Crusader states The Crusader states were a number of mostly 12th - and 13th - century feudal states created by Western European crusade rs in Asia Minor , Greece and the Holy Land , and during the Northern Crusades in the eastern Baltic area . The name also refers to other territorial gains ( often small and short - lived ) made by medieval Christendom against Muslim and pagan adversaries . Background . Beginning in the 7th century , Muslim rulers began expanding their territories into Christian Roman / Byzantine lands conquering Egypt and the Levant and gradually taking over all of North Africa , much of Southwest Asia , and most of the Iberian Peninsula . The Eastern Romans , or Byzantines , partially recovered lost territory on numerous occasions but over time gradually lost all but Anatolia and parts of Thrace and the Balkans . In the West the Roman Catholic kingdoms of northern Iberia launched a series of campaigns known as the " Reconquista " to reconquer the peninsula from the Arabized Berbers known as Moors ( who called it al - Andalus ) . The conquered Iberian principalities are not customarily called Crusader states , except for the Kingdom of Valencia , despite fitting the general criteria . In 1071 the Byzantine army was defeated by the Muslim Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert resulting in the loss of most of Asia Minor . The situation represented a serious existential threat for the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire . The Emperor sent a plea to the Pope in Rome to send military aid with the goal of restoring the formerly Christian territories to Christian rule . The result was a series of western European military campaigns into the eastern Mediterranean , known as the " crusades " . Unfortunately for the Byzantines , the crusaders had no allegiance to the Byzantine Emperor and so established their own states in the conquered regions , including the heart of the Byzantine Empire itself . Mediterranean . In the Levant . The first four Crusader states were created in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade : The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia had its origins before the Crusades , but was granted the status of a kingdom by Pope Innocent III , and later became fully westernized by the ( French ) Lusignan dynasty . Cyprus . During the Third Crusade , the Crusaders founded the Kingdom of Cyprus . Richard I of England conquered Cyprus on his way to Holy Land . He subsequently sold the island to the Knights Templar who were unable to maintain their hold because of a lack of resources and a rapacious attitude towards the local population which led to a series of popular uprisings . The Templars promptly returned the island to Richard who resold it to the displaced King of Jerusalem Guy of Lusignan in 1192 . Guy went on to found a dynasty that lasted until 1489 , when the widow of King James III The Bastard , Queen Catherine Cornaro , a native of Venice , abdicated her throne in favour of the Republic of Venice , which annexed the island . For much of its history under the Lusignan Kings , Cyprus was a prosperous Medieval Kingdom , a commercial and trading hub of Western Christendom in the Middle East . The Kingdom ' s decline began when it became embroiled in the dispute between the Italian Merchant Republics of Genoa and Venice . Indeed the Kingdom ' s decline can be traced to a disastrous war with Genoa in 1373 - 74 which ended with the Genoese occupying the principal port City of Famagusta . Eventually with the help of Venice , the Kingdom recovered Famagusta but by then it was too late and in any event , the Venetians had their own designs on the island . Venetian rule over Cyprus lasted for just over 80 years until 1571 , when the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Selim II Sarkhosh invaded and captured the entire island . The battle for Cyprus between Venice and the Ottoman Empire was immortalized by William Shakespeare in his play Othello , most of which is set in the port city of Famagusta on the eastern shores of the island . In the Balkans . After the Fourth Crusade , the territories of the Byzantine Empire were divided into several states , beginning the so - called " Francocracy " ( ) period : Several islands , most notably Crete ( 1204 - 1669 ) , Euboea ( Negroponte , until 1470 ) , and the Ionian Islands ( until 1797 ) came under the rule of Venice . These states faced the attacks of the Byzantine Greek successor states of Nicaea and Epirus , as well as Bulgaria . Thessalonica and the Latin Empire were reconquered by the Byzantine Greeks by 1261 . Descendants of the Crusaders continued to rule in Athens and the Peloponnesus ( Morea ) until the 15th century when the area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire . In the Baltics . In the Baltic region , the indigenous tribes in the Middle Ages at first staunchly refused Christianity . In 1193 , Pope Celestine III urged to a crusade against the heathens which included the Old Prussians , the Lithuanians and other tribes inhabiting Estonia , Latvia and East Prussia . This period of warfare is called the Northern Crusades . In the aftermath of Northern Crusades William of Modena as Papal legate solved the disputes between the crusaders in Livonia and Prussia .