Fifth Crusade

gigatos | June 5, 2023

Summary

The Fifth Crusade (1213-1221) was an attempt to recapture Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first capturing the mighty Egypt of the Ajubids.

Pope Innocent III and his successor Pope Honorius III organized Crusader armies led by King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria, and an attack toward Jerusalem eventually left the city in the hands of the Muslims. Later in 1218, a German army led by Olivier of Cologne, including contingents of Dutch, Flemish and Frisian soldiers, led in part by Count William I of Holland, joined the crusade. In order to attack Damietta in Egypt, they became allies of the Seljuk sultanate of Rûm in Anatolia, which attacked the Ajjoebieden in Syria in an effort to prevent the Crusaders from having to fight on two fronts.

After occupying the port of Damietta, the Crusaders marched south to Cairo in July 1221, but turned back after their dwindling supplies led to a forced retreat. A night attack led by Sultan Al-Kamil resulted in a major loss on the Crusaders’ side, and eventually the army was forced to surrender. Al-Kamil agreed to an eight-year peace with Europe.

Disappointed with the conduct of the Fourth Crusade, Pope Innocent III began preparations for a fifth crusade in 1213. He laid out his plans in three letters.

In the first letter (the Quia maior), the pope expressed his disappointment at the failure of previous crusades and lamented the recent loss of the sacred Mount Tabor to the Muslims. He promised in this letter not only remission of all sins to anyone who would take up the sword against the Muslims, but also to anyone who would financially support the crusade.

The second letter (the Pium et Sanctum) dealt mainly with the requirements to be met by preachers chosen to call for the new crusade.

In the third letter (the Vineam Domini), Innocent announced the Fourth Lateran Council for 1215. At this council, several things were decided that covered almost all aspects of church life. The crusade was dealt with in a separate text, the Ad liberandum. In addition to a call for a new crusade, this text prohibited trade in war gear with Muslims and proclaimed a four-year period during which war between Christians was to be suspended.

Floating crosses in Friesland

Because the kings of Europe had little appetite for yet another crusade, Pope Innocent flooded the continent with preachers to persuade knights and lower nobility to support a new crusade. Well-known preachers for the Fifth Crusade include Jacques de Vitry, Robert de Courçon and Olivier of Cologne. Friesland was visited by Olivier of Cologne. During his sermons at Bedum and Surhuizum, the Frisians got so carried away that they saw crosses floating in the air. During a sermon at Dokkum (the place where Boniface had been killed) the miracle repeated itself. These signs resulted in great enthusiasm in Friesland for the new crusade. With a fleet of at least eighty ships, they joined a fleet of Dutchmen, Flemings and the Count of Wied. Thus, on May 29, 1217, partly under the leadership of Count William I of Holland (who participated mainly to get out from under a curse), a fleet of nearly three hundred ships left the Netherlands for Akko.

The battle in Portugal

With the army, William I sailed along the European coast on his way to the Holy Land. A storm caused the ships to veer off course and the fleet, which had by now been joined by English ships, sought shelter on a Portuguese river. Portuguese King Alfons II tried to persuade the Crusaders to help him in the fight against Moorish domination in his country. Part of the fleet had little desire to attack the fortress, because while there was much honor to be gained there, there was little to plunder. About fifty ships, mostly Frisians, therefore left the fleet without a captain and headed for the Strait of Gibraltar.

William I did comply with the request and on July 30, 1217, sailed with the remainder of the fleet to Lisbon. The city had been liberated eighty years earlier during the Second Crusade, but the Moors had never been completely expelled from the area. After a fierce battle for fort al-Kasr and with William I’s promise of a free retreat, the Moors surrendered on Oct. 21, 1217. Once outside the fortress, the army pounced on the unarmed Moors and slaughtered them. In gratitude, the Portuguese king offered land to the Crusaders and many knights accepted. They lost another large part of the army as a result, so William I asked Pope Honorius III to relieve him of his crusading vow and allow him to continue the battle in Portugal instead, but the pope refused to accede to this request. William decided to winter in Portugal and would eventually be the last to arrive in Akko.

The plunder of Moorish cities

Meanwhile, the fifty ships that had separated from the rest of the fleet reached the Spanish coast. They cast their anchors off the Islamic site of Hairin and invaded the city. By nightfall, the Crusaders had full control of the city and it was plundered. The next morning, the loot was brought aboard and the city burned. The Crusaders continued their raid along the coast and arrived at Cadiz after several days. The city turned out to be deserted and it took the Crusaders several days to destroy everything. The mosque of Cadiz, which must have cost a capital, was razed to the ground. Eventually even the trees from the gardens were cut down. Whatever was of value and portable was brought aboard, and the last houses still standing were set on fire just before departure.

