Crusade against Alexandria

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The Alexandria Crusade was a military campaign that took place in 1365 under King Peter I of Cyprus .

prehistory

Peter I, King of Cyprus, was the titular king of Jerusalem . He was the first head of state since Louis the Saint who wanted to resume the crusades to conquer the Holy Land . In 1362 he went on an extensive trip to Europe with his chancellor Philippe de Mézières and the papal legate Peter Thomas to promote his idea. He met Pope Urban V and numerous monarchs, including King John II of France and Emperor Charles IV.

Crusade against Alexandria

Peter I actually brought an army together under his command. Starting with a large fleet from Venice , the crusaders gathered in Rhodes until the beginning of September 1365 . There they were reinforced by the fleet and army of Peter from Cyprus as well as by the Knights of the Hospitaller Order residing in Rhodes . The crusader army was the largest since the Third Crusade.

It was only after setting sail that Peter I announced the destination: the Egyptian port city of Alexandria .

A few days after arriving in Alexandria, around October 9, 1365, the city was stormed after the crusaders had managed to overcome the city wall at an unguarded point. The crusaders looted and destroyed the city in the following days, the population was massacred or abducted.

When a Mamluk relief army approached on October 12, the crusaders brought their booty and prisoners onto their ships and withdrew to Cyprus.

Attack on Lebanon and Syria

From Cyprus, Peter I intended an attack on Beirut , but gave up his plan at the request of the Venetians, who offered Peter I a high compensation so that he would not attack their trade route to Damascus . In January 1366, the Crusaders raided and sacked Tripoli and Tartus before the European participants of the Crusade returned to their respective homeland. Neither Tripoli nor Tartus tried to hold Peter I, especially since the cities had no city walls.

In 1368 Peter tried again to recruit European troops, but was unsuccessful. Under pressure from the Venetians and Pope Urban V, peace was finally made with the Sultan of Egypt.

Interpretations

Jo van Steenbergen assumes that the crusade was primarily an economically motivated enterprise. Peter I wanted to turn Alexandria off as a trading port in the eastern Mediterranean and hoped that the Cypriot port city of Famagusta would benefit from a shift in trade routes. Religious aspects, which played an important role in the rest of the Orient Crusades , were therefore rather subordinate.

literature

  • Jo van Steenbergen: The Alexandrian Crusade (1365) and the Mamluk Sources: Reassessment of the kitab al-ilmam of an-Nuwayri al-Iskandarani (PDF; 1.31 MB) , 2003.