Prince Edward's crusade
Prince Edward of England led the last crusade to the Holy Land. Depiction from the 13th century.
| date | August 1270 to April 1272 |
|---|---|
| place | Palestine , Lebanon , Syria |
| output | Armistice between Christians and Mameluks |
| consequences | Status quo ante bellum |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
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| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 1000 crusaders | unknown |
| losses | |
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unknown |
unknown |
The crusade of Prince Edward (August 1270 to April 1272) was the last "armed pilgrimage" sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church to go to the Holy Land . The crusade was led by Crown Prince Eduard Plantagenet , who later became King Edward I of England.
Prince Edward originally intended on the crusade of the French King Louis IX. to participate in the Holy ( Seventh Crusade ). But after he died on August 25, 1270 during the siege of Tunis and the French crusader army then set out to march back to his homeland, Eduard led his English contingent further into the Levant . His crusade is therefore often regarded as part of the seventh crusade , especially in the historical literature of German-speaking countries . In English and French literature, however, it is run as a separate company and counted here as the ninth crusade .
The aim of the crusade was to relieve the few remaining Christian crusader states , which had been exposed to incessant attacks by the Egyptian-Syrian Mameluke sultan as-Zahir Baibars since 1263 and had already lost several castles and cities, especially Antioch (1268) , to him. Sultan Baibars was about to remove the last remnants of the Christian rule established in the Holy Land as a result of the First Crusade (1099).
prehistory
Since the Mameluks under Baibars attacked the Christian possessions in the Levant from 1263, Pope Clement IV had had the crusade preached across Europe. After the Templar castle of Safed fell in 1266 and the crusade advertisements had only met with little response, he commissioned Ottobono Fieschi , whom he appointed papal legate for England, to preach there for a new crusade in autumn 1266 . But while in March 1267 the French King Louis IX. After taking a crusade vows with his sons, Ottobono's call for a new crusade was initially rejected during Parliament in Bury St Edmunds . This was mainly due to the long-running Second War of the Barons , the rebellion of an aristocratic opposition against King Henry III, which could not be finally ended until 1267. Finally, on June 24, 1268, Ottobono was able to convince the heir to the throne Edward, his brother Edmund , Henry of Almain , Earl Warenne , the Earl of Gloucester , William de Valence and other barons to also take a crusade vows during another parliament in Northampton . As early as 1250, Edward's father Heinrich III. took a crusade vow that he had not yet redeemed. Although the king still hoped in 1268 that he would still be able to fulfill his vows, in his place, Eduard and Edmund, his two sons went on the crusade, which even the Pope viewed critically in view of the tense situation in England.
The English crusader army
Not only the recruitment of soldiers but also the financing of the crusade was not easy in England, which had not yet recovered from the aftermath of the war of the barons. In 1268, Heinrich III. Negotiations with parliament to finance the crusade. Only after long negotiations was the tax of a twentieth on movable goods approved in 1270. In the meantime, Edward had to borrow around £ 17,500 from the French king to finance the crusade. Although a number of Scottish barons such as Robert de Brus also took part in the crusade, the attempt to raise a tax for the crusade in Scotland also failed due to the resistance of King Alexander III. Ultimately, the English crusader army remained small. It consisted of several contingents, which several noble leaders recruited against payment. The knights from Edward's household formed the core of the army. In July 1270 he signed contracts with 18 barons who made a total of 225 knights. Edmund of Lancaster, for example, received 10,000 marks (over £ 6666) for his contingent of 100 knights and the ships required for the crossing, while William de Valence received 2000 marks (over £ 1,333) for 19 knights. Because of the different contingents, the number of crusaders cannot be precisely quantified, but the army was certainly not much larger than 1000 men.
Most of the knights who wanted to take part in the crusade had fought on the king's side in the war of the barons, and many were friends or followers of the heir to the throne. With heavy fines imposed on the defeated rebel supporters by the victorious royal party, few ex-rebels tried to win the heir's favor as crusaders, including Nicholas Seagrave and John de Vescy . Not all barons who had taken a crusade vow, however, could or would keep it. This included Robert Burnell , who was a key member of the government during the heir apparent's absence. Some barons also held off personal conflicts. William de Munchensi , for example, refused to move to the Holy Land with William de Valence, his bitter opponent during the Civil War. But Munchensi was so convinced of the crusade idea that he donated the stately sum of 1,000 marks (over £ 666) to the Holy Land in his will. Others had personal reasons. For example, the poet Walter of Bibbesworth writes that Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, did not want to leave the country out of love for a lady. The mighty Earl of Gloucester, who had fallen out with Edward, had also taken a crusade vow, but was now reluctant to fulfill it. Only Richard of Cornwall was able to get Gloucester to agree to follow Edward within six months during Parliament at Easter 1270. Ultimately, he stayed in England anyway and justified this with Welsh attacks on his possessions in the Welsh Marches . In addition to the knights and soldiers who used up in 1270, some clergymen were also among the crusaders, including Antony Bek , who later became Bishop of Durham. One of the few women who accompanied the crusaders was Eleanore of Castile , Eduard's wife. However, her and Eduard's children stayed in England. In Acre, Eduard met the Italian Tebaldo Visconti , who was elected Pope in absentia while he was still in the Holy Land.