Collecting in Akko

Meanwhile, Andreas II, King of Hungary, had also left for Akko. Arriving at the Venetian port of Split, it turned out that there were too few ships to transport his army. Andreas accordingly sent part of his army back and arrived in Akko with the remainder in August 1217. A month later, Leopold VI, Duke of Austria, joined the Crusaders with his army. In December of that year the Crusaders laid siege to Mount Tabor, but this was lifted a short time later for unclear reasons. They did, however, conquer Galilee. The fortress on Tabor was abandoned by the Muslims so as not to provoke the “Franks” unnecessarily. In January 1218, Andrew II went back to Hungary with his army. The knights who remained behind began restoring the fortresses of Château Pèlerin and Caesarea. In the spring of 1218, William I finally arrived in Akko along with the Frisians, Dutch and English.

John of Brienne, the king of Jerusalem, was elected leader of the Crusaders. John of Brienne persuaded the Crusaders to conquer not Jerusalem, but the entire realm of the Ajubids, who at that time held Jerusalem. To this end, the Crusaders had entered into an alliance with Kaykaus I, the Sultan of Rûm. The latter would attack the Ajjubid Empire in the north so they had to fight on two fronts. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, upon hearing that the Crusaders were approaching, had quickly demolished the walls of their city so that the city could be more easily recaptured from the Crusaders at a later date. Unaware of the easy prey that Jerusalem was at that time, the fleet of Crusaders sailed on to Egypt. Indeed, it had been decided to capture the northern Egyptian city of Damiate so that afterwards the rest of the Ajjubid-ruled empire could be taken. Otherwise, they would not have been able to retain Jerusalem anyway if the Crusaders had returned.

The tower of Damiate

On May 27, 1218, the Crusaders arrived at Damiate. The city was easily accessible from Akko and was the gateway to the fastest route to Cairo, the center of the power of the Ajjubids. Damiate was protected by three layers of walls with many towers and to the west the Nile. The channel of the Nile was closed with a large heavy chain protected by the fleet of the Ajjubids. The chain ran from the city to a tower on an island near the western shore. On August 25, 1218, the Frisians managed to capture this tower. They did this by, following a design by Olivier of Cologne, connecting two ships, cogs, and building a high attack platform on them. The platform fortress stood on four long legs. The whole thing was covered with wet hides. In front of the platform, but not connected to it, a sheltered and double-hinged storm ladder could be lifted with pulleys, with its base at the base of the front two legs. Over the ladder, the attackers climbed up to the trans of the tower, covered by archers and slingers on the platform. On the first attack attempt, the defenders set fire to the top of the ladder. When the clergy and nobles on the west bank saw this, they threw themselves to the ground weeping and praying. The attackers put out the fire, which was considered a great miracle. The storm troopers jumped over on the tower and drove the defenders down. These then set fire to the inside of the tower so that the attackers had to retreat back up the ladder. However, one could not now prevent a drawbridge from being lowered on the islet of the tower after which the Crusaders smoked out the garrison of the tower until one surrendered. Then the chain was loosened. Centuries later, a dispute arose between the Haarlemmers and the Frisians over who had invented the assault ship. The alleged Dutch contribution made the attack on the tower a favorite subject for artists and writers into the twentieth century. Al-Adil, the ancient sultan of the Ajjubids, does not seem to have been able to cope with the loss of the tower. In any case, he died shortly after hearing the news and was succeeded by his son al-Kamil.

Pope’s envoy

The Crusaders’ army was too small to take the city. Many Frisians and Germans were already making plans to leave when the papal envoy Pelagius arrived with fresh troops from England, France and Italy. Al-Kamil immediately counterattacked but was driven back. Pelagius had been sent by Pope Honorius III to Damiate to take charge of the armies there. Indeed, after the debacle of the Fourth Crusade, the pope had decided that while a crusade should be conducted by knights, it should be led by the church. Pelagius was helped in taking over the leadership by a newly found booklet that supposedly contained prophecies. According to Pelagius, who was one of the few who could read the booklet written in Arabic, the booklet stated that victory would only come if the church was in charge of the army.

