Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Crusades 1245 - 1300

July 11, 1244

Khorezmian Turkish horsemen launch an attack on Jerusalem. Khwarezmia is at this time a state located around the Aral Salt Flats near the Caspian Sea.

August 23, 1244

Jerusalem falls to the Khorzmian horsemen who had begun attacking the city the previous month. Large numbers of the city's inhabitants are slaughtered.

October 17, 1244

Battle of LaForbie: A large army of Crusaders is utterly destroyed by Muslims near Gaza. Egyptian forces are commanded by Baibars, a Mamluk soldier who would later lead a revolt against the Egyptian Sultan and take control of the region.

1245

King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) declares his intent to launch a Crusade against the Muslims in the Middle East. By this point the Crusade against the Cathars in southern France is basically over and his relative Alphonse was in charge in Toulouse.

1247

Traditional date for the death of Robin Hood.

1247

Egypt captures Jerusalem from the Khorezmians.

1248

Muslim control of Spain is reduced to the Kingdom of Granada which survives for over two more centuries.

1248 - 1254

The Seventh Crusade is led by King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis). The Great Khan even sends representatives to Louis to let him know that he is willing to help in the conquest of the Holy Land and the restoration of Jerusalem to Christian control - in reality, though, the Mongols were negotiating with both sides and had no intention of helping anyone. In this, his first of two Crusades, Louis would end up capturing the Egyptian city of Damietta, but it was given up as ransom when he himself was captured during the battle for Cairo.

November 23, 1248

Ferdinand III of Castile captures Seville, Spain. Muslim control of Spain is reduced to the Kingdom of Granada which would survive for over two more centuries.

June 06, 1249

King Louis IX of France reaches and occupies the Egyptian city of Damietta. Louis focuses first and foremost on Egypt rather than sites in Syria because he hopes that this will provide a solid base from which to attack the rest of the Holy Land.

November 1249

King Louis IX of France begins to march his troops from Damietta to Cairo.

February 08, 1250

Battle of al-Mansurah: Crusaders led by King Louis IX of France move from Damietta to Cairo along the Nile River until they meet Emir Fakr-ed-din at the head of a army of 70,000 at Ashmoun Canal by the town of al-Mansurah. This is the same spot where the Fifth Crusade had met defeat. After a standoff of six weeks, a local Coptic Christian shows the Crusaders a way to cross the canal and in a surprise attack they route the Egyptians still in their encampment. Unfortunately, the French choose to follow the fleeing Egyptians to al-Mansurah despite the lack of reinforcements and they suffer heavy casualties in the process. Robert of Artois (brother of Louis IX) and William of Salisbury (leading an English force) are both killed along with most of the Knights Templar who had followed them.

April 06, 1250

Battle of Fariskur: King Louis IX is captured along with his army and ransomed in exchange for the surrender of Damietta - the only real achievement of the Crusade. Louis is lucky to be released at all because the difficulty with caring for the large numbers of prisoners led to the Egyptians executing many of them. This is the final battle in the Seventh Crusade.

May 1250

Turanshah, the last Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt in a dynasty founded by Saladin, is murdered and replaced by his Mamluk slave-general Aibek, founder the Mamluk Dynasty. King Louis IX would actually form an alliance with the Mamluks shortly after this. The word "Mamluk" literally means "one who is owned," or "slave," a reference to the fact that the Mamluks started out as slaves.

1251

The last of the Egyptian-based dynasties, the Mamluk dynasty, took over the caliphate until 1517 when Egypt fell under the control of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

1251

The "Crusade of the Shepherds" is launched.

1251

The last of the Egyptian-based dynasties, the Mamluk dynasty, takes over the caliphate until 1517 when Egypt falls under the control of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

1252

The Teutonic Knights capture the Lithuanian city of Klaipeda from local pagans. Lithuania would be access to the Baltic Sea until the 20th century.

1253

Pagan leader Mindaugas of Lithuania agrees to convert to Christianity.

1253

Friar William of Rubruck visits the court of the Great Mongol Khan Mongke, creating a detailed description of Mongol customs and beliefs before their conversion to Islam.

November 03, 1254

Death of John III Ducas Vatatzes, Byzantine emperor (Empire of Nicaea). He is succeeded by Theodore II Lascaris.

1255

The Teutonic Knights build their stronghold of Königsberg.

May 1255

The last Cathar stronghold - an isolated fort at Quéribus - is captured.

