Crusade of the Barons
| date | July 1239 to May 1241 |
|---|---|
| place | Palestine , Lebanon |
| output | Territorial gains for the Crusader States |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
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| Commander | |
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al-Adil Abu Bakr II |
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| Troop strength | |
| 4000 | unknown |
The crusade of the barons in the years from 1239 to 1241 was a campaign sponsored by the church to the holy land to relieve the crusader states in the fight against the neighboring rulers of the Ayyubids . The crusade involved two crusade companies, the Theobald's Crusade of Champagne and the Richard's Crusade of Cornwall .
The designation of the two undertakings as the barons' crusade stems from the fact that a large number of nobles from France and England who were not led by a monarch took part.
Although the end of the two moves saw the greatest territorial gains for the Christian crusader states since the First Crusade (1099), the crusade of the barons is not included in the traditional count of the crusades. Chronologically, it is to be classified between the Fifth (1217-1229) and the Sixth Crusade (1248-1250). What is unusual about this crusade is that its positive outcome was not based on spectacular battles or skillful diplomacy, but was mainly due to the disagreements among the Muslim leaders.
prehistory
Due to the marriage of the heiress to the throne of Jerusalem Isabella von Brienne with Emperor Frederick II , the latter had the title of king of Jerusalem from 1225. During his controversial crusade , Frederick concluded the Jaffa peace treaty with the Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt and Syria , al-Kamil Muhammad I , through which the Christians came into possession of the city of Jerusalem without a fight . Because the emperor was punished by excommunication at the time and the Pope condemned his crusade, the Treaty of Jaffa was not recognized by either the church or the Barons Outremers . Only when Pope Gregory IX. and Emperor Frederick II temporarily settled their disputes in the second treaty of San Germano in July 1230 and the excommunication was lifted, the agreement became binding for the crusader states and the 10-year armistice agreed therein was recognized.
Call and preparations
The ceasefire agreed in Jaffa was supposed to end in August 1239, so that it was already foreseeable that the Kingdom of Jerusalem would need military support from Europe against the Muslims at that time. In September 1234 Pope Gregory IX called. therefore with a letter the people of England on a new crusade to the Holy Land. In November 1234, a crusade appeal to the people of France followed . The entire clergy was required to preach the crusade. As with the Fifth Crusade , the Pope promised indulgences not only to those who took part in the crusade, but also to those who took part in the costs without traveling themselves.
In the crusade sermon, the Pope relied in particular on the Dominican Order , which was able to act largely independently of the Roman directives and local conditions and interests, so that centralized control of recruitment was possible. One organizational problem, however, was that crusade companies in the Latin Empire of Constantinople, in Spain and against the Prussians in the Baltic States were to be advertised at the same time , so that resources had to be allocated, which did not always go smoothly as not all companies were equally attractive were. The sermon for the overseas crusade was so successful that the Pope had to order the prelates of France in September 1235 to ensure that the departure did not occur earlier than July 1239.
Although the number of volunteers was great and the some time ago ended crusade against the heretic movement of the Albigenses in southern France tied no more funding, but funding remained problematic. The church therefore levied special taxes and collections. Individual dioceses ever assigned a cross knight-errant, be collected for its equipment had.
Theobald's crusade
Departure
While the monarchs of France and England were not ready to lead the crusade for political reasons, the nobility in both countries continued to be very receptive to the idea of a crusade. Although in the pontificate of Gregory IX. Numerous other crusade companies were ecclesiastically placed on the same level or in part as the trip to Jerusalem, the train to the Holy Land was still considered particularly attractive by the addressees. In France in particular, a large number of barons felt motivated to go on an “armed pilgrimage”. Some of the barons who took the cross had been involved in a failed uprising against the reign of the Queen Mother, Blanka of Castile , in previous years and were urged by the French clergy to perform penance in the form of participation in the crusade.
In July 1239, a large army assembled in Lyon , consisting of French knights under the leadership of important barons, including Peter Mauclerc , the former Duke of Brittany, Count Theobald IV of Champagne , who as Theobald I was also King of Navarre from 1234 , Duke Hugo IV of Burgundy , Count Amalrich VII of Montfort , who was also a Connétable of France , Count Heinrich II of Bar and many others.
The French initially planned to move to Apulia and set sail from Brindisi in the direction of Outremer. However, the political situation in Italy had changed in the summer months after Emperor Frederick II was banned again in May 1239 and the ongoing conflict with the Pope came to a head again. The preparations for impending battles on both the papal and imperial sides prevented effective support for the crusade in Italy. The emperor closed the ports he controlled for a crossing to the Levant and the Pope withheld important financial resources. In this situation, the young King Ludwig IX intervened . from France , who ensured sufficient financial support for the company and opened the as yet undeveloped Mediterranean port of Aigues-Mortes to the crusaders. The majority of the participants nevertheless embarked in Marseille in the end , although this port belonged to the Reich territory . The passage turned out to be problematic as the fleet had dispersed in a storm and some ships were pushed to Sicily . Theobald von Navarra-Champagne reached Acre on September 1st, 1239 , where the rest of the fleet also arrived in the following days.
