The Fall of Outremer
War of St Sabas
In the city of Acre, now the largest city in the Crusader States, there was a monastery on a hilltop dedicated to St Sabas. On one side of the hill was a colony of Venetians. On the other side of the hill lived the Genoese. It hardly needs to be said that both groups claimed the monastery for themselves and contested ownership in court.
One morning in 1256, the Genoese decided simply to be done with law suits and they occupied the monastery. Having gone that far, the Genoese (with the Pisans joining) went on down the Venetian side of the hill, sacked a few houses, looted ships tied up at the quay, and generally raised havoc until driven out by the Venetians. This incident marks the beginning of a nasty squabble that dragged on for years and is known as the War of St Sabas.
The dispute wasn't really about control of the monastery; or, at least, it very quickly became about much more than that. It was a dispute over who would control the trade of the Levant, which in turn was crucial to determining which city would be the most powerful back in Italy. The rivalry between Genoa and Venice (with other cities also factoring in) was by this time two hundred years old or more. It was deep-seated, fierce, and unrelenting.
Philip of Montfort almost at once kicked the Venetians out of Tyre. He was supposedly the lord of Tyre, but with Venice controlling not only a third of that city but also a number of surrounding villages, his authority was always tempered by their presence. He was able to use the excuse that he feared the Venice-Genoa conflict would disrupt his city as it had Acre, but really tshis was a matter of a lord taking advantage of a situation. His action, however, had now spread the conflict from Acre to Tyre, encompassing the two of the leading cities of the Crusader States.
With their possessions in Acre sacked and their district in Tyre seized, the Venetians were in a tight spot. They called upon one of their better skills: diplomacy. They were able to persuade the Pisans to switch sides (Genoa and Pisa were often rivals), and they were joined by merchants from Marseilles. They also got the support of the Teutonic Knights and the Templars. The Genoese, on the other hand, were able to count on support from the Hospitallers and the Catalan merchants. Among the barons, the Ibelins sided with Venice and the Embriacos with Genoa. Even though most of the actual fighting took place in the streets of towns, or else at sea, and rarely involved more than a few hundred on either side, most everyone in Outremer was pulled into supporting one side or the other.
The largest naval battle was in 1258, which Venice won. An armistice was finally agreed to in 1261, under papal and royal mediation. Queen Plaisance of Cyprus was the central royal figure, acting in the absence of Conradin. The truce was imperfectly observed, however; while the barons and the military orders were eventually reconciled, the Italians continued to skirmish at various times over the ensuing years.
The War of St Sabas is one reason why Outremer did nothing as the Latin Empire teetered toward collapse in the 1250s. In fact, when Michael Paleologus entered Constantinople in 1261, he did so with Genoese help. Just as Venice was the beneficiary of the capture of the city in 1205, so now Genoa received enormous privileges both in Constantinople and around the Black Sea.