January 1256

Hulagu, son of the Great Khan, wipes out the Assassins of Persia.

1258

Birth of Osman, founder of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. His father was Etrogrul, commander of a tribe of Oghuz Turks near the Sea of Marmara.

February 10, 1258

The Abbasid period ends with the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols. The Mongols had tried and failed to take Baghdad in 1245. Now, after a series of devastating floods, the city's defenses had been weakened, and Hülegü, grandson of Genghis Khan, leads the victorious invasion - one which kills an estimated 800,000 citizens of the city. Thus begins a long period of economic, political, and cultural decline in Iraq that is only overcome in the sixteenth century.

August 1258

Death of Theodore II Lascaris, Byzantine emperor (Empire of Nicaea). He is succeeded by John IV Lascaris, just eight years old. Michael Palaeologus is made regent and later he makes himself co-emperor as Michael VIII.

1259

The Great Khan dies.

1259

Battle of Pelagonia: Greek forces defeat the Latins of Achaea.

1260

Battle of Durbe: Lithuanians defeat the Livonian Teutonic Knights

September 03, 1260

Battle of Ain Jalut: The Mamluks of Egypt defeat the invading Mongols, thus preventing any further Mongol advance into Egypt and North Africa.

October 23, 1260

Baibars, a Mamluk leader, is named Sultan of Egypt.

July 25, 1261

Michael VIII Palaeologus (1224 - 1282) finally drives the Latin rulers out of Constantinople and reestablishes Eastern Orthodox rule after 50 years. To solidify his own position he has John IV Lascaris, last of the Lascaris line and his co-emperor, blinded and thus rendered ineligible to become emperor.

1263

Mindaugas, first and only Christian king of Lithuania, is assassinated by his pagan cousin Treniota.

1265

Dante Dante Alighieri is born.

1265

Baibars, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, captures Caesarea and Haifa.

February 26, 1266

The Battle of Benevento takes place.

1267

Kublai Kahn establishes the city of Beijing.

1267

King Louis IX of France, disturbed by the many gains of the Mamluks in Egypt, calls for a new Crusade.

1268

Baibars, Sultan of Egypt, captures the city of Jaffa.

May 18, 1268

The Mamluks of Egypt under the command of Sultan Baibars take the city of Antioch and kill most of its inhabitants. The physical destruction of the city is so extensive that it would never again play an important strategic or commercial role in the region, eventually being overtaken by the port city of Alexandretta (Iskenderun).

August 23, 1268

The Battle of Tagliacozzo occurs.

‪
Seventh Crusade
The Seventh Crusade was a crusade led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. Approximately 800,000 bezants were paid in ransom for King Louis who, along with thousands of his troops, was captured and defeated by the Egyptian army led by the Ayyubid Sultan Turanshah supported by the Bahariyya Mamluks.

Seventh Crusade‬  1248 - 1254

From Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh_Crusade

Background

The Seventh Crusade was a crusade led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. Approximately 800,000 bezants were paid in ransom for King Louis who, along with thousands of his troops, was captured and defeated by the Egyptian army led by the Ayyubid Sultan Turanshah supported by the Bahariyya Mamluks led by Faris ad-Din Aktai, Baibars al-Bunduqdari, Qutuz, Aybak and Qalawun.[3][4][5]

In 1244, the Khwarezmians, recently displaced by the advance of the Mongols, took Jerusalem on their way to ally with the Egyptian Mamluks. This returned Jerusalem to Muslim control, but the fall of Jerusalem was no longer an earth-shattering event to European Christians, who had seen the city pass from Christian to Muslim control numerous times in the past two centuries. This time, despite calls from the Pope, there was no popular enthusiasm for a new crusade.

Pope Innocent IV and Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor continued the papal-imperial struggle. Frederick had captured and imprisoned clerics on their way to the First Council of Lyon, and in 1245 he was formally deposed by Innocent IV. Pope Gregory IX had also earlier offered King Louis' brother, count Robert of Artois, the German throne, but Louis had refused. Thus, the Holy Roman Emperor was in no position to crusade. Béla IV of Hungary was rebuilding his kingdom from the ashes after the devastating Mongol invasion of 1241. Henry III of England was still struggling with Simon de Montfort and other problems in England. Henry and Louis were not on the best of terms, being engaged in the Capetian-Plantagenet struggle, and while Louis was away on crusade the English king signed a truce promising not to attack French lands. Louis IX had also invited King Haakon IV of Norway to crusade, sending the English chronicler Matthew Paris as an ambassador, but again was unsuccessful. The only man interested in beginning another crusade therefore was Louis IX, who declared his intent to go East in 1245.

