Seventh Crusade
Louis at Acre
Louis arrived at Acre on May 12. Most of his army was dead and much of the rest of it was still captive. He was still obliged to raise the other half of the ransom money to free them, but his own financial reserves had been drained nearly dry. His mother wrote from France that he was sorely needed at home, but he decided to stay. His brothers and many others went home in July, leaving behind as much money as they could spare and about 1,400 men.
Louis was now effectively the ruler of Outremer. Conrad of Germany was technically its monarch, but he obviously had no intention of coming to the East, and a commander was desperately needed. Some legal shuffling was done to give an appearance of legitimacy, but Louis' role was more pragmatic than legal.
Fortunately, the Mamluk revolution that had led to a new split between Cairo and Damascus, for the Syrians resented the Mamluks and their murder of Turanshah. An-Nasr Yusuf of Aleppo, a great-grandson of Saladin, occupied Damascus and opened negotiations with Louis. He could not accept an open alliance with so many prisoners still in Egypt, but at least the King did not need to face an immediate Muslim offensive against the Crusader states. That winter, the Ayubites of Damascus invaded Egypt but were repulsed.
In 1251, because of this rivalry between the Ayubites and the Mamluks, Louis was able to negotiate the return of all the Christian prisoners (about three thousand) in exchange for three hundred Muslim prisoners and no further money; in return, Louis promised to aid Cairo against Damascus. The King had learned a great deal about politics in Outremer.
Louis spent 1252 repairing fortifications in various towns, working from Jaffa. Although there was some maneuvering of armies, the Mamluks chose not to leave the safety of Egypt and neither Louis nor an-Nasr Yusuf would risk an open battle.
In 1253, Yusuf appealed to the Caliph at Baghdad to arbitrate between himself and Aibek, the puppet Sultan of Cairo. The Caliph was concerned to unite the Muslims against the invading Mongols and so took an uncharacteristically active hand. He negotiated a settlement acceptable to both Damascus and Cairo, and the alliance with the Christians was immediately forgotten.