Eighth Crusade
Encyclopedia
The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX
, King of France, in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth
and Sixth Crusade
s of Frederick II
are counted as a single crusade. The Ninth Crusade
is sometimes also counted as part of the Eighth.
Louis was disturbed by events in Syria
, where the Mamluk
sultan
Baibars
had been attacking the remnant of the Crusader states
. Baibars had seized the opportunity after a war pitting the cities of Venice
and Genoa
against each other (1256–1260) had exhausted the Syrian ports that the two cities controlled. By 1265 Baibars had captured Nazareth
, Haifa
, Toron
, and Arsuf
. Hugh III of Cyprus
, nominal king of Jerusalem
, landed in Acre to defend that city, while Baibars marched as far north as Armenia
, which was at that time under Mongol control.
These events led to Louis' call for a new crusade in 1267, although there was little support this time; Jean de Joinville
, the chronicler who accompanied Louis on the Seventh Crusade
, refused to go. Louis was soon convinced by his brother Charles of Anjou to attack Tunis
first, which would give them a strong base for attacking Egypt
, the focus of Louis' previous crusade
as well as the Fifth Crusade
before him, both of which had been defeated there. Charles, as King of Sicily
, also had his own interests in this area of the Mediterranean. The Khalif of Tunis, Muhammad I al-Mustansir
, also had connections with Christian Spain and was considered a good candidate for conversion. In 1270 Louis landed on the African coast in July, a very unfavourable season for landing. Much of the army became sick because of poor drinking water, his Damietta
born son John Sorrow died on August 3 and on August 25 Louis himself died from a "flux in the stomach", one day after the arrival of Charles. His dying word was "Jerusalem." Charles proclaimed Louis' son Philip III
the new king, but because of his youth Charles became the actual leader of the crusade.
Because of further diseases the siege of Tunis was abandoned on October 30 by an agreement with the sultan. In this agreement the Christians gained free trade with Tunis, and residence for monks and priests in the city was guaranteed, so the crusade could be regarded as a partial success. After hearing of the death of Louis and the evacuation of the crusaders from Tunis, Sultan Baibars
of Egypt cancelled his plan to send Egyptian troops to fight Louis in Tunis. Charles now allied himself with Prince Edward of England
, who had arrived in the meantime. When Charles called off the attack on Tunis, Edward continued on to Acre, the last crusader outpost in Syria. His time spent there is often called the Ninth Crusade
.
, a diplomat in the service of Charles of Anjou, and Ricaut Bonomel
, a Templar in the Holy Land, both composed songs around 1265. Bertran criticised the decline of Christianity in Outremer, while Bonomel criticised the Papal policy of pursuing wars in Italy with money that should have gone overseas.
The failure of the Eighth Crusade, like those of its predecessors, caused a response to be crafted in Occitan poetry by the troubadours. The death of Louis of France especially sparked their creative output, notable considering the hostility which the troubadours had had towards the French monarchy during the Albigensian Crusade
. Three planh
s, songs of lament, were composed for the death of Louis IX.
Guilhem d'Autpol
composed Fortz tristors es e salvaj'a retraire for Louis. Raimon Gaucelm de Bezers
composed Qui vol aver complida amistansa to celebrate the preparations of the Crusade in 1268, but in 1270 he had to compose Ab grans trebalhs et ab grans marrimens in commemoration of the French king. Austorc de Segret
composed No sai quim so, tan sui desconoissens, a more general Crusading song, that laments Louis but also that either God or the Satan is misleading Christians. He also attacks Louis's brother Charles, whom he calls the caps e guitz (head and guide) of the infidels, because he convinced Louis to attack Tunis and not the Holy Land
, and he immediately negotiated a peace with the Muslims after Louis's death.
After the Crusade, the aged troubadour Peire Cardenal
wrote a song, Totz lo mons es vestitiz et abrazatz, encouraging Louis's heir, Philip III, to go to the Holy Land to aid Edward Longshanks.
Satiric verses were composed in Tunis about Louis new plan to invade Tunis: "O Louis, Tunis is the sister of Egypt! thus expect your ordeal! you will find your tomb here instead of the house of Ibn Lokman; and the eunuch Sobih will be here replaced by Munkir and Nakir.".