Fighting

France was perhaps the strongest state in Europe at the time, as the Albigensian Crusade had brought Provence into Parisian control. Poitou was ruled by Louis IX's brother Alphonse of Poitiers, who joined him on his crusade in 1245. Another brother, Charles I of Anjou, also joined Louis. For the next three years Louis collected an ecclesiastical tenth (mostly from church tithes), and in 1248 he and his approximately 15,000-strong army that included 3,000 knights, and 5,000 crossbowmen sailed on 36 ships from the ports of Aigues-Mortes, which had been specifically built to prepare for the crusade, and Marseille.[2] Louis IX's financial preparations for this expedition were comparatively well organized, and he was able to raise approximately 1,500,000 livres tournois. However, many nobles who joined Louis on the expedition had to borrow money from the royal treasury, and the crusade turned out to be very expensive.

They sailed first to Cyprus and spent the winter on the island, negotiating with various other powers in the east; the Latin Empire set up after the Fourth Crusade asked for his help against the Byzantine Empire of Nicaea, and the Principality of Antioch and the Knights Templar wanted his help in Syria, where the Muslims had recently captured Sidon.

Nonetheless, Egypt was the object of his crusade, and he landed in 1249 at Damietta on the Nile. Egypt would, Louis thought, provide a base from which to attack Jerusalem, and its wealth and supply of grain would keep the crusaders fed and equipped.

On June 6 Damietta was taken with little resistance from the Egyptians, who withdrew further up the Nile. The flooding of the Nile had not been taken into account, however, and it soon grounded Louis and his army at Damietta for six months, where the knights sat back and enjoyed the spoils of war. Louis ignored the agreement made during the Fifth Crusade that Damietta should be given to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, now a rump state in Acre, but he did set up an archbishopric there (under the authority of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem) and used the city as a base to direct military operations against the Muslims of Syria. The fifteenth century Muslim historian al-Maqrizi portrays Louis IX as sending a letter to as-Salih Ayyub that said :

As you know that I am the ruler of the Christian nation I do know you are the ruler of the Muhammadan nation. The people of Andalusia give me money and gifts while we drive them like cattle. We kill their men and we make their women widows. We take the boys and the girls as prisoners and we make houses empty. I have told you enough and I have advised you to the end, so now if you make the strongest oath to me and if you go to Christian priests and monks and if you carry kindles before my eyes as a sign of obeying the cross, all these will not persuade me from reaching you and killing you at your dearest spot on earth. If the land will be mine then it is a gift to me. If the land will be yours and you defeat me then you will have the upper hand. I have told you and I have warned you about my soldiers who obey me. They can fill open fields and mountains, their number like pebbles. They will be sent to you with swords of destruction.[6]

In November, Louis marched towards Cairo, and almost at the same time, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, as-Salih Ayyub, died. A force led by Robert of Artois and the Templars attacked the Egyptian camp at Gideila and advanced to Al Mansurah where they were defeated at the Battle of Al Mansurah, and Robert was killed. Meanwhile, Louis' main force was attacked by the Mameluk Baibars, the commander of the army and a future sultan himself. Louis was defeated as well, but he did not withdraw to Damietta for months, preferring to besiege Mansourah, which ended in starvation and death for the crusaders rather than the Muslims. In showing utter agony, a Templar knight lamented :

Rage and sorrow are seated in my heart...so firmly that I scarce dare to stay alive. It seems that God wishes to support the Turks to our loss...ah, lord God...alas, the realm of the East has lost so much that it will never be able to rise up again. They will make a Mosque of Holy Mary's convent, and since the theft pleases her Son, who should weep at this, we are forced to comply as well...Anyone who wishes to fight the Turks is mad, for Jesus Christ does not fight them any more. They have conquered, they will conquer. For every day they drive us down, knowing that God, who was awake, sleeps now, and Muhammad waxes powerful.[7]

