Guillaume de Sonnac

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grand Master's coat of arms Guillaumes de Sonnac

Guillaume de Sonnac , also Guillaume de Saunhac († February 11, 1250 at the Battle of al-Mansura ) was the eighteenth Grand Master of the Templar Order from 1247 until his death .

He was a French nobleman from the Rouergue region . Before being elected Grand Master, he was Master of the Templar Order Province of Aquitaine .

Under his leadership, the Knights Templar took part in the Sixth Crusade under the French King Louis IX. part. The Grand Master joined the main army of the king in Cyprus in September 1248 with his contingent of Knights Templar . After the king gave Egypt as a destination, Sonnac and the Grand Master of the Hospitallers were able to persuade the king to spend the winter in Cyprus, pointing out that a landing in the Nile Delta during the winter was too risky. The attempt to move the king to a train to Syria in order to take advantage of the Ayyubid intra-dynastic conflicts failed after a sharp objection by King Ludwig, who disliked the diplomatic contacts between the Templars and the Sultan of Egypt.

After the successful capture of Damiette (June 1249) the Templars were subordinate to the advance guard of Count Robert I of Artois , a brother of the king, on the march to Cairo . When the vanguard successfully crossed a branch of the Nile in front of the city of al-Mansura on February 8, 1250 and was able to defeat an Egyptian army on the other bank of the river, the count ordered an immediate attack on the city, the gates of which were open. Sonnac and William Longespée tried to keep the count from it, since the main army under the king had not yet crossed the Nile, but Count Robert could not be stopped and urged the Templars to attack after he had expressed doubts about their courage. The attack led the vanguard into a trap, the knights were killed in the narrow streets of the city by the Mamluk warriors. The Temple Grand Master was one of the few knights who could fight their way out of the city; he suffered severe wounds like an arrow hit in the eye.

Despite the serious injury, the Grand Master took part in the subsequent battle in front of the city on February 11th. The Mamluks launched an attack on the crusader army, which had now completely crossed the river. In battle, Sonnac went completely blind after another hit in his second eye and was killed thereupon. After Joinville's words , the Grand Master no longer saw the ground on which he fell. Despite the victory, the crusaders were so weak in personnel that they had to break off the siege of Mansura a month later.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The chronicler Matthäus Paris took Sonnac's hesitant behavior before al-Mansura as an opportunity to assume that the Templars had selfish goals in Egypt. Allegedly, they had planned to establish their own rule there, which would no longer have been possible due to a loss-making attack on the city. - Matthew Paris: Chronica Majora , vol. 4
  2. ↑ In the later Templar Trial in 1309, Grand Master Jacques de Molay claimed the story of the attack on al-Mansura as proof of the religious faith of the order, which had fought in the forefront there. For the defeat he blamed the Count of Artois, who had not listened to the advice of Grand Master Sonnac. - Procès , volume 1
  3. ^ Jean de Joinville: Vie de Saint Louis
  4. ↑ Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades ; Book XIII, Chapter II
predecessor Office successor
Richard de Bures Grand Master of the Knights Templar
1247–1250 		Renaud de Vichiers
personal data
SURNAME Guillaume de Sonnac
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guillaume de Saunhac
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Grand Master of the Templar Order
DATE OF BIRTH 12th century or 13th century
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1250
Place of death at al-Mansura