A History of the Crusades-Vol 3 (37 page)

1250: Louis in Prison

The Egyptians were at first embarrassed by
the numbers of their prisoners. Finding it impossible to guard them all, those
that were too feeble to march were executed at once, and on every evening for a
week three hundred were taken out and decapitated, by the Sultan’s own orders.
King Louis was moved from his sick-bed and lodged, in chains, in a private
house in Mansourah. The leading barons were kept together in a larger prison.
Their captors would constantly threaten them with death, but had in fact no
intention of slaying anyone who might bring in a good ransom. Joinville, who
was on board one of the captured ships, saved his own and his comrades’ lives
by letting it be understood that he was the King’s cousin; and when the
Egyptian admiral questioned him about it and learned that it was untrue but
that in fact he was a cousin of the Emperor Frederick, his reputation was
greatly enhanced.

Indeed, the prestige of the infidel
Emperor did much to ease the situation of the Crusaders. When Louis in his
prison was ordered by the Sultan to cede not only Damietta but all the Frankish
lands in Syria, he replied that they belonged not to him but to King Conrad,
the Emperor’s son, and only the Emperor could give them away. The Moslems at
once dropped the suggestion. But the terms that they exacted from the King were
harsh enough. He was to ransom himself by the cession of Damietta, and his army
by the payment of 500,000 pounds
tournois,
that is to say, a million
besants. It was a vast sum; but the prisoners to be released were very
numerous. As soon as the terms were agreed, the King and the chief barons were
taken on board galleys, which sailed down the river to Fariskur, where the
Sultan took up his residence. It was arranged that they should go on to
Damietta and the city be handed over two days later, on 30 April.

It was only through the fortitude of Queen
Margaret that the bargain could be made at all. When the King left her to march
on Mansourah she had been about to bear a child; and the child was born, with
an octogenarian knight as midwife, three days after the news came of the
surrender of the army. She called her little son John Tristan, the child of
sorrow. That same day she heard that the Pisans and Genoese were planning to
evacuate Damietta, as there was insufficient food left to feed the inhabitants.
She knew that she could not hold Damietta without the aid of the Italians and
she summoned their leaders to her bedside to plead with them; for if Damietta
were abandoned there would be nothing to offer in return for the release of the
King. When she proposed herself buying up all the food in the city and seeing
to its distribution, they agreed to stay. The purchase cost her more than
360,000 pounds, but it saved the morale of the city. As soon as she was well
enough to travel, her staff insisted on moving her by sea to Acre, while the
Patriarch Robert went with a safe-conduct to the Sultan, to Fariskur, to
complete the arrangements for the ransom.

He arrived there to find the Sultan dead.
There had been some delay over the final negotiations; and on Monday, 2 May,
Turanshah and his captives were still at Fariskur. That day he gave a banquet
to his emirs. But he had lost the support of the Mameluks. This great army
corps of Turkish and Circassian slaves had grown in importance and power during
the reign of Ayub, whose favour had been rewarded by their loyalty; and their
support of the Sultana Shajar ad-Durr had preserved the throne for Turanshah.
But now, as victor over the Franks, he felt himself strong enough to fill the
government with favourites from the Jezireh; and when the Mameluks protested he
answered with drunken threats. At the same time he offended his stepmother by
claiming from her property that had belonged to his father. She wrote at once
to the Mameluk commanders to protect her.

1250: Murder of Turanshah

As Turanshah rose to leave his banquet on
2 May, soldiers of the Bahrid regiment of Mameluks, with Baibars Bundukdari at
their head, burst in and began, Baibars first of all, to slash at the Sultan
with their swords. He fled wounded to a wooden tower beside the river. When the
soldiers followed and set it alight, he leapt into the Nile and there, standing
in the water, he begged for mercy, offering to abdicate and go back to the
Jezireh. No one answered his appeal. After a volley of arrows had failed to
kill him, Baibars leapt down the bank and finished him off with his sabre. For
three days the mutilated body lay unburied. Eventually the ambassador of the
Caliph of Baghdad obtained leave to commit it to a simple tomb. The triumphant
conspirators appointed the senior Mameluk commander, Izz ad-Din Aibek, as
generalissimo and regent; and he married the Dowager Sultana, Shajar ad-Durr,
who represented legitimacy. An infant cousin of the late Sultan, al-Ashraf
Musa, was later produced and proclaimed co-Sultan, only to be deposed four
years later. His ultimate fate is unknown.