In March 1250 Louis finally tried to return to Damietta, but he was taken captive at the of Battle of Fariskur where his army was annihilated. Louis fell ill with dysentery, and was cured by an Arab physician. In May he was ransomed for 800,000 bezants, half of which was to be paid before the King left Egypt, with Damietta also being surrendered as a term in the agreement. Upon this, he immediately left Egypt for Acre, one of few remaining crusader possessions in Syria.[8][9]

Aftermath

Louis made an alliance with the Mamluks, who at the time were rivals of the Sultan of Damascus, and from his new base in Acre began to rebuild the other crusader cities, particularly Jaffa and Saida.[10] Although the Kingdom of Cyprus claimed authority there, Louis was the de facto ruler. In 1254 Louis' money ran out, and his presence was needed in France where his mother and regent Blanche of Castile had recently died. Before leaving he established a standing French garrison at Acre, the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after the loss of Jerusalem, at the expense of the French crown, it remained there until the fall of Acre in 1291.[11] His crusade was a failure, but he was considered a saint by many, and his fame gave him an even greater authority in Europe than the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1270 he attempted another crusade, though it too would end in failure.

The history of the Seventh Crusade was written by Jean de Joinville, who was also a participant, Matthew Paris and many Muslim historians.

Literary response

The failure of the Seventh Crusade engendered several poetic responses from the Occitan troubadours. Austorc d'Aorlhac, composing shortly after the Crusade, was surprised that God would allow Louis IX to be defeated, but not surprised that some Christians would therefore convert to Islam.

In a slightly later poem, D'un sirventes m'es gran voluntatz preza, Bernart de Rovenac attacks both James I of Aragon and Henry III of England for neglecting to defend "their fiefs" that the rei que conquer Suria ("king who conquered Syria") had possessed. The "king who conquered Syria" is a mocking reference to Louis, who was still in Syria (1254) when Bernart was writing, probably in hopes that the English and Aragonese kings would take advantage of the French monarch's absence.

Bertran d'Alamanon criticized Charles of Anjou's neglect of Provence in favor of crusading. He wrote one of his last works, which bemoans Christendom's decline overseas, between the Seventh and Eighth Crusades (1260–1265).

References

1.     ^ Hinson, p.393

2.     ^ a b J. Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, 193

3.     ^ Abu al-Fida

4.     ^ Al-Maqrizi

5.     ^ Ibn Taghri

6.     ^ Al-Maqrizi, p. 436/vol.1

7.     ^ Howarth,p.223

8.     ^ Watterson, Barbara. The Egyptians. Blackwell Publishing, 1998. page 261

9.     ^ Al-Maqrizi

10.  ^ Joinville and Villehardouin: Chronicles of the Crusades, translated by M.R.B. Shaw, pages 295-316, Penguin Classics: New York, 1963

11.  ^ Keen, p. 94

Primary sources

·      Abu al-Fida, The Concise History of Humanity.

·      Al-Maqrizi, Al Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk, Dar al-kotob, 1997. In English: Bohn, Henry G., The Road to Knowledge of the Return of Kings, Chronicles of the Crusades, AMS Press, 1969

·      Ibn Taghri, al-Nujum al-Zahirah Fi Milook Misr wa al-Qahirah, al-Hay'ah al-Misreyah 1968

·      Jean de Joinville, Histoire de Saint Louis, 1309

Secondary sources

·      Keen, Maurice (editor). Medieval Warfare. Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-820639-9

·      Konstam, Angus (2002). Historical Atlas of The Crusades. Thalamus Publishing.

1269

The Almohad (al-Muwahhidun) Dynasty falls. Taking the name "the Unitarians," this was a group of Berber Muslims which had supplanted the Almoravid (al-Murabitun) Dynasty in 1147 and was inspired by the teachings of reformist Berber scholar Ibn Tumart.

June 30, 1270

King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) leads the Eighth Crusade (his second Crusade) as an attack against Tunisia.

August 25, 1270

King Louis IX of France dies in Tunisia while on the Eighth Crusade, his second Crusade. He is reluctantly replaced by his brother Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily.

‪Eighth Crusade‬

From Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Crusade

Eighth Crusade
Death of Louis IX during the siege of Tunis
Date 1270 Location Tunisia Result Treaty of Tunis Death of Louis IX. Opening of trade with Tunis. Territorial changes Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Crusaders  Kingdom of France  Anjou	Muslims  Hafsids
Commanders and leaders
Louis IX  Charles I	Muhammad I al-Mustansir

The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX, King of France, in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades of Frederick II are counted as a single crusade. The Ninth Crusade is sometimes also counted as part of the Eighth.

