Embriaco family


The Embriaco family were Genoese adventurers, who played an important part in the history of the Crusader states. They styled themselves "Lord of Giblet" or "Gibelletto", the modern and historic Byblos in Lebanon.
They arrived in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as early as 1099, with Guglielmo Embriaco and his brother Primo di Castello. They had Byblos, given to Ugo I Embriaco by Bertrand of Toulouse, from about 1110; it had been taken a few years before. Their power in Byblos lasted – apart from occupation by Saladin 1187–1197 – to the end to the thirteenth century, when they were defeated by Bohemond VII of Tripoli, and finally pushed out by Muslim advances.

Background

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