course
The journey to the Holy Land
In August 1269 Eduard traveled to Paris to meet with Louis IX. to advise on the organization of the crusade. They planned that the English army in southern France should unite with the French crusader army in the summer of 1270. When Eduard finally left with his army in the summer of 1270, he crossed the English Channel, crossed France and reached Aigues-Mortes on the French Mediterranean coast at the end of September 1270 . However, the French crusader army had already set out for Tunisia several months earlier. Eduard first sailed with his small fleet to Tunis as well , but there he learned that the French king had died of dysentery and that his legacy was also sick. Charles of Anjou , the king's brother, had therefore started negotiations with Muhammad I al-Mustansir , the emir of Tunis, which led to an armistice on November 1st. Eduard had to accept to his indignation that the crusaders should withdraw to Sicily , where Charles of Anjou had ruled as king for several years. From there they wanted to sail on to Palestine in the spring of 1271. However, the French were robbed of their leader after the death of their king and broke off the crusade after retreating to Sicily. Eduard also considered breaking it off during the winter in Sicily. For the first time after his departure he had received the news of his father's serious illness in a letter from England dated February 6, 1271. That is why he had been asked to return to England urgently. Eduard rejected the termination of his crusade and only sent his cousin Henry of Almain on the journey home, who also took him at the funeral of Louis IX. should represent. Henry of Almain was murdered while traveling through Italy. Eduard, on the other hand, set sail in March 1271 with a hired fleet of nine ships and around 300 knights and 600 infantrymen for Palestine. At the beginning of May he landed in Cyprus to get some food. After a short stay he sailed on and after a stormy crossing reached the port of Acre on May 9th .
Fight in the Holy Land
At this time, Baibars was besieging the important port city of Tripoli . He had previously led a successful campaign against the crusader states, during which he had conquered, among others, the Krak des Chevaliers and the Blanche Garde castle . After learning of the arrival of Edward in Acre, he broke off the siege of Tripoli and concluded with Bohemond VI. of Antioch-Tripoli a separate peace for ten years. On June 12, 1271, Baibars and his army threatened to pass Acre, but marched on towards Egypt. According to several English chroniclers, the arrival of the English had saved Acre from the Mamluk conquest, while, according to Arab sources, Baibars had not planned a major attack. Eduard had previously contacted the Mongolian Ilchan Abaqa in order to forge an alliance with him against the Mameluks. In view of the vastly superior Muslim army in front of Acre, however, he had to realize that he had little chance of greater success with his small army. Even a relief of the besieged Montfort Castle, located about 15 km northeast of Akkon, was not possible, so that the occupation had to surrender on June 23. Ultimately, at the end of June, the English made an advance to the castle of St.-Georges-de-Lebeyne in Galilee, about 25 km east of Acre . They suffered greater losses from the heat and from spoiled food, without the company achieving anything militarily. Back in Acre, Eduard came across with King Hugo III, who had meanwhile arrived . of Cyprus , who was also nominally King of Jerusalem , in conflict over the supreme command of the crusade, which he won after a few weeks of arduous negotiations. It was not until August 1271 that Edmund of Lancaster arrived with his contingent in Acre. But even now the English forces were too weak to be able to achieve greater military successes. Therefore, Eduard now sought the support of the orders of knights and the barons from the crusader states. In November he led an advance in which he was accompanied by numerous nobles from the Crusader states and members of the knightly orders. The destination was Quagun, 60 km away . A numerically superior but militarily weaker Muslim force was defeated in the advance. Allegedly 1,500 Muslims were killed in the process. However, the capture of the citadel of Qaqun failed. It had become obvious that the crusade could achieve little.
Baibars had tried to attack Cyprus with a fleet in the summer of 1271, but it failed completely. In the autumn he moved with a large army to Syria and there drove out the Mongol general Samagar , who had advanced as far as Aleppo and devastated large regions. The Mongols withdrew again behind the Euphrates . Due to continuous rain, however, an advance by Baibars from Damascus against Acre failed .