Louis was disturbed by events in Syria, where the Mamluk sultan Baibars had been attacking the remnant of the Crusader states. Baibars had seized the opportunity after a war pitting the cities of Venice and Genoa against each other (1256–1260) had exhausted the Syrian ports that the two cities controlled. By 1265 Baibars had captured Nazareth, Haifa, Toron, and Arsuf. Hugh III of Cyprus, nominal king of Jerusalem, landed in Acre to defend that city, while Baibars marched as far north as Armenia, which was at that time under Mongol control.

These events led to Louis' call for a new crusade in 1267, although there was little support this time; Jean de Joinville, the chronicler who accompanied Louis on the Seventh Crusade, refused to go. Louis was soon convinced by his brother Charles of Anjou to attack Tunis first, which would give them a strong base for attacking Egypt, the focus of Louis' previous crusade as well as the Fifth Crusade before him, both of which had been defeated there. Charles, as King of Sicily, also had his own interests in this area of the Mediterranean. The Khalif of Tunis, Muhammad I al-Mustansir, also had connections with Christian Spain and was considered a good candidate for conversion. In 1270 Louis landed on the African coast in July, a very unfavourable season for landing. Much of the army became sick because of poor drinking water, his Damietta born son John Sorrow died on August 3 and on August 25[1] Louis himself died from a "flux in the stomach", one day after the arrival of Charles. His dying word was "Jerusalem." Charles proclaimed Louis' son Philip III the new king, but because of his youth Charles became the actual leader of the crusade.

Because of further diseases the siege of Tunis was abandoned on October 30 by an agreement with the sultan. In this agreement the Christians gained free trade with Tunis, and residence for monks and priests in the city was guaranteed, so the crusade could be regarded as a partial success. After hearing of the death of Louis and the evacuation of the crusaders from Tunis, Sultan Baibars of Egypt cancelled his plan to send Egyptian troops to fight Louis in Tunis.[2] Charles now allied himself with Prince Edward of England, who had arrived in the meantime. When Charles called off the attack on Tunis, Edward continued on to Acre, the last crusader outpost in Syria. His time spent there is often called the Ninth Crusade.

Attendant literature

Bertran d'Alamanon, a diplomat in the service of Charles of Anjou, and Ricaut Bonomel, a Templar in the Holy Land, both composed songs around 1265. Bertran criticised the decline of Christianity in Outremer, while Bonomel criticised the Papal policy of pursuing wars in Italy with money that should have gone overseas.

The failure of the Eighth Crusade, like those of its predecessors, caused a response to be crafted in Occitan poetry by the troubadours. The death of Louis of France especially sparked their creative output, notable considering the hostility which the troubadours had had towards the French monarchy during the Albigensian Crusade. Three planhs, songs of lament, were composed for the death of Louis IX.

Guilhem d'Autpol composed Fortz tristors es e salvaj'a retraire for Louis. Raimon Gaucelm de Bezers composed Qui vol aver complida amistansa to celebrate the preparations of the Crusade in 1268, but in 1270 he had to compose Ab grans trebalhs et ab grans marrimens in commemoration of the French king. Austorc de Segret composed No sai quim so, tan sui desconoissens, a more general Crusading song, that laments Louis but also that either God or the Satan is misleading Christians. He also attacks Louis's brother Charles, whom he calls the caps e guitz (head and guide) of the infidels, because he convinced Louis to attack Tunis and not the Holy Land, and he immediately negotiated a peace with the Muslims after Louis's death.

After the Crusade, the aged troubadour Peire Cardenal wrote a song, Totz lo mons es vestitiz et abrazatz, encouraging Louis's heir, Philip III, to go to the Holy Land to aid Edward Longshanks.

Satiric verses were composed in Tunis about Louis new plan to invade Tunis: "O Louis, Tunis is the sister of Egypt! thus expect your ordeal! you will find your tomb here instead of the house of Ibn Lokman; and the eunuch Sobih will be here replaced by Munkir and Nakir.".[3]

Notes

1.     ^ John Sorrow (in French Jean Tristan) was born in Damietta, Egypt on April 8, 1250 during the Seventh Crusade.

