After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The West was hesitant to send large-scale expeditions; for the next few decades, only small armies came, headed by minor European nobles who desired to make a pilgrimage. When Patriarch Amalric died on 6 October 1180, the two most obvious choices for his successor were William of Tyre and Heraclius of Caesarea.

The Cypriot nobles were already quarrelling amongst themselves about the regency for Henry I of Cyprus, who was still a child.This scandal allowed Melisende and her supporters to gain control of the government, just as her father had intended. Isabella's half-brother John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut governed as regent until 1210 when Maria married an experienced French knight, John of Brienne.

Through Conrad, Frederick tried to send an imperial regent, but the anti-imperial faction in Acre argued that Jerusalem's laws allowed them to appoint their own regent.

Within this framework, a Catholic church hierarchy was established, overtop of the local Eastern Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox authorities, who retained their own hierarchies (the Catholics considered them schismatics and thus illegitimate, and vice versa). The emblem consists of a shield with a charged green field in the shape of a rounded hexagonal star, reminiscent of a Star of David, and is surrounded by 7 small white hexagonal stars. Warfare between the Fatimids and Seljuks caused great disruption for the local Christians and for Western pilgrims. He left behind a large garrison of French soldiers in Acre, under the command of Geoffrey of Sergines.