James of Ibelin

James of Ibelin ({{langx|fr|Jacques d'Ibelin}}; died in 1276) was count of Jaffa and, titularly, of Ascalon too as well as a noted jurist in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

James was the son of Count John of Jaffa and Ascalon, himself a noted jurist in the crusader kingdom. John had urged King Henry I of Cyprus to send his army to defend the Kingdom of Jerusalem, where John and many Cypriot knights held land, from the Mamluks.{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=93}} The fortress of Ascalon was lost to the Muslim Mamluk Sultanate in 1247.{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=84}} John, who also held valuable estates in the Kingdom of Cyprus, died in 1266.{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=79}} Jaffa was conquered by the Mamluks in 1268.{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=93}}

In 1271, James advocated for the knights of Cyprus in their dispute with King Hugh III,{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=93}} who had ascended the thrones of Cyprus and Jerusalem in 1267 and 1268 respectively.{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=90}} In their deposition to the English prince Edward Longshanks, who acted as arbiter,{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=93}} the knights insisted that they did not owe military service to the king on the mainland.{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=72}} Unlike John decades earlier, James and the knights had no vested interest in fighting on the mainland because most of their possessions there had been lost.{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=93}} James's effort failed, but he demonstrated his family's pride in his speech, saying: "The men of the kingdom of Cyprus have more often served the house of Ibelin outside the kingdom than they have the king or his ancestors."{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=93}} James thus became the first member of the Ibelin family to challenge the power of the Lusignan kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus.{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=72}}

James dictated a law treatise on his deathbed in 1276.{{sfn|Edbury|2003|p=15}}