Crusade Council and Political Situation in Outremer
The decision to go ashore in Acre and not in Tire was made for political reasons. The rightful king of Jerusalem at that time was the child king Konrad II , for whom his father Emperor Friedrich II claimed the nominal reign. However, the nobility and clergy of Jerusalem, represented in the Haute Cour , had been in bitter opposition to the emperor ( Lombard war ) for years and denied him the right to rule. They had established their own government in Acre, while the imperial governor Richard Filangieri could only stay in Tire. Since they were already hindered by the emperor when they set out in Europe, the crusaders made a conscious decision to sail to Acre, as they could only expect serious support from the barons there.
Before the crusaders and the knights of the Kingdom of Jerusalem took up the fight against the Ayyubids, a joint council first negotiated the organization and planning of the warfare. Theobald von Champagne was chosen to lead the crusade because, as King of Navarre, he was the most senior of the crusaders. In the negotiations, the military support of the three great orders of knights could be won.
Due to the complex political conditions within the Ayyubid dynasty, it was far more difficult to select a suitable target. Since the death of Sultan al-Kamil Muhammad I in March 1238, there has been a constant fratricidal war between his family members for power in Egypt and Syria. Sultan al-Adil Abu Bakr II currently ruled in Cairo , but his governor in Damascus sympathized with his half-brother al-Salih Ayyub . He had attacked Jerusalem with his army in the weeks before and was now camped near Nablus , which is why the crusaders viewed him as the most dangerous enemy. Two other important opponents were the Lord of Kerak , an-Nasir Dawud , and the Lord of Baalbek , as-Salih Ismail . There were also Ayyubid emirs in Homs , Aleppo and Hama , each with their own political interests.
The situation changed in the September days when as-Salih Ayyub was extradited to an-Nasir Dawud in Kerak and imprisoned after a betrayal within his army. As-Salih Ismail took advantage of this immediately and seized the city of Damascus. Since an-Nasir Dawud himself had striven to rule Damascus, he now allied himself with al-Adil Abu Bakr II in order to take action against al-Salih Ismail.
The Council of the Crusaders was undecided, spent the whole of September and October in fruitless debates, and finally decided on November 2nd, 1239, to march south along the coast to rebuild the Citadel of Ashkelon . The crusader army at that time comprised about 4,000 knights, about half of whom were called up by the French barons, the other half by the barons Outremers and the order of knights. The Askalon Fortress was intended to provide cover for Jaffa County against attacks from Egypt. The crusaders intended to attack Damascus after securing the southern flank at Askalon.
Military failure
During the march south, Theobald's lack of authority as a military leader and a general lack of discipline within the army was revealed. On the way, Peter Mauclerc left with a troop in order to ambush a caravan moving to Damascus, where he made rich booty after a hard fight. He was modeled on the Counts of Bar, Montfort and Jaffa , as well as a few other leaders, after they heard in Jaffa of the Sultan of Egypt's army camped near Gaza . Contrary to the express orders of Theobald, who initially intended to lead the army as a single unit to Ascalon, a troop of around 400 knights withdrew to march immediately against the Egyptians. In the following battle of Gaza (November 13th) they suffered a crushing defeat, the Count of Bar fell, a large number of knights were captured and only a few managed to escape. When Theobald, called for help, reached the battlefield with the main army, the Egyptians withdrew to Gaza. He intended to pursue the enemy, but was held back by the Grand Masters of the Knightly Orders, who were concerned for the lives of the knights who had been captured. Theobald then moved with the main army to Askalon, where he set up camp. A few days later, the crusaders marched along the coast to Jaffa and then returned to Acre. The only success of this move was the withdrawal of the Muslim army to Egypt, which ruled out the sultan's intervention in Syria.
The reasons for the withdrawal of the crusaders are unclear: the losses had not decisively weakened the crusader army; the decisive factors were probably conflicts between the French crusaders on the one hand and the local barons and knightly orders on the other. The latter two were keen to protect their own possessions and not to unnecessarily challenge the Muslims. The Grand Masters of the Knightly Orders thought it nonsensical to pursue the Sultan's army into the Egyptian hinterland and thus risk the main army for the vague chance of freeing the prisoners. Also some local barons, especially the Ibelins and Odo von Montbéliard , were interested in resuming the civil war against the imperial governor in Tire soon.
