The Crusades, the Genoese and the Latin East - DSpace at ...

East. The first question in this chapter concerns the leadership of the Genoese community during
this time of crisis. Considering this fragile, disadvantageous, position, it is interesting that the
recovery process of the commune was so fast: within a few months, the Genoese were already
granted two charters of privilege including possessions in Tyre. Several years later, the Genoese
community became the leading Italian power in that sea-port town. The fast recovery of the
commune calls for an explanation. Utilising charters and descriptions as well as evidence from
the notarial archives for the years 1186,1190-2 the process of recovery will be examined. It will
be argued that the recovery of the community is related to a change that occurred in the
administration of the commune in the Latin East.
The change in the administrative domain was marked by the arrival of Guido Spinola in
the kingdom of Jerusalem. Guido was the leader of the Genoese contingent of the Third Crusade
and his activities in the east marked the beginning of a new era in the way the commune
functioned and the role it played in the political life of the crusader states. Guido Spinola was the
first in a series of consuls who were appointed in Genoa to handle the commune's affair in the
Latin East. Guido's diplomatic achievements were of major importance. He gained privileges in
Tyre including possessions and various economic and jurisdictional rights. This was the
beginning of a prosperous settlement.
After the end of the Third Crusade, however, another change occurred in Genoa's attitude
towards the administration of its commune in the kingdom of Jerusalem. Over a period of
approximately ten years, there is evidence of decline in the level of diplomacy sent to the Latin
East. This evidence calls one to correct some misconception in the existing scholarship about the
Genoese consulates in the Latin East. It will be suggested here that during these years, from 1192
to 1203, the administration and government of Genoese life in the east was mostly left to those
who lived in the Genoese quarters. In 1195 there were no acting consuls or if there were, they
were not significant ones. Henry of Champagne granted privileges to Genoa through the admiral
of its fleet rather than an official representative of the commune in the east, if there was a person
in this position.
The second issue concerns the population of the Genoese quarter. Who were the people
who established themselves in the new Genoese settlement in Tyre? How many of them were
previously inhabitants of the Latin East who were relocated when they found refuge in Tyre?
How many were new settlers who arrived from Genoa? An important part of the analysis involve
social mapping of the people among those Genoese who took part in the affairs of the Latin East.
The term social mapping is used here to analyse lists of names of people who are known to have
stayed in the kingdom of Jerusalem at different times during the period under research. Most of
the names derive from charters that remain from the Latin East, when Genoese merchants and
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