MONTFERRAND

The Ancient Feudal Marquisate of Montferrand

(by: Dr. Erik de Sergiana, Ph.D.)

During the crusades, the knights from the various countries of Europe made a united attempt at the behest of the Pope to reclaim the Holy Land for Christendom. They marched on the holy sites eventually conquering them and setting up a number of Latin/Frankish (French) states that included the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Edessa and others throughout the crusades. One of the most ancient ecclesiastical and civil authorities in these feudal states, were the Patriarchs of Antioch.

The original fief, the Barony of Montferrand, which is roughly coextensive with today's Lebanon was a sovereign state which comprised the area of the northeastern County of Tripoli. It was a border fief that protected the county against the Assassins to the northeast and the Seljuk Turks to the northwest. Montferrand was the largest fiefdom of the County of Tripoli and the Lord or Baron of Montferrand sat in the equivalent of the House of Lords of that country. His seat was the castle of Montferrand and the fief had a bishopric of its own located at Raphlanee while another significant fortress existed at Tuban.

The Montferrand fief was located directly east of the famous barony and castle of Krak de Chevaliers. It also bordered the baronies of La Colee, Tortosa, Maraclea, and the County of Gibelkar.

It passed to be under the Count of Tripoli's direct control in the 12th century and it was probably the most important border or marcher territory of Tripoli.

Eventually, after successive crusades, the crusading knights found it impossible to hold the territories they had previously conquered and these fell one by one to the invading Saracens and, Tripoli, like the other crusader states, became only nominal kingdoms with their rulers either killed by the invaders or moving to new more secure kingdoms such as the Lusignan Royal House, who successively transplanted themselves to their Kingdom of Cyprus, under the Lusignans, when they had to give up their control of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, though they retained the nominal title of Kings of Jerusalem until they were finally deposed in Cyprus many centuries later. Others returned to their native European countries.

The Counts of Tripoli lost their entire fiefs but retained de jure sovereignty over their former kingdom until they passed it to the Patriarchs of Antioch who kept it as part of their patrimony until the present day.

The Patriarch's ownership of this fief was confirmed in the 1906 Concordat between the Antiochene Church and the Royal House of Lusignan of Jerusalem and Cyprus whereby they peacefully agreed to the division of all contested fiefs in the Holy Land. In the late 20th century,  the Antiochene Church and its Patriarchate decided to dispose of this historic feudal fief in much the same way as the Archbishop of Canterbury deals and sells Lordships of the Manor for the Church of England.

In the 1400's, the Patriarchs of Antioch had elevated the Barony of Montferrand to a titular feudal county and later to a marquisate, which it remains to this day.

Thus in this historic Crusader fief are contained three separate titles, baron, count and marquis, which can be held together or separated and passed on to children or other successors or sold off individually as feudal property. These three titles were assigned to the current holder, Dr. Travis Knight Svensson, via Letters Patent from the Patriarch of Antioch and a Deed of Conver=yance.