AHC: Frankish Crusaders Go Native

The genetic traces would take Alien Space Bats to have not occurred, and there are a few families of Arab Christians that claim such decent. The challenge is to have, as of 1900 and with a POD no earlier than the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187, a measurable portion of the 'native' Levantine population as a whole* being Latin Rite** Christians openly claiming crusader lineage.

(*: Not a large one, 1-2% is quite enough)

(**: As opposed to Melikite, Maronite, or other such Uniate. Conversely getting linked to one of the local patriarchates rather than formal obedience to the See of Rome is not an issue if they retain the distinctive liturgy)

Bonus points are for the taking if there are areas where the local gentry started out as Crusader knights and/or barons, as well as if a language recognizably derived from Old French/Proto-Italian/West Germanic is still spoken on a household/village level by more isolated sorts (think Aramaic).

The ramifications for 19th century and later relations between the Levant and the West, I leave to your imaginations.
 
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I'll leave more complex methods to the experts, but perhaps a successful fourth crusade against Egypt resulting in the retaking of the Levant could result in a less homogeneous Levant with a Romance-speaking minority?

Certainly if the Catholics hold onto at least some coastal cities, you'll have a larger, Catholic and European-origin population.
 
Conquering Egypt was possible even before the Fourth Crusade. IIRC, one of the Amaurys almost managed it but bailed before he won.
 
The problem is basically demographic. There was no resident noble fighting class in the KoJ that the Frankish nobles could marry into due to 500 years of Muslim rule which had laws including that no Christian could bear arms or ride a horse. As a result, apart from a small bit of Komnene blood in the Royal Family, the nobles in the KoJ stayed very European and thus left little trace once the Kingdom was lost. This isn't the case in Antioch for example, there were nobles of Greek and Armenian extraction for the Franks to marry into, which occurred regularly but I don't know how much of a mark they left.

At lower levels of society there was a class of 'Poulains', people of mixed Frank/local descent, which provided the sergeants in the KoJ army. But by Hattin these were only about 5000 strong, perhaps 10% of the population.

I'd say the best post 1187 chance to address the demographics issue would be the 3rd Crusade, Barbarossa not dying but instead campaigning and re capturing Jerusalem. This would re-invigorate the KoJ, and provide a new wave of pilgrims to colonise the newly recaptured territory, although the demographics would most probably become more German, not that that matters. This would butterfly the 4th, 5th and 6th Crusades into something else, possibly useful to the longevity of the KoJ and give the KoJ the chance to make a permanent religious mark.
 
The problem is basically demographic. There was no resident noble fighting class in the KoJ that the Frankish nobles could marry into due to 500 years of Muslim rule which had laws including that no Christian could bear arms or ride a horse. As a result, apart from a small bit of Komnene blood in the Royal Family, the nobles in the KoJ stayed very European and thus left little trace once the Kingdom was lost. This isn't the case in Antioch for example, there were nobles of Greek and Armenian extraction for the Franks to marry into, which occurred regularly but I don't know how much of a mark they left.

At lower levels of society there was a class of 'Poulains', people of mixed Frank/local descent, which provided the sergeants in the KoJ army. But by Hattin these were only about 5000 strong, perhaps 10% of the population.

I'd say the best post 1187 chance to address the demographics issue would be the 3rd Crusade, Barbarossa not dying but instead campaigning and re capturing Jerusalem. This would re-invigorate the KoJ, and provide a new wave of pilgrims to colonise the newly recaptured territory, although the demographics would most probably become more German, not that that matters. This would butterfly the 4th, 5th and 6th Crusades into something else, possibly useful to the longevity of the KoJ and give the KoJ the chance to make a permanent religious mark.

Maybe then if Antioch is indeed handed over to the Byzantines in the First Crusade, we'd see stronger connections between the Byzantines and Crusaders? Then we could have marriage ties between Frankish knights and Byzantine cataphract soldiers?

Don't know how doable this is at all.
 
One idea is that you have a slightly longer lasting KoJ that then falls all in one go, for example to the Mongols. One reason there was so little permanent effects of the Frankish settlers is that when Jerusalem fell they moved to the coastal enclaves rather than staying under Muslim rule and then as those fell city by city the retreated more and more and finally when all Christian possessions on the Mainland fell they moved to Cyprus etc. Effectively the process of colonisation went in reverse.
But if you have the entire K of J fall "overnight" then while many would flee back to Europe some would stay under the new regime and could survive and form an ethnic minority.
 
IMO the demographic decline of any Latin rite settlers was cemented when Baybars sacked Antioch, Tripoli and Acre. If he had been slightly more lenient, there was a good chance they might have remained and more slowly assimilated.
 
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