The accepted reconstruction of the seigniorial hierarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem is based on the lists drawn up by Jean of Ibelin in about 1265. One of these lists, according to its first paragraph, details the names of noblemen (“barons” and the other “gens dou reiaume de Jerusalem”) who were obliged to contribute knights to the army of the Kingdom (“chief seignor dou dit reiaume”) and the number of knights which each had to contribute. The list is attributed to the year 1187, on the eve of the battle of Hattin.

The list was, it is true, drawn up at a comparatively later date and its author did not excel, in his other works, at accuracy and objectivity. But although it is difficult to determine to what extent the figures are accurate, it can be assumed that the relative numbers of the knights were realistic for three reasons.

1. It would be difficult to explain why Jean of Ibelin tried so hard to provide an accurate list of owners of fiefs, who had all passed away at the time he wrote his book, and did not make a similar effort to give accurate numbers of knights each of the fief owners was obliged to contribute to the army.

2. The sum total of knights who appear in Jean of Ibelin's list is consistent with what is known to us from other sources about the size of the army. A change in the number of knights any lord had to contribute would have forced Jean of Ibelin to falsify the whole list and it is doubtful whether he had any reasonable cause for doing so.

3. […]