The sultan flees

Now that the chain was broken, the sultan quickly sank some of his ships into the channel so that the city could not be attacked through the harbor. The Crusaders tried to widen a channel to encircle the city. This failed because a storm blew up that largely undid the work. Pelagius kept telling the knights that God was testing them. The sultan, meanwhile, had his own problems. As he walked into the tent of his Kurdish general Imad ad-Din, he just saw the latter taking an oath to overthrow the sultan. He had the general arrested but since most of his army consisted of Kurds, the sultan dared no longer stay with his army and fled like a thief in the night to Cairo. Now that there was no more leadership, the army of the Ajubids became scattered. Pelagius, who had obtained this news through a spy, was thus able to easily take the camp of the Muslims. In doing so, he claimed that this had already been predicted in the found booklet and that now that the church had taken over the leadership of the crusade, it had the blessing of God. Pelagius’ prestige rose to great heights as a result. Al-Kamil tried to retake the camp, but failed because the Crusaders received help from Al-Mu’azzam, the ruler of Syria and Palestine. The Crusaders now crossed the Nile to surround the city on the east side as well, but were too few to take the city.

The initial offer of al-Kamil

The Sultan, who had problems with Izzeddin Keykavus in the north of his kingdom made the Crusaders an offer. In exchange for leaving Egypt, he offered them the kingdom of Jerusalem minus two strategic castles. John of Brienne, the king of Jerusalem, liked this, but Pelagius, aware of Jerusalem’s vulnerability, stopped it in the name of the pope. He sent Francis of Assisi to negotiate with the sultan and demanded the sultan’s unconditional surrender. Al-Kamil still offered to pay 30,000 gold pieces for the castles, but the parties reached no further agreement. In 1219, Sultan Izzeddin Keykavus of the Sultanate of Rûm died and the troops of the Ajjubids from the north of the country were released. Immediately the sultan’s offer went off the table. Leopold VI had then had enough and left with his army for home. On September 14, William I also left, causing the Crusaders to lose much of their fighting force, but this was compensated a few months later by fresh troops from Italy. William traveled via Italy to the Holy Roman Empire where, in April 1220, he visited his liege lord Emperor Frederick II and informed him of the situation in Egypt.

The city falls

Between May and November, there was a stalemate. The forces of al-Kamil were stronger, but he did not dare to attack because of his shaky position with his troops. Crusader attacks on the walls of Damiate were repulsed each time, and the knights further limited themselves to defending their positions. However, the city could no longer be supplied, and the garrison of ten thousand men, which together with another six thousand Christians represented the total population because the Muslims had been evacuated, began to starve. In the early morning of November 5, 1219, the Crusaders noticed that part of the wall was no longer guarded. Not long after, the knights poured into the city. They discovered that the streets were full of corpses. Of the original 60,000 residents, only 10,000 appeared to be alive. The last citizens were driven out of the city; the city itself was plundered, yielding very rich loot. The Egyptian Sultan al-Kamil then again proposed to exchange Damiate for Jerusalem. This time including the strategic castles, the cross on which Jesus had died, a sum of money to repair the walls of Jerusalem and a 30-year truce. Most of the Crusaders welcomed this greatly improved proposal, but the papal envoy Pelagius refused. Not by negotiation but by battle, Jerusalem was to be taken.

Waiting for the emperor

Frederick II had promised to participate in the crusade in 1215. Pelagius knew that when the emperor arrived in Egypt with his army, the empire of the Ajubids would probably fall. Not only would Jerusalem and the other holy sites then fall into the hands of the Christians, Mecca and Medina could also be conquered. However, the emperor was held up by problems in Germany. In 1220 he renewed his promise but then a revolt broke out in his occupied Sicily that demanded his attention. John of Brienne had now returned to Akko because al-Moeazzam, who had helped the Crusaders at an earlier stage, was now attacking his fortresses Château-Pèlerin and Cesarea. Leadership was now left entirely to Cardinal Pelagius. In the spring of 1221, Frederick was still not ready (he probably had little desire to submit to Pelagius) and sent in his place Duke Louis I of Bavaria with 500 knights to Damiate. Pelagius was tired of waiting and demanded an attack on Cairo.

The loss of Damiate

On July 9, part of the army left Damiate for Cairo. Pelagius had been warned from various quarters that the annual flood of the Nile was imminent and so it was unwise to attack now. However, the cardinal was convinced that with the help of God they would prevail and ignored all warnings. At the end of July, the sultan opened the floodgates and the army of the Crusaders suddenly found themselves on an island. Pelagius abandoned his army by fleeing in a boat. The army left behind had to give up the newly conquered Damiate in exchange for a free retreat. Disillusioned, the knights returned home.