When the aged Patriarch arrived from
Damietta with a safe-conduct signed by Turanshah, the new government feigned to
regard it as valueless and treated him as a prisoner. Some Mameluks appeared
before King Louis with blood still on their swords, claiming money from him for
having slain his enemy. Others with a grim sense of fun brandished their swords
in the faces of the captive barons. Joinville was frankly terrified. But the
Mameluks had no intention of forgoing the huge ransom. They confirmed the previous
terms. When Damietta was surrendered, the King and the nobles would be
released, but the ordinary soldiers, some of whom had been taken to Cairo,
would have to await the payment of the money, which was reduced to 400,000
pounds
tournois,
half to be paid at Damietta and half when the King
arrived at Acre. When the King was asked to swear that if he failed in his
bargain he would renounce Christ, he firmly refused. Throughout his captivity
his dignity and integrity deeply impressed his captors, some of whom jestingly
proposed that he should be their next Sultan.

On Friday, 6 May 1250, Geoffrey of
Sargines went to Damietta and handed the fortress over to the Moslem vanguard.
The King and the nobles were brought there that afternoon; and Louis set about
finding money for the first instalment of the ransom. But the money in his own
coffers came only to 170,000 pounds. Till the remainder was found, the
Egyptians held back the King’s brother, Alfonso of Poitou. The Templars were
known to have large stocks of money in their chief galley; but it was only when
they were threatened with violence that they agreed to disgorge what was
required. When the whole sum was handed over to the Egyptians the Count of
Poitou was set free. That evening the King and the barons set sail for Acre,
where they arrived six days later, after a stormy voyage. Neither clothes nor
bedding had been made ready for the King on his ship. He was obliged to wear
the robes and sleep on the mattress that he had used in prison.

Many wounded soldiers had been left behind
at Damietta. Contrary to their promise the Moslems massacred them all.

1250: Louis Remains in Outremer

Soon after his arrival at Acre Louis took
counsel of his vassals about his future plans. His mother had written to him
from France to urge his speedy return. King Henry of England was said to be on
the war-path, and there were many other urgent problems. But he felt that he
himself was needed in Outremer. The disaster of the Egyptian campaign had not
only destroyed a French army, but it had robbed Outremer of almost all its
troops. Moreover it was his duty to remain at hand till the last of the
prisoners in Egypt was released. The King’s brothers and the Count of Flanders
advised him to return to France. But in fact his mind was made up. On 3 July he
publicly announced his decision. His brothers and any who wished should go
home, but he would stay, and would take into his personal service all those,
such as Joinville, who were willing to stay with him. A letter was sent to the
barons of France explaining his decision and begging for reinforcements for the
Crusade. He had felt bitterly the failure of his great effort. It was all very
well for him to declare that the catastrophe was a sign of God’s grace, sent to
teach him humility, but he must have reflected that he had paid for the
privilege of that lesson with the loss of many thousands of innocent lives.

The King’s brothers, together with the
leading nobles of the Crusade, sailed from Acre about the middle of July. They
left behind all the money that they could spare but only about 1400 men. The
Queen remained with the King. He was at once accepted as
de facto
ruler
of the kingdom. The throne still belonged legitimately to Conrad of Germany;
but it was obvious that Conrad would never now come to the East. On Alice’s
death the regency passed to her son, King Henry of Cyprus, who had nominated
his cousin, John of Arsuf, as
bailli.
He gladly handed over the
government to Louis.

The departure of his French vassals
permitted Louis to listen more readily to advice. His experience had broadened
his mind, and his lack of armed force taught him the need for diplomatic
relations with the infidel. Some of his friends found him too ready to follow a
poulain policy; but he was wise to do so and the moment was favourable for
diplomacy. The Mameluk revolution in Egypt had not been well received in Moslem
Syria, where loyalty to the Ayubites persisted. When the news came of Turanshah’s
death, an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo marched down from Horns and on 9 July 1250,
occupied Damascus, where he was enthusiastically welcomed as the great-grandson
of Saladin. Once more there was bitter rivalry between Cairo and Damascus, and
both courts were eager to buy Frankish aid. Hardly had Louis arrived at Acre
before an embassy came there from an-Nasir Yusuf. But Louis would not commit
himself. The Damascene alliance might be strategically preferable, but he had
to think of the Frankish prisoners still in Egypt.

