Sixth Crusade
Frederick, King of Jerusalem
Frederick II entered Jerusalem on March 17, 1229. His Germans and Italians were with him, but few of the locals. The Hospital and the Temple still refused to have dealings with an excommunicant. The barons were still fearful of his claims, especially since he had announced that he would be crowned king there. The Patriarch, too, refused to come, and the city itself was largely empty.
The next morning was Sunday. Frederick went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate mass, only to find that no priest was there. Undaunted, Frederick proceeded to crown himself King of Jerusalem. He then went back to the Hospital of St. John, which was empty, and held his court there. Some of the local baronage had trickled in and Frederick made a show of ordering matters in the city.
Monday, the 19th, the Archbishop of Caesarea arrived. Acting on orders from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, he laid the newly-won city under interdict. The Emperor-King was furious. He immediately left Jerusalem and marched back to Acre, to have a reckoning with the Patriarch. He arrived there on the 23rd and found the whole place roiling in anger. He managed to placate some, at least, but only at the price of appointing locals who were among the opposition to act as his representatives. He then announced that he would be leaving soon.
Frederick left Acre on the morning of May 1. He had liberated Jerusalem and had made himself its king. But he had also made himself hated by most of the Palestinian barons, most of whom refused to recognize his self-coronation as legitimate. He had deepened the factions within Outremer and had left behind him bitterness and a frontier that could not be defended. And he had acquired a title that his descendants were unable to keep.