A treaty of alliance is established between Jerusalem and the Venetians prior to the beginning of the siege of Tyre in February 1124 (the city will capitulate to the crusaders later this year).
The treaty is negotiated by Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and thus it is known as the Pactum Warmundi (Warmundus being the Latin form of his name).
Earlier treaties had been negotiated between Jerusalem and the Venetians and other Italian city-states, and the Venetians themselves had been granted privileges in 1100 and 1110 in return for military assistance, but this treaty is far more extensive.
The Pactum grants the Venetians their own church, street, square, baths, market, scales, mill, and oven in every city controlled by the King of Jerusalem, except in Jerusalem itself, where their autonomy is more limited.
In the other cities, they are permitted to use their own Venetian scales to conduct business and trade when trading with other Venetians, but otherwise they are to use the scales and prices established by the King.
In Acre, they are granted a quarter of the city, where every Venetian "may be as free as in Venice itself."
In Tyre and Ascalon (though neither has yet been captured), they are granted one-third of the city and one-third of the surrounding countryside, possibly as many as twenty-one villages in the case of Tyre.
These privileges are entirely free from taxation, but Venetian ships will be taxed if they were carrying pilgrims, and in this case the King will personally be entitled to one-third of the tax.
For their help in the siege of Tyre, the Venetians are entitled to three hundred "Saracen besants" per year from the revenue of that city.
They are permitted to use their own laws in civil suits between Venetians or in cases in which a Venetian is the defendant, but if a Venetian is the plaintiff the matter will be decided in the courts of the Kingdom.
If a Venetian is shipwrecked or dies in the kingdom, his property will be sent back to Venice rather than being confiscated by the King.
Anyone living in the Venetian quarter in Acre or the Venetian districts in other cities will be subject to Venetian law.
The Pactum is signed by Patriarch Warmund; Ehremar, Archbishop of Caesarea; Bernard, Bishop of Nazareth; Aschetinus, Bishop of Bethlehem; Roger, Bishop of Lydda; Guildin, abbot of St. Mary of Josaphat; Gerard, prior of the Holy Sepulchre; Aicard, prior of the Templum Domini; Arnold, Prior of Mount Sion; William Buris; and the chancellor, Pagan.
Aside from William and Pagan, no secular authorities witness the treaty, perhaps indicating that the Venetians consider Jerusalem a papal fief.