kind of vassal of Baron, owned land and, as barons lived in urban communities have a high degree of autonomy. They deliver food to troops kingdom, but did not incur a military service, unlike in Europe, similar to Italians and did not incur any obligations, despite living in port cities. As a result, the army was a small kingdom, and consisted of francs - of urban dwellers.
The dominance of cities and the presence of Italian merchants led to the development of the economy, which was more commercial than agricultural. Palestine has always been the intersection of trade routes, now trade and spread to Europe. European goods such as textiles from Northern Europe have appeared in the Middle East and Asia, while Asian goods transported back to Europe. The Italian city-states were receiving huge profits, which affected their heyday in the next century.
As the nobles more seniors to live in Jerusalem than in the province, they have much more influence on the king than it was in Europe. Noble barons were the Supreme Council, one of the earliest forms of Parliament in Western Europe. The Council was composed of bishops and influential barons, was responsible for the election of the king, the king of money, the mobilization of armies.
Lack of troops to a large extent offset by the creation of spiritual knights' orders. Order tamplierov and gospitalerov were created in the early years of the kingdom, and often replaced barons in the province. Their leaders were in Jerusalem, lived in huge castles, and often bought land barons who could not defend. Orders are directly under papal control, but not royal, and they were largely self-sufficient and did not have to bear the military service, but, in fact, participated in all the major battles.
Important sources of information on the life of the kingdom are the works of William Tire and Muslim writer Osama Bin Munkyza.