A History of the Crusades-Vol 3 (22 page)

1220: Pelagius hopes for Allies

The future government of Damietta had next
to be decided. King John at once claimed that it should be part of the kingdom
of Jerusalem; and the Military Orders as well as the lay nobility were on his
side. Pelagius maintained that the conquered city belonged to all Christendom,
that is, to the Church. But, with public opinion against him, and with John
threatening to sail back to Acre, he compromised. The King could govern it till
Frederick of Germany joined the Crusade. Meanwhile part of the army had been
sent to attack Tanis, on the Tanitic mouth of the Nile, a few miles to the
east. The town was deserted by its frightened garrison; and the Crusaders
returned with further booty, which only led to further quarrels. The Italians
in particular believed that they had been cheated and, when Pelagius would not
support them, broke into active revolt. The Military Orders had to drive them
from the city. When winter came the whole victorious army was smouldering with
discontent.

Pelagius in his first elation foresaw the
final destruction of Islam. The Crusade would conquer all Egypt. Help would no
doubt come from that gallant Christian potentate, the King of Georgia. Then
there was Prester John, who was waiting, rumour said, to strike a new blow for
Christendom. He had believed at first that Prester John was the Negus of
Ethiopia, who, however, had never replied, to a letter from the Pope written
forty years before. But now there was a new candidate for the role, an Eastern
potentate whose name was Jenghiz Khan. Unfortunately the intended allies did
not work together. In 1220 King George of Georgia’s army was routed by Jenghiz
Khan’s Mongols on the borders of Azerbaijan, and the great military power built
up by Queen Thamar was destroyed. The victors showed no interest in attacking
the Ayubite empire. More serious co-operation was expected from the greatest
potentate of Western Europe, Frederick, King of Germany and Sicily.

Frederick had taken the Cross in 1215; but
Pope Innocent granted him leave to postpone the Crusade till he had put the
affairs of Germany in order. Frederick still delayed. He had promised the
Papacy to hand over the throne of Sicily, to which he had succeeded as a boy,
to his young son Henry. But he soon discovered that by reiterating his
determination to go Crusading, he could defer the division of his kingdoms and
could bargain for his imperial coronation by the Pope. His desire to go to the
East was genuine, though ambition rather than piety was its motive. He had
inherited his father Henry VI’s Eastern aspirations, but he would not try to
realize them except as Emperor, with his European kingdoms secure in his grasp.
His intentions should have been clear to the Pope. But Honorius, who had once
been his tutor, was a simple man who regarded his promises as genuine and
continued to send messages to the Crusaders in Egypt telling them to expect the
Hohenstaufen army.

The Crusade therefore stood still; and
during its inaction the quarrels between Pelagius, King John, the Italians and
the Military Orders intensified. A march on Cairo immediately after the fall of
Damietta might have succeeded. Al-Kamil was in a desperate position. His army
was discouraged. His subjects were starving. Al-Mu’azzam insisted on taking his
forces back to Syria, fearing trouble in the north and believing that Islam
could best be helped now by an attack on Acre itself. Expecting every day to
hear of a Christian advance, al-Kamil established his camp at Talkha, a few
miles up the Damietta branch of the Nile, and threw up fortifications on either
side of the river to await an offensive that never came.

1220: King John leaves the Army

Leo II, King of Armenia, died in the early
summer of 1219, leaving only two daughters. The elder, Stephanie, was the wife
of John of Brienne; the younger, Isabella, daughter of Princess Sibylla of
Cyprus and Jerusalem, was four years old. Leo had promised the succession to
his nephew Raymond-Roupen of Antioch, but on his death-bed he named Isabella as
his heir. John at once put in a claim on behalf of his wife and their infant
son, and in February 1220 he received the Pope’s permission to leave the
Crusade and visit Armenia. He was on such bad terms with Pelagius that there
was little point in his remaining with the army, over which the Pope now
unequivocally gave Pelagius full command. John left for Acre. As he prepared to
sail for Cilicia his Armenian wife died, it was rumoured through his own
ill-treatment. When their small son died a few weeks later, John had no further
claim on the Armenian throne. But he did not return to Egypt. In March al-Mu’azzam
invaded the kingdom, attacking the castle of Caesarea, which had just been
rebuilt, then moving to lay siege to the Templar stronghold of Athlit. Templar
knights were rushed back from Damietta, and King John kept his army in the
offing. The siege lasted till November when al-Mu’azzam retired to Damascus.

