THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM 89
country in war, protect the interests of the Church and guard
the people.
It is, however, misleading to consider the king in the Holy
City as spending his time in the administration of the four
Latin principalities. He was rarely concerned in the affairs
of Antioch, Tripoli, or Edessa, and his work lay almost
entirely within the kingdom of Jerusalem. He was the
seigneur of Jerusalem, as the princes of Antioch and Tripoli
and the count of Edessa were the seigneurs of their own
territories. Jerusalem was divided into four great baronies—
Jaffa and Ascalon, Kerak and Montreal, Galilee, Ramleh and
Ibelin—and twelve lordships. The barons and lords held
their lands as feudatories of the seigneur and divided them
among lesser feudatories. All feudatories were required to
give military service in return for their land, and it was care-
fully laid down how many knights each property should con-
tribute to the seigneurial army. Knights were required not
only to fight in the seigneurial force, but to serve their
immediate lord in his own disputes. The knight must come
provided with horses and arms5 in Europe, he need serve his
superior only for forty days every year, but in the Latin
states of the East, where the pressure of Islam was almost
constant, he could be called upon to serve for a whole year
and in certain circumstances could be sent overseas. The
requirement of military service did not lapse until a knight
was sixty or over.
The knight who held land from one lord and was therefore
that lord's vassal could acquire other property by purchase or
bequest, and he then became the vassal of two or more lords.
Such a knight must give preference to the lord to whom he
had first sworn allegiance, even though properties acquired
afterwards were much more extensive and important. When
the knight swore loyalty as a vassal, his oath was usually
taken in such words as, " Sire, I am your man for such and
such a fief, and I undertake to guard and protect you from