1225

[214] Grandclaude (‘Liste’, pp. 340-1), suggested that this assise could not be earlier than 1177, when no one was considering three candidates for the hand of Sibylla of Jerusalem (William of Tyre, pp. 977-81). On the other hand, it must certainly have been in force by the reign of King Aimery, because of his disapproval of the marriage of Beatrice of Courtenay (Lignages d’Outremer, p. 69) and because it is treated at length in the Livre au roi. [215] Grandclaude (‘Liste’, p. 344) lists two other assises, but the use of the term ‘serfs’ in the first – a word very rarely used on the mainland – suggests that this may have been Cypriot legislation, perhaps even of the fourteenth century, (‘Assises de la Baisse Court’, pp. 226-7) and the reference by John of Ibelin (p. 186) to an ‘assise ou usage’ concerning lost property suggests that he was not sure that there was an assise on this subject, as opposed to custom.