The defeat of Gaza and even more the attack on his caravan provoked a reaction from an-Nasir Dawud, who occupied the inadequately secured Jerusalem and on December 7th also forced the abandonment of the Citadel of David. After allowing the Christian occupation to retreat freely, he destroyed the city's remaining defenses and then withdrew to Kerak.
Back in Akkon, Theobald received an offer of alliance from the Ayyubid emir of Hama, al-Muzaffar Mahmud, in the spring of 1240 . He was an enemy of as-Salih Ismail and hoped to be able to gain control over Damascus with the help of the Crusaders. Theobald then marched to Tripoli to unite with the emir's troops. At the last moment, however, the emir terminated the alliance after the emirs of Homs and Aleppo put pressure on him. Theobald was disappointed and had to march back to Akkon in May 1240. In the meantime the new Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Robert of Nantes , had arrived there.
Diplomatic successes
In the meantime, the situation on the Muslim side had changed again after an-Nasir Dawud had terminated the alliance with Sultan al-Adil Abu Bakr II of Egypt. An-Nasir Dawud had hoped to receive rule in Damascus from the Sultan if he had invaded Syria. Since the Sultan withdrew to Egypt after the Battle of Gaza, these ambitions had been disappointed. The Lord of Kerak therefore released his prisoner al-Salih Ayyub and allied himself with him against al-Adil. While both were marching on Cairo, the Sultan was overthrown by his own court ministers and as-Salih Ayyub was proclaimed the new Sultan of Egypt in June 1240.
Since the new sultan also claimed rule over Damascus in order to transfer it to an-Nasir Dawud, the local ruler as-Salih Ismail turned to Theobald and offered an alliance. At a face-to-face meeting in Sepphoris , the two of them agreed on a defensive alliance against the Sultan. While Theobald guaranteed the security of the southern border to Egypt through the Kingdom of Jerusalem, he received the castles Safed and Beaufort and the land in between from the Emir . Since the Emir of Damascus was indebted to the Templars , Safed was to be handed over to them as compensation, while the rule on Beaufort was transferred to Balian of Sidon .
The conditions were criticized on both sides. While the Imam of the Great Mosque of Damascus voluntarily went into exile in Cairo on the Muslim side, the favor of the Templars on the Christian side provoked the resentment of the Hospitaller Order. The Hospitallers contacted Sultan al-Salih Ayyub and negotiated a separate treaty with him on behalf of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. For the end of the alliance with the Lord of Damascus and an assurance of neutrality, the Sultan offered the release of the prisoners from Gaza and the surrender of Ascalon. The Grand Master of the Hospitallers signed this pact with the Sultan's envoys in Askalon.
Again there was movement in the power relations of the Ayyubids, which in turn benefited the Christians. An-Nasir Dawud had given up his alliance with as-Salih Ayyub after he was not ready to support him in his ambitions in Damascus either. In order to protect himself against his two cousins in Damascus and Cairo, an-Nasir Dawud sought his own compromise with the Christians and wanted to win them over as allies. In August 1240 he therefore left them the eastern Galilee , which he had previously taken from al-Salih Ismail, including the castles of Tiberias and Tabor .
Theobald's departure
The large territorial gains achieved by the treaties on the part of the Christians led to tensions among themselves. While the Templars and the majority of the barons advocated an alliance with Damascus, which had traditionally been an ally against Egypt, the Hospitallers favored the treaty they had negotiated with Cairo. Theobald himself dropped the treaty he had negotiated with Damascus and recognized the agreement with Egypt, which he made for even more confusion and discord among Christians. At the same time, this messing threatened to provoke a break with both Damascus and Cairo.
Theobald finally moved with his army to Askalon in order to finally begin repairing the derelict defensive works. After the commitment period of his crusade vow had expired and tired of the ongoing political turmoil, he, as the last Christian king of the Middle Ages at all, paid a short pilgrimage to the holy places in Jerusalem together with Peter Mauclerc and at the beginning of September 1240 broke off in Acre with most of the crusader army for France on. Only the Duke of Burgundy, who directed the construction work in Askalon, and the Count of Nevers, who joined the party of the Templars, remained.
Richard's crusade
The English king brother Richard of Cornwall had already taken the cross in 1236 with several other barons of England, including William Longespée of Salisbury and Gilbert Marshal . Since the Jaffa armistice was still in force at the time, there was still no reason to travel to Outremer, and various events in England further delayed Richard's departure. In the summer of 1239 he reaffirmed his vows and assembled an army of English knights alongside the French. Among other things, he was able to win his brother-in-law Simon de Montfort for the taking of the cross, while Gilbert Marshal canceled his participation. The departure of the English was delayed for another year, among other things by the death of Richard's wife, and they did not cross to France until June 1240. Via Paris and through the Rhone valley , they moved to Marseille, from where, like the French before, they traveled by sea to the Holy Land. On October 8, 1240, just a few days after Theobald's departure, Richard reached Acre.
