House of Ibelin

The Ibelins claimed to be descended from the Le Puiset viscounts of Chartres in France,[1] though Peter W. Edbury suggests this could have been a fabrication and that the family may have originated from Pisa in Italy.

[2] According to Jonathan Riley-Smith, however, they may have indeed been connected to Chartres, with the first known member and founder of the house, Barisan of Ibelin, having possibly been a younger brother of Hugh of Le Puiset, who was made Count of Jaffa in 1110; he would then have also been a cousin to the Montlhéry family of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem.

[4] Barisan was given the castle of Ibelin in 1141 by King Fulk as a reward for his loyalty during the revolt of his then master Hugh II of Le Puiset, Count of Jaffa, in 1134.

Along with Ibelin, the family then held Ramla (inherited from Helvis), and the youngest son Balian received the lordship of Nablus when he married Maria Comnena, the Dowager Queen.

Balian's first son John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut, was the leader of the opposition to Emperor Frederick II when the latter tried to impose imperial authority over the crusader states.

The family briefly regained control of the castle of Ibelin in 1241 in the aftermath of Frederick's Sixth Crusade, when certain territories were returned to the Christians by treaty.

Balian of Ibelin's second son Philip was regent of Cyprus while his niece, the widowed Queen Alice, needed help to govern.

They also had loftier ancestors: Maria Comnena was from the Byzantine imperial Comnenus dynasty, and was descended from the kings of Georgia, Bulgaria, ancient Armenia, Parthia, Persia and Syria.

When the Kingdom of Cyprus was destroyed in the 15th century, the Ibelins apparently also lost their lands and positions, and the family possibly became extinct — the sources, at least, no longer mention them.

Jean de Joinville in his account of the Sixth Crusade mentions the coat of arms of the Count of Jaffa, who at this time was John of Ibelin.