Outremer
King Amalric II
Jaffa was still in peril, with a Muslim army at its gates. Isabella, who had loved Henry, was too distraught to rule. The barons assembled and debated a successor. As they debated, Jaffa fell without a battle. The barons then chose Amalric of Cyprus, the brother of the former King Guy.
Amalric engineered a campaign that recovered Beirut and Sidon, and turned out to be a wise and cautious ruler. The two kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem were united in his person, but he kept the two strictly separate in practice. His main concern while in Acre was to find a way to achieve peace, for the Kingdom was too weak to resist any concerted attacks.
His chief problem was the German crusade. They proved to be headstrong and unwilling to listen to local advice to proceed carefully. Instead, they rushed right out to besiege Toron. This stirred al-Adil into action. On hearing rumors of a massive Egyptian army (there was one advancing, but it wasn't large), the Germans promptly raised the siege and fled back to Acre and then went home. The only real result of the campaign was the founding of the Teutonic Knights.
Amalric struggled to stay at peace with his Muslim neighbors, but it was not easy. Civil war in Antioch created problems, and the few crusaders who went to the Holy Land in connection with the Fourth Crusade stirred things up and then got themselves killed by the Emir of Jabala. Despite the difficulties, though, Amalric managed a peace treaty with al-Adil in 1204.
The King died of an illness 1 April 1205. On his death, Cyprus and Jerusalem fell to separate heirs, as Amalric intended. John of Ibelin became regent for Jerusalem, ruling for the young princess Maria.
The princess turned seventeen in 1208 and Ibelin sent to King Philip of France for help in finding a husband. This proved to be rather difficult, and a match was not found until 1210, when John of Brienne accepted. John was not at all wealthy and he was sixty years old, but he was willing to take on the burden, in part because he was Philip's friend. He arrived in September and the two were married on 3 October.