ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the subject and identifies common actions that consorts undertook to consolidate and exercise their authority as monarchs. It demonstrates that the creation of networks of loyal supporters, often drawn from consorts' own lands in the Latin West, was crucial to asserting their authority in the Latin East. The Crusader States were frequently ruled by male consorts who reigned as monarchs through the merit of their marriages. The men who ruled as consorts in the Latin East encountered a host of limitations to their rule, and though they may have expected to wield their authority like any other medieval monarch, the foundations to their reigns were anything but secure. Though some consorts aspired to rule independently as monarchs and limit the involvement of their wives in the governance of their new realm, the circumstances of their reigns meant that this was not always possible, and their wives’ legitimizing presence could not be ignored.