2.     ^ Al-Maqrizi, p. 69/vol.2

3.     ^ Verses by a contemporary Tunesian named Ahmad Ismail Alzayat (Al-Maqrizi, p.462/vol.1) – House of Ibn Lokman was the house in Al Mansurah where Louis was imprisoned in chains after he was captured in Fariskur during the 7th crusade he was under the guard of a eunuch named Sobih. According to Muslim creed Munkir and Nakir are two angels who interrogate the dead.

References

·      Al-Maqrizi, Al Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk, Dar al-kotob, Cairo 1997.

·      Idem in English: Bohn, Henry G., The Road to Knowledge of the Return of Kings, Chronicles of the Crusades, AMS Press, 1969.

·      Richard, Jean: The Crusades, C.1071-c.1291, Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-62566-1

·      Throop, Palmer A., "Criticism of Papal Crusade Policy in Old French and Provençal." Speculum, Vol. 13, No. 4. (Oct., 1938), pp. 379–412.

·      Lyric allusions to the crusades and the Holy Land

·      Beebe, Bruce, "The English Baronage and the Crusade of 1270," in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, vol. xlviii (118), November 1975, pp. 127–148.

·       

1271

Marco Polo sets off to visit the court of Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan).

1271 - 1272

King Edward I of England launches the Ninth Crusade against Mamluk sultan Baibers. Edward had travelled to Tunis to join Louis IX but arrived too late, so continued into the Holy Land on his own.

1271

Thomas Agni of Cosenza becomes the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

April 08, 1271

Mamluk sultan Baibars conquers the Krak des Chevaliers, headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in Syria.

November 21, 1272

Edward returns home to England when he hears that his father Henry III has died.

Ninth Crusade  1271 - 1272

The Ninth Crusade, which is sometimes grouped with the Eighth Crusade, is commonly considered to be the last major medieval Crusade to the Holy Land. It took place in 1271–1272.

Louis IX of France's failure to capture Tunis in the Eighth Crusade led Prince Edward of England to sail to Acre in what is known as the Ninth Crusade. The Ninth Crusade saw several impressive victories for Edward over Baibars. Ultimately the Crusade did not so much fail as withdraw, since Edward had pressing concerns at home and felt unable to resolve the internal conflicts within the remnant Outremer territories. It is arguable that the Crusading spirit was nearly "extinct," by this period as well.[2] It also foreshadowed the imminent collapse of the last remaining crusader strongholds along the Mediterranean coast.

Prologue

Following the Mamluk victory over the Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut by Qutuz and his general Baibars, Qutuz was assassinated, leaving Baibars to claim the sultanate for himself. As Sultan, Baibars proceeded to attack the Christian crusaders at Arsuf, Athlith, Haifa, Safad, Jaffa, Ascalon, and Caesarea. As the Crusader fortress cities fell one by one, the Christians sought help from Europe, but assistance was slow in coming.

In 1268 Baibars captured Antioch, thereby destroying the last remnant of the Principality of Antioch, securing the Mamluk northern front and threatening the small Crusader County of Tripoli.

Louis IX of France, having already organized a large crusader army with the intent of attacking Egypt, was diverted instead to Tunis, where Louis himself died in 1270. Prince Edward of England arrived in Tunis too late to contribute to the remainder of the crusade in Tunis. Instead, he continued on his way to the Holy Land to assist Bohemund VI, Prince of Antioch and Count of Tripoli, against the Mamluk threat to Tripoli and the remnant of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Crusader operations in the Holy Land

It was decided that Edward along with Louis' brother Charles of Anjou would take their forces onward to Acre, capital of the remnant of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the final objective of Baibars' campaign. The army of Edward and Charles arrived in 1271, just as Baibars was besieging Tripoli, which as the last remaining territory of the County of Tripoli was full of tens of thousands of Christian refugees. From their bases in Cyprus and Acre, Edward and Charles managed to attack Baibars' interior lines and break the siege.

As soon as Edward arrived in Acre, he made some attempts to form a Franco-Mongol alliance, sending an embassy to the Mongol ruler of Persia Abagha, an enemy of the Muslims. The embassy was led by Reginald Rossel, Godefroi of Waus and John of Parker, and its mission was to obtain military support from the Mongols.[3] In an answer dated September 4, 1271, Abagha agreed for cooperation and asked at what date the concerted attack on the Mamluks should take place.