In the winter of 1250 the army of Damascus
began an invasion of Egypt. On 2 February 1251, it met the Egyptian army under
Aibek at Abbasa, in the Delta, twelve miles east of the modern Zagazig. The
Syrians were at first successful, though Aibek’s own regiment held firm; but a
regiment of Mameluks in an-Nasir Yusuf’s army deserted his cause in the midst
of the battle. The Sultan, whose courage was not remarkable, thereupon turned
and fled. The Mameluk power in Egypt was saved. But the Ayubites still held
Palestine and Syria. When an-Nasir Yusuf next sent to Acre hinting that he
might cede Jerusalem in return for Frankish help, Louis sent an embassy to
Cairo to warn Aibek that unless the question of the Frankish prisoners was soon
settled he would ally himself with Damascus. His ambassador, John of
Valenciennes, succeeded in the course of two visits in securing first the
release of the knights, including the Grand Master of the Hospital, taken in
1244 at Gaza, and then some 3000 of the more recent captives, in return for 300
Moslem captives in Frankish hands. Aibek showed his growing anxiety to make
friends with the King by sending him, with the second batch, the gift of an
elephant and a zebra. Louis was then emboldened to demand the release of all
the prisoners remaining in Mameluk hands without any further payment. When Aibek
realized that an envoy from Louis, the Arabic-speaking Yves the Breton, was
visiting the Court of Damascus, he consented to the King’s request, in return
for a military alliance against an-Nasir Yusuf. He further promised that when
the Mameluks had occupied Palestine and Damascus, they would return the whole
of the old Kingdom of Jerusalem as far east as the Jordan to the Christians.
Louis agreed; and the prisoners were all released at the end of March 1252. The
treaty had nearly been wrecked by the Templars’ refusal to break off relations
with Damascus. The King was obliged to rebuke them publicly and demand a humble
apology.

1253: The Caliph makes Peace between the Moslem Princes

The Franco-Mameluk alliance came to
nothing. As soon as he heard of it, an-Nasir Yusuf sent troops to Gaza, to
intercept a junction between the allies. Louis moved down to Jaffa; but the
Mameluks failed to advance out of Egypt. For about a year the Syrians and the
Franks remained stationary, neither wishing to provoke a battle. Meanwhile
Louis repaired the fortifications of Jaffa. He had already strengthened those
of Acre, Haifa and Caesarea. Early in 1253 an-Nasir Yusuf appealed to Baghdad
to mediate between him and the Mameluks. The Caliph, al-Mustasim, was anxious
to unite the Moslem world against the Mongols. He induced Aibek, who recognized
his nominal suzerainty, to accept an-Nasir Yusuf’s terms. Aibek should be
accepted as ruler of Egypt and should be allowed to annex Palestine up to
Galilee on the north and the Jordan on the east. The peace was signed in April
1253; and Aibek’s arrangement with the Franks was forgotten.

The Damascene army travelled home from
Gaza through Frankish territory, raiding as it came. The cities were too strong
to be attacked, except for Sidon, whose walls were being reconstructed. Though
they made no attempt against the castle on its little island, they sacked the
town and retired laden with booty and prisoners. King Louis retaliated by
sending an expedition to raid Banyas, but with no success. Fortunately for
Outremer, neither Aibek nor an-Nasir Yusuf showed any more serious desire for
war.

Their restraint was largely due to the
presence of the King of France in the East. Though his military record had been
disastrous, his personality made a definite impression. It was as well; for in
December 1250, the Emperor Frederick, whose name still carried weight in Moslem
circles, died in Italy. His son Conrad inherited none of his prestige. Louis
was, moreover, far more successful in handling the inhabitants of Outremer than
Frederick had been, for he was tactful and disinterested. His value was shown
by his intervention in the Principality of Antioch. Bohemond V died in January
1252, leaving two children, a daughter, Plaisance, who had married a few months
before, as his third wife, the childless King Henry of Cyprus, and a son,
Bohemond, aged fifteen, who succeeded under the regency of the Dowager
Princess, the Italian Lucienne. Lucienne was a feckless woman, who never left
Tripoli and handed the government of the Principality to her Roman relatives.
Bohemond VI was soon conscious that his mother was unpopular, and, with Louis’s
approval, obtained permission from the Pope to come of age a few months before
the legal date. When Innocent IV agreed, Bohemond came to Acre where he was
knighted by the King. Lucienne was removed from power, and compensated with a
handsome income. At the same time Louis completed the reconciliation of the
Court of Antioch with that of Armenia. Bohemond V in his later years had
entered into relations with King Hethoum; but for him the past was too full of
bitter memories. Bohemond VI bore no such rancour. In 1254, on Louis’s
suggestion, he married Hethoum’s daughter Sibylla; and he became to some degree
his father-in-law’s vassal. The Armenians agreed to share in the responsibility
for the protection of Antioch.