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
, King of France, in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth
Fifth Crusade
The Fifth Crusade was an attempt to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt....
and Sixth Crusade
Sixth Crusade
The Sixth Crusade started in 1228 as an attempt to regain Jerusalem. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade. It involved very little actual fighting...
s of Frederick II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
are counted as a single crusade. The Ninth Crusade
Ninth Crusade
The Ninth Crusade, which is sometimes grouped with the Eighth Crusade, is commonly considered to be the last major medieval Crusade to the Holy Land. It took place in 1271–1272....
is sometimes also counted as part of the Eighth.
Louis was disturbed by events in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, where the Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
Baibars
Baibars
Baibars or Baybars , nicknamed Abu l-Futuh , was a Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. He was one of the commanders of the forces which inflicted a devastating defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France and he led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which marked...
had been attacking the remnant of the Crusader states
Crusader states
The Crusader states were a number of mostly 12th- and 13th-century feudal states created by Western European crusaders in Asia Minor, Greece and the Holy Land , and during the Northern Crusades in the eastern Baltic area...
. Baibars had seized the opportunity after a war pitting the cities of Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
and Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
against each other (1256–1260) had exhausted the Syrian ports that the two cities controlled. By 1265 Baibars had captured Nazareth
Nazareth
Nazareth is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...
, Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, Toron
Toron
Toron, now Tibnin or Tebnine in southern Lebanon, was a major Crusader castle, built in the Lebanon mountains on the road from Tyre to Damascus....
, and Arsuf
Arsuf
Arsuf also known as Arsur or Apollonia, was an ancient city and fortress located in Israel, about 15 kilometres north of modern Tel Aviv, on a cliff above the Mediterranean Sea. The city site, Tel Arsuf, was intensively excavated from 1994...
. Hugh III of Cyprus
Hugh III of Cyprus
Hugh III of Cyprus , born Hughues de Poitiers, later Hughues de Lusignan , called the Great, was the King of Cyprus from 1267 and King of Jerusalem from 1268 . He was the son of Henry of Antioch and Isabella of Cyprus, the daughter of Hugh I...
, nominal king of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
, landed in Acre to defend that city, while Baibars marched as far north as Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, which was at that time under Mongol control.
These events led to Louis' call for a new crusade in 1267, although there was little support this time; Jean de Joinville
Jean de Joinville
Jean de Joinville was one of the great chroniclers of medieval France.Son of Simon de Joinville and Beatrice d'Auxonne, he belonged to a noble family from Champagne. He received an education befitting a young noble at the court of Theobald IV, count of Champagne: reading, writing, and the...
, the chronicler who accompanied Louis on the Seventh Crusade
Seventh Crusade
The Seventh Crusade was a crusade led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. Approximately 800,000 bezants were paid in ransom for King Louis who, along with thousands of his troops, was captured and defeated by the Egyptian army led by the Ayyubid Sultan Turanshah supported by the Bahariyya...
, refused to go. Louis was soon convinced by his brother Charles of Anjou to attack Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
first, which would give them a strong base for attacking Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, the focus of Louis' previous crusade
Sixth Crusade
The Sixth Crusade started in 1228 as an attempt to regain Jerusalem. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade. It involved very little actual fighting...
as well as the Fifth Crusade
Fifth Crusade
The Fifth Crusade was an attempt to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt....
before him, both of which had been defeated there. Charles, as King of Sicily
Kingdom of Sicily
The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of southern Italy...
, also had his own interests in this area of the Mediterranean. The Khalif of Tunis, Muhammad I al-Mustansir
Muhammad I al-Mustansir
Muhammad I al-Mustansir was the second ruler of the Hafsid dynasty in Ifriqiya and the first to claim the title of Khalif. Al-Mustansir concluded a peace agreement to end the Eighth Crusade launched by Louis IX, King of France, in 1270...
, also had connections with Christian Spain and was considered a good candidate for conversion. In 1270 Louis landed on the African coast in July, a very unfavourable season for landing. Much of the army became sick because of poor drinking water, his Damietta
Damietta
Damietta , also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.-History:...
born son John Sorrow died on August 3 and on August 25 Louis himself died from a "flux in the stomach", one day after the arrival of Charles. His dying word was "Jerusalem." Charles proclaimed Louis' son Philip III
Philip III of France
Philip III , called the Bold , was the King of France, succeeding his father, Louis IX, and reigning from 1270 to 1285. He was a member of the House of Capet.-Biography:...
the new king, but because of his youth Charles became the actual leader of the crusade.