The arrival of the additional forces from England and Hugh III of Cyprus, under the command of Edward's younger brother Edmund emboldened Edward, who engaged in a raid on the town of Qaqun. At the end of October 1271, a small force of Mongols arrived in Syria and ravaged the land from Aleppo southward. However Abagha, occupied by other conflicts in Turkestan could only send 10,000 Mongol horsemen under general Samagar from the occupation army in Seljuk Anatolia, plus auxiliary Seljukid troops. Despite the relatively small force though, their arrival still triggered an exodus of Muslim populations (who remembered the previous campaigns of Kithuqa) as far south as Cairo.[4]

But the Mongols did not stay, and when the Mamluk leader Baibars mounted a counter-offensive from Egypt on November 12, the Mongols had already retreated beyond the Euphrates.

In the interim, Baibars came to suspect there would be a combined land-sea attack on Egypt. Feeling his position sufficiently threatened, he endeavoured to head off such a maneuver by building a fleet. Having finished construction of the fleet, rather than attack the Crusader army directly, Baibars attempted to land on Cyprus in 1271, hoping to draw Hugh III of Cyprus (the nominal King of Jerusalem) and his fleet out of Acre, with the objective of conquering the island and leaving Edward and the crusader army isolated in the Holy Land. However, in the ensuing naval campaign the fleet was destroyed and Baibars' armies were forced back.

Following this victory, Edward realized that to create a force capable of retaking Jerusalem it would be necessary to end the internal unrest within the Christian state, and so he mediated between Hugh and his unenthusiastic knights from the Ibelin family of Cyprus. In parallel to the mediation, Prince Edward and King Hugh began negotiating a truce with Sultan Baibars; a 10 year, 10 month and 10 day agreement was reached in May 1272, at Caesarea. Almost immediately Prince Edmund departed for England, while Edward remained to see if the treaty would hold. The following month, Baibars attempted to assassinate Edward. Edward killed the assassin but received a festering wound from a poisoned dagger in the process, further delaying Edward's own departure. In September 1272, Edward departed Acre for Sicily and, while recuperating on the island, he first received news of the death of his son John, and then a few months later news of the death of his father. In 1273 Edward started his homeward journey via Italy, Gascony and Paris. Edward finally reached England in the summer of 1274, and was crowned King of England on August 19, 1274.

Aftermath

Romantic portrayal of the "Last Crusader". Increasing Muslim victories and Christian defeats led to the end of the Crusades.

Edward had been accompanied by Theobald Visconti, who became Pope Gregory X in 1271. Gregory called for a new crusade at the Council of Lyons in 1274, but nothing came of this. Meanwhile, new fissures arose within the Christian states when Charles of Anjou took advantage of a dispute between Hugh III, the Knights Templar, and the Venetians in order to bring the remaining Christian state under his control. Having bought Mary of Antioch's claims to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, he attacked Hugh III, causing a civil war within the rump kingdom. In 1277 Roger of San Severino captured Acre for Charles.

Although the internecine war within the crusaders' ranks had proven debilitating, it provided the opportunity for a single commander to take control of the crusade in the person of Charles. However, this hope was dashed when Venice suggested a crusade be called not against the Mamluks but against Constantinople, where Michael VIII had recently re-established the Byzantine Empire and driven out the Venetians. Pope Gregory would not have supported such an attack, but in 1281 Pope Martin IV assented to it; the ensuing fiasco helped lead to the Sicilian Vespers on March 31, 1282, instigated by Michael VIII, and Charles was forced to return home. This was the last expedition launched against the Byzantines in Europe or the Muslims in the Holy Land.

The remaining nine years saw an increase in demands from the Mamluks, including tribute, as well as increased persecution of pilgrims, all in contravention of the truce. In 1289, Sultan Qalawun gathered a large army and invested the remnants of the county of Tripoli, ultimately, laying siege to the capital and taking it after a bloody assault. The attack on Tripoli however was particularly devastating to the Mamluks as the Christian resistance reached fanatical proportions and Qalawun lost his eldest and most able son in the campaign. He waited another two years to regather his strength.

