Aimery declared Ralph should be exiled, and gave him eight days to depart the kingdom. Aimery's plan ran into a snag.
You see, Ralph knew the laws of the land better than anybody, and he brought up a decision laid down a couple decades earlier.
In the 1170s, under King Amalric of Jerusalem, proposed a new law, approved by the High Court. The law stated that 1) all lords were vassals of the king, even if they were vassals of someone who was himself a vassal of the king; and 2) therefore anyone could take their case before the king if they felt their immediate lord were unfair to them. Amalric wanted to be able to control any disputes in his vassals and their vassals. It also claimed that vassals were right to withdraw their support from their liege if the liege did not abide by the ruling of the High Court, the collection of barons and prelates and other nobles brought together when important matters needed to be discussed or adjudicated.
This was called the Assise sur la ligece (basically, an "Assize on liege-homage").
Ralph appealed to the High Court that he needed to be judged by his peers at the Court, not by the king. Aimery might have thought that, since he was king and the nobles had already decided that Aimery was preferable to Ralph as king, this would be smooth sailing. But Aimery wanted Ralph exiled, and refused the High Court, whereupon the barons declared that they were withdrawing their support from the king.
Aimery's vassals withdrew their service from Aimery, but Ralph took himself away to Tripoli anyway, since clearly he could not work under this king, and then to Constantinople in 1204. He returned after Aimery's death in 1207.
The barons returned their support to Aimery in 1200.
This was an important legal precedent, applying the force of law to the king himself. It was used a couple more times, which I'll share tomorrow.
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