Taking over a Christian principality would have significant backlashes.Cyprus is the most obvious but they could also have acquired one of the more northerly Crusader realms, either Tripoli or Antioch.
Taking over a Christian principality would have significant backlashes.
Several problems,the KoJ doesn't have much authority in Antioch.Antioch was in fact a vassal of the ERE.As for Tripoli,it's more or less the Hospitaller's turf in terms of religious orders because that's where Krak des Chevaliers' located.Depends on the context. The Teutonic Order acquired a lot of it's land from grants including Pomerania though that admittedly did cause the Order serious problems with the Poles. If a King of Jerusalem decided to grant the Templars Antioch or Tripoli due to the current ruler dying in battle without an obvious heir there would be grumbling from other claimants but with the backing of both the Church and the KoJ the grumblers probably couldn't do much about it.
Several problems,the KoJ doesn't have much authority in Antioch.Antioch was in fact a vassal of the ERE.As for Tripoli,it's more or less the Hospitaller's turf in terms of because that's where Krak des Chevaliers' located.
What about the Tunis area?
Except the KoJ isn't even half of the ERE's power level,heavily reliant on aid from the ERE and was even forced to recognize the ERE as it's overlord at one point in it's history.Well the Templars had Chastel Blanc right next to the Krak but yes I agree the Hospitaller's had a larger footprint in Tripoli and were more likely to be the recipients of a grant, still the Templars were more powerful in Jerusalem so if it's a decision originating in Jerusalem they might receive the grant. As for Antioch while it was a vassal of the ERE that's not an effective bar, look at the Ordensstaat. You could have the Templars take the place of the German Order, Jerusalem that of the HRE and the Poland's role be taken by the ERE.
Since it's lost by the time the Templars are significant enough to aim for land could they not be included as vassals of the King of Sicily (Trinacria or Naples) to help take it back?That's more Sicily's patch. See the Kingdom of Africa, if they wanted to hand Tunis over to a Order it probably wouldn't be the very Frankish Templars.
Except the KoJ isn't even half of the ERE's power level,heavily reliant on aid from the ERE and was even forced to recognize the ERE as it's overlord at one point in it's history.
That would have gone to the French king.What if they liberated a Frankish county from Cathars
That would have gone to the French king.
Hell no.There's no way they could have gotten armies rivalling the size of highly organized countries like Sicily all of a sudden.Could they have conquered the Kingdom of Sicily itself, had Charles of Anjou failed to do so?