Upon his arrival, Richard found the Christians facing a full-blown civil war. The militarily unsuccessful crusade of Theobald had exacerbated the dispute between the Christians in Outremer , whether Emperor Frederick II or the local nobles were entitled to the crown of Jerusalem. The Hospitallers had sided with the imperial governor who resided in Tire and who had always been supported by the Teutonic Knights . The Templars, in turn, enjoyed the support of the local barons, especially Count Walter von Jaffa , as well as the clergy. In addition, the leaders of the religious knightly orders were divided as to whether the crusader states should conclude an alliance with the Muslims of Egypt or with those of Damascus. Richard of Cornwall, unlike Theobald, enjoyed the full support of the emperor, who was his brother-in-law. From him he had received the authorization to conclude treaties with the Muslims in his name, since the emperor still regarded himself as the rightful ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem despite his banishment.
Richard tried, however, to stay out of the power struggles within the crusader states and first moved to Ascalon to support the Duke of Burgundy in the expansion of the fortifications. In April 1241 he received envoys from the Egyptian Sultan al-Salih with whom he confirmed the armistice concluded by Count Theobald on April 23, 1241. As a result of the armistice, the Egyptians released a number of captured French. Then he handed Askalon over to a follower of the imperial party. There were no fights with the Muslims during his stay, however, as the Ayyubids were in an unstable equilibrium among themselves, which neither of them wanted to endanger with a new campaign.
End of the crusade and consequences
Richard of Cornwall was waiting for the last prisoners to be released from Gaza and then, after their vows had expired, set out on May 3, 1241 with most of his knights from Acre for their homeland. He left behind an internally divided kingdom of Jerusalem, but favored by the divided Muslim empires, he had achieved diplomatic success. As a result of the negotiations, the Kingdom of Jerusalem had reached its greatest territorial extent since 1187, and the Jordan again formed the kingdom's eastern border.
In order to relax the chaotic internal political situation in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the barons of the kingdom wrote to Emperor Frederick II and asked for Simon de Montfort, who was apparently still in the country, to be appointed regent. They believed that they had found in him an acceptable compromise candidate for them and the emperor, since he was not banned by the pope and by marriage to the emperor. In addition, Montfort had a strong family support in his cousin Philipp von Montfort in the Holy Land . However, the emperor refused the request and held on to his personal reign, whereupon Montfort also began the journey home.
In 1243 the barons succeeded by military means in driving the imperial governor out of Tire, and they were now able to choose their own regent in Alice of Champagne , a cousin of Theobald IV, which largely restored internal peace in the kingdom. A closer association was sought with al-Salih Ismail of Damascus against the Sultan al-Salih Ayyub of Egypt. This recruited to fight against his uncle Ismail Khwarazmian irregulars ( Khwarezmiyya ) in northern Syria, which Syria devastated and in 1244 moved to Palestine, where they Tiberias plundered. Then they occupied and plundered the unfortified Jerusalem without any actual commission and drove the Christians out there. As-Salih himself moved to the city the following year, which the Crusaders lost for good. These then allied themselves with Ismail and were defeated in the battle of La Forbie by Ayyub, who also conquered Damascus in 1245 and largely reunited the Ayyubid Empire under his rule.
Thus the existence of the crusader states was threatened again. In order to avert the impending downfall of Christian rule, King Louis IX. from France launched a new great crusade to the Orient in 1248, which is usually referred to as the Sixth Crusade in traditional counting .
source
- Guillaume de Nangis , Gesta Sancti Ludovici , ed. by M. Daunou in: Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France 20 (1840), pp. 328-332
literature
- Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades. CH Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-39960-6 .
- Kenneth M. Setton, Robert Lee Wolff, Harry W. Hazard: The Later Crusades, 1189-1311. ( A History of the Crusades. Vol. 2) University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI 2006, ISBN 0-299-04844-6 .
- Peter Jackson: The Crusades of 1239-1241 and their Aftermath. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies . Volume 50, 1987, ISSN 0041-977X , pp. 32-60.
Individual evidence
- ↑ For the known participants see also: Category: Crusaders (Crusade of the Barons) .
- ↑ Al-Maqrīzī , Essulouk li Mariset il Muluk , X, pp. 323-324.
- ^ Nicholas Vincent: Richard, first earl of Cornwall and king of Germany (1209-1272). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
- ↑ Reinhold Röhricht , Regesta , p. 286 - the letter is dated May 7, 1241