A) The area of the Crusaders with the kingdom of Cyprus on the left and Akko on the right. B) The kingdom of the Ajjubides. 1) Mount Tabor where the Crusaders made a brief attack in December 1217. 2) Jerusalem 3) Damiate 4) Cairo C) The sultanate of Rûm of Sultan Izzeddin Keykavus I. This sultan had formed an alliance with the Crusaders and attacked the Ajjubids from the north so that they had to fight on two fronts. D) The territory of al-Moeazzam. He was a brother of al-Kamil and appointed governor of Damascus. During the Fifth Crusade, he rebelled against his brother and conquered large territories in the north of the Ajjubid Empire. At first this was a great support for the Crusaders but in early 1220 he also attacked the territory of John of Brienne. Finally, in 1221, al-Moeazzam was defeated by the Ajjubids and al-Kamil was able to use the troops released as a result against the Crusaders.

Sources

1. Vijfde Kruistocht
2. Fifth Crusade
3. ^ Wolff 1969, pp. 189–190, Foundation of the Latin Empire.
4. ^ a b Michaud 1881, pp. 185–311, Volume II, Book XII: Sixth Crusade.
5. ^ Goldsmith, Linda (2006). In The Crusades – An Encyclopedia. pp. 690–691.
6. Jan van Brienne was alleen in naam koning van Jeruzalem. In werkelijkheid werd Jeruzalem door de moslims geregeerd.
7. Sommige bronnen stellen dat Jan van Brienne Damiate wilde veroveren, omdat het een economische concurrent van Akko was. Hij zou dus hetzelfde trucje met Damiate willen uithalen als de Doge van Venetië met Constantinopel tijdens de Vierde Kruistocht. Deze hypothese gaat echter voorbij aan het feit dat een aanval op Egypte in overeenstemming was met de strategie waartoe tijdens het Vierde Lateraans Concilie was besloten.
8. Volgens de legende zouden Haarlemmers op de boeg van hun sterkste schip een ijzerzaag hebben gemonteerd en op die manier de ketting hebben doorgezaagd. Het is echter zeker dat dit verhaal van later datum en niet waar is. De verovering met de Friese schepen van de toren wordt door diverse bronnen uit die tijd vermeld, wat het verhaal van de Haarlemmers dus overbodig maakt. Bovendien is het technisch niet mogelijk om een ketting met een zeilboot door te zagen. Überhaupt worden Haarlemmers niet in de dertiende-eeuwse bronnen vermeld. Hun bijdrage werd later verondersteld vanuit de onjuiste vooronderstelling dat Haarlem indertijd de residentie was van de graven van Holland.
9. Hollandse geschiedschrijvers verzonnen later dat Willem I nu pas vertrok zodat de val van de stad op zijn conto kon worden geschreven. Er is ook wel gesteld dat er buit is meegenomen vanuit Damiate naar Nederland, wat zou duiden op een vertrek na de val van de stad. Zo stond in de Kapel van de HH. Cosmas en Damianus (deze kapel stond tussen de 13e en 18e eeuw in Bergen) een beeld van de Heilige Comas dat door Willem I uit Damiate zou zijn meegenomen. De klokjes van Damiate in de Grote of Sint-Bavokerk zijn in ieder geval van later datum en komen in tegenspraak met de legende dus niet uit Damiate.
10. Christopher Tyerman (2006), God’s war: a new history of the Crusades, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-02387-0, https://archive.org/details/godswarnewhistor00tyer
11. Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas, “A Frisian Perspective on Crusading in Iberia as Part of the Sea Journey to the Holy Land, 1217–1218,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd Series 15 (2018, Pub. 2021), 76-88. eISBN 978-0-86698-876-6
12. Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas, “A Frisian Perspective on Crusading in Iberia,” 85-86, 122-123.
13. Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas, “Was the Portuguese Led Military Campaign against Alcácer do Sal in the Autumn of 1217 Part of the Fifth Crusade?”, Al-Masaq 30:1 (2019), 62.
14. Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas, “Was the Portuguese Led Military Campaign against Alcácer do Sal in the Autumn of 1217 Part of the Fifth Crusade?”, Al-Masaq 30:1 (2019), 64.
15. En première conséquence, ce détournement n’a pas permis aux Francs de Syrie de poursuivre la reconquête de la Palestine. Ensuite, comme l’empire latin de Constantinople reste constamment la proie des attaques grecques et bulgares, il faut le défendre, détournant les secours possibles.
16. L’empereur et les rois de France et d’Angleterre s’apprêtent à s’affronter à la bataille de Bouvines.