In 1291, a group of pilgrims from Acre came under attack and in retaliation killed nineteen Muslim merchants in a Syrian caravan.^{[citation needed]} Qalawun demanded they pay an extraordinary amount in compensation. When no reply came, the Sultan used it as a pretext to besiege Acre, and finish off the last independent Crusader state occupying the Holy Land. Qalawun died during the siege,^{[citation needed]} leaving Khalil, the sole surviving member of his family, as Mamluk Sultan. With Acre seized, the Crusader States ceased to exist. The center of power of the Crusaders was moved northwards to Tortosa, and eventually offshore to Cyprus. In 1299, a Mongol army, led by Ghazan Khan, led a series of successful raids against the Mamluks in an area northeast of Homs, to as far south into Gaza. He, finally, withdrew from Syria, in 1300. The Mongols, and their Cilician Armenian allies, led another campaign to recapture Syria, but were soon defeated by the Mamluks at the Battle of Shaqhab, in 1303. The last remaining foothold on the Holy Land, Ruad Island, was lost in 1302/1303. The period of the Crusades to the Holy Land was over, after 208 years since Pope Urban II had called for the first of these holy wars.

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Notes

1.     ^ The Gospel in All Lands, Methodist Episcopal Church Missionary Society, Methodist Episcopal Church, p. 262

2.     ^ A Manual of Church History, Albert Henry Newman, p. 461

3.     ^ Histoire des Croisades III, René Grousset, p. 653. Grousset quotes a contemporary source ("Eracles", p. 461) explaining that Edward contacted the Mongols "por querre secors" ("To ask for help").

4.     ^ Histoire des Croisades III, René Grousset, p. 653.

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References

▪    "Histoire des Croisades III", René Grousset

October 1273

Death of Baldwin II, the last emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Baldwin's reign had effectively ended when Michael VIII Palaeologus recaptured Constantinople in 1261, but European leaders continued to recognize his claim. Once he dies, however, the Latin Empire of Constantinople also ceases to exist.

1274

Mongols, led by Kublai Khan, attempted to invade Japan.

May 07, 1274

In France the Second Council of Lyons opens.

May 18, 1274

The Second Council of Lyon issues its Crusade decree, Constitutiones Pro Zelo Fidei. At this same Council Michael VIII Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor, agreed to a unification of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Churches.

July 01, 1277

Baibars, Sultan of Egypt, dies.

September 1277

With the arrival of the Vicar of Charles of Anjou in Acre, the Kingdom of Jerusalem is split.

1279

Syrian leader Qalawun succeeds Baibars as Sultan of Egypt.

1280

Eyeglasses are invented and later improved upon in the late medieval period.

1281

Qalawun, Sultan of Egypt, defeats a Mongol army near Homs.

1283 - 1302

A Crusade against Sicilians and Aragonese is launched.

1284

The Teutonic Knights complete their conquest of Prussia, eliminating the local Prussian population as an independent ethnic group. The Prussians would be assimilated by the Germans, Poles, and Lithuanians while the Prussian name would be adopted by the Germans for themselves.

1285

French forces launch a Crusade against Aragon.

June 04, 1286

The Kingdom of Jerusalem is reunited under the rule of King Henry II of Cyprus.

April 26, 1289

Mamluks from Egypt capture the city of Tripoli.

1290

Margaret, Maid of Norway, dies and leaves a struggle for the throne of Scotland - 13 people claim title of King.

1290

Qalawun, Sultan of Egypt, dies and is succeeded by his son, Al-Ashraf Khalil.

May 18, 1291

Acre, the last territory in Palestine taken by the first Crusaders, falls to invading Muslim forces. Around 60,000 Christians are believed to have perished. This is the end of a Christian military presence in the Near East and the task of spreading Christianity is left to friars who preach among the people.

July 1291

The Mamluks capture Beirut and Sidon.

August 1291

Crusaders are forced to evacuate their fortresses at Tortosa and Chateau Pelerin.

1292

Birth of John VI Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor who would allow Turkish military forces to first cross into Europe in order to get their aid against a rival for the Byzantine throne.

1295

Mongol leader Ghazan Khan converts to Islam, ending the line of Tantric Buddhist rulers.

1296

Edward I of England deposes John Balliol from the Scottish throne, taking control of Scotland.

1297

At the Battle of Cambuskenneth, Scottish patriot William Wallace defeats an English army.

1298

The longbow revolutionizes warfare at the Battle of Falkirk.

1299

The city of Venice signs a peace treaty with the Turks.

1299 - 1326

Reign of Othman, founder of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. He defeats the Seljuks.

1300

The last Muslims in Sicily are forcibly converted to Christianity. Although Sicily had been reconquered by the Normans in 1098, Muslims had been allowed to continue to practice their faith and even formed important elements of various Sicilian military forces.