Because of further diseases the siege of Tunis was abandoned on October 30 by an agreement with the sultan. In this agreement the Christians gained free trade with Tunis, and residence for monks and priests in the city was guaranteed, so the crusade could be regarded as a partial success. After hearing of the death of Louis and the evacuation of the crusaders from Tunis, Sultan Baibars
Baibars
Baibars or Baybars , nicknamed Abu l-Futuh , was a Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. He was one of the commanders of the forces which inflicted a devastating defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France and he led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which marked...
of Egypt cancelled his plan to send Egyptian troops to fight Louis in Tunis. Charles now allied himself with Prince Edward of England
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
, who had arrived in the meantime. When Charles called off the attack on Tunis, Edward continued on to Acre, the last crusader outpost in Syria. His time spent there is often called the Ninth Crusade
Ninth Crusade
The Ninth Crusade, which is sometimes grouped with the Eighth Crusade, is commonly considered to be the last major medieval Crusade to the Holy Land. It took place in 1271–1272....
.
Attendant literature
Bertran d'AlamanonBertran d'Alamanon
Bertran d'Alamanon, also spelled de Lamanon or d'Alamano , was a Provençal knight and troubadour, and an official, diplomat, and ambassador of the court of the Count of Provence...
, a diplomat in the service of Charles of Anjou, and Ricaut Bonomel
Ricaut Bonomel
Ricaut Bonomel was a Knight Templar and troubadour in the Holy Land around the time of the Eighth Crusade. He was an outspoken critic of Charles I of Naples and his attempts to secure a throne in Italy, and of the Papal policy which diverted funds intended for the Holy Land to other purposes...
, a Templar in the Holy Land, both composed songs around 1265. Bertran criticised the decline of Christianity in Outremer, while Bonomel criticised the Papal policy of pursuing wars in Italy with money that should have gone overseas.
The failure of the Eighth Crusade, like those of its predecessors, caused a response to be crafted in Occitan poetry by the troubadours. The death of Louis of France especially sparked their creative output, notable considering the hostility which the troubadours had had towards the French monarchy during the Albigensian Crusade
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...
. Three planh
Planh
The planh or plaing is a funeral lament used by the troubadours, modeled on the medieval Latin planctus. It differed from the planctus in that it was intended for a secular audience...
s, songs of lament, were composed for the death of Louis IX.
Guilhem d'Autpol
Guilhem d'Autpol
Guilhem d'Autpol or Daspol was a troubadour from Hautpoul in the Languedoc. He wrote four works that survive, three dwelling on intensely religious themes. There exists some evidence internal in his songs that he was a jongleur early on.Esperansa de totz ferms esperans is a religious alba...
composed Fortz tristors es e salvaj'a retraire for Louis. Raimon Gaucelm de Bezers
Raimon Gaucelm de Bezers
Raimon Gaucelm de Bezers was a Languedocian troubadour with nine surviving works. Many of his works appear with dates in the rubrics in manuscript C, a 14th-century work now "BN f.f...
composed Qui vol aver complida amistansa to celebrate the preparations of the Crusade in 1268, but in 1270 he had to compose Ab grans trebalhs et ab grans marrimens in commemoration of the French king. Austorc de Segret
Austorc de Segret
Austorc de Segret was an Auvergnat troubadour with only one surviving sirventes, "No sai quim so, tan sui desconoissens".Written in a rime mimicking that of the Italian troubadour Sordello's "Aitant ses plus viu hom quan viu jauzens", Austorc's sirventes is almost a planh for Louis IX of France,...
composed No sai quim so, tan sui desconoissens, a more general Crusading song, that laments Louis but also that either God or the Satan is misleading Christians. He also attacks Louis's brother Charles, whom he calls the caps e guitz (head and guide) of the infidels, because he convinced Louis to attack Tunis and not the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
, and he immediately negotiated a peace with the Muslims after Louis's death.
After the Crusade, the aged troubadour Peire Cardenal
Peire Cardenal
Peire Cardenal was a troubadour known for his satirical sirventes and his dislike of the clergy...
wrote a song, Totz lo mons es vestitiz et abrazatz, encouraging Louis's heir, Philip III, to go to the Holy Land to aid Edward Longshanks.
Satiric verses were composed in Tunis about Louis new plan to invade Tunis: "O Louis, Tunis is the sister of Egypt! thus expect your ordeal! you will find your tomb here instead of the house of Ibn Lokman; and the eunuch Sobih will be here replaced by Munkir and Nakir.".