War of the Lombards The War of the Lombards ( 1228 – 1243 ) was a civil war in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus between the " Lombards " ( also called the imperialists ) , the representatives of the Emperor Frederick II , largely from Lombardy , and the native aristocracy , led first by the Ibelin s and then by the Montfort s . The war was provoked by Frederick ' s attempt to control the regency for his young son , Conrad II of Jerusalem . Frederick and Conrad represented the Hohenstaufen dynasty . Origins . Frederick had been King of Jerusalem — and as such claimed suzerainty over Cyprus — in right of his wife Isabella II until her death in 1228 . That year he arrived first in Cyprus , where he antagonised the nobles , and then in Jerusalem , where he stayed until 1229 , leaving in humiliating circumstances after having produced an anti - imperialist reaction in the people . In 1231 he sent Riccardo Filangieri as his marshal . His attempt to assert his authority was opposed by John of Ibelin , the Old Lord of Beirut , who had been regent until Frederick ' s arrival . On John ' s death in 1236 the war was taken up by his son Balian . In 1239 Philip of Montfort assumed the leadership of the opposition . Though the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Knights Templar supported the nobility , the Teutonic Knights and Knights Hospitaller supported Filangieri . In general his rights as regent were recognised but his practical power was denied on the basis of the Assizes and the Haute Cour . His headquarters were in Tyre and he had the allegiance of Bohemond V , Prince of Antioch and Count of Tripoli . He also held the Holy City of Jerusalem itself , which had been negotiated away from the Saracens by Frederick . So long as the Ibelins controlled the opposition , Filangieri could count on the support of their enemies as well . The Italian cities were also divided between the two factions : Pisa supported Filangieri and Genoa the Ibelins . The Ibelins controlled Beirut , Arsuf , and Caesarea as well as the old capital of Acre . In 1231 the citizens of Acre formed a commune with their headquarters at the church of Saint Andrew ' s in order to unify their opposition to Filangieri . In 1232 John of Ibelin was elected its mayor . Course . The first major battle of the war took place at Casal Imbert in May 1232 . Filangieri defeated the Ibelins . In June , however , he was so soundly defeated by an inferior force at the Battle of Agridi in Cyprus that his support on the island dwindled to zero within a year . In 1241 the barons offered the bailliage of Acre to Simon de Montfort , the Earl of Leicester , a cousin of Philip of Montfort , and a relative through marriage to both the Hohenstaufen and the Plantagenets . He never assumed it . In 1242 or 1243 Conrad declared his own majority and on 5 June the absentee monarch ' s regency was granted by the Haut Court to Alice , widow of Hugh I of Cyprus and daughter of Isabella I of Jerusalem . Alice promptly began ruling as if queen , ignoring Conrad , who was in Italy , and ordering Filangieri arrested . After a long siege , Tyre fell on 12 June . The Ibelins seized its citadel on 7 or 10 July , with the help of Alice , whose forces arrived on 15 June . Only the Ibelins could claim to be the winners of the war . Primary sources . The chief primary source for the War is Philip of Novara ' s " The Wars of Frederick II Against the Ibelins " , which is a highly partisan account favouring the Ibelins . Philip was an active participant in and eyewitness of many of the events he describes . In the 1240s he was handsomely rewarded in money and fiefs by Alice . His " Wars " is generally trusted but is contained in a later compilation called " Les gestes des Chiprois " , and it is sometimes difficult to determine if a detail was amended by the compiler . His account , written contemporaneously with events , only covers the years 1228 – 33 , 1236 , and 1241 – 42 . He wrote the last part of his account between 1242 and 1247 , adding interpolations until as late as 1258 . It is Philip that gives the name " Longuebars " ( Lombards ) to the imperialists . The Venetian baili Marsilio Zorzi , who arrived in Acre shortly before Alice ' s election as regent , wrote a report of conditions and recent events in the Levant for his masters in Venice . It is preserved in a manuscript of 1246 and in the fourteenth - century " Liber Albus " , but is a less precise , though more contemporaneous , account than Philip ' s . Richard of San Germano presents a few details with regards to the beginning of Conrad ' s rule and the end of Frederick ' s regency that cannot be found elsewhere . According to him , Tommaso of Aquino , Count of Acerra , left for the Holy Land in June 1242 in connexion with Conrad ' s assumption of power to be the king ' s representative in the East . He also mentions that Raymond VII of Toulouse met the emperor at Melfi in September 1242 and intervened on behalf of the defeated Filangieri .