Armistice and assassination attempt on Edward
After the withdrawal of the Mongol allies, another fight against the superior Mameluks was hopeless. In May 1272, Hugo III agreed. in Caesarea a ten-year truce with Baibars. Eduard was disappointed and even angry with the end of the fighting. While his brother Edmund of Lancaster and other crusaders left for England in May, Eduard remained Holy Land until September 1272. Perhaps he hoped there might be new fighting, but he probably had to recover from the aftermath of an assassination attempt on him. In June an alleged assassin tried to murder him with a poisoned dagger. The assassin had apparently been familiar to Eduard, since he had given him a private conversation. Eduard was able to repel the attack and kill the attacker, but he was wounded in the arm. When the wound became infected, an English doctor cut the affected flesh from the arm. Since the assassin was dead, the motives for the attack could not be clarified.
The return journey
On September 24, 1272, Eduard finally left Acre and started his journey home. Shortly after reaching Trapani , Sicily, he first learned that his eldest son, John, had died in August 1272. Then he learned a little later that his father had also died on November 16, 1272. Nevertheless, now that he was its heir and successor, he did not return to England immediately, but traveled leisurely north through Italy. He visited Pope Gregory X. , where he obtained the excommunication of Guy de Montfort , the murderer of Henry of Almain. In May 1273 Edward was in Reggio . Via Parma and Milan he moved on over the Col du Mont Cenis to Savoy , where he visited Count Philip I , an uncle of his mother. At the end of July 1273 he arrived in Paris, where he met King Philip III. paid homage by France for its French possessions. At the beginning of August 1273 he traveled to Gascony , which was part of his empire , where he put down the revolt of the powerful nobleman Gaston de Béarn . He had originally intended to take part in the crusade, but then canceled his participation. Not until the late spring of 1274 did Edward leave Gascony and return to England on August 2nd.
consequences
For the crusader states
Except for the truce of 1272, Edward's crusade had not achieved any major success. A restitution of the cities and castles that had been lost to Baibars in the previous years had to be dispensed with, which is why only the ownership of the Crusader states at the time of Edward's arrival in May 1271 could be maintained. These were the coastal cities of Acre, Beirut , Tire , Sidon , Tripoli and Gibelet . But in view of the military superiority of the Mameluks, the continued existence of the Christian rulers in the Orient depended solely on the benevolence of the Sultan of Cairo. Pope Gregory X's call , which Edward met in Acre in 1271, at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274 for another crusade had no effect. The Caesarea armistice was not broken by the Christians. The main guarantor for this was Karl von Anjou, who took over the rule in Akkon in 1277 and maintained good contacts with the Mamluk. In 1283 it was extended for another ten years, but in the course of the Sicilian Vespers the Christian Outremer lost its last notable protector in 1282. In August 1290, Italian crusaders broke the armistice when they massacred Muslim traders in Acre. In retaliation, the Mameluks carried the final blow and conquered the last bastion of the crusaders, Acre, in 1291 .
For England
For the nearly unsuccessful venture, Eduard had gone into debt, and he had to take out additional loans on his long journey home. In total, his debts are said to have been around £ 100,000 on his return.
As a result of the common crusade, of which there are extensive contemporary reports, new ties were established among the participating barons or existing contacts were consolidated. John de Vescy , Luke de Tany , Thomas de Clare , Geoffrey de Geneville , Robert de Tibetot, and William de Valence loyally served Edward all their lives. This had a lasting influence on English politics and administration in the late 13th century. Edmund of Lancaster, who also served his brother loyally, probably acquired the nickname Crouchback through the crusade. In Acre, Eleanor of Castile had become the mother of a daughter who was named Joan of Arc after her place of birth .
Eduard hoped for a long time to be able to undertake another crusade, despite the low success and the considerable costs of the crusade. In 1287 he made another vow of crusade, but the situation in England prevented his departure. In 1292 he sent an embassy to the Ilchan Arghun in Persia. He hoped to be able to conclude an alliance with the Mongols against the Mamluks to relieve the crusader states. Head of the embassy was the knight Geoffrey of Langley , who had been part of the Edmund of Lancaster contingent as early as 1271. Langley reached Tabriz , but learned that the Ilkhan had died. Without having done anything, Langley had to return to England. With the conquest of Acre in 1291 and the expulsion of the crusaders from Palestine, Edward's plans for a crusade were finally invalid.
literature
- Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 .
- 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 2006, ISBN 0-299-04844-6 .
Web links
- Henry Summerson: Lord Edward's crusade (act. 1270-1274). 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
Notes and individual references
- ↑ The crusade of Damiette counts as a separate fifth , the crusade of Frederick II as a separate sixth and the crusades of Louis IX. as the seventh and eighth crusade .
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 68.
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 71.
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 126.
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 81.
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 74.
- ^ Nicholas Vincent: Henry of Almain (1235-1271). 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
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 75.
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 77.
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 78.
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 300.
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 314.
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 331.