Meanwhile the Crusade remained stationary
at Damietta. There was some attempt to rebuild the town. On the Feast of the
Purification in February the chief mosque was rededicated as the Cathedral of
the Virgin. In March a company of Italian prelates arrived, led by the
Archbishop of Milan, and accompanied by two envoys from Frederick II. They
brought considerable forces and at once agreed with Pelagius that an offensive
should be launched. But the knights would not agree. King John, they said, was
the only leader whom all the nations would obey; and he was absent. When in
July Matthew, Count of Apulia, brought eight galleys sent by Frederick Pelagius
again vainly urged action. Even his own Italian mercenaries turned against him
when he suggested a separate expedition. The only enterprise to be undertaken
was a raid by the Military Knights on the town of Burlos, twenty miles west of
Damietta. The town was pillaged, but the knights were ambushed on their return
and several Hospitallers, including their Marshal, captured.

Al-Kamil had by now recovered confidence.
Though he was still short of land-forces, he repaired his navy, and in the
summer of
1220
sent out a squadron down the
Rosetta branch of the Nile. It sailed to Cyprus, where it found a Crusader
fleet lying off Limassol and by a sudden attack sank or captured all the ships,
taking many thousands of prisoners. It was said that Pelagius had been warned
of the preparations made by the Egyptian sailors but had ignored the warning.
When it was too late he sent a Venetian squadron to intercept the enemy and
attack the harbours of Rosetta and Alexandria, but to no effect. Lack of money
prevented him from maintaining a sufficient number of ships of his own; and the
Papal treasury could not spare him any more.

In September more of the Crusaders
returned home. But at the end of the year Pope Honorius sent good news.
Frederick had come to Rome in November
1220,
and the Pope had crowned him and his wife
Constance Emperor and Empress. In return Frederick definitely promised to set
out for the East next spring. Honorius had been growing distrustful of
Frederick’s promises, and even advised Pelagius not to turn down any peace
proposition from the Sultan without referring it to Rome. But the new Emperor
seemed now to be serious. He actively encouraged his subjects to take the
Cross, and he dispatched a large contingent under Louis, Duke of Bavaria, which
set sail from Italy early in the spring.

The news of the Duke’s approach so greatly
elated Pelagius that when the Sultan offered peace terms in June, he forgot the
Pope’s instruction and refused them, only then reporting them to Rome. Al-Kamil
once again had proposed the cession of Jerusalem and all Palestine apart from
Oultrejourdain, together with a thirty years’ truce and money compensation for
the dismantling of Jerusalem. Soon after the terms were rejected, Louis of
Bavaria arrived.

1221: The Crusaders Advance

Frederick had ordered Louis not to launch
any major offensive till he should follow himself. But Louis was eager to
attack the infidel; and when after five weeks there was no news of Frederick leaving
Europe, he fell in with Pelagius’s wishes. When the Duke argued that if the
reinforced army was to advance into Egypt it must do so at once, for the time
of the Nile floods was near, and when the Legate declared that the army’s
finances necessitated speedy action, the leading Crusaders were convinced. They
only insisted that King John be summoned to play his part. There were a few
dissentients. The Queen-Regent of Cyprus wrote to Pelagius that a great Moslem
army was being formed in Syria by al-Mu’azzam and his brother al-Ashraf; and
the Military knights had the news confirmed by their brothers in Palestine. But
Pelagius found in it another argument for an immediate advance. He had heard
prophecies that the Sultan’s domination was soon to be ended.

On 4 July 1221, the Legate ordered a three
days’ fast in the camp. On the 6th King John arrived back with the knights of
his kingdom, full of pessimism but unwilling to be accused of cowardice. On the
12th the Crusading force moved towards Fariskur, and there Pelagius drew it up
in battle formation. It was an impressive host. Contemporaries told of 630
ships of various sizes, 5000 knights, 4000 archers and 40,000 infantrymen. A
horde of pilgrims marched with the army. They were ordered to keep close to the
river bank, to supply the soldiers with water. A large garrison was left at
Damietta.

