The Last Years
For Discussion
Villehardouin
What's a banneret?
Why wouldn't Villehardouin swear an oath to his own king? Doesn't that seem odd?
Crusader Letter
Nothing specific here. The account of the taking of Damietta is very straightforward. Of some interest: note the statement that Muslims worship Mohammed. This would have been considered terribly insulting and blasphemous to Muslims, but was a common Christian misconception.
Compare, however, the versions of Villehardouin, al-Makrisi, and Guy. What differences do you find, and how would you account for those differences?
Or similarities, for that matter. For example, there's a striking similarity in the matter of settling debts mentioned in both al-Makrisi and Villehardouin.
The Fall of Acre
There is a mistake in the introduction to this document. In paragraph 7 there is a reference to the "Papacy's European armies" when the text should read the "Papacy's European enemies". The text itself contains a number of scanning errors, of course. You'll just have to be on the watch (e.g., "beard" for "heard").
"arose a violent and hateful quarrel in Lombardy between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines" ... what do you think this was about? I address it in my essay on Germany.
The size of armies in medieval histories is typically exaggerated. Note here the frequent use of units of a hundred thousand. One rule of thumb, very rough, is to divide estimates by ten. This would give 60,000 in the Muslim army rather than 600,000.