Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Dan Jones

Although he never led a mass crusade to the east, Frederick did travel to the kingdom of Jerusalem in the late 1220s, where he used his rare rapport with his the sultan al-Kamil to achieve what many had given up as impossible: the return of Christian rule to the holy city. In a negotiated settlement brokered via personal diplomacy between himself and the sultan, Frederick secured recognition for Christian oversight, on the understanding that Muslims would be allowed unmolested access to the Haram al-Sharif so that they could worship at the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque. Frederick claimed the title and crown of king of Jerusalem for himself, but left day-to-day government in the hands of appointed deputies when he returned to Europe. Although this happy balance of powers lasted only sixteen years, it was a miraculously evenhanded and bloodless revolution for which Frederick might have expected the thanks and adulation of all of Christendom.