The Moslem army advanced as far as
Sharimshah to meet them, but, seeing their numbers, retired behind the Bahr
as-Saghir, running from the river to Lake Manzaleh, and waited in prepared
positions at Talkha and at the site of the later Mansourah, on either side of
the river. By 20 July the Crusaders were in occupation of Sharimshah. King John
begged them to remain there. The Nile floods were due, and the Syrian army was
approaching. But Pelagius insisted on further advance, backed by the common
soldiers, who had heard a rumour that the Sultan had fled from Cairo. Just
south of Sharimshah a canal came into the river from another branch. The
Crusaders, as they pressed on, left no ships to guard its mouth, perhaps
because they thought it not to be navigable. By Saturday, 24 July, the whole
Christian army lay along the Bahr as-Saghir, facing the enemy.

The Nile had risen now, and the canal was
full and easy to defend. But before it had filled too deeply the armies of
al-Kamil’s brothers had crossed it near to Lake Manzaleh and established
themselves between the Crusaders and Damietta. As soon as there was enough
water in the canal by Sharimshah, al-Kamil’s ships sailed down it and cut the
retreat of the Christian fleet. By the middle of August Pelagius realized that
his army was outnumbered and completely surrounded, with food that would only
last for twenty days. After some argument the Bavarians persuaded the command
that the only chance of escape lay in an immediate retreat. On the night of Thursday,
26 August, the retreat began. It was ill-organized. Many of the soldiers could
not bear to abandon their stores of wine and drank them all rather than leave
them. They were in a stupor when the order came to move. The Teutonic knights
foolishly set fire to the stores that they could not carry, thus informing the
Moslems that they were abandoning their positions. The Nile was still rising;
and the Sultan or one of his lieutenants gave orders that the sluices along the
right bank should be opened. The water poured in over the low-lying lands that
the Christians had to cross. They floundered through the muddy pools and
ditches, closely pursued by the Sultan’s Turkish cavalry and Nubian
foot-guards. King John and his knights beat off the former and the Military
Knights drove back the Nubians, but only after thousands of the infantrymen and
pilgrims had perished. Pelagius on his ship was carried by the floodwaters
swiftly past the blockading Egyptian fleet; but as he had with him the medical
supplies of the army and much of its food, his escape was a disaster. A few
other ships escaped, but many were captured.

1221: Pelagius sues for Peace

On Saturday the 28th Pelagius gave up
hope, and sent an envoy to the Sultan to treat for peace. He still had some
bargaining assets. Damietta had been refortified and was well garrisoned and
supplied with arms; and a strong naval squadron was in the offing under Henry,
Count of Malta, and Walter of Palear, Chancellor of Sicily, sent by the Emperor
Frederick. But al-Kamil knew that he had the main Crusading army at his mercy.
He was firm but generous. After wrangling over the week-end, on the Monday
Pelagius accepted his terms. The Christians would abandon Damietta and observe
an eight years’ truce, to be confirmed by the Emperor. There would be an
exchange of all prisoners on either side. The Sultan for his part would give
back the True Cross. Till Damietta should be surrendered the Crusade must hand
over its leaders as hostages. Al-Kamil named Pelagius, King John, the Duke of
Bavaria, the Masters of the Orders and eighteen others, Counts and Bishops. He
sent in return one of his sons, one of his brothers and a number of young
emirs.

When the Masters of the Templars and the
Teutonic knights were dispatched to Damietta to announce its surrender, the
garrison at first rebelled against the decree, and attacked the houses of King
John and the Orders. Henry, Count of Malta, had just arrived with forty ships;
and they felt strong enough to defy the enemy. But winter was coming and food
was short; their leaders were hostages and the Moslems were threatening to
march on Acre. The rebels soon gave way. After al-Kamil had entertained King
John at a splendid feast and had freely revictualled the Christian army the
hostages were exchanged back; and on Wednesday, 8 September, the whole Crusade
embarked on its ships and the Sultan entered Damietta.