Return to "End of Outremer"Section Five
Introduction
The Seventh Crusade came close to a return to old glories. It was led by a king who later became a saint, and at first it succeeded brilliantly. But then it became an eerie echo of the calamaties of the Fifth Crusade, and it ended with the king in chains.
The events are chronicled in detail by Joinville, who accompanied King Louis IX on the crusade. He recounts the formation of the crusade, its arrival and early successes in Egypt, and the disastrous defeat that followed.
What Louis did in the Holy Land was at least as important as what he did at Damietta and Mansourah, and Joinville chronicles that as well. We have been tracing the internal history of Outremer for some time now, so the importance of Louis' actions will be unmistakable, as will be the unfortunate events that followed in the wake of his departure.
The final years of Outremer (that is, from 1254 to 1291) are necessarily largely concerned with loss, retreat, and defeat. Pay attention to the politics here: how even under darkening skies the Christians failed to unite or even to take serious measures to defend themselves. At the same time, note how the Muslim world became ever more united and more committed to driving the Franj into the sea forever. And what of Europe and Byzantium?
Since this is the end of the semester, we will also take stock of the Crusades in general, to assess their character and their impact, and to talk a little bit about what happened to the crusading movement after the fall of Acre.
This page last revised 2007