crusader state · Anatolia and the Levant

Lordship of Caesarea

1101 CE – 1265 CE · capital Caesarea

A Crusader lordship on the coast of Palestine whose 13th-century walls still stand at Caesarea.

Origins

Baldwin I took Caesarea in May 1101 with a Genoese fleet, which received a share of the spoils including a green glass bowl believed to be the Holy Grail, now the Sacro Catino in Genoa. The city became the seat of a lordship, held from about 1110 by Eustace Grenier and his descendants.

Rule and society

Caesarea was one of the major lordships of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the seat of a Latin archbishop. Its lords, the Grenier family and later the Aleman line, lived from the harbour and the coastal plain. The town was smaller than the Roman city, but its defences were rebuilt several times, most thoroughly by Louis IX in 1251-1252 with a sloping glacis and moat.

Decline and legacy

Saladin took Caesarea in 1187; it was regained in 1191. In 1265 Baybars captured it after a short siege and razed its walls; John Aleman was its last lord.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Lordship of Caesarea. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/lordship-of-caesarea
MLA
“Lordship of Caesarea.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/lordship-of-caesarea. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Lordship of Caesarea.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/lordship-of-caesarea.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Lordship of Caesarea’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/lordship-of-caesarea (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