It was vassal to and part of the County of Jaffa and Ascalon.
During the First Crusade, Ramla was abandoned by its Muslim inhabitants, as it lacked the defenses necessary to withstand a siege.
This would change, however, sometime between 1115 and 1120, when a certain Baldwin is noted as having a "lordlike position"[2] in Ramla, suggesting the city had passed into secular control.
[2] In 1126, Ramla became part of the County of Jaffa, and a separate lordship was created after the revolt of Count Hugh II in 1134, with Baldwin II as lord (although Baldwin I was not a lord in his own right).
Though legally distinct, Ramla in practise merged with the other Ibelin holdings regained after the Third Crusade, and in the mid-13th century it was indistinguishable from the larger County of Jaffa and Ascalon.